hi my name is amanda. i am 28y old with 2 kids, 3 step kids. i work full time 3rd shift. my husband works two jobs, 1st and 2nd shift.

we do not have a farm. we have 1 1/4 acre. but we use every inch to its fullest potential. we have a vegie garden and herbs.preserve every bit of garden produce we can. we have 30 chickens, two dogs,two cats.

i wish we had a farm or at least more land, but we just can't afford it. next year we would like to add fruit trees and maybe a pig.

if we ever win the lottery we will have a farm, cows and all.

amanda

Poochella, in a small way I've challenged myself to make a start now; thanks for the support. Why is it the thoughts flow best when there's no way of recording them? What an excellent idea the Grandma's Journal is......bet a grandmother would be more forthcoming for a grandchild. My mother is claiming at 87 that she doesn't remember much but the right questions bring out some interesting memories.
Rose

i've already added my 2 cents worth--but just had to add a bit on memories. my sis is 82, she can remember when we moved to missouri in 1940. said dad and mom had a model a truck-loaded down with kids, (and goats!) chickens, etc. said highway 60-63 was still dirt, and dad broke down just north of springfield, traded a bushel of potatoes to a mechanic for working on the transmission.they moved cause first child had died at 21, and had to get away from their memories.think we might have looked like the Clampitts moving?wish i could record all she remembers.-- just thought i'd throw that bit in, in case anyone else likes memories---

Poochella: You are correct, rolling hills, actually wind built dunes of loess from back in pre-history. gently sloping from the west to steep sided on the north sides - many too steep to farm the north slope even with machines that will work 50 degree slopes. It is dryland farming, i.e., used to be summerfallow one year to build moisture for next crop (annual rain in the 10-12" range). That is fading out due to dust storm and erosion problems. The Palouse is a region generally bordered by Idaho border on east - Snake river on South and extending mostly up to about 20 miles south of Spokane.

We are into the sorta pre-harvest season now. Amber waves of grain is a good description. Very little precip can be expected from now until about Oct.

Harry K

Susan here. Not as active on GW as I used to be, but I still drop in. We have 32 acres in the northern Willamette Valley of Oregon, about 45 miles south of Portland, 20 miles east of Salem. We run a small herd of Angus cattle, and a flock of Oxford sheep. A handful of goats, another handful of free-ranging geese, 5 horses, 2 dogs that belong here and 3 more that often come home with the kids for weekends.

Dh works off the farm as drilling engineer, and I manage a wholesale propagation nursery. We also have about 2500 square feet of greenhouse at home, and I do some custom work for a couple of wholesale customers.

Gave up gardening several years ago when the kids were active (and I mean VERY active) in 4-H, FFA, High School Equestrian Team and Junior Angus Association all at the same time. Looking back, I have no idea how I managed all that! Now that there is only one year of college left for the last child, things are slowing down just a hair, and we're missing home-grown veggies. Maybe next year.

Harry, both my girls were born when we lived in Bakersfield, CA, but we moved here when the oldest was 3. One year we were in the Palouse for an Angus field day, and that daughter kept commenting on how she had this strange feeling of "home." I had to laugh, because at the right time of year, the hills of your area do look very much like the hills around the southern San Joaquin valley.

Jen, PLEASE, assuming your employer is willing, share some of your day-to-day experiences with the broodmare farm. The website you linked is wonderful, and I was very interested to see the discussions of suggested in-breeding and out-crossing. Wish there was more of that available beyond just trait indexing for our cattle!

Susan

I'm Judith and we live on the Beautiful British Columbia Coast. Most of our married life, we paid taxes on this fantastic waterfront lot overlooking Vancouver Island. My husband retired a couple years ago and we built out here. Our daughter has a farm just north of us with horses. Our son is a Long Haul Trucker. As a youngster, I was raised on a farm with ALL the animals you folks speak of except horses. My folks had 100 various fruit trees that they were going to make a living on when they retired but most of them were ruined by the black bears climbing up them or reaching and pulling the branches down and braking them. Here, I have a few chickens and two mascovy ducks. My late sister's children in Australia don't know our Family History so I am still plugging along trying to write it, going back to coming across the U.S.A. prairies in a covered wagon in 1880, living in Oregon and immigrating to the remote B.C. coast in 1911 to become pioneers in the building of the Mill. I'm the only one left to pass on the history and stories. My mother was told goats couldn't be raised on cows milk and the two "gals" both won prizes the two years they were entered into the Fall Fair. I love reading about Harry and his "wood cutting" Believe it or not, I logged this lot with my 4x4 truck,winch and chain saw. Bon fires, hot dogs and coffee.

Susan--what do you want to know? Actual info, or just fun stories? I have lots of both. With a little b*llsh!t mixed in for fun!

Hello. We have 175+ acres in southwestern Greene Co., Mo. We used to just have beef cows which I basically cared for since DH worked off the farm. He decided to "retire" to dairying in 1993 which we did. We knew absolutely nothing about dairying or Holsteins, but we learned fast! We sold all the milking cows last July and still have 16 head of bred heifers to sell this Fall.

We have a small Black Angus (grade) beef herd that we want to build up to at least 40 mama cows. We will probably buy some this fall when we sell the Holstein heifers.

We were both city people when we moved to the country in 1976......learned from reading, neighbors and just plain old experience (sometimes the hard way).

Just a word to you doing family research, please don't put it off! Do it now while your parents are here to answer your questions......I started after both my parents were gone and everyday think of a question I wished I had asked them.....My Aunt is 81 and she is still a good source for me.....Lots of good information is online, at least for the states, censuses, deeds, land grants, military records, etc. I have loved every minute of it.

My Sis and I are planning a trip to Tennessee (where most of our folks came from) this fall. The trail was Ireland, England, North Carolina, Tennessee and then Missouri. Lots of history along the way.

gld

Jen, "all of the above!" It all sounds so interesting, and our tours of Churchill Downs combined with hours of driving the countryside between Louisville and Lexington, just to look, made me aware of how totally different the Thoroughbred world is from the backyard horse world most of us know. Not to mention the horse care info you must have stored in your head!

gld, the family history bug is sure an interesting one to catch! My family came to Connecticut before the Revolutionary War, then to Pennsylvania, then Ohio, then a big jump to California. But even so, I found a display that included several ancestral connections in the Civil War Museum outside Louisville, KY, when we were there. If my grandmother had not laid the geneological foundation on paper for us, I wouldn't even have recognized the names.

DH's family includes children who were stolen and raised by Indians in the 1700's in West Virginia! The world is changing so fast, my kids think of their own grandfather's stories of the Great Depression as practically fiction. Time to get a lot of that info on paper.

susan

Hi: It's me again. About Genealogy. This is off the subject BUT if you are going to talk to your elderly relatives or any relatives and tape them, check the tape AND maybe if you aren't going to write out the information right away, make a second tape. My late sister moved and lived in Australia and I always say she was a generation older then I. Her family bombarded her with questions and taped it before she left a few years ago to come to Canada for the 50 year Armed Forces Reunion. When she arrived in Vancouver, she phoned Victoria and our cousin was in the hospital. She rushed over to see her and she passed away that night. She was going to come over and take pictures off the old pictures and they were going to fill in question blanks. After the Reunion, my sister went to England to babysit. Two weeks later, my sister got a blood clot in her leg while flying across the Atlantic and she died before the plane landed in Halifax. My neice said when they played the tape, IT WAS NO GOOD. During the war my sister stayed with relatives in Scotland & England. Now, they are all deceased. When my sisters children come to visit, I get a few tit bits that their mom told them of life on the farm before I was born. They want to go see "so and so" Mom loved them OR that's where Mom used to go dancing. When the pig house was build she and her little brother slept in it - first. They were both gone before I was big enough to sleep on the fresh hay in the hay barn. I'd forgotten about her walking down the dark lane and feeling a warm breath on her leg, put her hand out to pet the dog and it was a black bear. Once someone is gone, that history is gone unless we write it down. Won't bore you any more, going back to lurking.

I would have to agree with taping conversations with the older folks. Just start asking them questions, let the tape run on so they get comfortable speaking. It is so interesting how the conversation will twist and turn, one remark opening a whole new topic, things that haven't been thought of for years! My mother taped my grandmother, has the tapes and made copies for her sisters.
Family geneology is my mother's huge interest, DAR member. However Grandma was quite inventive with family history on both sides, changed old stories, really twisted dates and people around to suit herself. Mom has historic data that totally contradicts Grandma. I have to get mom to tape the correct stories for me, all the things she has learned in her searching, along with her immediate family stories. With 10 kids in her family, coming thru the Depression, there are tons of stories. Seems like we only get all the story sides when we stay up all night at funerals. We have very funny family funerals, held at the family home, must be the Irish in us.
None of us know much about my father, his many relatives were estranged. Grandpa died before we ever thought to ask. Dad's mother died when he was a little child. Dad is totally unhelpful, his sister is beyond being helpful. My uncle was 10years younger, doesn't know anything from way back.
My husband only knows a little about his family, no details. He expects to always be able to call his sister and ask her!! Lots of things come out when they have a funeral too! Husband's brother was finally declared dead from MIA status, during the Vietnam war. Had the big military funeral in Washington DC. Spending time together, very moving ceremony, Horse-drawn Caisson, flag presentation to the family, gun salute, got everyone sentimental, talking about the brother and those times. Grandpa explained things that were never spoken of because of Grandma's feelings before she died. Everything sad had all been glossed over, no talking at all. Whole new picture for the much younger kids, never even knew their brother, had never understood situation before. Just having the time together seems to start things. Everyone is always in a big hurry, no thinking of the past in daily life.

As others say, once the people are gone, there is no place to find answers, details. Just leave the tape running when you do Holidays, family gatherings. People play off each other, recalling incidents will help others, bringing different things to mind.
Don't wait to save memories, stuff happens, surprises. Bring good recording machine, more batteries, fresh tapes.

Hi y'all. I'm Dean, and I've been on here since February when I saved my first chicken....didn't plan on being a chicken farmer, but life takes you on alot of strange adventures!
I love this forum, and the people here are very friendly and informative. I'm sorry Oldhazza isn't able to be on here more, as it sounds like he has alot of knowledge to share, even if it is repetitive to him. Sometimes it takes awhile for us to actually soak in that info (I know I'm becoming a slow learner as I get older ;-) or maybe just set in my ways)
My wife (she's from Cuba, so she came up with the granjerito name, which is spanish for "a little bit of a farmer") and I live in NC on just over an acre with 3 hens (leghorn and 2 RI reds), a duck and a 3-legged dog who thinks she is everyone's mother. We also have a vegetable garden and 2 flower gardens. I'm sure we'll end up moving from here one day just so we can have more farmland and chickens. They're so interesting and entertaining, unlike most of the people I meet every day. hahaha
Looking forward to many years of learning from all of you, as well as being amused by the progress of Bill's Slug Farm!!! Wish I had all that land Bill

I'm Carla. I live on 4 acres west of Austin, TX. I have a DH, 2 sons (13,6) and a daughter (10). I am a SAHM that has a second home in my minivan. I live about 3 miles from Briosa here on the Farm Forum. I have yet to meet her because of busy schedules.
My DH and I wanted to get away from the cookie-cutter neighborhoods where you can see right in the neighbors window and see what they are having for breakfast. He wanted a small acreage to fullfill a lifelong dream I had of owning/caring for my OWN horse. I had always had access to horses, but never had one that was mine. I spent a year searching for "Luke". He spent the next two years living the easy life in my neighbors barn/pastures. Trail rides became increasingly difficult because of his barn sourness (is that a word?). He and I never gelled. I had two big 'wrecks' on him despite extensive training and decided it was time to part ways. He was the original reason for joining GW. Since then y'all have helped me through bottle feeding goats and raising my illegal chickens.;)
I live in an uppity horse neighborhood. We're techically only allowed to have horses. Since my developer is now under investigation for fraud, he isn't too worried about my wonderful chickens. My neighbors all get joy from my 'girls' and don't turn down free eggs every week either. I also have a menagerie of urban pets (dog, cat, fish, and a very fat rat). My DD currently has tadpoles and is raising mealworms for the chickens. She and I would have critter of all sorts, by DH has put down his foot about more animals for now. LOL.
I, fortunately or unfortunately, for my friends, know a little bit about a lot of farm critter from research, college and some hands on knowledge. I also spent 3 years volunteering for Wildlife Rescue.
I love the Farm Forum. Folks here are very friendly and very helpful.

Glad to see you're still here Old MacDonald. So much help, I even bought a small farm with your guidance- and you were correct at every point. THANKS!

I have an 8.5 acre farm a few hours from the city in BC Canada. Surrounded by snowpeaked mountains, it is a dyked floodplain with amazing soil. Organically raising geese, ducks, chickens, bees, and enough veggies to share. Time to get serious about making a small living off of the land, as land here is expensive and at some point I'd like to live in a home not a '72 VW bus.

Hi, All! I joined this forum while we were still living in SW Florida....lived there for 24 years. Have now returned to our "roots" here in Missouri. Florida was getting pretty crowded and, thank heaven, we moved before the hurricanes of 2004! Moved back after DH retired from 40 years of teaching and I quit working as an RN.

We are living on my Grandfather's farm of a bit over 200 acres. Had Grandma's "new" house (built in 1948) moved and had a new house & separate garage built here in her yard. This is the fourth home located on this spot. Granddad bought this farm in 1910 so it will soon be a "century farm".

We have a pony, a mini jennet, approx. 25 chickens(16 of them banties), 17 guineas, 5 ducks, 2 great pyrenees, a Heinz 57 puppy(that someone threw out on the county road), 2 miniature pinschers, an African Grey, a Citron crested cockatoo, and a Pacific parrotlet. I was raised on a farm with a lot of critters and had a pretty Tennessee Walking Horse as a teenager. Never quit wanting another horse of my own.

Bought a beautiful, black TWH gelding last April....very gentle. Came up to me in the pasture and nuzzled my cheek but bucked me off and broke me up pretty badly so guess that is in the past for me now. I fractured my collarbone, my shoulder blade, 10 ribs and punctured a lung when I hit the ground. While I was hospitalized with chest tube had plenty of time to think of all the things that I want to do OTHER than horse back riding. 8)

Have done some geneology work on the family. First ancestor came to these shores in 1709 as one of the original Pennsylvania "Dutch". Lived in Berks County after a few years in New York. Family moved to Virginia then on to Missouri in 1830's when my great great grandfather started cutting firewood and selling it to steam ships on the Missouri River near here. He owned part of this farm in the 1850's. Fun to look into all that and hear the stories that come along with it!

Have enjoyed lurking on this site enormously. And, finally asked for help when our brown leghorn rooster started stalking us around the farm recently. Got wonderful answers and help with that problem. Thanks to all!!

Right now we are in the midst of a bad drought....with no rain since June 10th and the temps hovering in the 90's it is a real struggle to keep the plants that we have recently transplanted and our small garden alive.

Look forward to following along and adding my two cents worth from time to time. Have loved reading all the wonderful posts.

Judy

BrendaSue here. We live in CT and have 6 acres and are surrounded by houses. We have 2 horses, 1 mini, several goats, 2 ducks, 2 geese, 3 ferrets, a few chickens, and 2 dogs. All are hobbies and we love them all. Keeps us busy! I've been on the forum for about a year, visiting as I have time and posting when I think I can conribute something useful. Luv the forum!

Ann here in South Jersey....have 3.5 acres in the pinelands that is home to DH and me, 2 horses, 2 goats, one boxer and 5 cats. Would love to have chickens but DH has a fit anytime I mention getting any more animals so I have befriended the neighbors chickens who spend most of the day at our place anyway. Just love, love, love the farm life forum and all its wonderful members.

Ralph from south Saskatchewan here. I check in here occasionally to see whats happening in the rest of the world. I have been registered on the site for a couple of years or more, can't recall exactly how long. Full time small farmer for 30+ years now mostly growing cash crops but a few head of cattle to keep life interesting. Free range bantam chickens and a few cats for company. We've had plenty of rain and everything is green this summer in the "land of living skies".
A few of my farming pics show up on my webpage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sask. Farm Life

Sharon here from near Guelph, Ontario. We have been sheep farming for about 25 years and have a flock of about 70 Rideaus. They produce triplets as often as twins and this year 1/4 of our lambs were born quad and only 6% of the lambs were singles. We also have a guard donkey.

We grow hay on about 70 acres. We have had heat and no rain in over a month until 4 days ago so the hay crop is down 1/3 over last year. The pastures are crisp, so we have been feeding hay to the flock. Maybe the rain will mean we get a second cut.

I was the head developer on a team that created an internationally used sheep management software, EweByte.

Here is a link that might be useful: EweByte

I'm Deborah and I live in the Ozarks, southwest Missouri. I moved here in 1990 after a five-year experiment in homesteading in southern Vermont, but I grew up just north of Boston. I had 28 wooded acres bordering the Green Mountain National Forest and bullet holes in the house because there was no fence to show hunters where the park ended. There were too many biting insects there, too much snow (17' a year on average), too many dirt bikes and snowmobiles, and too many people building very expensive homes with lots of ideas on how to raise the taxes, but it was a good investment. Although I called it a house, it was actually a small cabin that I built myself. I had my pitbull Max for company and probably never would have ventured out of the suburbs without him. He lived to 16 years and I've never found another dog that intelligent, with that much common sense.

When I chose this place I looked for a location where civilization might not encroach for 20 years, and guessed just about right. There are still no building codes or regulations, no permits are required for anything, so it's heavenly for a do-it-yourselfer. Although I'm 75 miles from Springfield, the population in the immediate area has grown 30% in the time I've been here, mostly due to an influx of out-of-state people like me. My original plan was to have a horse, but I've had every but - laying hens, jungle fowl, geese, guineas, Suffolk and Montadale sheep, a variety of dairy, meat, and fiber goats, and sale barn bottle calves. Now I just have Boer goats and feral cats. I usually buy bottle calves every Christmas, but skipped last year due to work demands. Now I wish I hadn't because the pasture is badly overgrown and a fire hazard.

This is an old farm, the land was first granted in the 1870s. One of the pages in the title abstract was signed R. B. Hayes, but it was probably just a secretary who actually wrote it. The first settlers built a log cabin that stood until the mid 1980s when it burned in a brush fire. Around 1880 a physician bought the land and built this house, which was used like a mini-hospital. He left the property to his daughter after planting peach and apple orchards for her, and there are still volunteer fruit trees everywhere. Ever since then, the land has almost always been owned by women. One of the few male owners turned it into an auto salvage yard and rebuilt transmissions in the dairy barn. I picked bits and pieces of auto parts out of the pastures for 10 years just like the people who tried to grow corn must have picked rocks. They built a dike to break up flash floods that's a good four to six feet wide and almost a quarter mile long with the rocks from just 5 acres.

There's 82 acres here, about 30 acres of open pasture, 10 - 15 acres where I'm letting trees grow back because of soil erosion, a couple of ponds, and 30 acres of mixed oaks, hickory, mulberry, and black walnut with an occassional white pine. There's endophyte fescue in the pasture, but I encourage clover, lespedeza, and hops by only applying lime to it. The endophyte was a real problem for the sheep, so I sold off the flock after 7 years.

I basically paid the going rate for unimproved land on 82 acres and got the house, barn, garage, and chicken coop for free. The only things left of the house as I bought it are the foundation stones, frame, and the crooked cedar carsiding on the second floor. I did all the work myself except for the new roof, siding, and ground source heat pump installation. I still haven't put hardwood floors down, haven't finished a couple door frames with trim and haven't built a walk-in closet or straightened out the cedar upstairs, but will get to it eventually. My hobbies are gardening and painting.

Boer buck and twin late-spring doelings

{{gwi:42652}}

Dallas, I think your real hobby is working overtime. By the way, your doelings are cute. I'm thinking about raising meat goats in the future, but I am only in the considering stage right now. It would mean refencing the property and probably getting a good dog to watch over the goats. Lots of coyotes here.

Deborah, your goats are gorgeous! And what a life you have- good luck in pursuring your rehab of the place.
I wanted to ask what "jungle fowl" are.

Interesting history on your land too. Well done!

Susan here. After travelling the world, living in a variety of countries, and working in many more, I have finally found the perfect place. I'm living in the rolling countryside of Belgium, and we've recently been fortunate enough to expand our property to 1 hectare (that's roughly 2 and a half acres for you non-metric types). Now we have 2 ponds, one stocked with Roach or Rudd fish. It's small, but then, so is Belgium... we have 3 dogs, 1 kitten - dumped on us, a bee hive (harvest is this weekend!), and the flock has expanded from 7 to 24 chickens. We are lucky to have 2 potable natural springs on the land so despite the drought this year, we can water without worry. We also have a little orchard with 5 sweet cherry trees, 1 sour cherry, 5 apple trees, 7 plum trees, 2 pear trees, and dotted around the property are 4 walnut trees, multiple hazelnuts all over the place, and 8 or 9 edible chestnut trees. The garden is becoming extensive with raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb (wine currently in production), growing asparagus from seed (first time this year, and so far so good - let you know in 2 years how it pans out), beans, parsnips, onions, leeks, various types of lettuce, fennel bulb, spring onions, snow peas, radishes, and a wide range of herbs.

We have managed to do all this while renovating the delapidated farmhouse and reclaiming the land from the weeds left to go unchecked for 15 - 20 years, all in our spare time. And in only 3 years. Hmmmm... sounds impressive when you do this kind of review because it sometimes seems like we aren't actually getting anywhere.

BTW, learned lots from Jellyman in the Fruits and Orchards forum regarding pruning, planting, and all sorts for our wee orchard and soft fruits. Learned even more from VelvetSparrow who is a fantastic source of advice about all things chicken. Basilmom has been a great person to meet and "talk" to - thanks to this forum, I wouldn't have had the opportunity otherwise to meet her. And I enjoy Susan/Silvervista's tales of her hectic and jam-packed life, chuckled over Old Hazza's attempts to bait people about his "a-woman's-place" views and EU & US digs, and followed the trials and tribulations of many. There are so many others that I enjoy hearing about too, but lately I've found little time to post here - and actually little inclination. Is it the tone of the board has changed since it has been sold, or is it the tone of some of the posts, or is it just me...? I don't know... I may just lurk for awhile to see if things change, and if not, this may be "tot ziens". Unless some of you do decide to head over here for a visit - we are thinking of starting up a B&B once we retire - but the rooms are ready now.

ladybug1: I've tried livestock guardian dogs and they can be worse pests than the coyotes. The Komondor chased and bit the goats and the Pyrenees/Maremma cross was too effective. He was a vigilant guardian who patrolled relentlessly, but if he found a predator he'd chase it cross-country. Yup, you need good fences! I found the simplest deterrant to coyotes was to install a high pressure sodium vapor security light rented from the power company for the barnyard area where the goats sleep.

Poochella: Jungle fowl are fighting cocks; the males have beautiful plumage. A neighbor gave me an immature male and a few hens and said he wouldn't harm birds he was raised with, but he was wrong. When the cock got older and killed a couple of my laying hens I gave them away.

Sandi here, quite new to GW. Live on 28 acres at the very edge of Victoria County, Texas, near the tiny (miniscule) town of Meyersville. We have 10 mixed breed (Boer, Spanish, Nubian) goats, 2 horses (basically pasture pets), 11 chickens (9 hens, 2 roos, several different kinds), 1 mama cat, 2 kittens, & 1 barbados ram we rescued from the animal pound. That was a dumb move for sure! He will most likely find his way to the auction soon. Also have an organic garden, pretty much kaput for now. Good thing too, I'm tired of picking, peeling, chopping, canning, preserving, freezing, etc... Put up 70 qts dill pickles, 5 gallons ice box bread & butters, then gallons & gallons of picante sauce, vegetable soup, tomato sauce, homemade Rotel. Have enough tomatoes, peppers & onions in freezer to make 5 1/2 more gallons of picante. Had to change the "decor" in our bedroom to a country canning theme. Simply no where else to put all that bounty. Oh yes, almost forgot about all the grape jelly & fig preserves, plenty of that to go around too!
We moved here @ 1 yr ago after spending our lives in town. DH is 51, me 48.... nope, not afraid to tell.... I was raised by Depression babies so already had all the canning, freezing, preserving skills. DH fell in love with the tractor immediately so we're coming together out here nicely. I guess!
I spend most of my time on GW just lurking, have learned much. Split my lurking time between here, organic gardening and homesteading. And no, Susan, it's not you. The tone on many of the posts has changed and not always the truly friendly, helpful tone I read of the past. Keep hoping to see it return tho.
Peace to all!
Sandi

Kent here. My wife and I live in N.E. Kansas on 70 acres which we have owned for just 1 years. I lived most all of my life in central Kansas. I have been farming most all of my life except for a short while before settling where we are now. I am attempting to farm my acreage with horses. I have been struggling putting together a line of machinery to use this first year without the use of a tractor. I have just finished haying 10 acres of oat hay and 13 acres of brome. I have just posted on the farm forum a couple times, but log on almost daily to keep up with you all.

Hi. :)
I'm mostly a newby. I live near Boise, Idaho. I think I've only been here a couple of months but I've gathered almost a lifetime full of great info that I really needed. People here are just wonderful. I'm so impressed with this site! They are helpful and KIND here!
I now live in cow town Suburbia. The suburbs came and surrounded me as fast as the next door farmer could sell his land with beautiful crops. Now I'm inside the city limits and maybe someday someone will complain about my chickens, but I'll just keep on having them. :)
I have only 6 lap chickens. They're Buff Orphingtons's and Barred Rocks. I used to have 25 of different varieties. They were the one's I've already mentioned and White Rocks, Rhode Island Red's. Silver Laced Wyndott's (sp???), along with 2 little fancy Japanese Bantams. Can't remember what breed those were though. Very, very pretty and friendly. When I'm outside working I usually carry one chicken under my arm, just to keep them friendly.
I also have 2 accidental ducks who I am in LOVE with, 3 lazy cats, and two dogs. I want a horse in the worst way, but my hubby says, "NO WAY. You'll just keep it in the house!" Depends how lonely I get, I suppose. :)
Glad you're here! :)
Maggie chickenmama1

PoohBear, what a wonderful idea! It's great. It makes you and your place more "known" to the rest of us. I'd love to try something like that too, but don't have a clue.... I do have a handy dandy book titled "How to Do Everything with Your iMac." Well... Maybe someday... I also have "Mac OS X for Dummies." Well... Maybe someday.... :)
Maggie chickenmama1

May I say I am glad you are all here, but I am especially glad that those with lots of experience are still here. You know who you are. You are the ones always answering the questions. I'm glad your still around too, Old MacDonald. You were so quiet, I thought we might have lost you too.

Strudel, I just don't know how you have done everything you do and work like you two work. It just amazes me. I just barely keep my 30 acres here up and don't do much of anything on the other 30 down the road (good thing the neighbor wants to run his cattle on it and bushhogs it). If I didn't have 6 weeks off in the summer I wouldn't get anything done around here.

Poochella - Sorry not to answer sooner... lots of company these past few days and not much time to come here. "Moggie" is affectionate British slang for housecat - the kind without a fancy pedigree. I kind of latched onto the word because I love the illiteration of "Maggie's Moggie". Our Marilla certainly believes she rules the house... and I think she is right. She has us well trained. LOL.

The hubby and I have 4 acres in N. Indiana, near the amish country. I have several breeds of chinckens , mostly exotics like Yokohamas and Spitzhauben , call ducks, large ducks, and turkeys, 6 dogs and 4 cats and 5 fish tanks..shew! I work at an exotic animal sanctuary "lions and tigers and bears ..oh my!> and a tropical fish store. Working on talking the hubby into another horse but he is not so keen on them as he saw me take a rough fall from a half broke mustang I had... the day after Christopher Reeve was paralyzed ...and now thinks all equines over 36 inches tall are death machines. I hand feed tigers but he wont let me have a horse..... SIGH Maybe a mini horse and cart wouldnt be tooo bad.

Brug here, on our hobby farm of 8 acres, 4 cleared, 4 in woods with a stream, about 75 miles from the Gulf Coast.

We have 3 Australorp hens, one mixed-breed rooster, 6 little chicks, 6 big dogs (fenced), 2 Flemish Giant rabbits, one pet mouse. That's about all we have time/money for right now, critter-wise.

My interest is wild edibles and landscaping with native plants. Favorite country-type hobby is walking the unmowed meadow and into the woods and finding/identifying plants and trees. And killing the foreign invasive stuff.

What fun reading all these posts!Mary here, from MN. we live an hour north of Mpls, and our backyard has a view of Wisconsin.My family consists of:husband, 2 kids(ages 15 & 11), 3 dogs, many cats,2 horses, one mini donkey and revolving amounts of poultry. The kids are involved in showing chickens and pigeons in 4H and now FFA. The pigeons are our new obsession, I recommend it to any chicken lover!
About 2 years ago many of you helped me with the severe foundering of my horse, Allis. She had a low thyroid, and was pretty fat. Well, to make a long story short, she has completely recovered, and is moving to a new home next week. I have since bought a young horse I am training.Wish me luck, I have never trained one before!

Frieda here...I would be terrified to see Bill's slug farm but, he sure has a cool place!
Nice looking goats there, Deborah!
I live in N.Central Illinois in the middle of corn country.

Aloha,

It's Cathy here, been checking in with GW for a couple years but just lately (under a year?) with the Farm Life Forum.

Our house is rather small and old (built in 1911) and is currently under renovation. Living in a house while renovating isn't exactly the best way to go about it. We are off the grid and have a photovoltaic system to make electricity although we do have county water. We do have indoor plumbing (sort of) although for some reason there's no closets or hallways. Very odd but probably typical of old houses.

There is just about half an acre so it is more of a garden than a farm. Tropical, though, so it stays productive all year. We don't really have official "seasons" so many of the plants are permanent and we just harvest when the fruit is ripe. There are coffee, peach, apple, macadamia nut, papaya, surinam cherry, avocado and banana trees. Grapes, lillikoi (passion fruit) and tomatoe vines. Also sweet potatoes, taro, pineapples, horseradish, herbs, tea and other assorted edibles here and there. Mostly I just plant enough to feed us and a few neighbors and don't have enough for resale. I do manage to sell enough plants to pay for the new plants I buy with a bit left over but not enough to actually live on.

Two border collies, a dozen chickens (more or less depending on who crows), the cat, bees and some fish (just freshwater aquariums) are our "livestock". (Do wild pigs count as livestock?) I'd like a couple sheep to keep the grass short, but I don't think there is quite enough room for them. Lots of our neighbors have sheep, though as well as cows, so perhaps I could borrow several sometime and see if we have enough room for full time sheep.

DH teaches at the local highschool and I either do drafting or repair clocks more or less depending on whether there is power for the computer or unless I get stuck in a book.

'Taint much, but it's comfy.

A hui hou,
Cathy

What a wonderful idea this was. I have loved reading all the posts and learning about each of you. I am a lurker mainly because I didn't think I qualified for this forum since we don't farm. But we do have an acre and a half in an semi-rural area that supports our 31 year old Morgan horse (have had him since he was 10). Currently he's a lawn ornament as he has cataracts in both eyes so I have not taken him off the property much. Other than that and losing a few teeth, he is doing great. We have concored grapes and peach trees. Love to garden, mostly have shade gardens with ferns and hostas. Biggest and favorite garden is our pond. I really am into hardy water lilies. Have 3 neutered barn cats, oldest one died at 21 a couple of years ago. In the house we have 3 Cornish Rex cats and our dogs. Been breeding and showing Great Danes since 1963; have bred over 28 AKC champions and some that finished in other countries. WE owner handled quite a few of them. My vet and I are joined at the hip, too. All these years in dogs have given me knowledge that I would love to share if anyone ever needs help with anything dog related. Husband is an AKC licensed judge.

Caren, thanks so much for starting this wonderful post.

Jan2

Fairly new here. Live on 50 acres near Kansas City. We have 35 acres in alfalfa/brome for harvest. The remainder is in pasture for +- 12 Gelbvieh black cows. General construction supports my farm hobby. I also plant 6 or so commercial landscaping jobs a year for exercise and sanity. I grew up working for a fairly large dairy farm and majored in horticulture in college. Love the open honesty of this site. Rick

ChickenMama, doing those pictures was easy and fun to me.
I used plain old MS Paint to combine the pictures from my camera.
You probably have a similar program for your Mac computer.

I should have also posted the address to our family homepage.
You can see pictures of us.
Pooh's Family Website

Pooh Bear

Hi I'm Ann I've been missing lately from the forum due to computer problems and being alittle too busy to get it fixed til now.
I have 100 acres ,40 workable,the rest is wooded,also a large pond that is stream feed most of the year.
I keep a 2 acre garden that has really suffered this year due to this crazy heat and very little rain.I own about 120 hens,a few roo's,ducks,2 pigs,1 calf,6 goats,only 4 sheep,a pair of breeding turkeys,only 1 baby turkey so far,13 white doves,2 dogs,3 house cats and many barn cats.I'm sure next spring my animals will have doubled in numbers.
I'm a stay at home mom,but because my husband lives and works in the city 5 days a week I'm the keeper of all here.At least work wise.Lol!

Hi I'm Audrey. Got into chickens a few years ago and this forum has helped me tremendously. I have a backyard egg business (gives me an excuse for acquiring more chickens). As you can guess, I barely break even, but as I said it's just an excuse (and a tax deduction). Anyway, I have somewhere around 150 chickens, 15 turkeys, 10 guineas, 4 dogs, 12 cats, 7 potbellied pigs, a cockatoo, an african grey and a partridge in a pear tree.

I got the grey a few years ago from some drunken fool. Unfortunately the bird has a bad habit of screaming whoo-hoo at the top of his lungs, followed by a hearty "praise the lord." The first time I heard him say it, I was eating breakfast. Needless to say, I almost choked! He also says lots of other lovely stuff from his former home. Lesson of the day - never give away a bird that mimics well.

Oh my, I'm afraid I would go for a front row ticket to hear the African Grey cry "whoo hoo, Praise the Lord," as well as the skunk rescue mentioned elsewhere on this forum.

Thanks for those answers on 'Jungle fowl' and 'moggies.' I learn something here every time I visit.

I agree, it's nice to hear where everyone is and what occupies their efforts in this great land.

I am a newbie. Started visiting the website in May 2005.Don't really live on a farm, live in the burbs, but found this forum when searching for information on mallard ducks. Had these two cuties take up in my yard during my spring vacation. They were swimming in the pool, laying on my raft, sitting on the ground at the foot of my lounge chair with me in it. All sorts of crazy things. Then they made a nest at my house right outside my bedroom glass door. I had no idea how to care for them or what their needs were. They had nine ducklings and only two left due to hawks. Really disappointed about that and wish I would have not been so ignorant of the sneaky, persistent and skillful hunting of hawks. The two are now seven weeks old and doing fine with their mother. Daddy duck over every once in awhile.
Also like flowers,plants, any kind of wildlife. Live in northeast Florida. The people on this forum are very nice and helpful and I enjoy reading about different topics. Still sinking in that I have some wild ducks living in my backyard but it is truly a joy to have their company.They are too funny and my husband and I have gotten very attached.
Belinda

Wow- we really run a large gamut here, eh?

I'm Jami, live in Monroe, Washington about 40 miles NE of Seattle. We bought 5.5 acres three years ago for our two horses (my wonderful Missouri Fox Trotter and DH's "typical" quarter horse *sigh*), and then started wondering about all of the "space" the horses don't use. Started with two goats, now up to 6 (4 does, 1 pygmy whether and the cutest sweetest buck you've ever met ~3 years old), three hens one of which has escaped but that's another post, 4 blue heelers, one outdoor kitty, a snake, gold fish and we're getting our rabbits this weekend. I also garden, have a tiny "orchard" and am learning holistic people/animal care and herbal wild crafting. Preserving and finding edible wild or cultivated food is fascinating to me- I now make a mean nettle pesto! Our eventual goal is to get 50 acres and build a sustainable farm, this one is our "practice" farm. I like the idea of being self-sufficient though- its comforting to know how to do things for yourself isn't it? DH and I both work full time to support our mini-farm; he's a chemist and I'm an environmental consultant. Good to meet you all!

This old roll call was on the last page of the archives, so I thought I'd bump it to the front before it went into cyber oblivian.

Just preserving a bit of history.

How many of these names still lurk?

This "Roll Call" was roughly a year before I came on board. Looks like from the post...a lot of people have moved on...

Brian

Lynette & Rj checking in from Pac NW, where we've gotten a brief repreive from the constant rain this week and in its place, bitter cold temperatures and frozen hoses. Our geese are NOT happy!

We have 4 Indian Runner ducks, 2 Buff O hens (they're just the best!), 3 Muscovies, 7 geese, I can't remember how many rabbits, a dog and a cat. We'd like to add goats next, but one step at a time.

In addition to our menagerie, we both have green thumbs. RJ took over the gardening this past summer and it was equally as bountiful as our first year (though we give credit to our rabbits for their 'contribution').

This is our second year of 'farming' though we both work to support the mortgage on our stratospherically priced 4.5 acres. Property is really REALLY expensive around here!

We surpassed two hurdles this past year toward our goal of self sufficiency. First, we took on the rough task of learning to process our own meat. Difficult, but comes with its own quiet rewards. Second, we learned to hay-out by hand, our own tiny pasture, (yes, with a scythe and a rake) and plan to continue growing as much food as we can for our animals, as well as ourselves.

Not bad for two middle agers!

LF RJ

Ashlie here in extreme north-central Arkansas. Hubby and I, both in our early 30's, are both native Ozarkers from opposite ends (he NE Ark, and me from SW Mo), and we've recently decided to make our home smack in the middle between our families on 20 acres. Bought the house and land this summer - remodeled the house, and we're slowly building up the rest of the acerage. My dept. is chickens, garden, and bees while hubby mends the existing fences for his sheep and pigs which are on the horizon.

So far we have no chickens (will order this spring), but do have three dogs (a 3-legged Lab, a previously abandoned Wiemereiner, and a pretty little rabbit-running beagle), three cats (two out, one in), and a pet corn snake who lives in a terrarium.

We're really looking forward to spending our lives here. We have no kids as of yet, but when it's time for them we want them growing up as we did...on small farms, being able to eat from the garden, picking fresh blackberries and gooseberries, and running the woods like kids should.

I own four acres a 45 minute drive north of Halifax,Nova Scotia.It was my intention to begin building last summer but an over abundance of rain and rotten luck saw me putting the house on hold.I intend to resume the building this spring/summer.I've been a member for a while,not sure how long really,but the last three years have been interesting to say the least.I sold the place I was in and moved.The intent being to have a larger area in which to keep my animals.I still have the land:)
I am once again posting as often as I can.I now use a library computer as mine is in storage for the winter.A lot of my time is taken up by work and on my afternoons off I come here and either post or lurk.Sherry

hi ya'll my name is sandra, i have lurked and sometimes posted but not regularly on here, for many years. we live in north central Texas, and have all our lives, we (my husband and i)raise boer goats, some registered some not, and bottle calves here at home and have a farm where we run our cattle on. we raise a garden,and getting ready to get a chicken coop built, we stay busy with rent houses, the farm, here at home, and in the hay fields in the summer, but the most fun is playing and being with our 4 year old grandson..

Hi. I'm new to this forum, but a number of years ago, while in the Boise area, was an active participant in the water gardening section. In my "new life," I reside near Ellensburg, WA, and have a small, start-up herd of American British White Park cattle.

We raised and successfully marketed a couple of beef steers this year, but there is always much to learn!

Kathie