Learning how to pivot

We recently woke up to a surprise shipment of 100 chicks! We were planning on these chicks, just a month and a half later. Let’s just say the timing was less than ideal! Joe was heading out for the weekend, and I was already on planning solo parenting and caring for our 100 other chickens, pigs, and cattle (around my pregnant belly to top it off).

Our existing batch of chickens was still in the brooder, so it was a big question of where these new little chicks would go?! The other chickens would be moving out onto pasture but we had to still find a spot for the new chicks over the weekend.

Joe quickly threw together a small makeshift brooder for the new chicks and went and got them from the post office. Needless to say, we all made it through the weekend no worse for wear.

This sums up the challenges we face on the farm on a regular basis. Farming is full of the unexpected. We battle the weather a lot - too much rain, not enough, snow. But there are also busier seasons than others, times when we burn the candle from both ends for weeks on end and the to do list never shortens. This year we also face challenges such as supply chain shortages and cost increases for just about everything.

But while some of these challenges keep us up later talking and trying to figure out what to do, at the end of the day we do love a good challenge. And we’ve always been able to figure something out.

This is farming, and lets be honest, it’s life too. Especially these days we’re in. We have to learn how to pivot. And we have to learn how to not lose our peace or joy when the challenges inevitably come. If we let them, they can stretch us and help us grow. We’ll look back and see the mountains we climbed and know we can face whatever comes.

You might not be facing an early shipment of chicks or a lack of rain, but whatever your challenge is - you’ve got this!