EARTH HAVEN
Bob shares his Earth Haven, and his non-essential but handy bits of know-how on firewood, dump pickings, fireplaces, USDA, wood cookstove, moving animals, veterinarians, advice from other farmers, and the finer things in life. A Report From Them That's Do
When did it begin? Four years ago when we moved to an old
New England farmhouse with an acre and a half? Or maybe
three years back when we got the chickens (after tearing
down the chicken coop the year before)? I think myself that
the die was truly cast when we planted our first garden two
seasons ago. Anyhow—though we may never know exactly
how it happened—we now have a farm and are learning
to work it. We call our place Earth Haven.
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We're fast approaching the end of our first year in the
country, and I feel it's time we shared some of our joys,
sorrows and lessons learned with those in MOTHERland who
are doing a similar trip ... or thinking and planning for
when they can.
First of all, I should mention that since we've lived in
and fixed up several run-down houses and have always made a
profit when we've moved—we had the advantage of
capital to launch our venture. Thus, the place we bought
was a real farm ... complete with some good fruit trees and
more equipment than we needed, etc.
Such a heavy investment nevertheless led to what may prove
our hardest lesson: the purchase necessitated a stiff
mortgage. So far we've been able to handle the payments,
but only by sacrificing our leisure and peace of mind. On
the other hand, this pressure has at least kept us from
putting things off. If there's something we can do for the
farm, it gets done ... it has to. Also on the plus side of
the situation is the fact that real farms come with lots of
land. If things get too bad, I suspect that we could bail
ourselves out by selling a couple of 15 or 20 acre plots at
the end of the spread and eliminating most if not all of
the mortgage.
Our second lesson—for which we're still paying the
bill—has to do with animals. It's great fun, of
course, to have all kinds of critters running around the
farm ... and that's what we've got: two cows; three pigs;
three sheep; 50 or 60 chickens; a handful of turkeys,
ducks, geese and rabbits; and, as of last week, one calf.
The folks at the feed store love us.
Now, I'm not saying that all these beasts are unprofitable.
The cows pay for themselves, and then some. We have all the
milk we want (and plenty of butter and whipping cream), and
what we don't use we barter with neighbors or make into
cheese. Even if we just poured the extra down the drain,
we'd still be ahead of the cost of buying milk and cheap
oleo at the store. The same with the chickens. We get all
our own eggs free, and those we sell—both at the door
and through a local co-op—more than pay for the feed
and the investment in buying and raising the chicks. And
the other creatures? Well, I like them and I doubt that
we'll get rid of them ... but in terms of dollars and cents
they're not pulling their share of the load.
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