In case you were wondering, I'm participating in a blogging challenge that kicked off yesterday. I'll admit, I'm not the greatest blogger and sometimes find myself at a loss for words when it comes to this. I know it's something that can be beneficial to my business, but struggle to decide what will be of the most interest to my amazing customers. Since I told a little about ourselves and farm life yesterday, I thought today, I will start introducing you to the goats that make all of this happen. Tonight, we will start with the boys! Jake Jake is our herd sire. He came to us at 2 days old and I bottle fed him. He spent a lot of time in our house during his first few weeks on the farm as seen in the picture of him as a baby. He was a bit stubborn to take the bottle at first, but after a week, he had it down. He enjoys being with his girls. When he was 6 months old, he had his first season with the girls. The first birthing season, we had a set of quadruplets, 2 sets of triplets, and quite a few sets of twins. This is his 3rd year of being sire and he hasn't disappointed us so far. He's a very strong fella and can be a bit of a hard head, but he has never been a mean buck. Luckily, because we bottle raised him, he doesn't get testy and try to challenge us. Now, the cows and bull are a different story. I've seen him butt heads with an 1800 lb bull and not back down. He will let me pet on him, but he doesn't like his head touched. He's a great buck. Beau That black and white goat with Jake is Beau. They are best buddies. We got Beau as a bottle baby wether. A wether is a male goat that was "fixed" or banded not long after birth. Beau is the one who hangs out with Jake when we separate the boys from the girls. With goats, you have to have at least 2 because they are herd animals. A lone goat will get themselves in a lot of trouble! Beau is one of my more vocal goat and he calls to me when he hears me outside talking. He has a great personality and loves to be petted on and given treats. He and Jake are very close in age and they spend a lot of time eating in the pasture and making sure the rest of the herd is protected. Poe Poe was born in May and has already proven to be a bit of a mischievous little guy. We are raising him to help as the next sire to split duties with Jake for a little while. He has a twin sister, Rey. My boys names him after a character in the new Star Wars movie because they are big Star Wars fans. Poe was reared by his mom, Ivory, for about 4 weeks and we pulled him and Rey to bottle feed so they would be more sociable with people. I've already saved him from near death when he decided to jump into a very big mud pit and got stuck at just 2 weeks old. His whole body was covered in mud, including parts of his face, and I could barely hear him crying out when I went looking for him. Thank goodness I found him when I did because he would have most certainly died. Today, he came and met me in the dairy as I was milking his mom. I still don't know how he got in there as the gate was closed, but he figured it out. He has a tendency to know when the hot wire around the property is not working right and takes that opportunity to check out the greener grass on the other side. I know that he will probably keep a bit of that mischievous streak in him, but I am sure he will make a great buck for our herd.
I hope you've enjoyed meeting the boys! Tomorrow, we will start meeting the girls. We have a bunch to meet so I will break them up into a few posts. Thanks for reading!
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If we've never had the chance to meet at one of the craft festivals or making deliveries, I'd like to introduce myself and family to you. My name is Theresa and I am the main soap artisan. I have a background in massage therapy, having graduated massage therapy school in 2004, and grew up in my father's pharmacy working as a pharmacy technician. I started this business because I loved making bath salts and other bath goodies for friends and family as Christmas presents. About 4 years ago, I was introduced to goat milk soap and we were immediately hooked. It didn't take long for me to have a wonderful soap maker teach me how to make goat milk soap. Since then, I've expanded into other products as I've learned and studied how to create different items. It's like my own science lab in my soap shop where I can experiment with different formulas to see what works best. I love being able to create and run my business while also taking care of our farm and homeschooling my boys. My husband, Jon Paul, and my 4 boys (Jean-Luc, Tristan, Dylan, and Ethan) are at the heart of what we do. They are in the soap shop, helping make bath bombs, labeling products, and washing dishes. Without him them, I wouldn't have the business I have right now. Jon Paul and I married in 2006. I moved from south Mississippi to Arnaudville to the house his grandfather built in the 1950's. I love the rural area we live in and always dreamed of having farm animals. Neither one of us had grown up having farm animals, but we knew it was something we both wanted to do. We started out with two cows and a few chickens. Wrong Way and Blunt were our very first farm animals. I'll never forget the day Jon Paul came home and told me he bought two pregnant cows. We didn't even have any fence up on our property! It was a mad rush to get everything ready to bring them home. Did I mention, we didn't have a cattle trailer either? Sometimes we have the tendency to put the cart before the horse. We got our fencing completed and brought these two big girls home. It wasn't long before we went from 2 cows to 4 with the birth of two heifers. Eventually we ended up selling one because she was a little wild. About a year and a half ago, we realized that Blunt was no longer able to become pregnant so we had her slaughtered to provide meat for our family. Wrong Way is still with us and gave birth to a heifer calf a few weeks ago. About 4 years ago, we decided to add dairy goats. Jon Paul prefers to drink goat milk over store bought milk, so we started with a few goats in milk. The first two to come to the farm were Moonlight and Madeline, and Madeleine's twins Holly and Finn. We were still working on building proper facilities for the goats when we bought them from a wonderful couple who have become some of our best friends. Moonlight passed away about a year ago and we ended up selling Madeline to another couple who wanted some dairy goats. Right now, our herd is 20 goats including some Nubians, LaManchas, and Saneens. All of our animals have their own personalities. From the very lovey dovey goats that will follow you like puppy dogs, to the ones that prefer to be left alone. We embrace the diversity among the animals. From cows to chickens, to goats, turkeys, and even some pigs, we've experienced raising all of them. We've witnessed life and death. We've cried over animals we couldn't save and had joyful celebrations when animals were born. We've bought new animals and sold others. We've sent some to the butcher to provide our family with food. We've made many mistakes and learned so much. I love that my 4 boys get to experience having farm animals and see what it takes to have a farm. Farm life is not easy. There are so many ups and downs, but it's something we wouldn't trade for anything. This adventure has allowed us to develop our business and meet so many new people. We've made wonderful friends because of our little farm. Friends that have been there to offer a helping hand when we've needed it and we've been allowed to return the favor!
So now, you know a little about us and what we do. Our life here is pretty busy on a daily basis, but we love it. There is never a dull moment! Thanks for taking a peek into our crazy little life! |
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