Crawdaddy

Jake, Asa and John were at the stream. Playing on the water's edge. Jake realized that something was in his boot. A tiny 2.5 inch crayfish had gotten in his boot. He wasn't too thrilled about that. The boys decided to keep it in a tin tub. I hope the poor thing lives. Asa likes to poke at it with a stick and watch it hop out of reach.
The current thinking with clearing the pasture is to rent a bush hog - if that's even possible. Maybe we could call a "landscaping" company to see if they offer some service like that. I found out that I need to check with the local EPA to see if there are regulations about having goats have direct access to the stream water. And to see if I need to be concerned about the goats drinking water out of that stream (with possible field run-off).
I haven't done any more clearing out of the goat barn. It's been difficult doing much of anything around the mill with both boys home all summer. They are very different boys with different opinions and ideas on what they like doing - and how to go about doing it. Jake started school today - and now I kind of have to feel my way into how Asa and I will spend our days together, just me and him. He usually seems to enjoy gardening and weeding with me, and going out the the mill. He loves exploring the outdoors just being outside - and so maybe I can get some work done out there with him as my "helper."
Here are my boys trying to feed the gigantic carp that are swimming in our stream. The fish seem completely uninterested in sliced turkey. But the guys keep trying.

Savage Pastures

Today I went out to the pasture to assess things. We are considering having a backhoe come and clear it all out. When we decided to buy the property, we had a nice pasture out there. By the time we moved in, it was practically a forest. Now it's just completely out of control. I can barely walk through to the stream. Treacherous.

Working on a Plan

This is a photo of directly outside of the barn. There is a lot of mill junk and debris that was left by the previous owner. That is all really heavy stuff. I'm not sure what I can do with it other than try to load it on a truck and drive it to a dump. Now all I have to do is buy a truck. And find a dump. I was able to do a bit more clearing out of the goat barn today. The mound of lumber is really overwhelming when I look at it.
It seems that after ten minutes of working in the mill, one of the boys is screaming for me. Asa always comes out with me, and then wanders back to the house after a short while. Then shouts for me soon thereafter. Then I have to go to the house, and usually am not able to get back out again the same day.
I came across some scraps of really old lumber that I can maybe make signs or other artwork out of. Same with lots of the mill parts. Found objects art. I am making a pile out of things that I can make art from on those days when I have some time.
I went to some good yard sales on Saturday. Found a wicker loveseat and matching table for a good price. John and I exchanged some furniture between the mill and the house. We are making progress with the living room. It is about three quarters of the way done. Once the house is done, I can put more focus on the barn and the pasture.

Goat Barn

This is one picture of the inside of the "goat barn". As you can see, there are lots of cinder blocks, and there's also tons of wood. I was able to work on it for about 20 minutes this morning with Asa. Then Asa touched this orangeish-red slug, and it stained his finger a bright orange, so we had to end our clean-up to go rinse off his finger (in case the slug had some toxic defense mechanism that he got on Asa). Then he told me that he didn't want to do clean-up anymore. So he went inside the house with Jake, and I began weeding the yard where ivy is growing on the house. I was able to work on that for about ten minutes before I heard the boys screaming at each other. I had to go break it up - which was relatively easy. We ate a bit of breakfast - canteloupe and waffles. We cleaned up the kitchen, played with Sadie the cat, and now the boys are watching some t.v. while I get a bit of blog time. Today I hope to make it by the spring to refill our water bottles. I'd also like to take the boys to the library, then to the pool. It's supposed to get to 90 degrees today - and it's already crazy-hot here in the house.

The Beginning

This blog is intended to chronicle the progress of the Smith Dairy Goat Farm and cheesemaking business. One day I may laugh at this bold statement. Hopefully not, though. Time will tell.
We have taken the first step in realizing my goat dreams. We, being my husband John, and me. Last winter we decided that we would move ahead and look for property that we could raise dairy goats on. We were living in Catonsville, MD at the time, which is a suburb of Baltimore.
We originally looked in the upstate New York area for farms. Our friends, Josh and Cherie live in Schoharie, NY and we thought that area was really beautiful. The land there was fairly inexpensive. We decided to instead set our sights on Pennsylvania so we could be close to Grammy & Granddad and John's sisters and other family.
We found this great house in York county that has a lot less acreage that we were expecting to buy, but we loved the house - the property includes a grain mill (no longer working) - and we told ourselves that the three acres will be enough for our small number of goats. We will be using a portion of the mill for a "barn", and there is decent pasture land, however that has a stream running through it, which seems to be posing a problem as far as pasturing the goats.
So. Now we have the land that is zoned to have farm animals on it. We have lots and lots of work to do to get ready to bring home the kids. We want to start with two or three. Break ourselves in. Learn how to live with and care for goats. Then work into the milking process. Then on to cheesemaking. Possibly expanding the herd. Selling cheeses. Making soap? We'll see what happens. Where the winds take us.
I think that the first goat-related project will be to clear out the "barn". The barn is located on the ground floor in the rear of the mill. The mill was originally built in 1866. It was a flour mill, now defunct. There was an addition made to the mill in the 1930's made of concrete blocks. Right now, it is full of wood scraps, old mill parts and tons of other miscellaneous junk. Lots of heavy junk that will be difficult to move. There isn't much natural light in that area either. I will need to come up with a solution to that problem as well. My goats will need more light!