Difficult Decisions

With a move at the end of the year looking more and more inevitable, we are facing some difficult decisions.  We always knew our time at this farmstead would be temporary but I am surprised how much I have grown to love it.  At times I have been known to monologue to Jack that I wouldn’t sell this place to just anybody–they’d have to be the kind of people that would take good care of the property.  Really though, it’ll most likely come down to whoever offers the highest bid.  They could level the entire place and grow seven more acres of corn and I wouldn’t have any say about it.

The real agonizing decisions have to be made in regards to some of our animals.  Though we don’t know where we are headed just yet, Jack and I both have our fingers crossed and are fervently praying we can find another little acreage to support our desired lifestyle.  The problem is whether or not we’ll be able to find it by the time Jack starts a job after graduation.

Having farm animals complicates life in a lot of ways.  Other than the day to day drama and entertainment they provide, we can’t exactly pack up goats and chickens and sheep the way dogs and cats or even horses can travel.  So, the question becomes what to do with them while we transition?  The chickens could stay at either my mother’s or mother-in-law’s and horses can easily be boarded but what about four flighty sheep and two incredibly athletic goats that can escape just about any enclosure?  I toss back and forth, depending on the day and how the animals behave on either selling them or keeping them until we know our exact plans.  Having a baby nearly due and racing to finish home improvements doesn’t help much either.  On the plus side, we’re lucky that five of the six ruminants are female and if anyone values females, it’s people raising livestock.  It most likely wouldn’t be difficult to find a suitable home for them.  Still, it would be weird to wake up in the morning without an alarm clock made of bleating and baa-hing accompanied by the occasional shrill crow.

Does anyone have any input?  Are you rooting for us to figure out a way to keep the animals or do you think we’d be wiser to place them in good homes and start over when we have another acreage?  We’re wringing our hands over here, fretting about what to do–HELP!