We live with our brood of six children on five acres an hour outside a big city at the very end of a country road.  One would probably call our little patch of land a hobby farm.  We have raised our own chickens and hogs for meat this past year.  Chickens?  Will totally do it again.  Hogs?  Um, probably not – tasty as can be but not sure we can manage them well enough!  We also have a flock of 70 laying hens and sell eggs to friends and family.  Nothing beats eggs from chickens who forage and eat good food.

Our biggest farm endeavor is maintaining a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats (and one special American Saanen dairy goat as well, just because we like her).  Come spring time you’ll find us in the kidding pens, snuggling newborn goats while we read or sitting by a milking stand.  The kids love 4-H and enjoy showing our animals at the county fairs during summer.  The best part of all this is we work hard and we work together.

Up at 6 AM listening to the morning songs from all the forest birds and the quiet hum of the milker, sitting with our 13 year old daughter on stools getting morning milking done is just about one of my favorite places to be.