I finally Got THE CAll: Now What?

It is no big secret, as of a few weeks ago, Katie and I sold the last of the sheep, brought the LGD in the house for her retirement, and after a lot of thinking, talking to the experts, and discussing things between us....still have NO FREAKING CLUE what to do with our farm.

We have quite a bit of land, but only 120 acres of it is fields.

A local dairy farmer asked if he could use our fields, and I am not sure really what to say. Land lease here varies, but because we have a lot of rock walls, none of the fields are very big. In fact almost all of them are 12-15 acres in size. Here anything over 25 acres will net a person $35 an acre, but under that will only net a person $20 an acre. Obviously we would only get about $3000 a year.

That does not come close to paying our property taxes, but admittedly, any money helps in that endeavor. But the biggest thing is, we have no solid plans for this land. Any kind of conversion from sheep to raising something else would mean a lot of investment, and we just do not have it. I thought of playing along with the "Hypothetical Homestead Topics" that have been happening on Permies lately, plugging in a few of my farm specifics just for fun, but there are so many variables, that people will quickly realize, having a few acres is a liability, not an asset.

I have not called the farmer back yet and said yes or no because I do not want to take away my farms options yet, but the truth is, I have no reason to say no because I have no immediate plans for it. He is not organic, but would keep the fertility of the fields up; I have a few that need a shot of lime and nitrogen.

I have the right to cite religious reasons for my USDA Crop Report that came in the mail today, under the excuse of leaving it fallow once every seven years, but honestly I got to figure something to do with this farm.

So far the Disabled Farmers Program I am in, is of no real help because they are not really versed in determining what a farmer should do for a commodity, they just help them adapt from a disability to doing what they always have. For me, I must convert to a new commodity.

Rent plots for others to develop permaculturally as Paul is?