Hi all you good people, I must be getting old and tired, we have a tropical storm on top of us,12 inches of rain in the last two days, Waded out to the barn to feed everyone, slipped in the mud, and just sat there and cried. Our big apple tree full of apples fell over, we got the tracter out and pulled it back up, and staked it, our corn crop is all laying on the ground. I have more dogs than I need, and the poor starved things keep wandering in, and I can"t stand seeing them hungary, now I have five and 25 cats, one dog was so sick, I have been giveing her penicilin shots, and she is getting better slowly, I get up in the morning, and I hit the floor running , and don"t stop till supper time, my husband too, we have never worked so hard in all our lives, We wanted to do the booney homestead bit, but now I find myself so tired, does anyone else get this way, I probably will snap out of this, just needed to vent my feelings.Love Irene

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), June 09, 2001

Answers

Oh Irene, I think anyone who has ever raised animals has felt like you are feeling right now!!! Be assured that it won't last long, though. Just when I was ready to sell the goats,chickens,Jersey cow, "the homestead" even, and move into a house in town, the sun would come out, things "green-up" all over, the goats actually got out once and DIDN'T eat the fruit trees down, and the Jersey actually came when I called her by name, the Golden quit chasing the tigger cat, and all was well with the world once more. Then I couldn't imagine living anywhere else! I hope things "green-up" where you are soon! :-)

-- Homesteadma (idlewild@multipro.com), June 09, 2001.

Irene, we all feel like this on some days when things all seem to go wrong. The trick is to remember to notice theh positive things as well. Sometimes we all take the positive days for granted and quickly forget them and dwell on the negative ones. But one of the things we also have to remember is to be realistic. If you cannot afford to properly care for the animals (meaning the dogs that are starving) you shouldn't keep them no matter how you feel about them. It is not fair to the animals. If you can manage one then that is how many you should have. Each of us have our limits, financial and otherwise and we have to learn what those limits are and then learn to live within them. I can certainly understand your wish to own all of those dogs (we own eight great danes and they all live in the house with us) but you have to be able to properly care for them. Our dogs come first in our life and if the dogs weren't eating we wouldn't be either. We make that commitment to any animal we bring home that we will always put their welfare ahead of ours or we won't own them (we do not have children so we are not putting animals ahead of them). We figure that if we are going to put the dogs welfare ahead of ours then we quickly learn what we can manage and what we can't. Take a look at what things you are trying to take on and weed out those that are too much for you either physically or financially and just have what you can comfortably manage. Retirement years should be ones that you enjoy, not ones that are a burden. Scale down and relax and enjoy the things you can handle without exhausting yourself.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), June 09, 2001.

Irene, I know what you mean. We are at that age also where we are examining our priorities and energy levels and have made some changes. After 14 days of rain, we are in our second day of sunshine and it has raised my spirits and renewed me and life is good again. I was actually thinking of gettting in the truck and running away to where ever I could find some sunshine!!!

We looked at our hayfield, 1/2 that we had cut is totally ruined after being rained on for two weeks and the other so far over mature as to be "sticks" and put the brush hog on and started chopping it to "feed the field". Just won't put in any extra calves this year.....really needed to cut back anyway. Now we should have some dynamite second cutting, hopefully, and if we don't we will get by with what is in the barn.

Our children are all gone and we love our animals, but perhaps you need to do some serious "culling". Hard to do, but life is too short to be constantly stressed. Hope things get better soon.

-- diane (gardiacaprine@yahoo.com), June 09, 2001.

Amen, the sun does come out again.. hang in there. By the way, dont make any big dicisions in the last week of your monthly cycle. Did you know that 90% of all crimes committed by females is done at that time of their cycle? LOL

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), June 09, 2001.

Just a little addition, all the animals I have taken in are well taken care of. 3 dogs in the house, and 2 out doors, there labs, and they love the farm for snooping. I'm a good friend with my vet. I oil paint him paintings for service.the animals are all spayed includeing the cats. all are heart worm each month with pills. we have fenced the front so it won"t be quite so easy to come in here.but some times I do get so frustrated, I wish I could blame it on pms, but past that.Love Irene, and thanks for cheering me up and there are more who would love to scream or whatever.

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), June 09, 2001.

Irene, I'm a little confused here. Your original post said your dogs were starving and you couldn't stand to see them hungry. Now you are saying they are well taken care of because they are let in the house and you are friends with a vet. Starving doesn't sound like well taken care of to me. I'm not saying you don't love the dogs and give them a lot of attention. But, if you are not able to feed them you are not properly taking care of them. Maybe you should consider placing some of them somewhere else with someone who can feed them and just keep the ones you can feed. Sorry, but I'm a dog lover and your comment about having starving dogs worries me.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), June 09, 2001.

She said "and the poor starved things keep wandering in, and I can"t stand seeing them hungary, now I have five and 25 cats," They show up at her place that way.

-- ed (edfrhes@aol.com), June 09, 2001.

Irene, I think all of us when we first start the homestead thing tend to go in a little too deep. It certainly is a learning experience. Some people learn to scale back to what is manageable and some people choose to exhaust themselves physically, emotionally and finacially taking care of a bunch of spoiled freeloaders.

My advice to you and others in your situations is:

IF IT AIN'T FUN THEN STOP DOING IT!!!!!

You need to decide which animals are serving a purpose and contribute to the family wellbeing and send the rest packing. It can be a hard thing to do at first but after you find how life is so much easier without them, it will be easier to say "NO" to the next cute animal that comes your way.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), June 09, 2001.

I feel a whole lot better now. I thought she was having a terrible time and couldn't stand that her dogs were wandering around half starved. Guess e-mails can really misconstrue what someone is saying.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), June 09, 2001.

Hi every one again, I would be the last one in the world to let a animal starve, I even take in baby possums and raise them and set them free. they drop off there moms, I can find homes for strays every once in a while, the problem is city folks think since we all have farms , that we wouldn"t mind haveing another one, except they don"t seem to understand we are up to our rump in animals already. they just dump them out, the dogs don"t know how to fend for them selves, I take as many as I can, the vet helps me too, I have a niegbor who has a bunch too.The cats live in the barn, earn there keep catching mice, all fat and sassy.but when they drag there selves to my house there in bad condition, And yes I am doing to much, but I don"t think I could pry my husband off this place, Lord I hope he doesn"t die and leave me takeing care of this place, I looked at a real nice house in town, but when he found out, he loves it here. I hope this clears the dog and cat thing, I swear I don"t know what my problem is right now, Just tired,been crying alot, Love Irene

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), June 09, 2001.

Irene,you might want to get a checkup maybe you are anemic? sounds like you need to call a good friend and spend a day away, maybe go garage shopping, or a movie and lunch.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), June 09, 2001.

Too bad you live so far away, or I'd invite you over to spend a day at our place. You'd go home thinking you don't have it so bad. That's what a friend and I often do when we're feeling overwhelmed by our new ventures in retirement/farming. The grass often looks greener on the other side, but when you spend a day there you realize everyone's got problems, just different ones than yours. We then go home thinking how fortunate we each really are. I retired 4 years ago and my husband 2 years ago (both just before we turned 40) and we have never worked so hard in our lives! Some days I find myself longing for that desk job so I can just sit. Next time we retire, we're going to do it the old fashioned way - a lot of travelling and porch sitting in our rocking chairs. We also have a rule about animals on our farm that may help, any animals that live here are either employees or pets. You may also want to take a day off to reorganize and prioritize what you'd like the next 3-5 years of your life to be like. Sometimes stepping back and looking at the big picture helps with the every day things. And, be honest with yourself, maybe it's time for a change? Good Luck and hope you're feeling better today.

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), June 10, 2001.

Dear Irene,

I think I know exactly how you feel. Thanks for expressing yourself in this thread because now I don't think I'm so crazy. When my husband and I bought our little farm 3 years ago and I quit my desk job, I was so exultant that I just went absolutley crazy starting all my homestead projects. Dogs, chickens, bees, cows, pigeons, building shelters of all kinds, 3 large vegetable and flower gardens, herb garden, planting every fruit tree and brambling type bush known to man, selling at the flea market and roadside, making soap, quilting, making wreaths, canning, cleaning a too big house, having too many people over to experience the "relaxing" homestead, and just the daily maintenance. I'm almost shaking as I write this. Talk about biting off more than you can chew. Well now sometimes I wake up and can barely look out the window I feel so overwhelmed. I know it's time to make a decision. I used to drop to my knees sometimes when out in the field and thank God for all he had given me, but now I just ask Him to get me through the day. I know I have slipped into a depression of sorts from exhaustion and have to scale back to something more manageable. I still love this homesteading life and can't think of a better way to live. I just can't go from sunup to sundown anymore without a break. So Irene, you are not alone. Right now if one of my apple trees fell over I don't even know if I would have the energy to stake it back up. It's sounds like you have been through a lot with all the rain. Hang in there and make the necessary changes that will bring you peace and happiness.

-- Barb (rosemontfarm1@aol.com), June 13, 2001.