At the goat festival in Perryville, AR last summer.
We got goats because my husband is lactose intolerant and I always wanted them.
Lucy in 2011.
We moved to Arkansas in 2010 from SW Florida – bought property and created a farm. Neither of us or our families were “farm” people but I’ve always been an animal lover and have wanted the Homestead life.
With her donkey, Rudy Vallentino in 2011.
We have an abundance of milk so – cheese!! One goat turned into several, more cheese supplies, a milk room, you know it mushrooms…
Cheese press made from our “Off the Wall Press Plans“
When the milk flows, I get the pigs – great for excess, whey and mistakes. We have the best tasting bacon!!
I still have a lot to learn with cheese but I keep trying. This week I made a cheddar and mixed in diced sun dried tomatoes and messing with vegetable ash and soft cheese. Not sure of results yet.
Cheddar with black oil cured olive.
We still have outside jobs off the farm – I work in the radiology department of the local hospital as an X-ray tech and also at a local restaurant (American Artisans) and my husband is a nurse at a nursing home.
Still marvel though at making a pizza with our own sauce, garden veggies and my own cheese!
Salad bar.
It is very satisfying to go into the root cellar and see lined up mason jars with the fruit of your labor, wheels of cheese in the “cave” and a freezer full of homegrown meat.
blue starting its aging.
Right now, I am milking 4 goats, 3 Oberhaslis and an Alpine.
Sweet Pea looking more than ready to be a mama in January.
I also have a herd of meat goats (around 20), 2 horses, a donkey, not sure how many chickens, 2 Duroc pigs and will be adding a miniature Jersey May 3rd. She is a first time freshener so I’ll be teaching her (and me!) about milking. She is due to calf in September.
Chicks from a Fog Horn Leg Horn rooster.
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Doing chores in the morning.
My long range goal for cheese is to make a mild, slice-able everyday cheese that will be my go-to recipe that I can say “boy that’s just perfect!” I would also like to attend a workshop one day and visit an artisan cheese dairy to see if that will be my retirement job!
With her grandson, Maddox a year ago.
