is bad advice grounded in a good idea.
A friend of mine decided to stop farming for other people this year. He cited frustration with not being able to live up to what he knew he could do (ie the advice above) because of time constraints. He's happier now. I'm not sure I'd be.
I've been thinking a lot about this lately. When my wife and I started our garden this year, I went into it with a great deal of trepidation. Work has been crazy and giving our 2 year old the attention he wants/deserves is a full time job in itself. We planted 600 feet of potatoes (among other things) anyways. Up until this weekend, my fears felt very well founded. The weeds were on the cusp of winning, and we just felt overwhelmed. That situation has mostly changed and tonight I make my final push to get the weeds within a comfortable zone (dead). Also due to the weather many of those original potatoes didn't come up. We've filled in the blanks and are now going to have a hell of a time sorting out what's what at harvest. It's a strange but satisfying victory.
Farming has taught me a number of things that I think are much better advice than the above.
- Diversification is the best defense against failure.
- If you feel like you're failing at something, figure out how to change the outcome and get on it! If you can't change the outcome, don't worry too much.
- You don't know what your limits are until you've exceeded them.
So...I'm back to that familiar place. How much do I scale back next year? Do I scale back next year? The real trick will be sticking to the decision next season when it's time to plant.
