Next Year

I know it is a little early to be thinking of this, but this is also the time when there is so much time to reflect, and also, each year, there seem to be an increasing number of surveys us farmers in the Intervale (and probably all small farmers in Vermont*) are supposed to do, and hence a lot of forced reflection on our businesses and lives. So already, just two weeks or so since the end of the year wrap-up below, I am formulated opinions about the possibilities of next year, and they are: professional. That's right, I'm deeming next year at open heart the year of the professional. It's strangely in step with the Intervale center's own five year plan for us there. This will be my fifth season, and I feel it will be my first as an owner (we had three not-included seasons as apprentices and managers) that I can go about the farm as a whole with a bit more of a level head, clear vision. I should say, it's not as if we ran around like chickens with are heads cut off over there on our four acres, but I'm hoping/thinking that things will seem less like putting out one fire and going to the next, and rather more like accomplishing one job then the next. As I say that I realize its mostly a difference of attitude, but that's a pretty important difference. More on this later, as I feel like the way I'm putting it out is pretty nebulous, and it's time to read some mother goose.




* I guess everyone, now that I think about it, is more and more treated like a natural resource of minable data, in farmer cases directly tied to grants, but, in all cases goes back to money