A Farm

The other day I was filling out a 4H membership form.  On the form they asked the question of residence.  Options were a) Farm b) Rural Non-Farm c) Village/Small Town and d) Urban.

Instinctively I checked off Farm.  But I felt a little like a fraud.  A real farmer would laugh in my face.  My little collection of critters is hardly deemed a farm.

My livelihood does not come off the production of livestock or the crops in the adjacent fields.  I do not have to get up at 5am to tend to the animals.  Nor do I have hired hands.  My children are my so-called "hired hands" however, I refer to that as chores rather than work.

My "livestock" all have names rather than production numbers.  I don't even refer to them as livestock but rather as critters instead.  But I won't go so far as calling them pets because in my opinion the term pets refer to an animal that is part of the family.  And I don't keep pets housed in a barn.

True, someday I would like to make some type of profit off the critters but for now I feel more like b) Rural Non-Farm who happens to own livestock for fun rather than profit. There is a term for that and it`s called a Hobby Farm but that was not an option.  Perhaps in the agricultural society, hobby farms are not even recognizable   Are a joke to real farmers who depend on this industry for their livelihood, not as a sport or source of entertainment.

Whatever the case may be I selected a) Farm in the end.  The animals that live with me and depend on me for their well-being fall into the farm animal category.  I muck out stalls and pens, haul manure, trim hooves, provide vaccinations and deworming, build pastures, and work 7 days a week straight.  All without pay, benefits, or holidays.  If that's not farming, I don't know what is.