Hectic Holidays

I have been extremely slack in updating the blog since my last post. Between Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and now gearing up for Christmas......honestly, there just hasn't been time. I'm hoping that, after the first of the year, I will do better and have lots of good and exciting things to talk about.

As far as the farm, we recently took our two dairy goats to FLG Farms in Taylorsville to have them bred. Hopefully, we will have some sweet furry little baby Nigies in the early Spring. We are crossing our fingers! Speaking of FLG Farms, if you're into natural health and beauty products, you should definitely check out their website. Ms. Lee Ann makes the most wonderful goats milk products I have ever used. My latest addiction is her Peppermint Lip Balm. It's LUSCIOUS!!!! You can learn all about Lee Ann, her products, and her awesome farm HERE.

These cooler months and less daylight hours have done a number on our chicken girlies. They have been through a pretty rough molt and are finally getting their pretty feathers back in and they have been protesting lately and our egg production had pretty much come to a stand still. The hubby was having conversations with them about visits to KFC or a hot tub stint in the stew pot. We refuse to buy store bought eggs anymore! Ha Ha. All jokes aside....we added a light to the coop to increase their daylight exposure and.....VOILA....egg production is slowly increasing. All is right with the world. :)

I also want to share with you all our most recent family pictures that we had done for our family Christmas card. We hope you enjoy them. They were alot of fun to make. As always, thank you all for your support to our family, our blog, and our beginning farm venture. We are still learning and have a ways to go but it's been a wonderful experience. We wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Rick, Audra, Drew, and Addi Ellis

Try and Try Again

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston Churchill

 “You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. To the best you can do everyday.”
― Jason Mraz

Well.....what started off as a great vision to expand the farm and have an increase in produce for the Fall....failed miserably. 1600 plants....GONE...thanks to the deer, rabbits, and other critters who thought we had laid out a buffet for them. Rick worked so hard and we are very disappointed.

Looks like we will back up, regroup, and try again. Ya live and learn.

We are still determined to make a go of this family farm and eventually turn it into a full time business for Rick. It's what makes him happy. And I'm all for that.

Next up on the plan is breeding the dairy goats, which will be a first for us. Cocoa came to us already pregnant, which was a learning experience for us and that was a good thing. We have found a wonderful family in Taylorsville, NC who also raises Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. We are sending Cocoa and Mandy away to "sleep away camp" for the weekend in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, fingers crossed, they will come back pregnant so that we can have some Spring babies on the farm.

The Ferguson family, specifically Lee Ann, has been very helpful to me in answering my thousands of questions, not only about breeding specifics and contract details but I found out through the world of Facebook, that Lee Ann makes soap and other beauty products from her goats milk. You can see her products here. She has inspired me! I want to try my hand at soap making. I have purchased a beginner soap making kit and frozen some of Cocoa's milk.

Can't wait to see if this may turn into a little side business for me! I've had lots of local folks asking if I will be making goats milk soap so, apparently there is a demand for it.

The chickens are doing well. We've been dealing with the change in seasons which means the birds are losing their feathers (molting) and preparing to grow back new ones. This also means a decrease in egg production but we are still getting 2-3 eggs a day. I'm always on the lookout for new birds. We recently added another "Easter egger" (colored egg layer) and got our first Polish who I fittingly call "Tina Turner". You can see why....HaHa

 Rick and I are also discussing fencing off another smaller area of our property on the backside and purchasing 2-3 piglets to raise for meat for our family. I'm quite excited about this. We love some bacon up in our house. LOL I just have to keep in mind they are pets and I can't name them. If you know me at all, this will be hard.

So that's about it as far as an update for what we are up to. Busy and always and never a dull moment with the Ellis'. But we're having fun and we're doing it together. And that's what's important.

Til next time......................

Keeping The Family Tradition Alive

Wow! That's all I can say! We have had a whirlwind of a week at the farm (in addition to school starting back and the stress of having a middle schooler and a kindergartener in the mix). This week marked the start of molasses season at Ellis Farms. Harvest time came two weeks early due to all the rain we've had so by the end of last week, it was time to begin harvesting our sorghum cane. On Friday, we had the pleasure of a visit by a reporter and a photographer from The Lincoln Times News, our local newspaper. They wanted to do a story on our molasses and the history of the farm. They took some great pictures and wrote an absolutely wonderful story about the Ellis family farm. You can read it here. We aren't finished cooking yet. Our first batch yielded just over 16 gallons. We are cooking the second batch this coming Saturday and will likely have two more batches after that. We love visitors, so if you want to come see this process, feel free to come on by. You can have some molasses of your very own for $8 a quart. Just stop by the farm.

Another very cool thing that's happened is that we were contact yesterday by a Chef who currently operates a restaurant in Charlotte, NC. They are in the process of starting a new restaurant in Lincolnton that will feature locally grown goods on their menu. They want to purchase molasses from us! Check out their Facebook page Farmer Baker Sausage Maker. We are so excited about the possibility of our molasses being used in a local restaurant. Who knows where this could lead! I'm game for just about anything! Til next time.....

It's Still Blazing Hot....But We're Planning For Fall!

Folks are still taking summer vacations and enjoying the warm weather, but at our place.....we are planning and planting....for our first Fall crop. We hope to have red cabbage, green cabbage, broccoli, kale, lettuce, spinach, and turnips.We are expanding into our upper field and hope to have 200-300 plants going of each variety. We have begun working on seed trays this week and we are crossing our fingers that all goes well to start these plants.

Our newest hen, a Dark Brahma that our daughter named Bootsie, has been at the farm almost two weeks. She is making herself at home and getting to know her new flock family.

The next "big" family project coming up at the end of the month is harvesting the sorghum cane and continuing on with the Ellis family tradition of making molasses. The family has made molasses in Lincoln County for over 75 years. Last year, they made over 60 gallons. The family tradition and ways of harvesting and cooking have been passed down from generation to generation. It's an interesting process to see in person. We will be cutting around the end of the month. If you're in for a road trip and want to see the molasses being made, we'd love to have you.

Rainy Days On The Homestead

I'd never have thought I'd ever say this...but I'm ready for a drought. This extremely rainy summer has caused a fiasco here on the farm and in my hometown in general. My goats are ticked because they hate the rain, which forces them into the barn most days....making a very stinky place in a quick way. The chickens tend to hang in there with them so the stink factor multiplies. All this means more frequent cleanouts of the shavings in the barn so that everyone stays healthy. Another result of this overabundance of rain is a decrease in egg production. I'm hearing from some of my chicken friends that they are seeing this as well. Sadly, our garden has also been affected by the rain and our output has been much less than we originally planned for. I guess you live and learn. But we are fortunate for what we've been able to do this first year.

This month has been nothing short of nuts. It's the only way to describe it. I performed my first surgery on an injured chicken. Ruby, one of our Red Cuckoo Orpingtons, developed Bumblefoot. All I can say is THANK GOD for the Livestock Production class I've been taking and this wonderful blog I follow The Chicken Chick. If it weren't for the step-by-step instructions, we'd never have been able to do this. My kitchen island looked like a murder scene but we did it. Miss Ruby is back to the coop with her buddies and healing well.

Sadly, we lost one of our favorites recently. I came home from work to find Big Bertha dead between the coop and the barn. We know she was an older bird. She had been in good health and we hadn't noticed anything odd with her. She was one of our favorites who loved to eat peanuts from your hand. We will will miss her dearly.

This past weekend, the western end of Lincoln County that I call home, suffered a major flash flood. Several roads were under water, livestock was washed away, and homes and basements were flooded. It was truly devastating to our small town. Thankfully, Ellis Farm was unscathed in the mess. We do have a creek that runs adjacent to the area where the chickens and goats are. I checked on them periodically all weekend. We were blessed to have no damages when so many others can't say that. They continue to be in our prayers.

On a brighter note, we are bringing a new chicken home this afternoon. She's a year old Dark Brahma. A "big 'ol girl" as we say. We have a juvenile Buff Brahma that we recently brought to the farm and I've fallen in love with the breed. We are excited to have her. Peace, Love, and Hugs......Til next time......

Livestock Production 101

This summer I've been doing something I swore was done and over with in 2003 when I finished my Masters degree. I went back to school. But this time it's much more fun! Early in the Spring, I discovered that Western Piedmont Community College in Morganton, NC was offering a short course on Livestock Production. The cost of the class was relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. The course consists of 4 Saturdays, spread throughout the Summer where they teach you all you need to know about the three common "small farm" livestock options and how to use these animals to live off the land. The last Saturday is dedicated to teaching you basic veterinary care. We decided that it would be good to invest $120 to take this class so that I could soak up as much info as possible. A friend of mine is taking the class also. I've had one class so far...SHEEP 101...which was pretty interesting. We don't have sheep on our farm, but I learned that sheep and goats are pretty similar in terms of their care.

Western Piedmont has its own small self-sustaining farm on campus, which I found to be very cool. They sheer the sheep and process the wool and sell it. The money goes back to the campus. The goats are Nubian dairy goats, which have beautiful faces and awesome floppy ears. The goats on the campus farm are very friendly and love to be petted. They have a wonderful set up and I am learning a great deal already. This coming Saturday is GOAT 101 followed by CHICKEN 101 in a couple of weeks. The vet care day is in August. I'm glad that I decided to go back to school for some learnin' that is actually fun and will benefit us on our family farm. Speaking of dairy goats, By this week, I had accumulated enough goat milk- a little over 5 quarts to be exact and I made my first run of goat cheese. We decided to start with an easy recipe for making chevre' which is a mild and creamy cheese, almost like what most know as cream cheese. Once the cheese is made, you can add flavors or spices to make it whatever you wish. It can be kept in the fridge for up to two weeks or, if left plain, you can freeze it for up to 6 months. When you decide to use it, you just thaw it out and add your spices then. Each batch makes about two lbs. of goat cheese.

I'm still learning, so this is a trial and error thing for me. This first batch I thought was too rubbery, but we salvaged it by running it through the blender and adding a little more milk to it, turning it into basically a spread. I split our batch into two 1 lb portions. I added spices and made a batch of garlic dill and a batch of spinach & herb.

Changes

Life at our house has been nothing short of crazed lately, which is why I haven't done much blogging. Our garden has exploded with veggies and I'm trying to can, pickle, or sell to make room for more.

Cocoa kidded on the 20th with a gorgeous buckling, who I think looks like a little cow.

In only a week, we have found a buyer for him. They specifically requested a bottle baby so at a week old, he is leaving us today to travel to his new home in the NC Mountains. We also sold all of the Silkie chicks that we hatched out for Miss Mudpie, brought in 3 more hens, one being a special needs crossbeaked Americauna. And tomorrow, we are adopting a special needs Manx kitty named Diamond, who will be our official farm cat. In the midst off all this, we managed to put in a new pool liner next door at my father-in-laws, just in time to help our youngest celebrate her 5th birthday. We are traveling to Black Mountain today to visit Round Mountain Creamery, NC's only Grade A Goat Dairy. I'm hoping to learn some tidbits of info to use with my dairy goats here. I'm off from my full time job all week and intend to relax a bit and spend time with my kiddos. Til next time.....

Trying To Catch My Breath

I'm trying to come up for air here but goodness it's hard!!! We've had so much going on at the farm and there is still so much to do. Some days I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm hard-headed and determined. I refused to say that I can't do something. So....where to start? These past few weeks since my last post have been non-stop. On top of family and farm life, I've started a new part time job at a Crisis/Detox facility, which is very different from my world of working with juvenile delinquents. I'm still adjusting, learning, and finding my way. On the farm, we have continued tending to our garden, which has begun giving us gifts.I enjoy going out to the garden after work each day to see how things have changed in such a short amount of time.

We have cut and baled hay and gotten it loaded into the barn loft. We will have to do it again in the fall. This provides the main food source for the goats and the rabbit. Considering it's free, that's an awesome thing. The kids were a huge help in the process and our oldest learned to drive the tractor while we loaded up the trailer with the bales in the field. He's learning that getting older means more responsibilities on the farm.

Given the increased number of animals on our homestead, we've begun learning some basic veterinary care that we can do ourselves at home versus taking the animals somewhere or calling a vet out to the house. You Tube is a wonderful learning tool in that regard....ie. giving a goat a vaccine, The hubby did it like a pro. Last night was treating the rabbit for ear mites. A week ago, it was a chicken who got pecked in the eye by another chicken. It's a never ending saga when you have farm animals.

We are prepping for Cocoa to have her babies (I swear there has to be more than one in there as big as she is.) I am assembling a birthing/kidding kit based on what I've gathered reading online, books, and from other goat owners.

We are very excited to have our first dairy goats born on the farm. Yesterday I ordered a Cheesemaker's kit from Hoegger Supply Company. It has everything that I need to get started. I'm anxious to learn to make goat cheese in different ways.

Now...on top of everything else we have going on, we did manage to have a little fun on the farm these last few weeks. We hosted a local photographer who came out to do family photo sessions. We had hay bales, tractors, the barn, and a rustic bench that were used as backdrops for some really great shots. You can check these out here Family Photo Sessions At Ellis Farms. Here is one of my favorites of us. We are planning to do this again in the Fall. I'm hoping we can make it a regular event. Til next time!

Getting Trashy On The Farm

Recently at Ellis Farms, we "acquired" a Rubbermaid tote full of worms and worm dirt. I say "acquired" because it was essentially given to us from the local 4-H Office. I have been involved in the 4-H program here since I was 5 years old, first as a 4-H'er then as a volunteer. I currently serve on the 4-H Advisory Board. At the last board meeting, I was asked, "Hey! Do you want our worms?" And I was like, "Huh?" It was then I was quickly educated on the world of Vermiculture. According to Wikipedia, "Vermicompost is the product or process of composting using various worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and other earthworms to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast. Vermicast, also called worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by an earthworm.^[1] These castings have been shown to contain reduced levels of contaminants and a higher saturation of nutrients than do organic materials before vermicomposting.^[2] Containing water-soluble nutrients, vermicompost is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.^[3] This process of producing vermicompost is called vermicomposting."

And so, this tote of worms made it's way to our upstairs office where, for the past few months, I have fed them veggie scraps and left them alone. Easiest pet you'll ever have! Haha

This past weekend, I decided the worms needed to make their way from the office to a REAL compost bin. So I did some quick research, finding a great helpful article Composing- A Guide To Making Compost At Home. Using scrap wood from the family sawmill, and in no more than an hour, our household compost bin was complete.

My plan, is to use the compost for planting flowers mainly, but I'm sure it will be used in the garden. It's a great way to make natural fertilizer from things that you'd normal throw out with the trash. The next thing I did was order a kitchen composter that will fit under the kitchen cabinet so I can collect the food scraps and then, when it's full, dump it into the outside bin. I found a cute one online for $19.00 plus free shipping at Hayneedle.

Rainwater Harvesting

Recently we began harvesting rainwater at Ellis Farms. Now....before you look into doing this at your own home or farm, make sure you are aware of what the law is in your particular area. In some states, it is illegal to harvest rainwater. In North Carolina, former Gov. Purdue signed a bill into law in 2009 which allowed residents here to be able to collect and use rainwater North Carolina To Allow Rainwater Harvesting (news article).
We were able to purchase five used 55-gallon barrels for $40 out of Rock Hill, SC from a posting on a farm sales site on Facebook. One barrel we re-purposed to hold feed for the goats and the rabbit and the rest we decided to use for a rainwater collection system. The system has now been installed at the back of the barn and we are using it as drinking water for the chickens, goats, and the rabbit. So far it's working well. We have had a huge amount of rain over the past several days, so we've been able to test it out and work out some of the kinks along the way.

The N.C. Cooperative Extension Service through N.C. State University has an good document with pictures, diagrams, and other helpful information if you are interested in doing something like this on your own homestead. Urban Waterways- Rainwater Harvesting: Guidance For Homeowners

What's Got Your Goat?

Wow! What an exciting weekend we have had at the farm! We welcomed Sophie and Ellie, three month old pygmy goats for our kiddos. And we started our dairy goat venture by bringing in Cocoa, a three year old Nigerian Dwarf. She is bred and due in July.
Within 30 minutes of being here, Sophie took off and busted right through the electric fence. She was so nervous and scared. Who could blame her since we took her from her Mama?! It took us almost an hour to get her contained and in the barn. Ellie is a little calmer. Our goal is to train them to be on leads. We are going to work with them every day so they can get used to us and not be afraid. Miss Cocoa has discovered all the green leafy goodies that she can handle. She does great on a lead but sure did take Drew for a ride when she first hit the pasture area. Hopefully, by the weekend, everyone can leave the barn for good and be comfortable in their new home.
We still have so much to learn, especially with Cocoa expecting her babies in July. I'm excited to milk her and learn to make different things with her milk. I'm nervous...but I gotta start somewhere and just get my feet wet.

Stopping To Take A Breath....Busy Times On The Farm

The past couple of weeks at Ellis Farms have been a whirlwind of activity. We are busy prepping our garden, bringing more chickens onto the farm, putting up cedar fencing and learning all about DAIRY GOATS! In about 3 weeks, we will be bringing a registered Nigerian Dwarf named Cocoa to the farm. She is pregnant, due in July. Our kids are super excited for these new additions. I'm self-educating myself and learning all I can about dairy goats before she gets here. Our goal is to milk her, help her raise her babies, and hopefully grow a dairy herd from there. I'd like to learn how to make cheese and soap once we get the hang of things.

 I have to brag on the hubby and my father-in-law. He has worked his rear off building the goat barn, putting up the fencing, and getting our garden ready. All that while working 40-50 hours a week at his full time job. He even built the most beautiful cedar gate leading to the chicken coop. I'm so proud of it. He did a wonderful job!

Our next goal, once the veggies get going is to sign up to be vendors at our local farmers market. I'm so excited about this!!! I think it will be fun dealing with the public in a very different want than I do during the "8-5". Stay tuned!

Growing Pains

Lately, as a parent, I look at myself and I think....What the hell are you doing? I hear from friends that it's normal to question yourself in terms of "Am I doing this right? Am I saying the right thing? Did I handle this correctly?" But sometimes, especially now, I feel like I walk around with a big DUNCE cap on my head.

Our oldest is 11. He starts middle school in 4 months. I AM NOT READY!!!!! He's my baby boy. Yes he hates when I refer to him as this (only at home, not in public). But that's how I feel. I'm not ready for him to grow up. I'm not ready for him to be exposed to what's coming. I am a control freak. I am self-diagnosed as OCD....haha. And I hate, with a passion, that I don't have control over this. I like him being naive. I like him not knowing about alot of things.

Drew has been a Cub Scout for the past two years. Last week, he "crossed over" to the Boy Scout program......a big ceremony to symbolize going from a boy to a man. Last week, the "sex" video was shown to the 5th graders so that was Drew's first exposure (or at least I prefer to think it was) to the topic in any great detail. That night, I went to him and talked to him about it. I asked him if he had any questions or if there was anything he wanted to talk to his Dad or I about. In typical boy fashion, his answer was "Nope". So now I'm left to wonder what the heck is going on in his head?

But...I'm realistic. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I'm scared. Deep down, I'm scared as hell for him and society as it stands now. Working with juvenile delinquents, I see and hear all kinds of things. I don't want my son to even remotely know what being a juvenile delinquent might be like. My niece started middle school this year and as a pre-teen female...it has flipped her for a loop!!!!

The changes are happening. I see it. His moods are bonkers. He's testing his limits with us more. Most days I want to kill him. 

I just pray that we can lead him in the right direction, help him to make the right choices, and pray to God that we don't screw up too bad.

      

Gettin' Our Veggie On

The last couple of weekends at Ellis Farms have been pretty busy. Since we both have full time jobs, the weekends are when we get the biggest chunk of work done on the farm. We've begun our gardening for the new season and planted out "cold ground" veggies. So far, we've done potatoes, cabbage, spinach, brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, red onion, and sweet onion. We also planted 3 blueberry bushes of different varieties. Looking forward to the harvest!