What Farm Mums Want On Mother’s Day

7 Gift Ideas for Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is coming up next Sunday in Ireland, the UK and a few other countries. The US, of course, has its Mother’s Day in May. For most livestock farmers, having Mother’s Day in March means that it’s the busiest time of the year because even if calves and lambs aren’t being born that weekend, there’s usually lots of them to be cared for. Therefore, time tends to be short in terms of women getting time to relax and for [...]

How To Get A Farmer Away On Holiday

How to get a farmer away on holiday

Getting away on holiday when you’re a farming family can be easier said than done, getting a farmer away on holiday isn’t just a case of booking time off and deciding where in the world you will go. There’s lots of obstacles not to mention excuses and yes, sometimes it seems farmers seem to be making them up on purpose! Examples will include:

  • Too busy
  • No one else is capable of looking after the stock / farm like we do
  • Can’t afford it
  • It’s too [...]

10 Tips For Getting On With Your Mother-In-Law This Christmas

Tip for Mother in laws at Christmas

Mother-in-laws tend to have a bad reputation, commonly cast in films and soap operas as being interfering, self-righteous and jealous. Within a farming structure, they are often seen as desperate to keep the power they hold within the farm family and the community. But is that accurate? Is she really a villain or is she misunderstood? If her visit is putting a bit of a dampener on your Christmas, here’s some ways to make it easier too. Let’s start with [...]

Who’s A Perfect Farm Wife Then?!

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Who’s a Perfect Farm Wife then?

One of the disadvantages of writing a book entitled How To Be A Perfect Farm Wife is that I’m constantly being teased by the family when I fail. I’m not precious about it, I describe my house as a home rather than a house. As I sit typing this in my living room with the laptop on my knee, we’re all nice and cosy in front of a log fire. I emptied the ashes today [...]

16 Differences Between Being Married To A Farmer and Anyone Else

Brian and I spent ten years married before we returned to Ireland to farm. We went from working in 9-5 jobs and being child-free to being self-employed, farming and with a tiny baby (Will was three weeks old when we returned to Ireland). They say moving house is stressful, they say having a baby is life-changing and I presume they say changing career must have some effect too so we decided to do all three in one fell swoop and [...]