Judy's Corner

This Entry:  early 2007

My husband Pat and I met at a renaissance festival in Texas , turns out we grew up about 30 miles of one another in the Chicago area but never met then even though we crossed paths many times, who knew??? 

 My husband is retired Air Force and we were wondering what we would do with retirement; we bought land in Texas at first and wondered what to do with it.  I am first generation American of German decent and would go to visit relatives in the German Alps ( Bavaria ) where I would always be found in the mountain pastures with the goats.  Well because of this I suggested we get a couple of goats and as we all know there is no such thing as a just a couple of goats.  We started with a couple of Angora for fiber and soon developed dairy goat fever.  We sold the Texas land (it was only 7 acres and we knew we needed more) and we bought 40 acres in the Ozarks of Arkansas. We now have Saanen, La Mancha , and couple of token Nubian.  We have a new neighbor that moved near us from California , and now we also have Nigerian Dwarf and MiniManchas.  I guess one day we will concentrate on which breed suits us best but so far I like the some aspects of all of them.  We found that we could get the best bloodlines at an affordable price if we got recorded grades.  Now we have a La Mancha and Saanen Grade, and soon to be born Nubian Grades.  And I guess the MiniMancha could technically be considered a grade as well, but can not be registered that way because they are minis.  We have joined the MDGA for their registration.   I was hoping to start a small homestead family milker market with those girls.

This Entry:  May 13 2011

Well, Happy Friday the 13th. Since last post we had a major rain event....25+ inches over a period of less than a week. Our lower pond, which does not hold water, overflowed the embankment. Of course the overflow went straight towards the garden. Lost about 20% of the soil due to erosion. Also took out half of the beets that were already planted as well as the leeks and cantaloupe. It is just now getting dry enough to rework the soil. Now have 11 tomato plants in and a couple of crook neck squash.

Toad Suck was a marginal success for us. Heavy rains moved in late on Saturday and we never got to reopen on Sunday. But we did get the experience of our first non-faire event selling our soap. I still had a few 'G'day's slip out of my mouth. Ooops. 

I uploaded some more pictures of our goats today. But I missed a couple when I had the camera with me.

This year's kids are starting to be weaned, which frees up milk. We have our first milk customer and I have started making cheese and yogurt again with our own goat milk. We have 8 more does due in June. At that time, I hope to be ready to use our milking machine to make the milking go a lot faster. 

The Arkansas Quad show coincided with Toad Suck Festival. And Caroline, a friend from Texas, was coming up to show. She brought us a new addition to our livestock guardian dogs. A Great Pyreneese/Maremma mix. The maremma is an Italian breed so Judy named her Tiramisu, an Italian cake. Of course, I know that it is really Ti Ra Misu which is Japanese for 'exalted warrior'. We all know which definition is more frightening to predators. Anyhow, It is Tira for short. A picture of the 'exalted warrior' is on "Our Pictures" link on main page.

This Entry:  Apr 23 2011

I can't believe it has been so long since I've made an entry here. And it has been nearly as long since I've been able to update our site. Many bumps in our plans but we seem to be moving forward once again.

 I am on the farm full time now and have been since late summer 2010. We have started a new herd of Nubians and La Mancha and have had our first babies hit the ground. We now have a chicken plucker and I have learned how to process chickens for the table....with telephone technical support from my wife.And Judy spends weekends here often and soon will be here full time.!

We are slowly expanding  our fenced pastures and it is a pleasure watching our herd off in search of browse that we didn't have to buy in bale form.

 Seems like the tasks needing to be done gets longer every time I look at it and something else needs to be done before the current one. Right now, Toad Suck Days is on the front burner....we were selected as vendors for our soaps and fiber products. Nervous and excited at the same time since we have not done this type of venue before.

This Entry:  May 16 2008

Well, we've mostly completed another step in our goal to be fully located on our farm in Arkansas. In Febuary, we finished moving the last of our goats and chickens there. And in April we moved from the house that Judy had lived for nearly 20 years. Oh joy! But we have been able to get a lot of stuff moved and a lot more is packed and ready for transport. One step at a time. 

This Entry:  early 2007

What to do after retirement? Well, Judy had this idea of goats. And chickens. She has had chickens since the 70s. And had a pet goat. She had neither when we met (another story for another time). I had pet dogs but that was the extent of my farm animal experience but  it seemed like a good idea to me.

I guess it has been 4 years now since we got our first starter goats, a couple of Angora . Next we got a couple of Saanen wethers to get an idea on dairy goats. Oh yeah, we fell in love with dairy goats. We now have Nubian, Saanen, LaMancha, MiniMancha, Nigerian Drawf, and Angora . 

Chickens have been added. We have raised a couple of batches of meat birds....man, they grow fast! And taste! Wow! Now we won't go back to store bought. And of course we have a mix of our "dairy" chickens for the eggs, bug control and for the pleasure of watching them do chicken things.

We also have a couple of Guinea Fowl, bug eating machines! We hoped to have more but lost the keets we tried raising last year. Who would have known they could run thru 1" chicken wire without even slowing? Our dogs (Pyranees/Anatolian mix) tried to help. They carefully picked up the keets and carried them up to the chicken pasture. Well, the chickens thought they were tasty. Smaller wire this year.

And since Judy is a spinner, when an opportunity to add sheep to the farm came up, she had to do it. Now we also have a couple sheep.

While I could never have imagined living with all these animals 5 years ago, today I can't imagine life without them.