Visiting

Little Girl Farmer is spending the night at her granny's and Little Boy Farmer is spending the night with a friend, so Mr Farmer and I took some time to go visiting with some local Amish folks. First to visit the Schmidt's to see if they had any buck rabbits for sale. They did, so we bought one, then checked out their brand new Craft and Gift Shop, and bought a pint of honey there. Saw a ginormous ram who was shedding like crazy. If he hadn't started making snorting sounds at me, I was gonna yank off a handful of that wool to bring home and see if I could spin it. Changed my mind about that the second he turned towards me and started those crazy sounds.
Next we saw a sign that said "Vegetable plants--Marked down". Turned down the gravel lane, went past another Schmidt's house, kept going, that lane seemed to go forever, then found another house, with a Greenhouse sign. Bought a pepper plant, some late cabbage plants, and a lemon balm plant. Talked to the lady of that house about gardening for a little bit, found out her sister is married to the Schmidt from the first house we went to.
Then we decided to try to find an Amish house where we had bought some stuff before. Finally found them, just in time too, as they were loading up a truck with fishing poles. They had apparently hired a driver to take them wherever they were going fishing at, so we got a gallon of milk and scooted on out so they could get going. I have heard you can make soap with cows milk the same as goats milk, so I think I will try that.
It started raining after that, so we came on home.  Found the newest outdoor puppy, Scraps, who is an Australian Shepherd all cuddled up in the shed by the cage where we are keeping Sugar and her chicks till they get a little bigger. I guess he thinks his job is to watch after them. We had found 5 tomato plants in the old pig pen this week, and found a couple potato plants by the new pig pen today when I was pulling some weeds to feed the pigs. Those pigs are better gardeners than we are, I think. I do have a couple yellow squash coming on, and several teeny tiny zucchini. Counting the tomato plants we transplanted from the old pig pen, we have 23. That will be a good start. ;)
Lots going on around here, and I am sure tomorrow morning will start like every morning for the last week...checking to see if Flower, the potbelly pig has had her  piglets yet. Maybe tomorrow will be the day. :)

The good life....

Well, no fall garden, as I ended up having surgery a few days after my last post, and was out of commission for a few weeks. It's okay though, more time to plan for the spring. :) We now have turkeys again, and some guineas, who seem to be smarter than the last ones we had, thank goodness. We have 7 potbelly piglets, and haven't decided yet if we are keeping just one or two, but its time for the rest to find new homes. Flower is a great mom, but I think she is tired of them now.
Went to the Southern Indiana Fiber Arts Festival a couple weekends ago, and was completely blown away by all that fibery fun. I also came away with an absolute NEED to learn to spin. I am now on a quest for a spinning wheel. Met quite a few local people while we were at the festival, and are now in the market for an angora goat or two to add to the herd.
This past Saturday, our local Beck's Mill had Oktoberfest. We sat up a booth there, and had a fantastic day selling our goats milk soap, candles and knitted items. Met some more local folks there too, including the photographer for our local paper, who got a shot of Boy Farmer listening to a storyteller, and Girl Farmer holding the new puppy. She seems to think our little farm might make a good story, after all the election stories are over for the year. So we shall see if she comes around for an interview.
Busy week ahead..we are going to a semi local farmers market on Saturday, and I was instructed by the local yarn store owner to bring some of my stuff. She will introduce me to the market masters and see about us setting up there every weekend. This is one of the top markets in the US I'm told. Little nervous about that, but I'm sure it will all work out.

Piggies!! :)

It's been busy, busy, busy here. Finally got our garden in, now it's a battle to keep up with the weeds
Thanks to a great new friend, we have 2 Potbelly Pigs. One boar and one sow, bought the sow and traded for the boar. And in a few months, we will have piglets too! :)

We have sold/traded all our rabbits except one house pet, so we are now out of the rabbit business completely. They were fun, but so very time consuming. We also traded the billy goat. So we are back to 4 goats, and 2 of those are bred does. And of course all the chickens. Animal control called us this week, and asked Mr Farmer if he wanted a couple geese. DNR rounded up some Canada geese, and got some domestic geese in the process, 2 of which they gave to our friend Jim at the shelter. Mr Farmer of course picked them up, so we now have a total of 6 geese, and 4 ducks.

Spent some time outside this afternoon watching the pigs root, and the goats play, and thanking God for this place, and everyone and everything that lives here. It's a good life.