Dream Big, Pray Harder

Isaac is a big dreamer and Daniel and I are pretty risk averse and always want to have an exit plan before a starting point.  It's a constant tug of war between how much is too much risk and how much is us just being scared.  

Sometimes, our biggest job is bringing Isaac back to reality and sometimes his biggest job is helping us to see and accept his vision.  Isaac is good at pulling us out of our comfort zones and pushing us to dream bigger and try harder.  

Doubling the size of our herd was certainly a combination of Isaac's big dreams and us pushing ourselves way past our comfort zones.  

When we bought the herd from Colorado last summer, we knew it was going to take a lot more work and a lot of adjustment.  A bigger herd, more work, less time and the pressure of having to make this all work in order to pay off the loans has certainly "upped the ante".  

There have been parts that have gone pretty much like we expected, but we have also had to learn to be flexible and to be able to pivot quickly.  

I don't know that any of us were really prepared for how much more work the larger herd would be.  While we had a pretty good handle on our existing herd, we thought it would just be the same...times two.

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way.  

We have learned that some of our small scale systems just don't work as well on the larger scale.  Our spreadsheets and by hand record keeping was just too much to keep up with, so we invested in a cattle management software system.  There are parts of the software that are more time consuming, but it is helping to keep all the records straight.  

Isaac and Walker used to be able to keep most things straight in their heads.  If you walked up to a calf, they could tell you who the dam and sire were, whether it was horned or polled, and a general time frame of when it was born. 

​Yeah...none of our brains are big enough to hold all that information for the larger herd.  

We also learned that doubling the hay rings wasn't going to work.  We hadn't taken into account the hierarchy and who was high enough on the chain to get time around the hay ring.  

We quickly had to pivot and separate the cows out into smaller groups.  While it made things harder for us, it was necessary to maintain the health of the cattle.  

​It was a hiccup, but an easy fix.  

The emergency barn build was not anywhere on our radar, but quickly became an urgent need.  It required a big pivot in our financial plans and timelines as it took on a life of its own.  

The project consumed most of the fall and winter and certainly took up more of our time than we anticipated.  It took away time that we had planned on using to work with the cattle and getting a jump start on working calves. 

It also meant a lot of extra late nights out in the barn when we are normally using those winter months to get some extra rest.  It has kind of felt like we have been in hay season "go mode" all winter long.  

Everything this year has been driven by deadlines.  For instance, we didn't actually get calves weaned and in the barn until 2 weeks before we were supposed to have some sale animals pictured.  It's hard enough to get pictures in Ohio's unpredictable winters, but especially hard with fresh from the field, unbroken calves.  

But...we got it done!

So, this is our slow time....

Well, kind of.  We made it through the Ohio Beef Expo and met all our deadlines.  And in a way, those late nights in the barn helped us get ahead of schedule on some things.  

We get to take a little breather before we start preparing for our summer shows, hay season and calving.   

But...we are not done just yet.  

We still have a group of last summer's calves in the barn.  They are halter broke, graduating from creep feed to show feed, have all had baths and been clipped, are learning their manners and quickly adopting their roles as barn princes and princesses (because they did not like the night they got kicked out of the barn and rained on).  

We are stepping back and enjoying the view.  

These cows represent almost a year of hard work, trial and error, big risks that are finally starting to pay off, and a future of more great things to come. 

The choices are hard, the risks are big, but the payoff can be even bigger.  

As we start closing in on the one year mark, we have seen our lives change a lot.  The conversations are always the same....how much do we risk, the "what ifs", the "how are we going to do it all?"...

But the answers are always the same...we'll figure it out, and if God wants us to...He'll make a way.  

Dream big and pray harder.