It’s No Accident That We’re Living on Purpose

Long ago, my father told me that people who get ahead, live on purpose. He explained to me that as long as you have goals, you will stay interested in life. That people who have goals, have an easier time staying focused, prioritizing what’s important and continue learning and growing all their lives. In short, they prosper and flourish. People who don’t have goals to reach, he explained, live by accident and never know where their future direction is and so don’t know how to reach goals.

Looking down at the old farmhouse from the road above.

You reach them one step at a time. We have several projects in the works at any one time and probably twenty or so future projects on paper. I keep a notebook and so does My Darling. Boyo keeps a notebook of projects he’s personally working on and larger projects that we’re all involved in. Once a week or so, we all compare notes and figure out which projects are the most important and what can be held off. We prioritize our goals. We also get a chance to pat each other on the back for completed projects. It gives us great pleasure to check something off our list.

It's humble, but it works!

Our list never gets any shorter, really. Just as we’re wrapping up one project, we add another to the list. Some of the things we’re doing requires study, as well. We’re never afraid to go to the internet, youtube or the reference library of books on gardening, herbology, animal husbandry and other self-help subjects. This week’s study is all on goats. We’re also reaching out to folks that know more than we do for advice. We never believe that we know everything.

Our very messy non-fiction and how-to section of the library.

Our projects do get moved around as things change priorities. For instance, our work on the cobblestone path has halted because I’m needed on more important projects, like establishing the goats. We stopped work on the campground pathways, the second chicken coop and pen and several other ongoing projects to all work together to make the goat pen and shed in just a week flat.

It's crude and not beautiful but it is a functional gate that goats can't open.

Now, we’ll go back to our other tasks and projects, after re-prioritizing what needs to get done next. We also have to work tending our new goats into the already existing schedule of chores and animal husbandry that we do with the chickens, turkey, bees and family pets. There is the goat shed to clean, the goat pen to poop scoop, along with all the other chores. It will be a labor of love but still, we need to work out how long those tasks will take and then we’ll get to tending the gardens until the heat of the day.

It took a week but the goat pen and shed are up and established and the kids love the girls.

If we just looked at the big picture, we’d be overwhelmed. But by breaking our goals down into manageable hunks, we just take it one step at a time and things get done. We’re living on purpose! Someday soon, we hope to be welcoming guests again and can share some of the great lessons we’ve learned on our little farm.

Our Labor of Love

Until next time, Stay Safe and Stay Well!