Farming: A School of Hard Knocks

Well, we had some major disappointment this morning when we woke up.  We lost close to 40 of our broiler chickens in the storm last night.  The silly things seemed to stay out in the rain (on the side of the pen that is covered in chicken wire so they get sunshine), instead of getting under cover where it was drier.  So it looks like they died of exposure.  This is a pretty big loss... not sure if we will have broilers for sale at the end of June like originally planned.  We also gave the goats to a friend.  Nettie wasn't letting me milk her (plus my inexperience with that and lack of time) swayed my decision to give her away.  She will have a good home with other goats and more experienced goat keepers.  The garden is a huge mudhole right now, too muddy to plant or weed.  Such is life on the farm...it's not always easy (I guess it rarely is actually), but we are not ready to give up.  This way of life is important to us, so we just try to learn from our mistakes and come up with a better plan.  So, right now we are rethinking the moveable pens for the meat birds (who seem to be much more finicky than the laying hens) and also what type of meat birds we will raise.  We have had some problems with these Cornish X type birds.  But, with all of the disappointment, I try to keep it in perspective...thank the Lord we have not lost our family or our home in recent tornadoes.  We are all alive and healthy, and that is the most important thing.