Skip to main content

Keeping the grind alive

The Grind.

After getting used to such an intense weekly grind its hard to rest.  Its hard to not work, not find something to do when for the last 6 months the 'to-do' list has seemed endless.

So it's winter - my first winter in New Mexico - if you can call this winter...I got snowed in and stayed in my pajamas for days last winter in Detroit, where it's generally accepted that hell is a cold place.  Here it's warm thanks to that Southwestern sun and the car is as toasty as the house on a clear day. But the sun only hangs out for so long, not as much work can be done outside - this effects our 'grind'.

We both work full time jobs too...well Cameron does, he's the finest butcher I've ever seen (and by fine I mean fine).  I was a vegetarian before I met him.  Maybe its the slightest scent of blood that has stuck to him over the years, but he makes me crave the protein and vitality only grass-fed beef gives the body (a craving I haven't felt since before 8 years of vegetarianism).  His job is far more demanding than mine.  Reception at a tattoo shop during the winter also means finding things to do...

This is what I found to do.

The grind has been killing my journal keeping, an activity that I truly believe has saved my life many times over since 13 years old.  I've always wanted to start a blog, but I'm not proud enough to publish what my journals know.  Making this blog adheres to 'working on the dream' but also fulfills my need to write (though my journals ignore the horrible grammar).  Plus the dreamer in me hopes that maybe our story could be inspiring or something like that...we're just so psyched about it, maybe it can get you on your grind - whatever that may be.  

Not as much outside work can get done, so we're finding ourselves starved for other activities that satisfy our motivation to make this poultry farm a reality.  "The Renegade Poultry Project" because it is a project.  We are actively working on figuring out all the working parts and constantly learning more.  Consuming all information we can find online, drawing diagrams, building models.  We both come from suburban/urban families and neither of us has ever lived or worked on a farm.  Yet we both can't shake this romantic idea of living off the land and freeing ourselves - and our children (eventually) - from these grid-locked lives we've both led so far.

Not to say we don't love this city...we looove Albuquerque.  I basically got 'conned' into coming here by my boss and agreed to a 2 month trial-period at his shop.  But I knew on the east-bound train through the desert that I'd need more time than that to explore this incredibly beautiful state.  Cameron is born & raised and would probably be a Lifer if it wasn't for our rural dreams.  He is really a fan of everything ABQ, everything NM and everything local...he's got that pure entrepreneur's spirit, plus a work-ethic capable of moving mountains.

From Day 1: the vision has been clear, the grind has been alive, and the love has been real.


forever grateful
-jennifer

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How Rent-A-Coop works (the most informational post)

Every farmers market, every phone call, every email we do the spiel.  I was trying to avoid being so business-minded on this blog - but who am I kidding, the very creation of this blog shows how proud of our business we really are.   So for any of you unaware of what Renegade Poultry or Renegade Rent-A-Coop is, this one's for you...  We are a two-person team working towards building a local, organic, hormone/antibiotic-free poultry farm here in New Mexico for the local community (a real emphasis on local ).   This would be "The Renegade Poultry Project" which really only sprouted in Cameron's mind less than a year ago.  In its infancy stages, we are currently looking for land hopefully in the Sandia mountains East of Albuquerque to avoid the summer heat at city-level.  We have most of the vision sorted out so far, at least how we would like the farm to function.  I doubt that what we plan is what will be implemented to a tee, if we have learned anything so

The First 3 Months

...the farm work began, and it hasn't stopped or slowed at all! *note the date of the last post Oh man, want to hear about the most trying 3 months of our lives, read on... The learning curve has been steep, going from 5 chicks to 350 chicks - its like a whole other animal, its a small herd.  The psychology of a small group of chicks vs a larger group is nothing alike.  Same goes for 4 week old chickens, and 8 week old chickens, 5 is fun - 350 is insane...at least at first. I never look forward to the holiday season, but this one was particularly complicated. Not sure if it was the planets aligned in a specific sort of way or just the culmination of several small things that resulted in an epic shit-storm!  Looking back it was probably all the anticipation and fear of a HUGE life change, an opportunity we've been longing for finally about to begin.  January 1st came quickly, we had the first couple of weeks planned out because Cameron really only had to focus on b

Learning from the "Best in the West" !

The last farm location not working out was really the best thing that could have happened to us... ...as we are currently living in the Rio Grande Valley, not even half a mile from the Rio Grande on the FIRST EVER certified organic poultry farm in the USA , Pollo Real.  Pollo Real has been doing Pastured Poultry since 1996 (20 YEARS) and has set a standard for pastured poultry operations across the country.  Looking back, we are wondering why we didn't come here first when we have such a historic farm and incredibly knowledgeable farmer, Tom, an hour away from Albuquerque?!  This is the older, experienced farmer we were meant to learn from...he knows everything about poultry. We met Tom a few months ago and things really moved fast, things had to move fast - he'd been looking for a couple to come help out on the farm and we were farm-less, job-less, and not ready to give up on our dream.  We met right after we closed things down at the last farm location, sal