Okay. I haven't been able to post in a while because I couldn't get this page I am typing in to show up! After a lot of thinking (weeks), I thought I'd try it in Internet Explorer instead of Mozilla, and it works. The confusing part is that it works on Mozilla on other computers, but not this specific one. HHmmm...
I am pretty angry today.
What is some interesting stuff that happened this past week?
Well, first, I was inventing this awesome dance to go along with the soundtrack of the movie Space Jam with Micheal Jordon. It involved dunking an imaginary ball and jumping and kicking backwards like you were flying threw the air, just like Micheal. I was just about to perfect it when I kicked back and hit a very stury end table with my Achilles Tendon (heel). It hurt so bad! There was no more dancing for me. It bruised and I couldn't wear shoes with back on them all weekend.
The USDA is coming out with $35,000 microloans for farmers, but aimed at new and beginning farmers. The interest rate is 4.5% and I don't know how much better that is than a bank loan, but my "bad" student loans have an interest rate of 6.2%, which is much worse than 4.5%. My good loans have a rate of 2.4% and emergancy disaster relief loans are charged at 3.5% So, I suppose this microloan is a good deal. Anyways, I am super excited to, get ready for it, start my sheep farm!! All I need to do is look up the USDA requirements as to what a farm is. According to NASS, the Ag Census, a farm is anything that makes over $1000 a year. I thought that was easy to do, but how much do pigs sell for? Sheep? Sheep wool? Oh, I'm getting pigs to supplement my income, teach my children about responsibility and 4H and to eat. Bacon. So if I raise 8 pigs, and sell them for $150 each, that's only $900, then I sell $100 worth of wool or snap beans or something. How much do 8 pigs cost to raise? AND is that worth a loan at 4.5%? I really wanted to start with 2 pigs and one sheep. I want a neighbor with chickens so I can get their eggs but not anything else.
Another thought too, is that tree farms sit and grow trees for 15 years (or whatever the year number is, I made that up). Until the trees are matured, they aren't making $1000 a year, but I know someone who did this and was still able to register their land as a farm. So I need to look into that.
How much to pigs usually sell for? More if 4H kids sell them at the fair.
Besides everything above, I also need land to start my sheep farm. And sheep. Maybe I should get an exotic species to raise their value. Maybe I should start with basic sheep first to make sure I know what I'm doing before I invest in rare sheep.
Other things of note:
I went to a place where they provide the pottery and the paint and you paint something and they fire it for you. It's called Fired Up, where I went. I painted a plate to match a plate a painted years ago. The old plate has a sweet dragon on it spewing fire. This new plate I painted this weekend has a volcano erupting on it! They match because sometimes I think volcanoes erupting are the cause of many dragon myths. Volcanoes and dragons are very very similar. I can't wait to see it glazed and done with it's true colors! I put a flock of sheep on the bottom of the plate and on the back. I'm a little worried that they don't match, because the sheep I made are standing there grazing quite content. I imagine if the plate was truly accurate, they would be running in pure terror away from the volcano.
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