The winter that nearly wasn't

After basically months of 60 and 70 degree temperatures, winter finally decided to show up last night and dump a whole three inches of snow on the farm.

Three inches. I know! It's like snowpocalypse over here. But don't worry... because the ground is not cold at all, nearly all of the snow was gone by noon.

It's been a while since I've updated this blog and a proper catch-up is long overdue, but for the moment here quickly is our current situation:

I'm still running my own full time soap business that has steadily done well for eight years now.
Our herd of dairy goats is still going strong. Current count is 5 does (including Greta who is permanently retired due to her surgeries two years ago), 2 boys (our buck Tick and his buddy wether Arlo), and six babies. The kids are just approaching 3 weeks old and are all up for sale, going to new homes at 8 weeks.
The Boy still works full time outside of the farm and spends his evenings and weekends doing projects around here.
Farm improvements lately: All new pasture fencing, and expanded pasture areas. New mini-barn in the buck pasture. New mini-barn in the main doe pasture.
New work van!
And I'm sure several other things that I will think of later.

While this blog has been on a break of sorts, Instagram has not. Random snippets of life here on the farm are found there. (@BeamansFork) I'll be back soon with new blog updates from the farm.

For now it is time to pack for the market tomorrow and get a hot supper going. It is going to be 20 degrees tonight and after the non-existent winter we've had this year, I'm not looking forward to heading to the market at 6am. Oh well -- the heat and humidity will be here before we know it so I should enjoy the "cool" while it's here.

Hope all is well in your part of the world!

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Team Greta

Friday, February 9th started off as a normal day in the barn, but as I was doing chores and feeding the horses and goats, I quickly suspected that Greta, one of our La Mancha goats, was showing early signs of labor. It was her due day, so I wasn't surprised. I removed her from the herd and placed her into one of the three kidding stalls in our barn so that she could have some peace and quiet. Four hours later at 10:46am, she delivered two beautiful big twin boys. As per her normal (this is her third year with babies), she was quite proud of herself and insisted on showing them off to me nonstop. The twins were up and wobbling around in no time and Greta was a busy mom fussing over them. Saturday morning was uneventful and Greta and her twins were comfortable in their kidding stall, but by early afternoon, something wasn't right. Greta wasn't finishing her meals and she just seemed tired. I took her temperature at 3pm and it was normal -- 101.9 -- even though she

Walking In On The Unexpected

This past Saturday was going like any other -- I had just gotten home from selling soap at the local farmers market, my car full of the stock I brought back with me, I was a hot and sweaty mess, and ready to relax. It had been a busy week and an equally as busy market day and I had been looking forward to putting my aching feet up for a couple of hours of quiet time. I got out of my car and before I went inside the house, I remembered that the horses were in their stalls because severe storms had been threatening to blow through, but the weather was clearing and they could safely go out and stretch their legs for a few hours. I walked down the long aisle way of the barn to the stalls in the back where Pebbles was sticking her head over the gate watching me and quiet rustling noises were coming from Snow's stall. And that's when I saw it. Snow, our miniature mare, was facing the back of her stall, wobbling on her back end, and jerking her head rhythmically up in the air, almost

Here a chick, there a chick... and dealing with burn out.

After taking more than a year off from raising chicks, our first little fuzzy munchkins arrived last week via USPS from a hatchery in Iowa. I ordered them late last fall for their first 2017 delivery date, and instead of going with our usual production layer breeds, I opted for the rare breed section and pretty much just kinda sorted ordered two of everything. Looks like we will have an interesting flock this year but that's not really what I am here to talk about. Living on a farm of any size, especially with livestock, is a lot of work every single day. Goats, chickens and horses don't take holidays off and neither do you; you have the same morning, noon, and evening chores no matter if Santa is flying in or a hurricane is blowing through. Throw in elderly animals with special needs (we've got two horses well into their 30s and a blind dog with congestive heart failure), and you've got an additional element of care and attention on your list. Sometimes you ne

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