Today is one of those lazy days. They type of day when I suddenly realize I haven’t blogged in months. Since May I think. But the thing is I have been updating. Just via mini blogs via my facebook and twitter pages. But this is so much more fun, just so much more time consuming!
So to play catch up, here is what has happened here on the farm.
Finally after 3 years our barn is going up. We tore it down over 3 years ago on a local farm. It was a very nice three stall horse barn that for a mere $300 we got it all. But we had to tear it down. No problem. Hubby and my brother in law are both strong guys. And seeing I was 7 months pregnant with our son I was no help at all. Then I went into labor at 8 months and had to go to the hospital. Our son was delivered by c-section a month early, but did fine. We were only in the hospital a week with him, and then came home. The next day my hubby was rushed to the ER suffering from a heart attack. So needless to say the barn got put on hold for awhile. But after I recovered and he recovered we started at it again, got the barn torn down, and moved to here on the farm. Or should I say stored here on the farm. Yes, for the past 3 years the barn has leaned against trees, fences, anything we had to prop it up.


But three weeks ago, we started putting it up. I actually told hubby if he wanted to start working on finally restoring his 1962 SS Impala he would need to build the barn so we could stop using the garage as a storage for the hay and feed, and the occasional goat that needed isolating. We even used it as a kidding building and kid pen at different times. Concrete floor = easy cleanup.


It looks so good now! From the planning to the actual nails going in…I love it. We had a barn growing up, and even tho it was for cows and a lot larger than this one (ours is now 30’x30’) this one will do nicely, and the kids are already enjoying running down the hall. It’s fun to plan and see in your head the future kiddings that will go on here. And to plan my milk stall! I have 2 platforms – one which needs restoring but one is from a good friend down the road who sold her milk goats and gave me her stand. Then I have 3 Surgers which I need to restore, and of course I need to find a vaccuum pump to run the system. But it will be so nice to be able to milk in half the time all the does. And not by hand too.

Speaking of kiddings, the boys sure are bucky right now. They are close to the girls, and the smell is to die for. If you’ve never smelled bucks in rut, you haven’t lived. I hope you know I’m kidding. The girls are in heat, but I do not want December babies this year, so we are waiting until after the Goat Festival in October to breed, aiming for March/April babies. Much nicer time to kid.
Here are our 4 herdsires we’ll be using this year. I think they posed for this.

We are enjoying the fruits of the garden. Okra is really coming along well, and the corn is starting to tassle out. The squash has about played out, and so did the cucumbers. But the tomatoes are just now turning and if I can keep the guineas and chickens away from them we will have them coming out of our ears. We got 2 watermelons already this week, and have a few more to ripen in the next few days.
Check out my chicken coop! Built it myself, hubby just helped hang the door and the nesting boxes. Right now it holds 4 Silver Laced Wyandottes, our old Americauna, a gold laced wyondotte, and 6 young light Brahma pullets.




And how can I forget to mention, the pot bellied piglets! Born 7-20-09, they are full of themselves! Cheetah got loose and found her a great spot to have the piglets. 4 boys and 1 girl. The little runt kept getting pushed out of the way due to his bum foot. And his size. His brothers and sister are double in size compared to him. So we are raising him in the house. My daughter named him Barbaro, after the movie she just watched on the wonderful thoroughbred with the same name. She said he had problems with his foot just like the piggy…so hence the name. I said it was such a big name for a little pig, so we nicknamed him BB for short. He is just now getting brave enough to leave the comfort of his home in the bathroom and come looking for me when he is hungry. Since Cheetah has gotten so large to take to the schools and such for the petting zoos now, we are raising little BB to take her place. He will be trained to climb in the car by himself and walk on a lead so he can get around much better than hauling Cheetah in the dog crate and then wrangling her in and out of it.


It’s nearly back to school time around here. My daughter will be starting Kindergarten. It just seems like yesterday when we were bringing her home on Christmas Eve from the hospital. Time sure flies. Enjoy them while they are little!
So much has happened since I last blogged, but I guess that’s it for now. Hopefully since the summer is ending I will have time to get caught up on everything around here. Finally was able to ebay this week, as well as get stuff ready to go to my booth at the antique mall. I told myself that when I yard sale I would only be buying stuff to resale, however I have found so much that we can use. Like the new Holland grill that I got for a steal at the annual Verona Caney Yard Sale. I also got a brand new doghouse for the new baby goats, and lots of potting planters to do my herb gardening in. I’ve had to split up plants, which is good and gets me ready for the Middle TN Plant Swap in the fall at Henry Horton Park.

And FINALLY after three years I got my front flower beds cleaned out! Now to decide what to plant so that I can make the front of the house look as inviting as I’d like it to.
Before and during..I’ll post after when it gets done:


Oh, I also started up a Twitter page and Fan of GMMF on Facebook for the Goat Festival. Details and a link on my farm website.
Til next time, which I promise will be shorter than this time. I’m going to try to let the twitter and facebook flow over to this page and let me do all of it. I have to find the happy medium for all, since everyone surfs, but not everyone facebooks or tweets. So I’ll try all 3, and see what the response is to all for now.
Thanks for all the uplifting emails you send me and our venture here on the farm. I’m so glad you enjoy it as much as we do. And I’ve met so many great friends along the way. Thanks again to Gail Deal and her family in AL, without whom my chicken coop and my barn would not have gotten the great start they did with her donations of wood, lumber, tin and even the door and nesting box to my chicken coop!
Susan




















