My side project is an organic farm school.

I raise pigs, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and grow organic produce. It doesn't require much concentration. You might think this is a huge reach from I.T. but it still requires a lot of problem solving skills and discipline. It doesn't require the same kind of concentration, but you find out very quickly that the concentration it does take is engaging. It holds your attention because like the ocean, if you turn your back on it, it'll get you.

A lot of people's response to this has been "wow, that's my dream, but I could never do that because X, Y or Z"

3 years ago, I lived in the city, no land, no first hand experience rearing animals, could barely keep a tomato plant alive long enough to get tomatoes off it. I grew up in the country, I had some friends whose parents were farmers, my Dad had horses and we had 2 cats - that was the extent of my experience.

Anyone saying "Oh that's my dream but I could never do that because I have no land, I have no experience, I don't know where I would start." Neither did I. I found a place I could rent that had enough land to make a start that was within my means. Enough to learn how to grow fruit and vegetables and raise chickens, then by the time I ran out of room, I had a pretty good idea that I could do this and rented a place with more land. The side bonus is that the kids now have 100 acres to run around on and be kids without having to micromanage them like I did in the city, they can find themselves and grow like we used to as kids, learning their own limits and building confidence with no parents helicoptering over them making sure they don't hurt themselves - and they love it.

I also don't have to put up with the marketing bullshit that we're bombarded with about how awesome our manufactured food is, which it may be, but probably not. I know where my food comes from, from my land to my plate. I know what they've been fed, I'm happy with how they've been treated. I can see they're happy before they go to the freezer. I know my produce isn't treated with harmful pesticides and herbicides.

It's not for the feint of heart though, I knew it was going to be a lot of work going in, but I had no comprehension of the fact that it's not like a job you can put down when you're not feeling up to it. There's no "I just don't have the motivation to get out of bed today" or calling in on your depression because you just can't face the world. It's there, day in, day out, come rain, come shine, come mosquitoes, come drought, come blizzard, come flood. It's there and needs tending to. There's no days off or vacation without arranging someone to cover for you.

Animals have their own behaviour and their own way of doing things. They have their own motives and desires. They will show you very quickly that you cannot control the world around you and that all you can do is learn to harness and exploit their behaviour against them to keep things working. If you're not already, you will quickly learn to be adaptable, you will quickly learn to improvise with the things you have to hand right now, you will quickly learn to do whatever it takes or you don't have food on the table.

There are many days when I wonder what the fuck I've done and want to go running back to the safety and convenience of the city where I can be lazy without any repercussions. But when the sun comes out, the animals are behaving and happy and you've got a full harvest in front of you, you smile to yourself and you know why you did it. That's a level of satisfaction you just don't get anywhere else.

When I finally decide that programming is too much for me - which seems like a long way off yet, this side project will become my main gig. I have other ideas that will become side projects to complement this, but for the moment this is taking a fair portion of my free time and energy.