“When it comes to farming, the weather is the boss of everything. Fencing is second in command. Unruly animals come next. Finally, the lowly farmer falls in line near the bottom of the hierarchy and works endlessly to change up the order of things.”

~Original quote on 03/24/26 from The Green Acres Head Hen, 60-year-old first generation hobby farmer with 10 years of experience under her overalls belt. 😉 (In case the quote goes viral or anything!)

Guys!! The most ridiculous things keep happening on our farm. We are TRYING SOOOO HARD. There is no one trying harder than The Outdoorsman and me. We are a wonderful combination of grit, determination, stubbornness, know how, and gonna-figure-this-out-no-matter-what mentality.

The first item to address: WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE CENTRAL TEXAS WEATHER?!! There is nothing predictable in Central Texas. Nothing. Snow? Yes. Ice? Yes. Drought? Yes. High winds for days on end? Yes. Dust blowing everywhere? Yes. Summer during the spring? Yes. Summer during the winter? Yes. Plant freezing winter in spring? Yes. High winds again? Yes. Absolutely ZERO rain in the forecast again? Yes.

Honestly, we have *almost* given up on growing anything in a garden. The rain has just been too scarce and water levels are really low in both of our ponds so we have to use our water for our animals. We have scaled WAY back on our gardening dreams for this spring and summer. We’re talking I’m doing an experiment just to see what comes up naturally from seeds I dropped or left in place last year!! We are going to be that casual about it. Yes, I will draw, plan out, and make a small effort in a couple of really small spaces just for fun, but we will not be planting thousands of seeds like we usually do each spring. I am segueing to a Barn Orchard instead of a garden. Surely, I can water a couple of trees and keep them alive. Right? Right. I think.

We are now fully into the “sell most of our animals” stage of the plan. Yesterday, we spent the morning wrangling animals to take to auction. First, we started with a cow/calf pair. After our donkeys and dogs got involved, we had to quicky abandon Plan A due to time constraints and go to Plan B. We had to get something to auction by 11:30 or we wouldn’t make the cut off at the two auction houses we normally use.

Plan B was to wrangle as many pigs as we could from two different pens and take them to an auction that accepts pigs, but is a little further away. We went to work. We got sweaty. We got frustrated. The Outdoorsman used his brute strength to get the last couple of pigs into the trailer and we had to book it to the auction which is an hour and fifteen minutes away…..and was beginning in exactly an hour and fifteen minutes!

We called the auction house when we arrived because we were exactly on time, but there was a long line in front of us. The woman inside told us we had arrived in time for our pigs to join the auction and told us to stay in line and drive up to the loading dock to unload our pigs. We were so relieved. The line crawled at a snail’s pace and it took over an hour to make any progress. When we were waiting, a man came by to get our information and put auction numbers on the pigs, but he also told us that three of our pigs were too small and the pens wouldn’t contain them so we could only sell our five larger pigs at the auction. We were disappointed but told ourselves that, at least, we would be downsizing by five pigs so it was worth the drive. When we were about four trucks away from the unloading area, a young man came running past our trailer and then came up to the window and told us that they were not accepting any more goats or hogs for the day because their pens were full. What?! We explained to him that we had driven and hour and a half and had already called and the lady inside told us to wait in line….for another hour. He allowed us to stay in line. Lo and behold, the young man was correct and the guys at the unloading dock told us they couldn’t accept any of our pigs.

As you can imagine, The Outdoorsman was really understanding about it, but he was also pretty frustrated that we had spent over half of his coveted day off from his actual job (farming is a 2nd full-time job for him!) and did not get anything actually accomplished. It may or may not shock you to know that I literally had to stifle a little cry that wanted to pop out when the guy told us they couldn’t take our pigs. Crying over pigs?! When that happened, I realized how frustrating the day had been overall. It wasn’t made any easier by the fact we had stayed up working on fencing the night before until well after dark under our tractor lights. Thankfully, The Outdoorsman is skilled in building fences; however, the drought has caused our ground to become like concrete and it took him hours to dig the holes for the H-posts. He did an awesome job and I came outside for moral and physical support once the sun started going down. (Please see the picture above for his amazing leveling work!)

The Outdoorsman turned the truck and trailer to make the long, pig-laden drive home; however, the stubborn, never-give-up side of me kicked into high gear. I quickly searched on my phone for an auction anywhere in Texas where we could offload our pigs. We had eight pigs in the trailer and had about killed ourselves getting them in there and I was determined to offload them somewhere! After looking up auctions in Central Texas, I found one about an hour from where we were currently located that actually held their auctions on Tuesdays! Voila! I called them up to make sure they take hogs and, thankfully, they took all breeds of domestic hogs. Hallelujah! We turned the truck and headed towards our new favorite auction house. I also learned that they also sell miniature cows so it was actually a divine encounter. Instead of us having to bring our three smaller pigs back home in the trailer, we were able to sell all eight of our pigs and find a new place to sell our miniature cows, pigs, and goats. In addition to that, the drive was beautiful through countryside we had never seen!

It is important for me to point out that, before we drove up to the unloading dock at the first auction after the young man told us they wouldn’t accept our pigs, I prayed for God to please show us favor and let them accept the pigs. When the man at the unloading dock confirmed the bad news, I was temporarily confused and didn’t understand why God wouldn’t want to answer our recent prayers to make our farm easier to manage and more glorifying to Him. Then, after we found the other auction so quickly that accepted all eight of our pigs and also sells miniatures, it all made sense. Thank you, God, for answering our prayers for guidance. We truly want to honor You with our life and our work on Green Acres.

Today, I was really thankful to be greeted by eight fewer pigs in our pens. There was a lot less chaos, a lot less noise, and a lot less feed needed for the task! I’m super grateful for our perseverance and for God’s favor yesterday as we drove our pigs to auction. It is one of the many steps we are taking and will continue to take as we move forward to bring a higher level of peace and rest to our busy lives on Green Acres.

Thank you for joining our adventure!! We will continue on our quest to create a family farm that is beautiful, relaxing, and glorifying to God. We are slowly, but surely, making progress one day and one moment at a time.