Happy New Year Everyone!!!

The first day of 2017 is well on its way and the sun is brilliant and beautiful!  My wife and I cleaned up the barn and pig shed on Friday and bedded everything really well so everyone was comfy and dry going into the new year.  We penned the red sow, boar, and the four older piglets in the Boar lot so that we could let the two new momma pigs out to get exercise.   We also castrated piglets Friday night as well so that is all done.  

Above and below you can see the two groups of piglets.   It is a wonderful thing to be having babies again after the last two years of chaos that followed the loss of red balls.  Our new boar is finally starting to settle in and get the job done.  I hope he keeps it up and earns his keep.  In the mean time I am still on the lookout for another Tamworth Boar.  The Berkshire x Tamworth cross is a phenomenal cross that gives us the best of both worlds, fast growing long pigs from the Tamworth with the tenderness and large hams of a Berkshire!

When I purchased the new tractor two years ago the dealer it came from shipped it during a snow storm.   As anyone from Midwest US can attest, the road crews like their salt!!  Well, the salt spray got into the wiring harness of the tractor and, with the addition of electric and a little moisture, has corroded many of the connection in the harness.  So, the tractor is headed into the shop for a new harness on Tuesday as well as some tweaks to the powershift transmission so it shifts more smoothly.

In preparation for going into the shop I wanted to be sure the tractor was clean so the guys were not dealing with any dust or dirt while trying to remedy everything.  It is so nice to have a heated shop to be able to do this kind of thing in the middle of winter!

One thing I have learned over time is that if you take care of the equipment it will take care of you and will last much longer.  Other than the grease build up on the loader and some wear on the tires the tractor looks like I just picked it up from the dealer, and it has just shy of 1000 hours on it already.  This being my third tractor means I have traded two in already to get to this point.  The trade in value on my first two was terrific because of the care put into keeping them looking brand new.  Furthermore, both of those tractors are still working hard one someone else's farm to this day.

Being New Year's Day and us all being home today for a change (thanks to no snow!!!), we were able to have a traditional Japanese New Years meal 

As a kid we always had sour kraut and pork and mashed potatoes for new years, and several days after.  That meal is from my heritage of many different family backgrounds.  It was eye opening for me after I met my wife just how much this day can vary!  If you look closely at the soup you will notice that my wife did Pig cutouts from the radishes she used for the soup!

One very huge difference for me is that as I child it was forbidden to eat any chicken on New Year's Day for fear that you would scratch for money all year long, we only ate pork.  In Japan I do not see pork as part of the New Year's Meal, instead, chicken and seafood and rice!  

Another very big difference is that as a child Christmas is a day when only necessary chores are performed and nothing else.  New Year's is a day when we celebrated the New Year but otherwise was a free day to get things done as needed.  For my wife, it is the opposite.  As a matter of fact, all the food for New Years is prepared the night before so that there are no chores of any kind to do on the first day of the year.  It is meant to be a day of rest for everyone and no work is to be performed other than eating and feeding the animals. 

For me I enjoy both. I get to enjoy a break from work and get a free day to get something done at home while spending two great days with Family!

Each year I try to share some words of wisdom to take into the new year.  In preparation for this years post I have been thinking back to the events of this year and how far we have come since starting this endeavor as Husband and Wife in 2004.  As I sat in my living room last night watching Clemson completely shut down and dismantle my beloved Buckeyes I did some thinking.  

E + R = O

Event + Response = Outcome

When my wife and I started out as a family we literally were starting from scratch.  I rolled the dice on next to no income and with some help from both sides of the family we purchased the farm.  My first three winters were very rough and most of my time was spent either cutting and splitting firewood by hand to sell or cutting up scrap iron that I drug out of the woods and fence rows and selling it for cash to cover the bills.  My wife was still in school and I was only working summers and when it snowed in the winter.   On new year's eve of 2005 we purchased our first tractor and we were officially started down the road to farming on our own.  Having grown up on the farm I made the mistake of thinking this would not be hard, I have done this before, just feed the cows and sell them and get money.    That was not the first mistake we made and certainly was not and will not be the last.  

As time went on it was a constant process of try something, fail, correct, and move on to the next learning experience.  Now, in the first few years I was more inclined to respond to a failure with anger and try to force things to go the way I wanted them to.  My wife would push me to calm down and think it through and question me to figure it out and make sure we do it right the next time.  As time went on we began to figure out what we are good at and what we were not good at and focused on what we were good at.   I tried to take this thinking with me to work and I quickly began to grow there as well.  

Fast forward to the introduction of the pigs.  We had done a lot of research on raising pigs on the pasture and thought we had it all figured out.  Nope, not the case.  A lot of mistakes (learning) went on over several years before we got that dialed up as well.  This process went quite a bit quicker than the first time around with the hay and the cows.  The reason was instead of just reacting when something went wrong we planned, studied, learned, and corrected each time something went wrong. 

This was about the time my wife graduated and she was unemployed for almost a year.  We were literally on the edge of selling out because in our fervor (mainly mine) to get this all going, we didn't plan for the worst, losing half of our income!  The day my wife got the call that she got her job 6 years ago I was deciding what was going to the auction first to pay the next months bills.  

Now, this was a real eye opener for me and I vowed never to put my wife or family in that position again.  We started planning our financial future and setting goals and checkpoints to be sure we were headed in the right direction.  At least three or four times a year we would completely question what we were doing and if it was the right thing to do.  We were fortunate enough to both be working and getting paid decent wages so we had to decide if we were going to invest our money into a retirement plan and keep the farm business as a hobby or invest our money into the farm and create our own business and retirement plan. 

It was about this time my employer offered free access to a financial planner and my wife and I jumped at the chance for professional help.   This was a game changer and an even bigger eye opener and added tools to our toolbox that we never had before.   I will be the first to admit and take ownership of the decision to grow the farm.  My wife was on the fence but I never batted an eye.  I wanted it and I wanted it bad and now I knew I could do it without putting my families well being at risk so I convinced her to give me the chance to do it.  In the last four years we grew at a crazy pace.  The amount of changes, work, and finances it took to do what we did in the last 4 years is intimidating.  When I look back at it now,am not sure if I had seen it all on paper before we started if we would have been crazy enough to do it....but we did.  

Now we come to 2016.  Coming into 2016 we knew there was a 90% chance my wife would be unemployed and we were planning for the worst.  As of February we were down to just my income and what the farm brought in.  At first there was an overwhelming feeling of "here we go again" and panic.  However, after a conversation with our financial adviser and a genuine look at where we were at we realized this was not the same game.  This time we were ready for the challenge.  This time it was me pushing my wife to be calm and take a step back and look for the "right job" rather than jump on the first thing she came across.  This also gave her an opportunity that I want to have one day, to stay home and grow our children and the farm!  The other thing it forced was for me to be honest and make the farm pay it's own way.  We built it, we put a lot into it, it is time it gives back.  In a properly growing business and in life there are spurts of growth and plateaus where things look like not much is going on but you are gearing up for the next jump.  We are entering one of the plateaus and we are looking at what we did and what we learned and what we need to do differently to grow again.  

Now, here is were I am headed with this story.  Over the years I have learned to control my emotions and thoughts and hold back on responses until I can think outside of the moment.  I am not by any means perfect at this and I went to bed pretty upset.    So as I awoke this morning I was disappointed in the loss my team suffered last night.

  As I looked out the window this morning the sun was rising and the first day of the year was off to a wonderful start.

As much as I do not like to fail and do not like it when my team loses, deep down, I know that we have to fail to learn and grow as growth only comes through failure.  When anyone consistently experiences success they are not learning.  They are only reacting and going through the motions. 

 E+R = no learning or growth in this situation.  

This is what I was saw happening with our team this year.  There were things that were not right all season and they are all very young, but, because they kept succeeding they were not learning as much as they needed to.  Last night they lost, not just lost, they were beaten badly and with humility! 

 Now, E+R = extreme learning and growth.  

Clemson experienced this last year and looked totally different.  Alabama has not experienced this since the Buckeyes gave it to them three years ago and they grew from that and we did not. 

The past year saw us lose two very loved family members.  In those losses it allowed us to give a home to another pup in need of one and for my wife and daughter to get to spend much over due time with family.  The loss of income has allow us to realize the farm can now pay for itself and that we are still on our way to our goals.

I challenge everyone to look back at the year(s) past and look at things from a different perspective.  What did you learn?  How did this allow you to grow?  What did you try differently lately?  Did it work?  If so where did you fail even in your success?  You can always get better, "Best is the enemy of Better!"

Just like my mood as the day progresses it gets brighter outside and the remembrance that each day is a new day and will be whatever you make of it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and productive 2017.  Today is the first day of the rest of your life, how do you want to spend it?  I know as I type this looking out the window at the sunshine that the first day of the rest of my life is getting spent outside cause it looks beautiful out there and it is supposed to be in the 40's and 50's to start the new year!!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!!!!

Kenny