OFI 996: What Do You Do In The Winter?

I was home alone this weekend. Hattie and Autumm were on a long weekend trip to a sunnier and warmer place while I monitored our calving season. During the weekend we got our only real snow storm of the winter, but it was a good one. So, for four days I did chores, checked heifers, bedded cows and that was about all I did outside. This left me with a lot of time to work on projects indoors, and this got me thinking about winter projects.

We all have winter projects for those short days and long nights when we are trapped in the house. But for some of us, winter is going to be the only time that we can get anything done away from our farms. A certain percentage of people who are farming and need off-farm income will have a difficult time with the concepts that I teach on this show because during the growing season they are just too busy for a side-business.

Over the years, I have interviewed quite a few business owners with businesses that could be done almost exclusively during the slower, winter season. I wanted to revisit the concept of starting a business that can be done almost exclusively when the farm is not demanding that much from you.

Here is a list of some select episodes from the archives in which I profiled business owners who could concentrate their work during a slow winter season if that fit their business model best:

Episode #327 – Nick McCormack – Leatherworks – Texas

Episode #561 – Dehan Courtney – Logging With Horses – Pennsylvania

Episode #872 – Peter Dalton – Trapping Nuisance Wildlife – Virginia

Episode #225 – Brent Legere – Custom Box Maxing – Maine

Episode #324 – James McKendree – Windmill Ceiling Fans – Texas