Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 9 Jan 2023...
Hey Y'all!! Happy Monday!
Another chilly good morning from Free Missouri! All animals are doing well this morning with nothing significant to report. We spent time on the domestic side of things yesterday and tidied up around the house. Today we plan to expand the milk cow's paddock to give them the opportunity to graze a bit on the sparse 'winter stockpile' we were able to save after the drought. We will also start the weeks-long project of clearing the fence lines. There are different opinions as to whether to clear your fence lines or allow brushes and brambles to grow in/around them. In our case, we are mostly concerned with a mile and a half or so of high-tensile electric wire. The benefit of allowing wildlife to use the fence line is outweighed by having clear lines for the transfer of electricity.
The past four nights, I dreamed about flying the F-15E, various nonsensical snippets based on my actual memories of flying the Strike Eagle and whatever is going on in daily life. So, I decided to post a couple of Strike Eagle pics, evoke some military memories, and discuss a bit of our 'Why.' I am now a huge Simon Sinek fan and actually got to meet him, before I knew who he was, when I worked at the Pentagon in Checkmate developing current operations strategy for the USAF. He discussed his thoughts with us in our small conference room with a white board, later to be published in 'The Infinite Game', and I really liked the way he thought about strategy and problem solving. I used his techniques in my last military organization to set forth a path and subsequently Shelley and I sat down months before we left DC to start this farming journey to captured our thoughts using his books as a guide. We laid out our goals for this life: 1) Be together; 2) Grow our own food; 3) Regenerate soil; 4) Create a profitable business to fund goals 1-3...and life. We identified our 'unfair advantages' (those things that set us apart from others trying to do the same thing) as: 1) Monthly military retirement income; 2) Time --to spend growing the business; 3) Support--for each other and from our family and friends. Using Simon's techniques, we identified our farm's 'WHY' as: "To raise natural food so that our family can be together and healthy." Our Mission Statement is: Your food...Our mission. Our Vision Statement for the 2026 timeframe is: "A profitable, sustainable farm that humanely raises natural food. Our immediate family farms together. Through an online presence and home deliveries our extended family has grown by 500 local families." We occasionally revisit these to ensure we remain grounded. They have proven to be an amazing foundation for this life.
Local Farm Report for 8 Jan 2023
Harvest:
25 Chicken eggs
7 Duck eggs
3 Gallons of milk
Sales:
N/A
Cheers!
Rich & Shelley
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