I'm sitting waiting for Ruth at her dollhouse club meeting, and since I have little else to do I thought I'd finally end my procrastination streak.
The sale of our cows is going well so far, not enjoyably, but well. We shipped the first of the herds to the auction this past Monday. I felt a little like putting a beloved pet down. The girls will actually be going to a new and, hopefully good home. But I worry about them because there are not all that many ranchers who care for their herds as much as we did.
The other two herds are being sold to a neighbor and will still be grazed on our pasture for part of the year. So we'll at least be able to visit them (and keep an eye to make sure they are at least reasonably healthy).
I do still think we are doing the right thing by selling our cows, but I often find it troubling to be the generation that gets out of the ranching business. The Stewarts have been raising cattle for almost a hundred years. But I think that guilt is the wrong reason to stay in an industry, at least when there are many more good reasons to get out of it.
I sometimes worry about if we'll have enough income to live on, I think (and hope) that we will, but I also think that sooner or later I'm going to have to find some way to make something off of my photography habit. At least enough that it can pay for itself rather than be a drain on our already diminished earnings. But I'll talk more about my plans in that direction at a later date.
So. One herd gone, the rest to be sold soon. I won't know what to do with myself not working seven days a week for the next six months, I imagine it will be sheer hell. Not going out in thirty below weather, not using a ax to chop through two and an half feet of ice. The horror! Although I have a strong feeling that upgrading Ruth's websites, working on one or two new projects, and various other tasks will keep me busy for the foreseeable future.