Opal has been sitting on 8 eggs since Monday. She is one of two who hatched eggs last year. Seraphina went broody first and within 24 hours Opal, not to be outdone, was sitting on the floor next to Seraphina’s box, intent on hatching some babies of her own. They sat for 21 days and the chicks started hatching at the same time. Opal and Seraphina raised their babies as one big happy family, and no one even knew who hatched who. As a first timer to chicken hatching, I made a

I’ve been milking goats since October when I purchased Wind Storm (aka Monet). Wind Storm was an ff (first freshener), meaning she had her first kidding season. First timers usually have a much smaller amount of milk. In Wind Storm’s case, I was getting just enough milk for my morning coffee and oatmeal, but I was still forced to purchase milk from the store. In March, Lucy had her 2nd kidding (2f), but she was not milked as an ff by her previous owners so I knew she would

I love my goats. I can differentiate their different voices from the driveway (the screamers, at least). Goats are incredibly smart, and because of their intelligence, they get into far too much trouble. I have two especially bratty ones, Violet and Crescent, whom I love dearly, but sometimes they drive me crazy with their shenanigans. Violet cares about one thing only, food. She is a dog food junkie and she knows exactly where to find Layla’s food – in Layla’s private qu

My dream is for us to be as self-sustaining as possible and we’re making great strides in that direction. However, we’re still a very long way from our goal. One of my first focuses when we moved to the farm was to start building a food forest of perennial edibles. The downside to a perennial food forest is the time it takes to get established and start producing. The upside to a perennial food forest is delicious goods year after year that require much less maintenance a