If there's one thing we're gonna do at Ridge Farm, it's start something.
World-Famous Project Starters, we will take hold of an idea, breathe a tiny bit of life into and then... pause. Oh, we're good at The Pause. We've mastered the pausing. Fear, doubt, overwhelm, partnered with the general chaos of full-time jobs, four teenage kids, a couple side hustles, and the thrills of keeping livestock living, we can Pause The Shit outta something. Especially when it's not an absolute necessity. Especially when it's tied in a real and vulnerable way to the essence of all of our hopes and dreams. Something that might make it "too real" and if the thing is really real, then we're gonna find out if it works... or if it fails.
Like this website for example.
We started our herd of cattle back in May of 2022 when we purchased 5 registered shorthorn mommas and bless me, I hopped onto the internet in August of that same year to get started on our website. A mere 3 and a half years later and I finally hit publish to what I started. I tossed up a couple new photos today...changed the title from Ridge Farm Shorthorns to Ridge Farm Mules & Shorthorns because boy! have plans and dreams expanded since then, and once again felt the icy fear creeping in. I'm an imposter and now the world will know it...
According to the Bravo Lima Method, we're already doing the thing so I may as well press on and write a blog post while I'm at it.
What's the Bravo Lima Method? The Bravo Lima Method is a conglomerate of guiding principles of mulemanship sprinkled with some other shit we figured out. Applies to mules, mares and kids. Even better for self-reflection and picking yourself up out of a funk when life has kicked you in the ass.
It's what we started to realize about who we are, what's actually important to us, and the work we will put in to make sure it comes to be. It's the truths that have been realized, hard-fought and otherwise, and that apply to how we relate everywhere - not just in the dry lot with an unhandled weanling flashing crazy Appaloosa eyes at you. A lot of it is about being honest about all the stuff we don't know. We don't know SO MUCH STUFF. We've got some combination of luck and trusting the Universe that we're right where we're supposed to be.
It's funny how afraid I was to just publish our website as if this would be proof of something. As if the calves we've raised up and the mules we've been starting over the past almost four years now aren't the proof of the thing. It's funny what we're afraid of...
If you read this, it means you're here. If you're here, we're so happy.
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