Just because you find a recipe on a website or blog, does not mean it is accurate, or that it will work as easily as it claims. I was stoked about all my muscadines this year. We planted two vines three years ago and this is the first year we’ve gotten anything edible from them. I’ve been nibbling on them for the past week, but David picked about a gallon and a half for me to process. They're delicious and much sweeter than my concords. I had what appeared to be an easy en

It was close to milking time yesterday evening but I needed to check on Cocoa Puff, who’d seemed a bit off in the morning. After she checked out okay I decided I would grope Wind Storm for a moment as I STILL don't know if she's pregnant. Just as I moved her close to the wall so I could hold her still and feel for some belly movement, I heard a hiss and a thump (though it happened so fast I can't remember in which order) and I looked down to see the biggest rabid anaconda wit

It has been a year since we brought home our first goats; three adorable, scared Oberhasli kids. I can’t remember ever being so excited about anything in my life (except when my 19 chicks arrived, or when I went to pick up Layla, or maybe when we bought a farm). We loaded Violet, Daisy, and Basil in the back of David’s Compass (much to his disdain) and embarked on an interesting (and wildly entertaining – to me at least) two-hour drive home. I’m not sure that David will ev

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

It’s been over a week since I last held Flora and I finally trust myself to write about her. This evening I’ll be saying goodbye to Frey, and my heart is just broken. I got Flora and her sister, Snicklefritz from the Animal Shelter 18 years ago. Having grown up with black cats, I wanted a solid white one. It was pure coincidence that just moments before I called the shelter to see if they had any kittens, a litter of 10 had just come in the door. When I got there to pick

This morning I grabbed my coat to head out and turn the chickens loose. Just as I was slipping my arms into the sleeves, I heard a “plop” and suddenly there was a mad scramble of mouse and cat at my feet. I didn't even notice I'd had a mouse clinging to my back! Once on the floor, the little mouse didn’t know whether to run up my leg to escape or not, and I didn’t know which way to go to avoid having the mouse run up my leg to escape. Because of its hesitation Frey seized

I’ve stooped to some new lows this week. I know I said I wanted Lucy to wait until this weekend to kid, and I did. But I also anxiously rushed home every day hoping to see babies. All those work hours were torture as they crept by so slowly. Every day I was disappointed when I got home and there were no babies. But Lucy didn’t care. She just looked at me contemptuously while I stared at her lady bits. I’ve never looked at goat lady bits as much as I have this week. You

As a watched pot never boils, apparently a stalked goat never kids. Lucy has decided to keep those babies in there forever. Or so it would seem. She’s been groped so much over the past two months she’s threatened me with charges. Here she is enjoying a nice back scratch. As there has been no real change in her situation. I’ll just have to update again in the coming days when we have some sort of progress. #Lucy #babies #nigeriandwarf #SweetgumAcres

Thank you for following our adventure. We’ve had so much support and help along the way. It’s always great to hear words of encouragement and to learn people are actually watching our journey. It was -2 degrees this morning when I trekked out at 5 am to milk a goat and break ice in water buckets. I’ve been terribly paranoid about all the animals in this awful cold, but they seem to be handling it better than the humans. With the chores done, I’m now warm and sitting insid