After almost three years of living this homesteading lifestyle,
I have learned a valuable lesson;  start small, and dream big.
I have a very bad habit of aquiring animals that I think suit
our purposes, before I have their
buildings/stalls/fencing/enclosures finished.  I am now in the
position of having to sell half of our stock, because I do not
have the pastures available to them to forage.  That means that
every bit of what they eat has to be purchased, which just isn't
practical.  In addition, there does not seem to be much of a
market in our area for sheep, which makes it nearly impossible
to recoup any money spent feeding them through the year.  The
main lessons?  Know your market, know your own strengths and
weaknesses, and concentrate your efforts on one or two species. 
I am grateful for this experience, and know now that I am simply
not the kind of person who can keep a menagerie and still break
even, let alone make a profit.  I know some who do, and I
applaud them.  But for us, scaling back and re