Sustainability means balance

At 4:22 in the afternoon the sun has set, the light is rapid fading from the sky. It shouldn't be this dark this early. . . in my not so humble opinion. But what nature says should happen, should happen. We were just outside, Jacob and i, looking at the existing garden and where the additions to the garden will be. It is growing a bit. In fact when it is done it will be just shy of three times the square footage of our house - Its both exciting and terrifying. After the terrible neglect that this years garden took, i fear that a larger garden might be a fools errand!
Amy and i have been talking with the staff at the local university. They have asked us to consider organizing (or helping to organize) the university garden. Its a very tempting and worthwhile, yet daunting task. They have been looking at a parcel of land that is 25 acres and was formerly an alpaca farm that the university acquired a few years ago and has no plans for at the moment. The food services folks have tried some small garden projects on it the last couple of years, but want to go whole hog with it this year. The food service division is a contract company that is part of an outfit that is very interested in local, sustainable, organic farming, and food bio security. The goal is to produce as much food as we can to be used in the school's cafeteria! Their thinking seems to be right up our alley!
So the question remains, "Can we balance our respective jobs, volunteer at the school and still make time to give a go at a much larger garden in our backyard?"
Amy says, "No, we should think about scaling back a bit."
i don't yet know what the right answer is. At the moment nothing is set in stone, and as we desire to produce more of our own food it would make sense to have a couple of plans in place and later choose the most logical.

We (Jacob and i) talked about the birds becoming more sustainable as well. Our flocks right now are larger than they should be. Space wise we are all set, but the birds are definitely NOT cost efficient - hence, not financially sustainable. We were thinking that we could sell eggs and perhaps meat as well. This would help to offset the increasing cost of corn which seems to be the most painful pinch on my pocket at the moment (maybe with exception to taxes!). As corn rises, poultry feed rises. We have a large number of birds for a "hobby farm" and need to figure out where to go next. . . . oh yeah, and i think we have an extra rooster. . . stupid bird!

i love conversations like this for two reasons:

1) It's good to jump start young people's thinking about sustainability and agriculture now. When they are adults, the world may be a very different looking place.
2) i love planning things!!! Especially next years yummies!!!!