I’ve got to stop and address this comment from @hellhound1226, because it is 100% the most important part of this whole conversation. Thank you for posting this.
You are absolutely right for “exposing the truth,” because the curated, aesthetic version of #farmlife you see online is a beautiful, dangerous lie.
My DMs are full of people saying they want to quit their jobs, buy five acres, and “live the simple life” with some chickens and a goat. And my first thought is always, “Which part sounds simple?”
Is it the part where you’re ankle-deep in mud that smells like decomposing straw, trying to break up a frozen water trough with a hammer in the dark because it’s 10 degrees and a blizzard is rolling in?
Is it the part where you find your favorite hen, the one who follows you around and eats from your hand, reduced to a pile of feathers in the yard because a hawk or a fox did what it’s designed to do?
Is it the part where you have to make the decision to put an animal down—not by calling a vet for a gentle, expensive injection, but by doing it yourself—because it’s suffering and that’s the final, hardest job you have as its steward?
People see the videos of me holding a fluffy new chick and they don’t see the 10 that didn’t hatch. They don’t see the one I had to cull because it had a genetic defect and was suffering. They see the perfect garden, but they don’t see the squash bugs, the blight, the drought, and the total crop failures that cost hundreds of dollars and mean we get zero harvest of that item.
“The truth” that @hellhound1226 is talking about is that farm life isn’t a retreat from reality; it’s a full-contact collision with it. It’s not a petting zoo; it’s an active, hands-on role in the food chain. This life is covered in mud, blood, sweat, and manure. It’s financially brutal—feed costs always go up, vet bills are astronomical, and one broken piece of equipment can end your entire month.
This life is more about death than it is about life. It’s a constant, relentless fight against predators, disease, and the weather. And the heartbreak is real. You don’t just “get used to it.” A part of you just gets harder, tougher, and more calloused.
So thank you, @hellhound1226. It’s not all sunsets and cute animals. It’s a heavy, dirty, beautiful, and often devastating reality. And anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.
