Case Study One: The Farm, Rancho Cappuccino

Reader Contribution by Staff
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Rancho Cappuccino is what we call our farm, 50 acres of tallgrass prairie a few miles outside Lawrence, Kansas. I live there with my wife, Carolyn, two dogs, two cockatiels and our livestock. At any given time we keep 15-20 head of Black Angus, Hereford, and cross-bred cattle; 20-60 head of Katahdin and Katahdin-cross sheep; 15-30 head of mixed-breed goats; about 40 chickens; two or three donkeys and a 14-year-old gray mule named Zero.

The farm provides most of our food and most of our recreation.

Farming is the reflection of our value system. Rancho Cappuccino is the vessel for our lives. Most of the time we can’t imagine changing this lifestyle, although on the morning I wrote this it was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit outside and I needed to move hay out to the cattle through snow drifts three feet deep. That day, my feelings were mixed.

Someday we’ll have to quit when the physical demands are too much for us. That’s probably a ways down the road.

For today, the farm is the center of our lives in many ways and the focus of much of our attention.

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