We have a really fun weekend ahead of us! I’ve been looking forward to the Bluegrass festival for weeks! We hope that you will come out to see us at one of these great events:
Our little boy William was the first baby of 2014 and if you look at his baby picture you will see that he was born with a large one on his left side! We noticed this while cleaning him up after he was born and we knew at that moment that he was destined to stay on the farm. William has since been “wethered”… meaning he was castrated, and he keeps our herd sire (another addition to our farm in 2014) company so he doesn’t have to be alone. Goats are social animals and do not do well by themselves.
William’s dam is Hillary and his sire is Milo of Chribrydon Farm in Louisa, VA. His full sister is Chelsea.
William is extremely sweet. He immediately bonded with our son, Breckin. They spent the first couple months of William’s life endlessly playing in the baby goat pin, racing from one end to the other. William loved having someone to roll around with. As William got older and larger, they were able to play together less and less (something we warned Breckin would happen once William was bigger than him), but Breckin still loves to go and talk to him through the fence, or play with him while supervised.
Most people, including myself, when talking about a group of goats call them a herd, but the correct term is actually a tribe or trip. Even knowing this I’m not sure I could break the habit of calling them a herd!
In the last week we have continued to work on our goat milk soap laundry detergent. We have worked hard perfecting the amount of essential oil for each scent. I think we finally reached an amount that we are happy with. We are hoping to be able to start offering the detergent sometime in March.
In the past week we received our acceptance to the West End Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Mid-Week Farmers Market at Aw Shucks. Kevin will likely be the one manning the booth at both of these locations. Our spring and summer is starting to come together!
This weekend we worked on getting the soap room together. We have been building it for almost a year at this point and haven’t had a chance with our busy schedule to put any real time into it in the last 6 months or so. The soap company has lived in several rooms in our house. A large portion of our home has been cut off to our family for far too long! This weekend we got the room painted and within the next few days the floor is going in and cabinets are going up. It won’t be long until we will be moving in and we can have our house back!
The count down continues to the start of kidding season! Sonia now has a little over 3 weeks, Ruth has a little over 4, and Hillary has about 6 weeks. Tina is not due until June, so we are not considering her in this countdown. Hillary is already huge and is getting quite uncomfortable. I can’t wait to see how many she has!
Valentines day is this Saturday! Are you in need of a last minute Valentines gift? You’re in luck! We are in two locations this Saturday. Goat milk soaps make a great gift.
Last year I did a blog series that allowed our readers to get to know each member of our farm. Since the completion of that series the farm has grown significantly! New goats, new chickens, new cats… So, I figured it was time to meet the newest members!
We are starting out with our little girl Chelsea. She was born on our farm last year. Her dam is Hillary and her sire is Milo from Chribrydon Farms, located in Lousia, VA. She came from the first kidding of 2014. Her full brother is William.
Chelsea, with her fawn color, really stands out in our herd! When we dried her off after she was born I was shocked by her coloring. Both her mother and father are very dark. Chelsea has a wonderful, fun loving personality. Of all of the 2014 kids she is the one who plays around the most, leaping and running through the pastures. She is a full blown goofball!
By now I am sure you know that we are doing a 365 Project on Instagram – A Photo a Day from The Freckled Farm, but aside from the “photo of the day” that we are posting each day there are others that get posted… and because they aren’t the photograph chosen to represent that day they get left out of the month’s round up. There are some great images that get left out, so instead of just letting them fall through the cracks I decided to do a round-up of the “other” pictures each month. This way if you don’t have Instagram you aren’t missing out!
If you do have Instagram consider following us (@Thefreckledfarm)
After this Friday’s Fun Farm Fact you might want to thank the next goat you see…
It is a popular Ethiopian legend that goats discovered coffee! A goat herder noticed that his goats were especially energetic after eating the red berries off of the coffee shrub. The goat herder decided to try the berry himself. He had a reaction very similar to one that the goats had and coffee was born!
This has been the week of figuring out what our spring and summer is going to look like. We’ve been applying to farmers markets. Our plan going into the year was to be at five markets throughout the week and so far we have applied to a total of five. I have one more that I am considering. I should have a better idea what our farmers market schedule will look like in a few weeks and I will update the “Where to Buy” section of the website! We are also applying to several late winter and spring festivals.
Kidding season will soon be here! Sonia is due first, in a little over 4 weeks! Ruth is next, followed by Hillary later in the month. Tina is not due until June (assuming she is pregnant, we only bred her a week and a half ago). We will be starting to slowly increase their feed over the next few weeks to help prepare them for milk production. They will also be getting their CDT booster shots.
This is the time of year that things really start to pick up around the farm! The days are getting longer, egg production is picking up, the countdown to kidding has started, and we are getting days that are at least somewhat warm! The winter funk is starting to thaw!
Over the next few weekends we will be in multiple locations… Meaning lots of chances to pick up Valentines gifts and lots of fun events to attend! This weekend, February 7th, we will be two places:
I hope you come out to see us!