Growing Pains

When Craig was a teenager, he experienced back and leg pains as his bones and muscles were developing. Now he has the strongest back and muscles for his age 70+ as he manages the farm and does chores. He's thankful the 'growing pains' are over. But when he strained his left knee this past Fall from running after a cow and stopping suddenly, he began relying on an ATV gifted to us by a neighbor, which became reliable only after putting new parts and labor and money into it. Sometimes we have to readjust on how we do things.

Our farm is going through 'growing pains' as we revise and expand the web page to fit the needs of customers and new products. We recently added five sheep to our farm, hoping to have our own lambs this 2021 Spring. Meanwhile, our Great White Pyrenees dog had a mid-life crises and was continually escaping outside and roaming the neighborhood, leaving the chickens exposed to danger. We had to tether him up for weeks until we got our Ghenghis Khan (Supreme Ruler of Land & Sky) back to normal, protecting the flock. In the meantime, Foxes decimated many growing pullets so we now have less hens, having to wait for the next batch of pullets to start laying eggs. These are growing pains we wish we didn't have to go through.

Every year we buy in young feeder calves that we raise for two years for filling freezers of many customers. In 2020, one heifer, as she descended from the truck, decided after only 15 minutes inside our pasture that she didn't like our farm, so she jumped through five live wires of electric fence and escaped to neighboring woods. Her one buddy stayed behind and joined the other cows in the pasture. So for half a year, we've had a rouge heifer beef roaming the hills of Camillus. Neighbors spotted her on their cam-recorders. We still don't know the end of this story, and it's been a cantankerous 'growing pain' for Craig.

While we never know all that the future holds and what potential 'growing pain' will arise tomorrow, we do know that God sovereignly enables us to carry on, and He gives us the inner strength to adjust to life's difficulties. We look to God as the Engine to lead our Farm through the future. We're riding in the Train!