Making the Most Out of Life on the Farm: An Animal Farm Tour
You can’t have a farm without animals! Well, I guess you could, but it wouldn’t be near as fun.
On the Eggers farm in Pilot Point, Texas, home to your friends at The Original Windmill Ceiling Fan Company, we raise Belted Galloway cattle, yes the Oero cows! But it doesn’t stop there. We have Paso Fino horses and our dogs (Sampson, Beau, and Bart) and have even added Wagyu to our herd.
Sampson and Beau are father and son and have been our livestock security team for about four or five years. We just added Bart; we found him a few weeks ago, and it took me five days to catch him. He’s useless so far, but he’ll catch on.
It’s a small family compared to larger, busier farms out there. But I can’t imagine life being the same without my animals.
I take that back. I can imagine — because I was there. Before having a farm of my own, we had a blast growing up on my grandparents’ farm in Kansas. It goes without saying we were constantly around all types of farm animals. But as I got older, I saw less and less of them. I went to college and was separated from farm life for a long time. This included an even longer stretch in Corporate America. Over time, I missed walking into the barn anytime I wanted to brush the horses. I missed chasing down coon pelts with the dogs, and it got harder to live life without hearing the cow’s moo.
Even as I sat in the lap of luxury with a cushy corporate job and all the benefits of city life practically at my fingertips, I realized just how unhappy I was. So what did I do? I moved back, of course! We revered our grandparents’ farm growing up, and I’ve spent every minute since leaving Corporate America trying my best to recreate that similar magic.
To this day, one of the first things I’ll do after a terrible day is go out to the barn and tend to the horses. It may not seem like much, but the mere act of brushing eliminates any anxiety at that moment. I have learned so many skills from raising livestock and farming. I have had to be patient, accept the loss of life, deal with elements like nature and weather I cannot control, responsibility at an early age, risk, and determination
I’m convinced that if every child had a chance to experience similar farm life, this world would be a better place. Thank you for reading about my family farm and me. What stories do you have from your childhood?
Tell us about your life on the farm and how many animals you had.
If you enjoyed this article, check out Livestock Protectors At Your Service: Meet Our Great Pyrenees Pups! And The First Windmill Ceiling Fan: Then and Now