Pure Poultry Premise #4: Have Fun!
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING, these Pure Poultry Premises are not being shared in any particular order. From our point of view, they are all of equal importance, since, as a group, they summarize our perspective on both farming and life (not that you can actually separate the two).
So, back to Premise #4. It’s quite simple, actually: Have fun! Yes, that’s right, have fun. The underlying goal of all that we are doing here is to create a life, and a farm system, that are sustainable, after all. And frankly, if it’s not fun at least some of the time, why would you want to keep doing it? If your initial reaction to this is to ask why one should have to consciously plan to have fun, reread any random chapter of this book. It’s not just that we’re busy; who isn’t these days? Our experience has been that it is too easy to get in a rut of just making it through today and hoping for some rest before getting up again at first light tomorrow. So we make a point of finding ways to bring some fun to the party.
Having fun isn’t confined to off-work hours. The first year we had chickens, for example, we started a tradition of Happy Hour with the Chickens. During that summer, we had a couple of lawn chairs in the chicken yard, and we would take drinks (for us, you know) and some kind of treat for the birds. We had fun sitting down there among them for a while before we tucked them in for the night. It was lovely to relax for an hour or so and enjoy watching the Chicken Channel. Some of the bolder birds would jump up on our laps, depending on how yummy they judged that day’s treats. They seem to be partial to things like organic ginger snaps and Tim’s potato chips. Don’t look at me like that; I don’t make this stuff up.
It also makes a difference to me to vary details of the routine chores. Even reversing the order in which I make the rounds to pick up eggs seems to make it more fun. I have no idea why, but who cares? And it’s not as if these chores ever feel particularly tedious anyway; between indoor and outdoor tasks, I get plenty of variety on any given day, provided I put some effort into planning my schedule.
Of course, there are plenty of ways to have fun outside the workday. It’s good to have non-farm-related hobbies and interests, and getting involved in your community usually offers many choices for you social butterflies. We like to watch movies, David regularly goes out to social events with his friends, and we eat out at the Alder Wood Bistro, among other diversions.
I could go on, but I will leave it there, in the hope that you will use your imagination and start thinking up ways to regularly add fun to your own life. What could be more fun than going to bed each night actually looking forward to getting up the next day and doing it all again?