4/10/08

Moving on

Well, I have not written for a while now. This is because I have uncertain about what was going to happen with my apprenticeship, but now I know. Caitlin and I are going to be moving to another farm to do our apprenticeship there. We will both be leaving here at the end of April and starting at the new farm May first. This has been a difficult decision to make because I committed to being here until Sept. However, this farm is not the best fit for me. I think this farm is great for a person that is looking to have some fun living on a farm for a summer. But this farm is not good for a person looking for professional training.
I was planning on sticking it out until Sept. until several people emailed to see if I wanted to work on their respective farms. So I went to talk with one of the farmers close to where I am now. They have a very professional farm that is operating at a net profit and seem to be well versed in the small-scale farming industry standards. In fact the owner, Paul, is on the VOF review comity (VOF is the organic certification organization in VT). Ultimately, Caitlin and I decided that working for the new farm would teach us how to successfully operate a farm, which our current apprenticeship does not.
I have to say that I am a bit scared to move to the new farm. For starters I do not want to trade one ill matched apprenticeship for another. Really though, more of the fear is that the work will be too hard. I feel like I have been farming in the peewee league and am now moving to the pros.
I think that this new position will definitely be much more work and more demanding. Truly this is what I want and am not getting now. So I think that even if there are large challenges at the new farm they will have a much greater reward.
Well this has been very rambley but I wanted post an update. I will write again soon and I promise to include some pictures of all the work I have been doing recently.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

GOOD LUCK! hope this next one is a better fit :)

Becky said...

Sounds like you've made the right decision. Save me some tomatoes for when I get back.