Well, it finally happened. I got laid off. There's a lot that has happened since my last post, but in short, our division got sold, and the company that bought us already had a staff of F&A weenies, so the overlords have been laying us off in dribs and drabs, and they finally got around to my position on April 1st. Yep, it's true, on April Fools Day I got pulled in to the bossman's office and was told that they 'regretted to inform....' blah blah blah.
It was not unexpected, nor in any way, shape, or form, sad. Well, it was sad for my remaining co-workers who were left behind to try to keep things flowing smoothly with fewer and fewer people. But truthfully it was only my affection for those same people that kept me driving in to work each morning in the first place. The job itself was hollow and dream-sucking by then.
I had been with the company for 16 years, so I got a nice severance and there will be unemployment benefits while I look for other work or make this HasliVal Farm thing work. We're going to be OK. Better than OK, I can feel it!
And the farm thrives. The chickens lay eggs, the pigs got fat, and there is still some beef in the freezer from the failed dairy cow experiment. Last year the peach tree gave a bumper crop of its life altering peaches, and there are folks signing up for the waiting list this year already. :-) The local farmer's market is plugging along, and there's always room for one more farmer.
On a sad note, though, a little over a year ago I lost my father to cancer. He was one of the few people who encouraged me in this farm endeavor, and I am sorry that he will not be around to see where it goes. His stories of summers on his Uncle Joe's Farm were inspirational to me, things like how chickens provided pest control as well as eggs, and that pigs could be raised cheaply on kitchen leftovers, shaped my resolve to NOT do things the modern conventional way. Especially when kids are getting sicker and sicker from pesticides, and a bag of hog feed is $20!
So, full steam ahead.