TBF 110 :: The Snowball Effect, a Sick Cow, and a Hard Lesson Learned

**As I transition to www.TheBeginningFarmer.com I am quickly realizing I'm not as web savvy as I had hoped! In the meantime I will be posting here as well for those of you subscribed through RSS ... and hopefully will have that fixed soon.**

Do you remember those cartoons where a character starts rolling down a snowy mountain and eventually a snowball is formed with the cartoon character in the middle? And then, as they are rolling down, the snowball gets bigger and bigger collecting everything in its path. Finally, there is the fateful end ... usually in the form of some sort of cabin that the snowball crashes into! That is the best description I have been able to come up with for the farm lately, and at this point I would almost welcome the crash into the wall at the end because at least it would stop the snowball! Of course now that I read that I realize I may be exaggerating the difficulties slightly, but the point is that things have been a little rough lately on the farm and even after six years of farming that causes me to wonder if I'm making the right choice.

So, the question then becomes, "How do you handle the things that knock you down on the farm?" Simply put I think the answer is that you press-on. Just like most things in life, when something goes sideways it doesn't mean everything else stops. Recently when I had a cow down that just had a new calf it didn't meant that I could focus all my energy and thoughts on her. Sure I did everything I could, I called the vet for help right away and checked with other farmers for tips, but in the end there were still literally hundreds of other animals that needed my care and attention (other cattle, sheep, chickens, pigs, and rabbits). So, I had to press-on and continue to attempt to do my best at the art that is farming.

This episode isn't my proudest moment, but it is real and raw. Sometimes real and raw can be a good thing ... I hope! So, when the farm starts to snowball on you how do you handle it? This would be a great discussion to have ... join in the comments below!

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