Our Farming Experience

In 2000 we moved into a 4 bedroom farmhouse on 4.5 acres in southeastern Wisconsin. We wanted to get out of Kenosha and into a more rural setting, and I was dying to try my hand at raising sheep.  When I used to go visit my family in Newfoundland one of my favorite things to do was to go out to my grandad's barn with him. He had the occasional cow, some chickens, and a handful of sheep. Our little farm came complete with barn cats, but that was the only thing living in the 2 barns we had.  It didn't take us long to fill them up with sheep, then chickens, an occasional cow and once even some turkeys. The calves had a nasty habit of dying before they'd even reach a year old, so we gave up on those after the third time that happened. The turkeys turned out to be aggressive and after they were butchered we didn't repeat that experience. But the sheep and the chickens were a joy to have around.

 We started out with just a couple of Targhee sheep, and we were so excited when our first lamb was born! We never did figure out where to get rid of our wool after shearing and after a few years we ended up composting the wool pile for lack of any better ideas. We tried to wash the wool once, and that was quite the messy disaster! The mama ewe in the picture above was named Nellie and whenever I came out of the house she'd run right up to the fence and start baa-ing to me so I'd come give her some of the greener grass from the other side of the fence. Those sheep were so spoiled! We did the lamb tails and hooves ourselves, but paid someone to come in to shear the sheep. Those girls are a lot heavier and harder to handle than they look! As a matter of fact, lifting one of our year-old lambs into the truck was how Wayne first ruptured the disc in his back that eventually needed surgery.

It didn't take long for the chickens to join our family, and I loved sitting down with the catalog in the spring and ordering up an assortment. No boring white chickens for me! Well...except for a few like the one in the picture below. They were adopted from a neighboring farm, and she never hung out with the rest of the chickens. Very antisocial, but a good little layer who decided she liked cat food better than chicken feed. Since she didn't stay in the barn I had to roam the property searching for her nest, and whenever I discovered it she's up and move to a new place again.

Those chickens just wandered all over the property eating up our bugs and grass during the day, and we sold the excess eggs to the guys Wayne worked with. Who's going to say no to fresh eggs from free-range chickens for the same price as regular eggs in the store?

After 6 years on the farm we decided that as much as we loved the country life it was a very expensive hobby that we just couldn't afford anymore. So, we found homes for all the animals and put the farm on the market. We sold it quickly and moved into a small ranch home in the neighboring town right on the edge of the city limits. We still had a 1/2 acre lot, but our mortgage and the work load were much less. I still think about our days on the farm and miss carrying jugs of water out to the barn at night for the animals. There was no noise or light pollution out there, and it was very peaceful making my evening rounds and making sure everyone was safely in the barn for the night. But, I am glad not to be tied down to the responsibility of all those critters and all that property.

Two years after we moved into the house on 1/2 acre we flipped that one and moved into an even smaller lot in a little subdivision on the outskirts of Twin Lakes. We keep getting smaller and smaller, and I can't wait until we're selling this house and moving into an RV.  Wayne told me the other day that instead of retiring at 50 we're going to have to wait until he's 55 after all. Eight years sounds a lot longer than 3 years, let me tell ya! To stay positive about the change in plans I decided a few of those places I was saving until we retired would become vacations in the next few years instead. I don't think it'll happen in 2013 due to the fact that we'll probably have to make a trip to Newfoundland, but in 2014 I'm hoping we'll be heading out to Glacier National Park with a stop at Yellowstone on our way back. Who needs sheep and chickens when you've got the whole world waiting for you, right?