Starting Our Farm – The Cliff Notes Version
I’ve been contemplating what direction this blog should take. Should I write about the joys and challenges of starting a new farm? Rural living? Raising fiber-producing animals? Living in a fixer-upper? Our hobbies – spinning, knitting, crocheting (Beth), woodturning (Brett & Ryan), and chopping things down (Ryan)? I think it will be a combination of all these things and more.
We moved from a suburban neighborhood in PA to a rural wooded property in TN in August 2007. Seven months after we moved, we acquired our first farm animals: 2 free bottle baby pigs. We kept them in an extra large dog crate in our house for the first couple of weeks until we finished building an outside pen. It was a little messy, but they didn’t start to stink until we weaned them off the bottle and put them on pig food. Fortunately, that was about the same time we moved them outside.
Since then, we’ve added chickens, ducks, angora rabbits, cashmere goats, llamas, sheep, and dogs to the farm. I have many stories to tell about our adventures to date, and I look forward to the adventures yet to come.
I didn’t know Brett could turn wood. We need some quarter round moulding made to match the house and no one in the area can do it.
I didn’t know Brett could turn wood. We need some quarter round moulding made to match the house and no one in the area can do it.
He can turn wood, and he has a lathe. We just don’t have a place for him to do it yet. We plan to turn the old store into a wood shop for him and a fiber studio for me. So many projects, so little time…
He can turn wood, and he has a lathe. We just don’t have a place for him to do it yet. We plan to turn the old store into a wood shop for him and a fiber studio for me. So many projects, so little time…