Playing farm......

I had a debate the other day with my dad regarding my little slice of paradise, as he argued that what I had was not a farm. Now I grew up on a farm, and we had animals, crops, and a hell of a lot of land, however, I consider what I have now to be the same but far smaller. My dad claims that I am "playing farm" and that I will get bored soon as I have the attention span of a knat!


This debate went on for a while, and my dad did have some clear points regarding what a farm was in his mind. As he begun to ask about our little farm, he begun to chuckle, as I explained what we did and didnt have. My dad is very old school, and believes that all farms should have a farmers wife, with a checked shirt, rosey cheeks and a piece of straw hanging out of their mouth, this is of course is not me!


I was smiling down the phone, as I wandered through the orchards in my shorts and flip flops thinking he would shudder at the thought of any "farmer" wearing such attire. However, his most adamant points about why we weren't a farm were clear.


Apparently, my dad had a list of what he considered to be a REAL farm, and he wanted to share this like a machine gun firing questions at me. Whilst snorting occasionally with that disapproving tone, which only fathers have. In his mind the biggest issue was I did not get up at 4am to milk cattle...errr hello dad we don't have any cows! and although I get up at 6am...4am is a stretch too far! 


His other comment included that I did not "work" on my farm full time, and did not have a tractor! At this point I got defensive, as I consider that what I do is full time, and hard work, and soon came back with why I considered this to be a farm. These reasons included:


There is dirt, which usually ends up on my jeans and under my nails
The animals out number the humans by over 5 to 1
My chickens lay eggs, which we eat or sell
and most importantly, it looks like a farm, and smells like a farm!


These were my reasons and I was sticking to them, now I get my strong head from my father, therefore, he came back witht he argument that if I could justify why we had the animals we do he would back down and admit we had a farm! I knew this was my chance, all I had to do was justify the animals and their purpose, easy right?

Chickens, for the eggs and meat....he agreed one to me
Ducks, for the eggs and cute ducklings...eggs yes, cute ducklings not very farm like
Peppa, for meat....big win for me
Cats, to keep mice and rats away...although mine don't but he doesn't need to know that
Dog, to keep all the animals safe , and every farm needs a dog!!
Rabbits, they are soft and cute....I feel I'm losing the argument now
Goats, they eat weeds! oh and are cute...


At this point I thought maybe he was right and I was in fact "playing farm" oh well its my game and I'm enjoying it :-)