When I married my wonderful husband, there was still a lot I didn't know about him. Now, after 15 1/2 years of marriage, I am convinced that I will spend the rest of my life discovering new things that he is interested in. Who knew that the "preacher boy" I married would have a desire to farm? For the past 7 years we have lived in a small, rural farming community which has intensified a desire that was birthed in him many years ago by his grandfather. So, he started a garden. Each year it gets a bit bigger. It gives him a sense of satisfaction to provide food for his family, and it provides an avenue for him to work outside because he could never be satisfied with a full-time inside-the-office job. :) Once gardening became somewhat routine, he decided to branch out and raise chickens. There have been ups and downs as we have learned what this entails, but we are now being richly rewarded with an average of 5 fresh brown eggs daily to stock our refrigerator. As a city girl, I never knew to appreciate the quality of fresh farm eggs, but thanks to my man, I do now! I even have enough to share a dozen or so if anyone else loves them as much as we do. We have enjoyed watching featherless baby chicks grow into laying hens--what a treat for our family. Marlena, especially, likes to keep her eye on the babies around here. This is our child who plans to become a vet (and also a missionary--can't wait to see what plans God has for her!). I remember telling her dad that she would be so happy growing up on a farm where she could watch baby animals being born and raised. Well, her daddy is bringing as much of a farm upbringing to her as he can! A few months ago, she and her dad went to the auction and brought home a couple of rabbits. SURPRISE! She just happened to pick out a boy and a girl so now we have babies! This, too, is a learning process as we knew nothing about raising rabbits before this.
The internet has been a helpful tool, but it looks like experience might be the best teacher. Now how to make this profitable for the family since we are clearly NOT going to eat these adorable little rabbits? New venture--sell baby rabbits (preferably for pets and not meat, but what we don't know won't hurt us). The goal is to have a new litter ready for sale by Easter time. And in the meantime, my kiddos get the pleasure of loving and learning along the way.
(I wouldn't be surprised if 2012 sees sheep added to the Sipes Farm--just a prediction from a casual observer.)
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