Hope your weekend was good

I tend to tick people off accidentally.

We went to the future farmstead this weekend, and I have got the go a-head on the corrals.

The future farmstead use to be a hobbyist farm. And will continue to be so for all but five acres of it, for the near future.

I am a homesteader surrounded by people that seem to only want very large lawns to mow. More power to them.

I use to make good money, could have afford to buy a smaller acreage with a nice house, but choose something else. We are now broke and struggling, but our good neighbor, who is also a homesteader, doesn't have to work, and makes a little money by selling produce on the side.

I would love to have enough money to get the farmstead going right now. And I have no problems with those that have the money to do so. If they want to buy a 200 acre yard, that is up to them. If they want to use that 200 acres to play with, experiment with livestock, or food stuff. I am happy for them. If they want to use it to hunt only, like my new farmstead neighbors, more power to them. If they want to use it to be completely green, I say go for it. If they can afford to completely change their lives and be farmers or homesteaders, then I am thrilled for them.

If your happy, then you are doing things correctly.

I am not better than anyone just because my owies are bigger. Or I struggle more. I would love not to struggle, and I am working hard so I no longer have to be a broke homesteader. I am not dirt poor, but I am not comfortably rich were I don't have to earn a living from the land.

I apologize for making it seem like I was anti hobbyist, anti-rich or that I was holy than thou. that was never my intentions, ever. I don't like to see good land go to waste, but it isn't my property and I have no say in what they do with it.

What I don't like and I can say something about is how SOME people make other's feel horrible because of their misfortunes, their mistakes, or the fact that they can't afford the things they can. I don't like it when people claim to never make mistakes and then attack those that have.

I made a mistake by not clarifying better in a previous post. By not naming names or whom the post was written for or who it was about. I thought it better not to do so. I felt that a broader generalization would be more appropriate, and did attempt to include the fact that I had no personal problem with those certain people. By no means was it about any one's blog that I read. Though to whom it was written for (don't allow them to make you feel bad) was directed towards a few blogs that I read.

I friend of mine had an animal die. It was an obvious mistake for those that had been doing it for awhile. I was upset that this person didn't seem to know better, but was really ticked when a slew of people began to attack her for the mistake. She should have heeded other's advice, but she chose not to and had to suffer the consequences of the actions. She felt that the books were better than that of the advice she was getting, mainly because the books made it sound like this was the only way to do it and no one else knew what the author knew.

I made a big mistake by following the books as well. I was called out for it, I removed that post because it was thought that other's would do the same, even though I said not to make this same mistake even if the books had said to do it this way.

I want to read books that say how and why something was done, and that this was the mistake, and this is how we fixed it. I know not one book can cover every single mistake and how to fix it. But it would make many of us feel more comfortable about moving forward with these plans. Not everything is perfect, and I am tired of feeling less because my life (and some other's feel the same) doens't go as smoothly as the books claim they should. I am tired of feeling like a failure because these books tell you that this is the only way it will work, yet doesn't seem to for me/you.

If you have the money to allow other's to do something for you, then by all means, take advantage of that. If you have the money to buy an established farm, then go for it, please. I would never feel less of you because of that. That would be silly. I had thought I had said as much. But please, if you never do those things yourself, like butchering or harvesting or whatever else might be involved with a farm or homestead, don't write about it like you did. If you only do the business side of it, then write about that. I would love to read about that aspect. Write about how your farmhands do things. But don't criticize other's for making the mistake if you have never put yourself into that situation.

Have I clarified things enough? I sure hope that I have. If not, then I will try again. But at this point I have no idea how to be clearer. I am surly going to hurt more people's feelings, and if that was my goal, I would have been very harsh and called out some people. Like an entire forum. But I haven't and I hold no animosity toward anyone, or anything.