It's been a hot minute, 4.5 years of hot minutes to be exact, since I last made a blog post. It was titled "The End of an Era." Ironically fitting. After that, life happened. I got away from writing the blog. Then PSGR was thrown, unexpectedly into a new era and the last nearly 3 years have been a whirlwind. Now, you could say a new era is upon us.
We're settled at our amazing farm in Enumclaw, WA. This farm is everything we wanted and more. We're in a routine as much as you can be in a routine in rescue but we're here and we haven't skipped a beat when it comes to our life saving work. We've grown. We've evolved. And yes, we've changed. The world of rescue has changed. The world has changed.
Lately I've put a lot of thought into where we go from here. It is easy to get caught up in the day to day with a farm and a rescue of this size. It's nearly impossible not to. There is always something that needs to be done, someone that needs something. Getting stuck in the cycle only spins the wheel in place though and our goal is always to keep the wheels moving forward.
Last year, my biggest form of self-care was setting boundaries. It isn't easy is rescue, it comes with heartbreak and guilt but I found that once you push yourself so far, too far, it gets easier as it becomes a matter of survival. It was in those moments that I caught myself in the "I don't want to be this person" place.
When I took over this rescue, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't lose myself in all of this. But damn, it's hard. I knew I had to protect myself, but I also knew that we had major mountains to climb and quickly, to survive. Which we did. Without a map or a guide, we went all in, and we did it. Now, we're living on that mountain. So, now what?
I set some hard boundaries about our intake this year. We are so full, adoptions are slower, adoption returns are still higher than normal. I cut ties with some of our contacts. For my mental health and for the overall betterment of the rescue and our herd. I decided to focus more on helping our local community and providing an alternative to sending goats to auction and for meat purposes. I re-established our relationship with some of the dairies we've worked with in the past to take in newborn babies and does that they are taking out of their dairy herd. The days of taking in 100 bottle babies are well in the past but I will still say yes to as many as we can.
I want to continue to say yes to special cases that may mean our resident herd may grow but when we are their only option, I want us to be an option. I love that in addition to all of our adoptable goats, we have a growing resident herd that we are a forever home for.
I want to do more events at the farm and in the community. I want to strengthen the educational outreach of our rescue.
I have decided that each week I will set aside time to leave the farm, pick a coffee shop or restaurant in our local town and take a few hours to do admin work that is a struggle to make time for at home. This way, I get off the farm for something other than just errands, get some dedicated time to do much needed work and support our local community while doing it. We have the cutest little town that although has changed some in the decades since I grew up here, hasn't changed all that much. I was so excited to move back and do more here and I simply haven't. Now, I will.
The more balanced I feel, the better I run this farm. The better I run this rescue. The better I care for all the lives that depend on me, day in and day out. That self-care, is better care for the animals and better for the rescue overall.
Starting the blog again is something I have contemplated for awhile. I love to write. It's therapeutic for me. I love to tell the stories of our animals, to write about the realities of rescue. I also hope that the stories of how I navigate and process the world of rescue helps other rescuers or even those who don't rescue, to better feel what is behind running a rescue like ours and know that they aren't alone.
So, with a new era of PSGR upon us, the blog returns. Thank you for being here and for listening. I'm excited to share so much more in the coming weeks and months.
