WE ARE POOR.

Or are we?My father is working on getting me disability insurance which yes, if you're wondering, is an amazing gift to get a farmer. But in order to get said insurance, I've had to dig up our tax information for the last two years and present our income. Now, if you've followed our blog, you know that the last two years have not exactly been indicative of any sort of stable farming life––we are just now feeling like we are full time farmers. 2013 we were part time farmers, part time home builders. The year before that we lost two farms and, well, that was a crazy year.Anyway, when you look at our gross income from those two years it's pretty sad. Like $13,000 sad. And according to our insurance agents, that's not enough to get disability. We need to make at least $15,000 a year to earn that (because if poor people get hurt they don't need that little bit of money or anything).We will likely clear $15,000 this year (fingers crossed) and be able to get disability insurance by early next year, but I can't help but feel like farmer income is more complicated than just what our tax returns say. It's not something that can be easily quantified. Take for example the fact that we have several hundred dollars worth of potatoes stored and a couple hundred dollars more of canned and dried goods? And that's just what we have left after a season of extravagant fresh produce consumption every day for every meal. Where is that in our gross income? We earned it, worked for it, we just got paid in veggies is all. And if either of us get hurt, not only do we miss out on our $13,000, but the thousands of dollars of food that come along with it.Anyway, if I may hop off that soapbox for a moment, all this is to say that Hannah and I have had to look at the numbers several times this year and have asked ourselves, are we poor? But I just can't help but feel like we are too healthy and too happy to be poor. We don't have everything we want, but we have most of what we need. If this is poverty––and by tax (and apparently insurance) standards, it most definitely is––it really ain't so bad. But if we get hurt, then that's when we're really in trouble.- Jesse.