The First Farm Feature: Jehovah Raah Farm

I think i would like to start featuring farms that are self-reliant, self-sufficient, old fashioned, or awesome. Just so people can see all the different degrees of it. SO today i will start with a personal favorite farm of mine, and once you see the pictures, perhaps you will see why. I just fell in love! However, in other news:

IT IS OFFICIAL!!
I have, in my possession, a Lundrum spinning wheel.
It all happened so fast!

I started out at Marcias house (the woman we bought are goats from) and it was a most marvelous time of fellowship and fiber! She had her barn all set up with product, got to see all the goats, meet some new folks and buy back some fleeces from my very own goats! It was incredibly eventful! Also, adorable. I had planned to swing by Jehovah Raah Farm after to pick up my wheel. This farm is owned by the woman who taught my beginning spinning class, Julie Wilson. However, she knows i live two hours away, and asked me to spend the night and threw in a free lesson! (WHOA!!! AWESOME!!!)

SO off i went to Jehovah Raah Farm in the incredibly heavy rain.
Let me just say...this place was AMAZING. The views, the animals, the farmhouse, the property, the people who own it....all amazing!

Let me tell you a bit about their farm and what they do. They have been shepherds since 1989. They started with large breed sheep and in '92, became the first North Carolinian owners of Shetland Sheep.

 These sheep are smaller, around 80-100 lbs, have sweet temperaments and usually kid twins. They also give excellent fiber in different grades of fineness, which make them excellent choices for handicrafters of all kinds.

They don't only have sheep though, they currently have about 20 alpaca, 6 or so llamas, several Scottish Highland Cattle, angora goats, turkeys, chickens, herd dogs, bees, pet dogs, angora bunnies,  barn cats, horses and daughters (not necessarily in that order). They sell fiber, beef, have been known to raise a pig or two, and sell Lundrum spinning wheels! What a place, right?! Here is some more eye candy:

Look up Jehovah Raah Farms on facebook. The post pictures, and are really fun to keep up with. Julie Wilson is an excellent person to ask spinning questions, and she is super knowledgeable.

I think I am really going to like this whole farm feature thing, do you like it so far? Leave a little feedback, ideas, whatever you want. If you have an NC farm or self-sufficiency you'd like me to feature, send me an email! feistyfarmtress@gmail.com

More pictures from the excursion are on Wooly Booger Farms' Facebook page. Just type in 'Wooly Booger Farm' in the search bar. I can assure you were the only one of those ;).

Happiness Is...

Sometimes, I think the universe knows our hearts better than we do. Times of strife, or pain, joy or elation, I think they all come when we can learn the most from them. Today, the natural soap company I work for had our booth at the Foothills Farmers Market. There was also the annual Arts on the Square event right nearby. After the Farmers Market, I walked through Arts on the Square.

I was elated to see so many upcyclers with art booths! Upcycling is something I just love. I came to a booth called Steel Mantis. She makes jewelry from old jewelry, skeleton keys, brooches, etc. She had a ton of awesome things, and I wish I had thought to take a photo of her booth! You can find her on Facebook under Kelly Ann Moore. The moment I walked up I was drawn to a delicate piece with a small skeleton key, some teal rosary beads, and a silver chain. She told me it was a conglomeration of pieces from different time periods. I forget now, what she said, but it just grabbed me! As a child, my grandparents front doors and their closets and rooms had skeleton keys in all of them, and I grew up catholic, going to church with them. They are both gone now, so it feels like I’ve found a little relic of my time with them. It was just what I needed to feel close to them.

In other news, the farm is running smoothly, were still anxiously awaiting the arrival of some new baby chicks, our garden is coming right along, and tomorrow, I will be getting my spinning wheel!! I can hardly wait. I will be traveling to Weaverville to attend the Art Safari, where I will visit with Marcia, the wonderful woman we bought our goats from, then spending the night at Jehovah Raah Farm, to get my spinning wheel, tour their farm, and have another spinning lesson! It is so wonderful to find your place in the world, so I encourage you, fellow travelers, to continue your journey until you find it, and follow your heart! You never know where you’ll end up. 

Landrum Steeple Chase

This weekend, I was invited to attend a steeple chase in Landrum, NC, by some of my very sweet farm friends. Since I've never been to a horse race, i though it would be fun! I tried to take a lot of pictures so i could share the experience with you!

My neighbor gave me a bit of background about where Steeple Chase originated, so I'll share it with you. It is a race on a grass course where the horses must jump brush fence obstacles. Some horses were disqualified because they didn't take the jump. It was started in Ireland in the late 1700's as a race between two church steeples. How cool is that! I have such smart neighbors!

The Steeple Chase is a fancy affair, there are hat competitions:

fancy hats!

tropical hats!

the six man hat!

The horse races of course:

the hunter class with their hounds

the race!

It was really a huge affair! Tailgating, fancy tailgating, food, vendors, friends, and the races were sooo exciting! They even got the kids involved with stick horse racing:

stick horse racing!

I had a really good time and got to meet some really great people, and get to know some good ones I already knew. I am really glad i was asked to go!

great girls!

Who Doesn't Like Kittens??

They're cute, they eat varmin, they make fun noises, can't go wrong with a kitten! I'm more of a dog person, but I'm really more of an animal person....

Anyway!
Woke up this morning to send huband off to work and I though I saw a little jumping going on in Baby's belly, I thought, "bet that's labor..." And then went to bed. When I woke up at normal people time, I didn't see Baby running around and sure enough, she had her babies!!! Four adorable orange tigers! Yay!

Our dog, Piper is just in LOVE! She won't leave their sides, she often goes in and counts and licks them- a very happy girl! All are well and now, or course, pics!

Self-Sufficiency

Alright Noble Readers!
The big question on my mind today- what level of self-sufficiency are you at? Are you living in a bunker eating canned foods? Do you live on a giant farm with gardens and fields and livestock where you grow all your own food and your animals' food too? Do you keep a "bug-out" bag ready so you can run away from disaster? Or are you more the type to have an animal or two who is useful, can foods from your garden, and maybe a rain barrel? Maybe you just keep a can or two of sterno and some extra dried goods around in case the power is out. I want to know! I'd love to hear about how you ensure your family's lifestyle through sustainability.

My Huband and I make an effort to reduce the cost of living and our reliance on the grid, but I wouldn't call us extreme. Cheap, maybe, but that's about it. We are working on a fence to go around our rather large garden (it was an accident that its so big) and we have Daisy, our Jersey cow, who we plan to breed next year. We also have chickens for eggs, and angora goats for fiber. We plan to use the fiber to make a small profit. We have every intention of eating or selling the offspring of Daisy, we plan to freeze, can or dehydrate all of our veggies that we don't eat, and all of our animals pay "rent" in that they have some sort of job.

I try to bake any bread or flour items we need to reduce the processed foods we consume, I try to buy the meat we eat from friends who also farm, I make my own laundry soap to cut out the preservatives and chemicals we are exposed to and I use homemade or all natural soaps in our showers. It sounds like a lot, and sometimes it is, but mostly it's just a lifestyle we have adjusted to. We really like it so far, and the more I learn about the things our government is allowing big business to get away with, the happier I am with it- but this isn't a political blog. I hate politics! :)

Next week I hope to share some sort of tutorial with you. Also, if anyone responds and tells me about their homesteading (pictures please!) perhaps I will feature them!
Until next time!

How We Became Goatherds

We knew we wanted goats after we got our cow. The pasture we fenced in for Daisy was full of weeds and small trees and such. Our first thought was that we needed goats.

My huband, being the avid research Mongol that he is, began looking into breeds. We weren't sure about meat goats, he wouldn't consider dairy goats because he won't eat goat cheese/milk/yogurt, and we didn't want a sub-standard animal that we would be trying to sell again in a year when it ate down the pasture. Enter the angora!

I've always been interested in hand crafts and when Huband pitched the idea of fiber goats to me, I was all ears. I've been watching shows like, "Alaska the last frontier" and "Doomsday Preppers" with a personal desire to get back to basics myself. So we began searching for angora goats in NC.

We found a whole family of people when we met Marcia. Marcia is an avid angora goat herd and offered to show us around her farm and let us try and decide on a goat or two to take home. What a difficult decision it was!

We finally decided on three special girls. Raven, Wrenn and Charlotte. These three were kept separate from the herd in their own little area. Raven and Wrenn are twins, but Raven had a selenium deficiency in the womb and has never gotten big the way Wrenn has. She requires special attention to see to it that she gets what she needs. Charlotte is their half sister and her twin brother, Wilbur, passed away at a young age, so she was place with the other two to avoid bullying from the rest of the flock. Marcia agreed to let us have these three under the condition that we would not breed Raven. She is just too small and Marcia's goats are bred for twins. We quickly agreed and now they are ours!

Welcome to Wooly Booger Farm!

That, folks, is our farm name. If you've ever seen an angora goat, you know they're quite wooly little boogers! When we tried to name our micro-farm, my husband and i went back and forth for over two months trying to choose. I came up with TONS of cute names, but he just has no taste (obviously).

Poor Wrenn, there, couldn't even SEE me before the shearing....

Finally, the day we picked up our angora goats, (March 10th to be exact) as we were driving home i looked at him and said, "What about Wooly Bugger Farm?" He said "no" quite quickly because APPARENTLY, some people have a nasty meaning behind Wooly Bugger. So he suggested Wooly Booger, and the name stuck. It's silly, our cow has a snotty nose, and we want to have a lot more wooly creatures some day, so I guess it'll work.

Now why is this blog called the Feisty Farmtress, you ask? Well, i made that word up, Farmtress and coined it on our farms Facebook page. People liked it and I'm the promoter for our farm, so i took my poetic liberties and here we are!

So, if you like homesteading, farming, goats, chickens, cow, cats, dogs, cooking, spinning, or anything else your grandma probably did to keep their farm going, check us out. We're just crazy enough to be trying to get back into it!

I'll commit to posting twice a week right now, so look for me again this weekend and DEFINITELY on Mondays, since I'm off work.
Thanks for reading!

The Feisty Farmtress