2020 – A New Year and a New Decade
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2020 – A New Year and a New Decade

2020 – A new year and a new decade

The new year means resolutions or goals for many people. Many want to lose weight, get into shape, spend less, travel more and a host of other things. There are personal goals and business goals and farm goals for those of us farmers. So even though I am not a huge fan of new year resolutions, I am all about establishing some top priorities and finding ways to fit them into everyday life, which is exactly what I am doing right now. I would like to take this time to share some of my personal, business, and farm goals with you.

Personal Goals

Health – I have a busy life with a husband, 4 beautiful children and a farm. One of my top priorities this year is to get and stay healthy. Health is so important, so let me encourage you. If your health and the health of your family hasn’t been a priority in the past, this might just be the year for you to make that a top priority at your house as well. I want to be well enough to enjoy my grandkids and even though they are a long way off; I know I must start now.

Active – Sitting next to health on the list is get and stay active. For those of you who hit the gym regularly, I applaud you. Unfortunately, I don’t live very close to a gym so that isn’t really an option for me but I do live on a nice quiet dirt road and I have a horse so both of those things create an atmosphere for me to stay active. I know it is up to me to carve out time to get outside and take a walk or jog down the road or start working my horse on the ground and in the saddle. These things make me happy and I know I need to make time in my schedule to stay active.

Date Nights – Another priority I thought I would share is quality time with the ones I love. Believe it or not, this one was the easiest for me because I started using an Erin Condren Life Planner last year and have been all about planning out my days. So, in the beginning of the year I took out my planner and started finding time for monthly date nights with my husband, it’s important to have one on one time with your spouse or partner. Sometimes, you need to be reminded that you still like the person when you get so busy with everyday life.

Monthly trips as a family – I am talking about day trips to the zoo, or a trip to the movie theater or a local museum. Something that doesn’t cost too much money but allows us to get out and do something fun as a family.

Monthly one on one dates with a child – This one is a little more difficult because we really tried to do this last year but with 4 kids, we just don’t have enough time to do something special with each one every month. So, we decided that once a month one child will get a special night out with mom or dad.

Monthly dates with friends – It is important to not only cultivate relationships with your family but with friends as well. Again, I am not planning for a fancy night out at an expensive restaurant monthly, we just don’t have the budget for that. But we can have friends over to our house for some burgers on the grill and some board games or cards. Building relationships doesn’t have to be expensive.

Business Goals

This year at John Henry’s we have some things we are working hard to develop.

Farm 2 Table Meals – This meal delivery service featuring our grass-fed meats rolled out for sale December 2019 with shipping available starting January 2020. We worked on developing 30 different Farm Fresh meals to be shipped to our customers in the eastern half of the United States. This was a big undertaking and we are so excited about where this will take us. We plan to develop more recipes and meal plans featuring options for: Paleo Inspired, Farm Favorites, Gluten Free, Keto Optional, Slow Cooker, One Pan Meals and more.

Weekly blog and video posts – Making videos and writing blogs is something I truly enjoy doing. In 2020 I am hoping to create even more. I want to be able to give cooking tips, share more about our animals, farming practices and meat cuts. So many things happen here on the farm and I want to take you along on the journey. I will also be writing some blog posts introducing our employees. They all have stories of their own and have been such a huge part of making John Henry’s what it is today, and I know you will love learning about them.

Reboot Farm Share Program – We are excited to relaunch our farm share program. We know how popular subscription boxes are and ours is fully customizable to your family’s needs. We offer special discounts to those who choose to subscribe, and we have some ideas up our sleeve to make things even easier. Stay tuned into our website for more details.

Farm Goals

The work on the farm is never done and 2019 was a testament to that. We were busy the whole year even though we had to deal with some horrible weather that really set us back. Here are just a couple things we want to accomplish in 2020.

Finish Cattle Fence – We started this big job last year and I even wrote a blog post all about the fence we were building. Well we made some serious headway, but we still have a lot more to do. So we are hoping to complete that this year. I know my son (Ty, 11 years old) is already biting at the bit waiting to go out there and help his Papa get more posts in the ground.

Build Chicken Fence – Both farms need new chicken fencing. Our flocks are growing, and we need more room for them to roam. So both farms will undergo a chicken pasture renovation, complete with freshly seeded pasture and special chicken friendly foraging plants. At my husband and I’s farm this may not be completed this year because we are doing a complete overhaul to our pastures and we will not only need new fence but new posts and a new design as well.

Pig pens – It’s time to move our pigs home. Currently our pigs live on our neighbor’s farm, close enough for us to monitor them and ensure their care is up to our standards. But it’s time for them to come home. As soon as their pig pens are built, that is. Pigs are a little bit tricky to house because they like to dig! That’s right, if the fence isn’t buried deep enough or the electric fence isn’t low enough, they will simply dig right under it and escape. That is not something we want to happen as we are pretty sure our neighbors won’t like it one bit. So, building pig pens are on our list as well.

These are only a few of the goals and priorities I am working on this year in my personal, business and farm life. I am sure I could go on for several more pages if I included everything. I just wanted to give you a glimpse of what I have been working on to begin this new year and new decade. I know 2020 is going to be a great year in all aspects of my life and I encourage you to do some soul searching in your own life and discover your own priorities and how you can make those things a reality in 2020.

 

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