PTJ Apple Poll - show and tell!

I chose "other" because my main deterrent to going is that I have kids. They're aged 6 and 9, and I know

(A) wheaton labs is not "childproofed"

(B) I don't want my kids to wreck havock

(C) It'd be hard to learn or teach anything if I'm watching my kids.

(D) It's a long drive with kids in the car, and too long for me to be away from my kids.

It's all time & distance, for me. The distance, with my physical stuff, would add 3 days travel, each way. So, even for a 2 day ticket, I'd be gone from my livestock & (pathetic attempts at) gardens for over a week, then it would take another 3 or 4 days to recover. I can "DO the stuffs" - but the travel just takes so much out of me, and flying isn't an option.

Yes, distance and daily chores here that, in the summer include milking the cows twice a day and tending to an acre garden.

That being said, in the future I’d really like to get there for one of the events. When I’ll find someone trustworthy to take care of things around here for a few weeks.

The PTJ with all the projects and the PDC with Alan would be my favorites.

This year was a scheduling conflict.  I'm a vendor 7/5-7/9 at an event in Bellingham, WA.  

Next year, I've already blocked off the first half of July on my schedule!

Not able to take the COVID risk.
An online event sound compelling...

Don't know if the covid vaccine requirements will be lifted or not, so don't want to commit.

I don't know how anyone who has a functioning farm and garden could go.  

I have a large garden.  i don't have anyone else I can trust to take care of it.
I have laying chickens for home use.  I am hoping to be able to sell 100 roosters a month which I will be raising in chicken tractors on pasture.
I will have about 50 to 60 goats on rotational grazing who I also feed supplemental spent brewers grains to.
I have one steer now and will have two to three more calves on rotational grazing.
I have three horses on rotational grazing with the steer.
I have 7 or 8 pens of rabbits.
I have pigs. I freaking forgot them and had to edit my post. HOw did I forget the pigs?  

I mean how the heck can I just up and leave stuff. It makes no sense that someone would ask that of me. my husband wanted to know if I wanted to go with him to one of his jobs in Houston in July.  I have all this stuff going on how the heck could I leave?  It would cost me a lot of money to get some one to take care of everything.  It just isn't feasible.

And oh, I forgot, I am milking one goat now and later on this year I will be milking two goats who could just afford to dry off their milking animals so they can go attend some event?

When you have invested yourself into your land and your animals, it seems insane to expect a person to just be able to drop everything and go away for a week!  
I had to give all that kind of stuff up to try and make a go of it.  The last time I went anywhere for any amount of time, was to help a friend through Chemo. My husband took care of things and I still had animals die while I was gone.  

Its great if you have a the support system to be able to go do stuff but I don't have that.  

Thanks Bonnie and everyone else above - good to know for future possible ideas to reach everyone in different situations and what that might look like.

For anyone interested in watching a movie about last year's PTJ with project footage and interviews with instructors, you can see all about it here: https://permies.com/s/ptj-movie

I went to the PTJ last year. Left the day after I arrived due to health issues. Health issues which will keep from coming this year. It was a lot of work getting out there with my health issues and all my stuff I need to bring.

My excuse is I'm up to my ears in garden prep, goats needing milked, cheese needing to be made, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, blah blah blah. Plus, I'm broke cuz I spend all my money on my goats

We have a small homestead in a rural village in Alaska. Getting someone to take care of our animals, getting time off work, plus figuring out how to pay for everything (trip, tickets, someone to take care of animals) on a very low income budget just isn't possible for us.

My other is about the fact that I really want to go with my spouse. They are the one that needs the time off of work, and it gets expensive for two, and it is a full day and then some to drive and the cost of fuel over the summer, and I don't want to fly. I have medical conditions that make driving alone unadvisable and would be better served in the RV that I don't drive and that is still getting repaired by the aforementioned spouse. So a plethora of reasons. I hope all my apples were enough for that.  I almost forgot...pet sitting costs us about $100/day and last I checked our dogs aren't welcome at Wheaton Labs. And also, I work nights, so complete sleep schedule change necessary.

Cat Knight wrote:I almost forgot...pet sitting costs us about $100/day and last I checked our dogs aren't welcome at Wheaton Labs.

Thanks for all the comments - great feedback!

Just a note about dogs. You can take a look at these threads:

https://permies.com/t/100667/dogs-wheaton-labs
https://permies.com/t/57228/dog-village-wheaton-labs

Dogs are a possibility at the labs. And if some people wanted to be industrious and make a dog village, that would be even better! I'm almost tempted to fly from Australia to come and throw my hand in! As long as there are dogs to pat... :)

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for posting this but I bought pie so I could vote on two things and I still was able to only vote once.  Jeff

Jeffrey Loucks wrote:I'm not sure if this is the correct place for posting this but I bought pie so I could vote on two things and I still was able to only vote once.  Jeff

I just gave you an apple so you should be able to vote with that now

Jules, Thank you very much.