May has been a very busy busy busy month for our family. Gary became quite ill in the latter part of April and his condition, which was finally diagnosed as Vertigo still continued into May. Even though Gary ( who is a major presence within our family and farm was still recovering) off to Chowchilla Fair we went! Both of our markets did well...Chompers did GREAT! Both hogs this year were homegrown from Ellie and a boar out of Barone Farms in Caruthers. Payday weighed in at 269 lbs and placed 8th out of 18 in his market class (it was tough competition) and Chompers weighed in at 258 lbs and placed in the top 3 of his class! The hog that beat him ended up being the Overall Reserve Champion!?! Needless to say Joshua and I were feeling quite comfy with that placing and Mr. Vandenack (our 4h advisor) said we had every right to be proud with our home-growns landing in the top 3 two years in a row! Last year...all three of our homegrowns landed in the top 3! Feels good :) Joshua had a tough time letting go of Chomps this year, but he made it through. :)
On another note our older son Kyle has moved back home from Reedley. He was struggling with working 40 + hours at Savemart, school and feeding the Reedley farm. The commuting between Fresno and Reedley daily was killing him and his truck. Sooooo....he is back at home. It is working out just fine and we always appreciate the extra help around our farm.
Our family is getting ready to go through some pretty big changes with schools, jobs, etc. Sometimes this stuff really weighs me down. I wonder...what is the best decision concerning my children's education. I'm struggling with this right now. Our schools are struggling so horribly and of course we support keeping them open, but their is another side...our son's education. What is the best right now...idk. Scripture tells us that God wants us to have the desires of our heart (as long as they line up with his word) and my heart's desire right now is to stay home and home school Joshua. But...I really do LOVE SUSD...so what do I do? My friend Mary suggested pulling him and putting him on independent study, that way I am teaching him, but were still supporting the school. Right decision? Idk. I would like his education to be founded on God's word. It's tough...this stuff. So...what are we doing about this? Well...we are praying and asking God to open the doors for me to stay home...according to my calculations I need approx. $1000 per month. So...we have begun aggresively pushing the business. We have June almost booked with tours, we are putting our product into stores on consignment aggreements and I will be attending craft shows to increase sales. We have also began selling more of the animals (which we all know I love to keep them all)! :) The store will begin being open every day from 1-5pm right now.
These new movements have put additional pressure on me,
but the question is: How bad do I want to be home with my son? Answer: Pretty darn bad! :)
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