Over the last couple of months I have been feeling quite overwhelmed with our lifestyle. I sometimes think that we just work so hard and seem to get no where! I had a little health scare last week and realised that my health is being affected by my stress levels. Last Sunday I decided to make some changes. Part of this decision was based on the fact that I bought a stack of vegetable seedlings - I was forced into spending some time in the garden or else I would've wasted my money. Well, it paid off! Not only did I get my garden weeded and every available space planted, I ended up being far more productive in the office.

Some plants survived the summer - this bed is a mix of old and new plantings.

The moral of this story is that I need to make time to do the things that I really enjoy doing and hopefully this will ensure that my stress levels don't get to being unmanageable. And if I'm more productive then it's a win/win all around.

So, a week later and having just spent a busy but relaxing and enjoyable weekend with our eldest son and his partner I am feeling great about life on the farm. I love farming and I really don't want to do anything else. I feel very lucky to have the lifestyle that we have, especially being able to send Benjamin off with eskies full of meat and milk. We made strawberry jam, killed and processed 6 roosters and 3 ducks, did some cattle work, managed to keep all the pigs feed and still relaxed and had family time.

Healthy farming is also about keeping the Farmer healthy! We need to keep our life in balance - all work is not good, and my goal now is to keep that balance.

Some of the roosters were a little old so we minced them - originally we planned to make sausages, but ran out of time.......I think minced chicken will be great!

The bones went into the stock pot to make a big batch of chicken bone broth. This will be handy this week, as Kim is coming down with a cold! 

The remaining chickens must have been a bit worried with the slaughter yesterday - they've gone from a couple of eggs a day to 10 today!