06/11/2025
Long post, bear with me 😉 So many things at the farm that we have to pay for will never be noticed, however, we may have to start including them on our financials. Let's talk mowing and machine maintenance!
We purchased 2 zero turn mowers for the farm and a 4500 series tractor with all the implements necessary to run the farm. We employ a gardener/mower who gives us a great rate to do the front/back, half mile long driveway and the road frontage. They get about $23 and hour. I pay personally $560 per month for that. This frees me up to do the pastures and many other areas of the farm the horses need.
A 2019 mower went in for its annual tune up, with a part that needed to be ordered, that cost $450 total. I now have the other one sent in to be serviced. It is a 2023 mower but will probably cost the same for service. That's $900 for servicing my mowers. That doesn't account for when I pay for smaller parts myself, like broken belts or snapped tension springs. It also doesn't include that I had to replace all the front tires on both mowers to run flats because with hills, rocks and a century of historic debris on the farm, they went flat every mow. They were an absolute necessity. For both mowers, that was an additional $1,200.
Maintaining the tractor, bush hog and it's various implements, is even more costly every year! Think multiple thousands if something goes wrong!
I went through $86 in gas today alone, that's on good gas prices too!
I spent 7 hours today mowing. I speand easily 5-6 days a week mowing (weather permitting). So if I made what my gardener makes on average, I should make over $800 a week JUST mowing. Let that sink in a little. I have never put any gas or mower/tractor maintenance on my financials. My work is all free but that's a lot of work guys! I am also a mother, almost a single mother as my spouse is a civilian contractor that deploys. As a side note, I still pay $650 a month for the tractor as we had to upgarde when we got to this farm, our prior tractor we owned outright from Georgia was too small.
Some days I just don’t think many in town/suburban people can quite grasp how much goes in to a farm, its maintenance and all that is required to keep it running! What I spend on mowers/tractors and in my time JUST mowing, is well above most peoples mortgage! This is why we PLEAD for donations! Just because some of this stuff doesn't end up on my monthly sanctuary financials, does not mean it doesn't exist and should be ignored by donors and those looking to support our mission. FYI, I would never mow this much just for my personal horses, which are no where near in numbers, where the residents of the sanctuary are. I would be able to keep them in 1 or 2 smaller pastures and easily keep those up with a lot less dedication and financial strain.
So please, please, please take a moment to understand what smaller rescues and sanctuaries must undertake in order to care for these resident animals; it is NOT easy. We are not mass bailing and making millions annually, like many larger organizations do, to employ people and to cover all these costs. ❤️
