Twenty-One Years, by the Numbers

It has now been close to twenty-seven years, and while I might quibble and revise some of the numbers up and down, they are still a good marker of what two people can accomplish while also working full-time jobs off the farm. Although, of course, that last has thankfully changed.

Cleaning up some debris yesterday in the hoop house prior to planting peppers, I was struck by just how much we have accomplished in 21 years — 7,929 days — on the farm. We bought the property in September of 1999. At that time, the 70 acres possessed an ancient and broken perimeter fence, an industrial-size white metal barn, and a three-car garage. Partly in an effort to avoid more work, and also in a self-congratulatory mode, I sat down this morning and pulled together some numbers that reflect the time and effort we’ve invested to date.

· 16,480 feet (3.1 miles) of perimeter fencing installed, all of which required removing the intertwined old fencing, trees, brambles and vines.

· 8,240 feet (1.6 miles) of permanent cross-fencing added.

· 1,648 T-posts set.

· 248 wooden post holes dug and set three feet deep.

· 98,880 feet (18.7 miles) of barbed wire unspooled, stretched, and attached to the posts.

· 6,600 feet (1.5 miles) of Red Brand field fence installed.

· 1,022 feet of hog panels erected for a 1.5-acre hog paddock in the woods.

· 6 tractors bought, most of them long since sold.

· 7 pickups owned.

· 420 chickens butchered.

· 165 pigs raised for slaughter.

· 1,000 lambs reared.

· 100 cattle raised.

· 2 orchards planted.

· 3 small grape plots planted.

· 36 shade trees planted.

· 23 ornamental shrubs planted.

· 12 nut trees planted.

· 37 farm gates hung.

· 1 25x50’ hoop house built.

· 5,000 garden plants set, tended, and harvested.

· 2 farrowing huts built.

· 6 permanent lambing stalls erected.

· 2 hay barns constructed.

· 1 sawmill shed built.

· 1 wellhouse/smokehouse built.

· 2 chicken coops built. The first and smallest now houses beekeeping and livestock health supplies.

· 1 farm equipment shed constructed.

· 1 potting shed built.

· 1 workshop created.

· 1 guest apartment created.

· 1 house constructed.

· 252 times that the gravel driveway (3/10 of a mile) has been graded.

· 336 days spent bushhogging fields.

· 126 days spent haying.

· 3,360 hours spent working in the garden.

· 7,929 sunrises and sunsets that have come and gone.

· 283 full moons that have brightened the night.

· 6 dinners enjoyed at the top of the hill.

· 3,528 dinners eaten outside.

· 1,126 times one of us has said to the other, “This is too much work.”

· 7,929 times one of us has thought, What a lovely and a lucky way to live.