I'll just Smile :)

We are kind of odd balls in the world of modern farming. People don't know what to think of us, really. I suppose you would call us Homesteader/Farmers. Modern agriculture operates under the presupposition that you do only one thing and you do it big. While the majority of our income comes from our little dairy herd, we have always had a multitude of critters on our place. We have always had gardens and raised are own meat. You might think this would be common place in the farming world, but its not. Most dairymen think we are nuts. First, they think any animal besides a cow is worthless. The other thing they have come to embrace is the idea that they are not "farmers" but "producers" or "agribusinessmen". They all, for the most part, think that we are a bunch of backward hicks. I wrote about it this earlier, Here.

I think the one of the greatest gifts my father gave me was an apprecation for all the different kinds of livestock that God gave us to work with. When I was growing up I had the opportunity to raise just about every kind of animal you can think of. We've, at one time or another-sometimes all at once, had hogs, dairy goats, meat goats, chickens, turkeys, dairy cows, beef cows, sheep and others. Dad and the other old timers I grew up learning under had such vast knowlege about things in the natural world. I can rember walking in the woods with dad when I was just a sprout. He could identify every plant and tree and weed in the forest. I've always thought that kids would love learning natural science if it was presented this way. Some things you can't learn well indoors. I have no desire to be a "big shot agribusinessman". I'll tend my little herd of jerseys, grow my gardens, trap my fur and enjoy raising a family in a unique setting that can't be duplicated. While the experts all write their articles and reports about how "you can't make a living that way", and while the rest of the world shakes their collectivist heads in disbelief that anyone would "want to live like that", I just smile a simple country smile and watch the rats race around me.