Wednesday, June 27, 2012

It's big enough for Bridger!

Our other truck was......... wellllllllllllllll used and just about dead so it was time for a different one. This is what we got. It was less than what I'd anticipated spending and had less than 100K miles on it, the other one had over 232K!! AND it's big enough for Bridger! lol

Sunday, June 24, 2012

kidding should be happening SOON and I need your help!

My doe Venus is due to kid this week and I'd like to have some help in the kid naming department. We're expecting twins so I need two names for girls which I'm hoping for and two names for boys which we are not keeping :'( or hoping for, but it is part of the territory. Since the momma's name is Venus and Dad is Galaxy I'd like to stick with the celestial theme we've got going. I'm anxious to see what y'all come up with, the folks on our facebook page have come up with some awesome ones!

AND once again we're having a give away when we hit 500 likes! Go to our page and get the details today!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

we're ok!

We were involved in a car accident this afternoon. A lady ran a red light and hit the car the kids and I were in on our way to visit grandparents and drop off orders. We didn't make it there but nobody was hurt. And like a wise woman once said, if money can fix it, it's not a problem! Very very very thankful for God's unfailing protection of us.

Friday, June 22, 2012

May there never be...

... a summer without fireflies.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

1st cheddar out of the press!

longer post later, just couldn't wait to get this post up!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Congrats to all who guessed a.....

......cheese press! This beauty is on loan from a friend and I could not be more thrilled at being able to give a go to making a hard or pressed cheese! I've got two gallons of milk heating slowly on the stove and the camera nearby for pictures. Farmhouse cheddar is the project of the day! It's got to cure for 8 weeks before we can try it, then the aged cheddar will be curing for 6 months.... I should have started years ago! lol That's a LONG time for a terribly impatient person to have to wait for the fruits of labor...

Monday, June 18, 2012

any guesses?

Any guesses to what this "little" beauty is?? I'm very excited to have this here and to give it a go!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

alpaca cool down

Faith was outside washing a water bucket this afternoon and these three boys came running up to her for their hose down! Nope, no spoiled animals here! ;-)

created by Ron...

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

my boy

I love this photo.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

slow, but well


Faith and I were up and out the door headed straight to our first ever farmers market while Andrew and Ron headed north for some fishing. She and I got everything set up and we waited for the customers to arrive. Being that it was a first for us as well as a new market at this location I wasn't expecting oodles of people. We made some sales, met some cool people and were invited to vend in two other locations! WOW! I've not committed to it, because my truck is soooooo not reliable, I desperately need a new old one.... soon!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

a farmers market - finally!

Since the weather was so horrible last week the place that is hosting the farmers market canceled last weeks market; which wasn't entirely awful, because I had already made the Fiber Frolic commitment and wasn't planning to be there, but my mom said she'd run that market for me. Isn't she amazing?! So that gave me an extra week to get ready for this event. I'm excited about it and cannot wait to see how things go tomorrow. If you're in the area stop in and say hi!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Meet the Cast - Barnam and Bale-e

Barnam, get it, Barn-am?

                                                                     Bale-e, get that, Bale-e?

And because my life sometimes feels like a three ring circus! hahaha! Not always, just some days.

These two have blended in with the rest of the herd so beautifully, I cannot believe it. When Spice arrived they pounded the snot out of her for weeks! But these two are actually leading the rest of them to the the best places on the farm to forage and are staying in the woods for a portion of the grazing time, it's amazing! They've been roughed up a bit, as expected, but absolutely nothing like what Spice went through. I just couldn't be more pleased with how they've blended in! I just love their little faces and those beards just kill me!

Or maybe I adore them because they look so happy.

I'm not exactly sure, but I am happy they are here.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

260-ish...


planted about 260 cloves of garlic last fall....

...I'd say it's done well! Looks like most of it has come up!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Monday, June 4, 2012

hard decisions...

These handsome guys followed me home from the Fiber Frolic yesterday, meet Bear and Shakespeare. I had absolutely no intention of bringing anybody new here but like most of the other animals that live at From the Country Farm these two little boys are here because of some hard decisions that needed to be made. Welcome Bear and Shakespeare, though I certainly see a name change in your future, never was a big fan of Shakespeare....

As you may know Venus and Spice are here as milkers because Strawberry and Katie didn't take this past fall or deliver the year before. Don't get me wrong, Venus and Spice are great and I adore them but that is how they came here. Two years ago I tried to breed Strawberry and Katie and feel that at least Strawberry took, but it was never confirmed, but feel that she did. Katie I'm not really sure at all, like most things with Katie it was an odd situation all around. Well a few months into gestation Blackberry started beating on the other goats especially Strawberry, the one whom he'd been with from two other farms!) and I mean beating on them so I took him out of that pen and put him by himself for a bit in an attempt to figure out what happened and re-group. I think the beating they took caused them to abort the pregnancies.  I then put him in with the llama and alpacas figuring they are bigger and the llama is guardian of the alpaca herd so he wouldn't take crap from a 60 pound goat, that worked - for a while. After a while when that herd was fed he'd go lay down in the middle of the pile of hay and toss his horned head at the llama and alpacas and prevent them from eating. Not cool. So he was separated from them and with no other animals for him to be with I was out of options. Feeling badly for him because he is a herd animal but cannot be with a herd I decided to try putting him back together outside where there was room for the other goats to escape if need be. Venus was not out at that time, I was not going to jeopardize another pregnancy. It was a disaster. And back into solitude he went. It was then I knew what needed to be done. He could no longer stay here like this, it was a hard decision to make but one that needed to be made. It's not right for him to be by himself because he is a herd animal but it's not fair to the other animals to be beat on, running away from him in fear or starved because he won't let them eat. It's just not right. It's also not responsible of me to just ship him off to some unsuspecting farm so I have made arrangements for him to be sent to "freezer camp." It sucks, but it's the humane and right thing to do, he's never showed aggression to humans, but terrorizes other animals and it needs to stop. There is no place for that on our farm.

You may be wondering how the two little guys at the top have anything to do with Blackberry or hard decisions well, let me tell you. At the Fiber Frolic this weekend during the lull while it was pouring some of the vendors had a chance to get together and chat. My children had seen an older woman trying to bring in a couple goats and a sheep and had seen her struggling so they offered to help her. Then they stood there for a while and were asking about the animals, she chatted with them and answered questions and off they went. Sunday morning comes around and she and I were talking during a lull and she asked me to take these two boys. As it turns out her ailing mom with dementia lives with her and is requiring so much of her time she has to find new homes for her flock. With a quivering voice and teary eyes (this I understand) she said she just cannot do it all and only has her 6 year old grand-daughter to help so new homes must be found. She'd found homes for a couple animals and a few more were in the works but it takes a while sometimes to work out the details for others. It is a hard decision for her as well but one that must by made, so these two little boys with fleece as white as snow, shiny and lustrous as a pearl and as soft as cashmere joined our farm. They are pygora goats who are nearly full grown and are roughly 40 -50 pounds each, not at all like the large milking does. :-) They are a bit freaked out be all the changes right now but have started to relax and walked up to me tonight cautiously, but that's a start.

turkey time

As if coming home after a freezing cold, wet and rainy (but very productive) weekend outdoors to a flooded basement wasn't enough to keep me busy and teetering on the brink of insanity I'd made arrangements to pick up a flock of heritage breed Black Turkeys today. So excited to be part of preserving educating and promoting two breeds of livestock on this farm.