Some things around the farm today....

Alston is off to camp today so I had plenty of work to do! First my feeding pans for the donkeys and mule keep getting moved around and I am tired of having to go collect them so I drilled holes in them and wired them to the post, now they can't get away! You might have to look hard to see the wire.

Jack getting a little close!

Check out those spots he has now that he has lost that fuzz.

One of my free range rabbits.

Gross, this is my next project, cleaning out the coop after the turkey hen sat in here for a month.

Ham Bone, couldn't even get picture he wanted to cuddle.

Priscilla, napping as usual.

Beautiful Therby......sunning

Therby and Maybell

Maybell wanting cold water.

My two milkers, I got plenty of milk today!

....milking then freezing it, cleaning, bug spray, snake-away, cleaning porch, painting door and porch furniture, watering flowers and garden, gathering eggs, laundry, dishes, now off to clean to the coops then to pick up Alston and back home to fry some squash.

A few things I love to see....

All of us have things that we enjoy seeing and looking at but here are a few pictures of what I call a beautiful site!

This is the scene from my front porch the other night, you just can't beat that with any ocean or mountain. All these farmers around here all work so hard and work together gathering all this hay.

Then I love to ride around and see all these big open fields when they are mowed down so pretty and have all the bales sitting around.

This is just kind of funny to me but I like to look out my kitchen window and see it but my rabbits, all 3 of them live in the yard just like my dog, chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. They are not scared, do not run from you and stretch out in the sun and rest. This is them at the driveway where they usually lay under the car like the cat. They have a cage that they sleep in, they just go in and out when they want.

Another cute one is this little piggy rooting!

A slow weekend on the farm....

Alston and I started out the weekend by the pool. This is something that I rarely get the time to do but my chores where caught up, animals fed so why not? Then it was home to milk goats, clean stalls (that for some reason the cows go to when it is time to potty and this is not helping with the fly population), feed, clean water bowls and fill duck pond. Being in the sun so long had zapped me so it was a short evening for me! I was in my pj's by 7:00 and I usually come inside when I can't see what I am doing anymore. Jon said he was thinking something was odd when he seen that I was inside so early but there was plenty of housework waiting. Anyway, a pretty slow Saturday.

Then we have the usual Sunday morning with breakfast then church and today was a special Sunday since Jon, Alston and myself all joined Mt. Ararat where we have attended for nearly 2 years. We all love this church and being that I attended the same church my entire life until this, once I started going to Mt. Ararat, I never wanted to go back! I can just feel God's presence in our church everytime I enter it and I know that I am in the right place. Alston was the first to mention that we were not members and he wanted to be one so I am glad that we got to do that together. Once we got some running done it was time for some goat soap again. I did not have enough molds the last time which is why I had it in the glass dish that Ramze broke so I bought more and stuff to package each bar in. The worse part of this is that it recommends letting it set for at least a month if not 2 to set up good and I am just so ready to wrap it up and give it out! I think I will get Jon to test out one of the first one's tonight just to see what happens. I have attached a few pictures just so that you can see some of the process, it is alot of fun and once I get better at it maybe I can add some different stuff to it.

This is the molds, they have to be greased to make sure that the soaps pop out easy when it hardens.

You can see that this is a gold color and that is what happens to the goats milk once you pour in the lye and mix with mixer. All the other ingredients are added then you mix and mix and let sit and mix some more....finally it is thickend and poured into molds.

Now tomorrow they will be hard enough to take out of molds be still have to lay out to set up.

Nothing much but a few updates....

Last night I used this all natural oils spray to repel flies that Jami made for me and it worked great. Jack (the mule) hates a spray bottle so I hide the bottle and rubbed it on my hands then on his face, ears and body. I then noticed that there were several flies gathered on his front feet, not sure how he was going to like me messing with his feet so I oiled up my hands and he stood like a champ! After 10 minutes or so no flies had returned at all! Then I thought I would work with him some on his letting me lay across his back and then some leading. I have always nicknamed Jon, Clark Griswold and there is a reason for this. As I began to walk off with him he decides to smack ole Jack on the rear!!!!! I thought he was gonna run me over!! Shew, I always have to watch him!!

My poodle Ramze, jerked the towel that my GLASS soap mold was on and ruined nearly 14 bars so Alston and I are going to get some more PLASTIC molds to prevent this from happening again. I have milk ready for another batch of soap this weekend! I will have more milk than I need if I could ever get these babies weened!

Some oldies but goodies of the Rogers family.....

Grandma and Papa (Clara and Carl) - my house in the background.

Grandma, always looked perfect!

Papa and my Mama and her twin brother (Bonnie and Ronnie)

This is Grandma with Leon, Johnny, Linda & Vernice.

Papa and his mule, Pat.

....their later years.

Canning tomatos...........

My friend Tammy ask me today "are you gonna can those tomatoes", since it would make sense to eat these and wait for mine to come in to can but I have never done it before and could not wait. Mama canned when I was young but I paid no attention to details then, later figured it is easier to buy them at the store and now in my old age of 32 I am ready to grow my own food and can it myself. I started out small with only 5 quarts but I learned alot. I don't think I will need the recipe next time. Yes, I know, many people have done this and it has been done for years but it was new and exciting to me so I had to even share my pictures!

The beginning....

the middle...

and the end!

One funny thing is when your almost 13 year old comes in asking "what are you cooking" like I have moved us back to the cave man days but even though he has no interest now, he will remember it just like I did. He did help batter squash and fry it up tonight...not that he was gonna eat it but at least he was cooking.

Oh and a little goat soap update... I was able to break out my molds and it smells so natural, like the oatmeal, not the strong scents in the store bought.

Finally, I get some goats milk!

Well with the babies ready to ween, I was finally able to milk again yesterday and made my very first goat's milk soap last night. It was exciting to see if it was going to turn out right. Jon was convinced that once I mixed all of the ingredients that it was going to explode! I never knew that once it was made it had to set for a month to harden up. I used oatmeal and lard so I am hoping it will be healtier for our skin. It has to be better than what is sold at the strore which looks to be entirely made of chemicals. I am going to do it again soon so that I have keep it stocked up since I have to wait so long on it.

There is a reason behind all of this........

Everything we do we have to start from somewhere and I have always loved to take care of animals. As a child my Daddy and Mama made attempts to get me the animals that I ask for but they had limited yard space so it was narrowed down to dogs, rabbits and hamsters but I still liked it all the same. No one else in my immediate family has the same farming ideas as I do either. They often look at me like I have lost it or just laugh. My Dad could not quit laughing the first time he seen me milking my goat. Anyway, where I would like to be is............back to the old days where things were simple and you could trust people and even though they had to work hard they had to have much less stress. I will admit I am a little spoiled to the modern day because that is all that I know, being born in 1978 means that I have not had to grow my own food, prime tobacco or walk 20 miles to school but it does not mean that I cannot learn. Thanks to Google and plenty of books I am learning more and more. Getting my own eggs was the beginning, starting a garden this year and buying my own canning supplies is a start. I would love to train Jack (the mule) to pull a plow and garden that way so we will see how that goes. I have a pear tree and peach tree that I will make jams or do some freezing and plan to plant an apple tree also.

I was fortunate enough a few weeks back to meet a young couple that actually built their house from timber on their land and use solar panels, they have no power to their house at all! Now I could live like that if I was able to stand Jon and Alston, they are not so outdoorsy. I have leaned alot from them, they are some of those unique and interesting people I was telling you that I have been blessed enough to meet. She has given me ideas for organic fly sprays using natural oils and even makes her own floor cleaners. She will soon be visiting an Indian reservations for two months where she will be taught about natural medicines. I think that if we all realized what was really in our foods, soaps, cleaners, etc we would rethink how we do things. Either way, I am all about all natural and organic but I have been known to do things the hard way anyway. Since I had a late start this year with all the animal stuff going on I plan to expand my garden next year and be able to can food for the winter. Now if someone could change the way I look at that sweet Therby, I could have some meat for the winter too! I know we all have to have jobs but I am blessed enough to have Saturday-Monday off so that leaves me time to work on all of these projects I like to start!

This is Rosie just after I brought home a Mama goat (Baba) and her tripletts.  Ha Ha

Jack

Miss Maybell

Maybell again.........

Sweet Therby giving me kisses. This was in the winter which explains the tarp.

Let the Farming begin......

When I finished feeding Thery he kept head butting me so I make my own paci for him...it worked great too!

Now, by the time the house was done I had already built me a chicken coop, a pig pen and put up a temporary fence for goats and sheep. I did not grow up on a farm so all of this is new to me and I have to do alot of Googling and reading, not to mention that I love to talk FARM! Ok, so I start out with chickens that I bought from a family in Mount Airy. These people have a huge farm with all kinds of animals and horses that walk around their front yard. One thing you will notice is I have alot to say about the great people that I have met throughout my adventure of trying to accumulate my farm stock. I love going to see other people's farms and their animals and you would be amazed at the kinds of people that you meet, luckily so far they have all been unique and interesting. Ok, then I went and bought farm piggy's, little feeder size pigs and in my mind I thought "I am going to feed these pigs and they will get to live forever", kind of like the Charlotte's Wed scene. Well nope, that didn't happen once I seen the feed they ate, the size they were and they didn't want me petting them or huggin on them. Unfortunately, I sold them and replaced them with potbelly pigs. It make me feel somewhat less of a farmer but hey, this is a hobby farm and a pig is a pig! I have so enjoyed them too. I have had two liters of piglets which is good, I sell them to help recoup some of the farm expense. I am not a vegetarian or anything but I just hate to see them killed. Priscilla is expecting again soon. Especially not mine that I have raised or loved on. I guess you can say that I specialize in "pets". Next there were the sheep and the goats, all bought as babies and a year later we had a lamb and a kid! This made for just the best weekend ever, they were 12 hours part! Next I added 2 of the sweetest donkey's (Rosie and Scatter Pat). Donkeys are my favorite! I love the way they move so slow and always seem to be humbled.

Lesson Learned: Do not attempt your first calves in the middle of the winter! I started out with a 3 day old bull calf (Therby) then added Maybell, my heifer, same age, also on a bottle. First came scours, then a cough with chest colds so there was fluids, shots and more fluids. Bottles at 5:30 am and again at 5:30 pm with some in between, heat lamps and cleaning stalls. I am happy to say that thanks to the greatest vet ever, helping advise me what to do (I did all the medicines and treatment myself) they are both thriving and almost 6 months old. Therby is no longer a steer since I decided to You Tube "Banding Calves" and so you can guess what happened from there. I am looking forward to breeding Maybell when she is of age and milking her. I have my churn ready! Along and along I have added turkeys, more chickens, rabbits, ducks, usually 2 by 2 like Noah and I came across the idea of using my goats milk. So on a whim one night after recently selling Pearl's kid (Pearl's my Nubian doe) I decided I was going to give it a try and I loved it. I am up to 3 milk goats now, one Nubian and 2 Lamancha's and would like to add one more. I may regret saying this but everyone told me that I needed all this box with electric, etc fencing to hold goats but mine have done great in regular, electric fencing. A buddy of mine told me that "they had it made so good, they didn't want to leave", that may be so. Now I am sure to go home and find them out in my uncle's yard eating his marigold's. My animals are spoiled, all of them, they get to eat before I do. Last but not least, there is Jack, my mule. Believe this or not but I am afraid of horses so somehow I have convinced myself that a mule is not a horse and it ain't but Jake is a big old guy with a great personality. I have plans of training or riding him, he still just needs some work and I need to find the equipment! So that sums up the first year getting the farm started. Oh, I didn't mention that we built a run in from rough cut timber and are getting ready for another.

Finally.......we closed Grandma and Papa's Farm.........

In 2009 we decided to leave the city life (which was short lived) and buy my grandparents farm. My grandparents, Carl and Clara Rogers bought and built in 1941 where they raised 7 kids. Grandpa worked the land with a mule, grew tobacco, had cows and pigs, etc. The usual farm stuff. Grandma went to work at Spencer's where she eventually retired from. When Papa passed, Grandma didn't see any reason for the big, beautiful barn and had it tore down and buried which left no barns and no fencing! I remember more about my Grandma, since Papa passed when I was around 8 years old but I can remember him sitting on the porch, listening to the radio and giving us pennies, pop and food. Grandma was so very loving and she had all of the kids, grand kids and great-grand kids and she loved and worried about us all! She was stubborn and could be stern at times, never forgot our birthday's, a great cook and a hard worker! She made the best cheese potato's and cakes, well everything she cooked was great. Grandma passed in February 2009 at the age of 93 and once the family had divided the belongings the house was put up for sale. Almost a year later it still sat empty and so sad looking. I know a house is a house but when I looked at it it seemed so full of life at one time. I could just see the kids, including my mom, running through the yard, Papa farming, Grandma cooking, the windows open with that breeze that always flowed through the windows, making the curtain's wave. Even with a slow real estate market, people looked at the house but there were no takers this as I see it was because God knew that I needed to be there, it was waiting for me and my family. We sold our home in Pilot Mountain, moved in April of 2010, started remodeling! We tore out walls, built closets, sanded floors, painted, new windows, roof, gutters, counter tops, landscaped, you name it. The house was well taken care of just a little dated for what we needed. While this was going on my dream of farming was rushing me to start so I figured I would just do it all at one time, why not? Well after months of battling issues with the banks we finally closed the loan in November 2010. The recent mortgage crash made this whole nightmare a process with my husband just changing jobs, being an older home, no recent surveys, but all the prayers paid off and it was finally ours! That was a blessing since we had already invested so much. It was such a relief for us and the entire family. I am blessed beyond belief that God allowed me to make me and my families home here in such a special place. 

Grandma and Grandpa