Tag Archives: farm

Winter Yesterday..Spring Today

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Isn’t it amazing how unpredictable the weather really can be? Yesterday we had a beautiful snowfall in the morning, followed by a sunny afternoon and ending with another brief snowfall before evening. In a single days time, the pastures are turning green and those Spring flowers that were not already blooming are today showing signs of bloom. We’ve had thunderstorms in February and a steady flow of rainfall this Winter..all will serve the ground well for the growing season. While we need to get the earth tilled to start the gardens, the ground is actually too wet. This will postpone that early harvest we always shoot for but a late harvest is just as beneficial.

We have taken some time off from selling through our local Co-op’s and Winter Farmer’s Markets while we’ve reworked our farm. There will be a lot of changes to some of the products we have sold for years and we are adding a lot of new. We started selling our farm products in our ETSY store. It is slow going but we have had some sales. I’ve started working on the plans for offering workshops throughout Spring and Summer. There are so many things that a person can do to live a more sustainable lifestyle and hopefully these workshops will generate interest from those who are anxious to learn.

That’s all for now. I always promise that I will be better about keep up with Blog posts, let’s see if this time I can really do it!!

 

Giveaway…And The Winner Is!

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OK, here is the list of all entries made on our Blog and Facebook:

“Boom Boom Pow” – Black Eyed Peas

“Linus and Lucy” – Charlie Brown

“Firework” – Katy Perry

“Bad” – Michael Jackson

“Sheep Go To Heaven Goats Go To Hell” – Cake

“You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” – Leo Sayer

“Born This Way” – Lady Gaga

“Bad Romance” – Lady Gaga

“Who Let The Dogs Out” – Baha Men

And the Winner is!!!

“You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”

(submitted by Mugsy via Facebook)

Video Coming Soon!

 

For those who did not win this giveaway..there are other places you can find our Natural Nesting Balls to purchase. http://www.breezehillfarm.com/ordering.aspx Also, in Richmond VA…The Great Big Greenhouse and Yardbirds.

Giveaway

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Hear we go! This is Gryffon (aka Scrap). He is the little goat buckling born a week ago this past Sunday. Being a musical family here, we have decided that Scrap needs a song all his own. Once he has a song, we will add that song to a video of Scrap doing what little goaties do and create his own music video! His song can be any type of music..even Christmas music. It should be fitting of a little critter that at this point weighs about 8 pounds and has enough energy for 5 of him.

So we need for you all to come up with a song. If we choose the song you come up with..you will win 2 of our new Natural Nesting Balls. See one for you and one to give as a gift! You must live in the US to enter this giveaway as we are covering the shipping as well.

So go to the comments for this post and start listing the song you think will best work for Scrap. At days end tomorrow we will go through your suggestions and pick the song that we feel best fits Scrap. Please make sure I have some way to contact you to let you know that you are the winner. We will take care of the shipping details later.

Scrap’s music video will air before Christmas!

Feeling The Need For A Giveaway..and other stuff!

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This is just the perfect time of year to offer a giveaway, so I’m working on it as I write. It needs to be something exciting that lots of folks will participate in and the giveaway should be something that everyone would love to have times 2 so the other can be given as a gift! I will iron out the details today..so look for something tomorrow.

Things are going very well at the farm. We are fielding orders for Nesting Balls and Dryer Balls hourly now and hope that everyone who receives them as Christmas gifts will love them as much as we do. Though they are very simple items a lot of work does go into their creation..starting with raising the animals. I have the best producers in the world out there in the field growing fiber so that I have the materials I need to create. Three cheers to the SHEEP and GOATS this morning!! Speaking of, I should get down to the barn and feed them.

OK, that’s it for today. Be looking for the giveaway announcement tomorrow!

Updates and Some Unmerciful Blog Sales Pitching!!

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It got pretty exciting around here this past weekend. Not only was it the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend but we had an addition come into the world at the farm. Several months ago we purchased a bred LaMancha doe and her due date was in mid-September. Well mid-September came and went and no baby. We had to rearrange our world (where Goat Shares were concerned) and begin a quest for a freshened doe. Without going into a lot of uninteresting details..we didn’t find one. Then Sunday morning hubby went to the barn to check on everyone and feed. He came back to the house and announced that “Jojo” had kidded!! Obviously, the breeder had really messed up the breeding date and now we have a fresh doe and a beautiful little buckling. Don’t you just love a happy ending story?

Is he too cute or what!!

Many people have asked me where they can find our new natural Nesting Balls in the Richmond, VA area. These have taken on a life of their own and we love it. Right now the list is short but growing everyday. As everyone knows with Fall Line Farms Co-op..you can find them listed weekly on the Co-op. They are now available at Yardbirds in Gayton Crssing Shopping Center and starting this weekend at Primrose and Persimmons Antiques in Goochland Courthouse, VA. If you cannot make it to any of the events we will be at this Holiday season, these are a few places you can find them. Also, you can always contact us at breezehillfarm@verizon.net to order direct through us. OK, enough sales pitching for now.

Have a great day!

More Babies…

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Friday evening was so peaceful and relaxing. We spent time visiting with each other..discussing the week and our plans for the weekend. I started taking care of the Quail and hubby made his way to the barn for evening chores. He had been at the barn only a few minutes and he called me on the phone. This usually means one of two things..something is wrong or there are new babies.

Happily, it was the latter. We have 2 new doelings! Oh, my they are soooo cute and their fiber is amazing. These little ones are 3/4 Angora and 1/4 Alpine Dairy goats. It’s the same crosses we done since we started raising goats back in 2002. It’s such a wonderful cross because we end up with adults that give us pounds of fiber and they are excellent milk producers too. The fact that they are does is just a plus.

These photos were taken yesterday morning.

Just Relaxing!

One Happy Mom!

 No matter how many births we have here..I always enjoy each one as if it were the first. Wish the farm was bigger so I could keep them all!

It’s Been A Long Time Again!

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It’s coming down to the end of Spring around here. Let me update you on what has been going on at the farm.

Early Spring brought us the joys of lamb and kid births. So many little ones making it exciting and a little confusing too. We almost lost one of our ewes at lambing. Seems her little (gigantic) lamb didn’t want to come out easily and then we discovered she had been physically exhausted to the point that she gave up. We are very happy to say, she is doing fantastic now and so is “Wil” her lamb.

Then there was “Bella”! She was not really a surprise but I had miscalculated her due date of arrival. She and her Mom “Barga” are doing very well. The breeding that produced her was very accidental, which has now led to a 3/4 Angora x 1/4 Alpine Dairy kid. Her fiber is glorious!

We had a broody hen hatch 13 eggs and have 12, 3 month old chicks now.

We have since hatched another 11 chicks which are growing strong..and to our surprise, some of them are actually HENS!

The most exciting addition we’ve made to the farm this Spring are our Coturnix Quail. With the chickens, ducks and now quail we are rapidly becoming an “Egg Farm”.

These quail are actually mature and laying eggs within 8 weeks from their hatching and the health benefits from eating their eggs is amazing. There are now 36 of these little ones here and growing. This is the first week we’ve listed their eggs on our local co-op.

Aside from all of this we’ve just been working on the farm. Cleaning, growing, painting, sheep shearing and more.

Since the loss of Mom, I feel like I’ve been spending a lot of my time recreating pretty much my whole life (not just the farm). I am devoting much more of my time to the sheep and working again with fiber. We are working on a Virginia Grown/USA Grown organic yarn line as well as a line of naturally dyed yarns. Both of these projects are slow moving as it is quite expensive to have all of the fiber processed and natural dying can also be very expensive. Another thing I am doing is participating in special events to share (and sell) our fibers grown here on the farm.

Wow, I’m tired just writing! Until next time…

Happy New Year!!! (maybe a day or so late)

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Well here I am starting our New Year! Not bad..only 11 or so days into the year. Guess the way 2010 ended for us makes this acceptable.

You know I read a lot of different Blogs every week. Some of those that I really like are listed in my sidebar (need to update). Many of those Blogs are about the day to day on the farm. Some are farm stories. I have a passion for anything vintage, so I do follow many of these Blogs too. I wish I had more time to read but fortunately, I am too busy!

I did, however, notice on one Blog that I follow that the writer shares with her readers “things you don’t know about her” and I find that I like that idea a lot. So, I thought I’d give it a try myself and share 5 things that you don’t know about me.

1. I am a very kind and giving person. Sometimes to the point that I give and have it taken.

2. I love to read..no matter the subject. Classics, reference, trash romance, picture books, magazines, everything.

3. I like Farmer’s and farm business owners who are real, not frauds. People who really do their own work and get their hands dirty, who honestly do spend the night in a freezing cold barn with a sick animal – not those who use the one time isolated event as a photo/story op.

4. I love, love, love a newborn lamb! Not having children, I tend to throw around terms like hope and promise when I hold one of our newborns for the first time.

 


5. Cooking is my heart and soul. From the time I was old enough to stand on a stool and reach my hands into fruitcake batter that my Grandmother was making, I’ve loved to cook. It is the most relaxing thing that I do. After 32 years of marriage, I still cook dinner almost every night for my hubby and me. Apparently he still likes it because he still comes in at night and asks “what’s for dinner” and he doesn’t run away when I tell him!!

Of course there are so many more other things you don’t know about me but I have an idea…why don’t you share something that people don’t know about you? It would be fun getting to know each other better. Don’t you agree?