Working on our family farm, Self Reliance is both a necessary and essential skill for survival, I don’t mean this in the context of being a hill farmer for they really push the line in Self reliance and resilience to what both life and the weather throw their way.
For us here at Oaks Barn Farm, there is no typical day and no one skill set that equips you with everything you need to know, yesterday for example started off with:
A steel door delivery.
Visit from a tractor dealer to price up Dans Tractor.
Tidying up the barn which is always a necessary chore after and during a major project.
Arranging for collection of Steel for a Pizza oven which we are making on site for the summer.
Renewing our facebook page add.
Finalising collection of pigs arriving on the farm in three weeks time.
Taking a fuel delivery.
Feeding the sheep and buying in more sheep feed, collecting eggs
Cleaning one of the three hot Tubs on site.
Detecting a power outage problem in the Barn.
Today will have a completely different feel, fabricating a slurry nursery tank, a window cleaner, and as always yet more washing.
Running a family Farm Stay of course involves making beds, cleaning and dealing with guest enquiries, though the latter is mainly managed by Sue having now left work to settle for a busier time working on the farm.
We chose to manage all of our own website, Social media and content, we are never short of content! working in this way may not be the most effective, but we can be responsive with new projects and activities getting them on the website within the hour and not having to communicate this via a web portal for someone else to do, and of course charge us for it.
We still have a need to contract some things out, but with an ever increasing skill set, it is hard to manage the things that are achievable against how we want to spend our time.
