Hi all!
I created this group once I realized (with much astonishment) that there were other people in the world doing exactly what I'd always dreamed of: Building Drupal sites part time and farming part time (...or some various combination of the two). Recently I had decided this was a goal I wanted to pursue and was amazed when I found two people on twitter doing exactly that.
So, I thought it would be a great (albeit small, I'm sure) community to form...sharing ideas about balancing the two passions while inspiring each other in our goals.
My (personal) main goal, to start out, is to hear about what other people are doing, trying to find like minded people in the Drupal community (I've had a hard time finding anyone interested in the biological just as much as the technological) and learn how I can take steps to move into farming part time. I'm just about to get my first backyard flock going as a step to a 5 or 10 year plan.
Anyway, say 'hey', and help me keep this community going and building. For starters:
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What type of Drupal sites do you build?
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What type/size of farm do you run?
Thanks for joining!
Comments
Hello fellow drupal farmers!
Hi All,
I own and run a Drupal agency called Hydrant (www.hydrant.co.uk) Based in the North of the UK, Along with our sister companies Hydrant Software and Shoeboxdesign. We employ about 10 - 15 staff depending on current projects.
I live in the Cotswolds and run our southern office.
We build Drupal sites for all types or organisations from global corporates to local charities. We've been very much 'under the radar' in terms of the Drupal community - something we're hoping to put right!
Just a few of our 250+ Drupal sites :
http://www.chester-races.co.uk
http://apr.afghanpovertyrelief.org
http://www.tulliehouse.co.uk
http://www.silverandgreen.com/
http://www.iromans.co.uk
http://www.crossreach.org.uk
http://www.carlisle.ac.uk
http://www.bibiandjules.co.uk/
2) I 'hobby farm' about 3 acres of land outside my office. Whilst I don't live on my land I'm lucky that my home is only 5 minutes away and as I'm at the office every day I can easily check my animals at the start and end (and sometimes in the middle) of my working day.
We keep
* Iron Age & Gloucester Old Spot pigs
* Sheep / fattening lambs
* Table (broiler) chickens
* Laying hens
* Ducks
Poly tunnel and outside raised beds with a variety of vegetables and an Orchard with apple, pear and plum trees.
For us keeping animals and growing veg is simply about knowing where the food we eat comes from. We still shop at the supermarket and we're not foodie purists, but I want my children to understand that for every meal they eat someone somewhere has put effort, time and often a life into making that possible. Food doesn't grow on supermarket shelves and I believe the skills to support and sustain yourself should be the basic foundations of being human, not an optional 'nice to have'.
As for balancing business with farming - at times it's been tough, but when we made the decision 5 years ago to move back south to where I grew-up up, I set the goal of working 4 days a week - last year I achieved that supported by a great team. Sometimes there are still clashes and I end up working evenings, or (as last weekend) gutting chickens at 11.30 at night. But overall I wouldn't change the balance I have. For me getting outside is the perfect antidote to computer work even if its raining and Dark.
I'm very happy to share my experience (though certainly no expert) with anyone who is interested! I've also got some ideas for Drupal based systems that would help with some of the challenges smallholders and farmers face, so if we can get a few active people in this forum, perhaps we can create some new solutions to age old problems!
Cheers
Leo
Time Balance
Yeah, I wondered how the time balance affected most people. I've intentionally stayed small with Drupal which may be my best asset as I move in this direction. Smaller projects with less employees may help me out in this sense.
With 4 days in Drupal, are you full the other 3 (or 2) with farm maintenance? Who else helps run the farm aspect?
To be honest, keeping animals
To be honest, keeping animals on a small scale isn't as labour intensive as it looks, it's more about routine - little and often.
Obviously making money from farming is a whole different story and needs full time attention.
I usually spend 15- 30mins each morning feeding and watering, and the same at the end of the day.
Most weekends there is some minor tasks to sort with fences, fixing houses, tending vegetables etc - but I still usually get at least one day at the weekend to do other things often more.
My wife and kids help keep the routine when I have to go away to our other office, but other than lending a hand with seasonal tasks they don't need to do much.
The most time consuming task for me is mowing the Orchard, I'd love to let the animals do the job naturally but there is a pond and they'd make a mess. So I have to spend a few hours a week over the summer mowing!
New farmer here
I work in SF at a non-profit running Drupal for its website (http://commonsensemedia.org) and I've built a couple modules on the side for fun. I also occasionally do some small website work using not only Drupal, but Wordpress and custom development in Zend. Been playing with iOS too, but nothing too exciting there yet. My husband and I are moving across the country to Sarasota, Florida in the next month or so; we're in the process of closing on a 20 acre property that's going to cost us less than a condo here! Both of us will be working remotely and occasionally flying back.
For the past 6 months I've been interning on a local dairy goat farm and will be raising the following:
- dairy goats : Sable Saanens and Alpines
- chickens : Australorps and Marans
- bees
- fish : there's a pond stocked with catfish, bass, and bream!
- dairy cow (at some point)
- pig (at some point)
I've already perfected several flavors of soft goat cheese, plus goat's milk caramel and am planning on making those, plus hard cheeses, butter, milk paint, ice cream, and other products for our house and for sale. The house we're buying comes with a couple mesh growing houses and I will be putting in a small orchard. I can't wait to grow tropical fruit like pineapples and bananas!
My team is fully supportive of this. I'm already the only morning person in engineering so with the timezone shift we'll pretty much have continuous coverage, which makes the late nighters happy. I feel really lucky that we both get to keep our bay area salaries in FL, because of the lower cost of living plus no state income tax. Our goal is to pay off the house and become as self-sufficient as we can, so we can then devote our efforts to making it a teaching farm. I know it's going to be a lot of hard work getting the farm going and keeping it running well.
I don't know yet how I'll balance work and life, but I'll probably do early morning chores, work for a few hours, lunchtime chores, work another few hours, then evening chores and bed. I like the idea of breaking up my day with physical labor, and at least I'll never have to milk in the snow! I'm so glad that there are others who are into this lifestyle because it'll be great to get advice and support as I embark on this dream.
Breaking up the day...
I love that you mention doing chores in between your daily tasks instead of setting aside huge blocks of time for it. Obviously for larger to-dos (fence repair, etc) you'd need larger chunks, but I sorta do this (albeit with my yardwork) now....I take an hour here, and hour there DURING my work day to disconnect from the screen.
I tend to tell myself, around 2pm, that I'm done for the day and will go out to do stuff....but then, about an hour or more later I'm actually READY to return to the screen. Body feels good and brain got some rest and fresh air.
Good stuff.
How do you like your austrolorps? We plan on getting those and some Orpingtons (got two little girl under 5, so looking for good layers that play nice with kids)
I've been waiting on getting
I've been waiting on getting my own flock, so I can't speak to the Australorps personally, but I know several people who raise them and love them as both layers and meat birds. They're relatively kid friendly, though a bit more energetic than Orpingtons, from the ones I've seen. I picked them because of their hardiness and because the hens will go broody. I want to breed out my birds to eventually be fully natural -- no antibiotics, hormones, etc -- so I need birds that will take care of themselves and their chicks.
The best part about our situation in terms of chores is that I'm a morning person and my husband is an evening person. I'll be doing most of the livestock work in the mornings, and he'll take care of a lot of the (literally) heavy lifting in the afternoons and evenings so we can have a long day full of chores without either of us spending huge chunks of time at it. Weekends will be for chores that we both need to work on together, like slaughtering.
This is a cute blog about chickens you can read to your girls: http://scratchandpeck.blogspot.com
We've never had Australorps,
We've never had Australorps, but pics look nice. We do however have Buff Orpingtons and they are lovely - Great for eggs and very calm and relaxed so great for kids.
We also have Legbars http://www.legbarsofbroadway.co.uk/the%20cotswold%20legbar/
A little different as they lay blue eggs which we sell to friends at the school gate. People seem happy to pay more than they would for your usual brown egg (though they taste exactly the same).