A NEW YEAR NEW PLANS

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RECORDS ANALYSIS

The final step in record keeping is to tote it all up and figure the comparative value of the several farm operations. I use a hypothetical figure for our labor the "wages" we earn if you will. With the goat as an example, milk production for the year is totaled and multiplied times the price we'd pay for commercial cows' milk and cheese. To this is added similar values for meat and hides of kids slaughtered the meat valued at retail price of spring lamb, though we think it far tastier. From that I subtract the costs of any feed we had to buy, the market price of feed we grew, plus the depreciation costs on pertinent equipment the swinging windows in the goat pen, goat high fence, etc. The resulting figure, "profit" (or "loss") I guess you'd call it, is divided by the time spent milking and in general care; for the goats, about a quarter hour a day, which includes cleaning milking gear and an extra half hour for stall cleaning and maintenance on weekends.

The resulting figure, the "wage" I'm earning, varies with time and between various tasks. Low point to date has been a good dollar an hour "loss" to a top wage of ninety five cents an hour. Needless to say, we aren't getting rich. But figuring the cash value of homesteading labor isn't the point of our record keeping. If we were all that interested in money I would still be commuting to a city job. The records and "wage" figures are to give us a handle on how we are doing, to tell which activities might stand streamlining if we care to do so. So far the least "profitable" homesteading activity has been deer hunting. Each fall I spend the better part of two weeks hauling a recurved bow around our woods looking for deer and only rarely get a clear shot. Considering the cost of all the equipment, I lost about a dollar an hour. Theoretically the most "profitable" use of time would be picking watercress from the little brook across the road over $100 an hour assuming there was enough cress, which there isn't, and we were so inclined, which we aren't. Conventional economic wisdom would say we ought to give up deer hunting altogether, flood the upper pasture, and grow ten tons of watercress each year. I'd say that conventional economic wisdom is a lot of what's wrong with the world. What we value is the health, contentment, and independence we earn, not the money we are missing.

POSTSCRIPT:INFLATION AND THE HOMESTEADER

Ironic as it may seem, the inflation and other economic troubles of the mid-1970's promise to hit the "independent" homesteader harder than most city people. So, be forewarned. Louise and I worked long and hard to pare our cash needs to the very bone and suddenly it is the bone that has doubled and tripled in price.

Of course, we aren't much bothered by the rises in food prices that are so serious to townspeople, though it seems that the staples such as rice,, cooking oil, pepper, and such that we just can't hope to produce ourselves have gone up more than other food items. It is the other basic, essential areas of living cost that we cannot (or have chosen not to) do without that have all jumped in price petroleum products, electricity, medical insurance. I could go on, but won't.

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