We need to get small

No not Alice in Wonderland small....

Brian and I have been doing alot of soul searching and number crunching this last week. We've decided that our farming endeavors need to get really small for a while.
Why did we come to this decision? Well, we've been pretty stressed this year with all the setbacks from wind and weather and it's started taking it's toll. We need to build a barn, put up fence, put out a fall garden and we still don't have our hay in. Our family obligations and needs have changed too. Brian's youngest daughter has moved in with us and her older sister has given us our first grandbaby, my daughter is getting married and my son and his wife will soon start on their homestead. This week my mother fell and broke her arm. She needs a good bit of extra help with things while she is in a cast. Our family needs us. We've decided it's time to pull back and give ourselves room to breath.
We are going to sell half of our heritage cattle and sheep. We won't be raising pastured poultry to sell next year and we are cutting our laying flock down to the bare neccessity of 35 hens. We've decided to concentrate next year on putting food by for our family. We will still have some produce to sell, but we won't be supporting a CSA. We will have pork and lamb to sell next year, but no beef or chicken.
We want to have time to go fishing with Kacie (one of her favorite pastimes) and play with the baby and to ride and drive our Haflingers. We want to have time to show folks around the farm when they come to visit without that little voice in the back of my mind listing off all the things that need to be done. In short, we've decided to cut back so that we are having fun farming again not stressing out all the time.