Hello, and Welcome

Hi. Thanks for coming. I'd like to quickly introduce myself, and my farm. I am Lady Farmer, and this is my story.

Meet Jake.

He is my nephew. And basically the reason we decided to pack up the whole family and move out of Fort McMurray Alberta and come down to our 'new' 135 acre, 2-house farm 2 years ago.

And we've never looked back. Okay, so maybe buying a complete farm on a whole 1/4 section was biting off a bit more than we could chew, but we are learning. Fast. We don't have a choice. As city-slickers-turned-farmers, we've had to learn how to maintain this huge property and all of its buildings, as well as how to make the best use of the resources we have, all in a very short span of time.

So just let me start off by saying that we haven't arrived. I know this is a green guide, but I'm not claiming that we are 100% green yet. But it is our goal, and this will be a record of our journey, and hopefully it will help you avoid some of the mistakes that we've made along the way. But, we've switched all of our light bulbs to compact fluorescent ones, begun a few compost heaps, and made all kinds of plans for the future. I'll let you know how it goes!

And now, for the introductions.

Me: I'm 28 years old, and I've never really found something I wanted to spend my life doing, until I moved to the farm a year ago. If you'd asked me then what I thought of chickens, I'd have said "Eeew, gross!". Now I'm a contributing member of a chicken keepers' forum, and breeding a particular rare breed called Cochin's. Shoveling out barn stalls? I would have found some excuse to get out of that chore. Now I consider that to be a nice cathartic afternoon activity! So let's just say I've found my calling. I'm still not fond of cows and the thought of mice in the house weirds me out just like anybody else, but I'm finally home. And in the span of a year, I've collected a horse, a donkey, 8 goats, over a dozen chickens, 5 ducks, a cat, and a border collie! You'll get to meet them in time, along with the family's collection of horses, cattle, more goats, alpacas, llamas, more dogs, more chickens, more ducks, turkeys, pigs, more cats, and whatever else we collect along the way!

My Sis-In-Law: She and my brother bought the second house on our little family farm, and along with raising her adorable boys Jake and Will, Stacey has been the biggest culprit in getting me hooked on this life we call farming! She has taught me about different breeds of chickens, making them interesting again, we're working on training our horses together, and we've shared the responsibility for our milking goats. So she is my co-conspirator, and my best friend, and we'll be making this journey to sustainable small farming together.

My Parents: They are the ones that own the bulk of this farm of ours, and I think they shake their heads sometimes as they watch us and our experiments. But Mom is the chief gardener among us, and any progress I make will be with her help, and Dad can fix like, anything, and apparently he can learn to use any piece of farm equipment without the user manual (except for the square baler - the bane of his existence!). They are supportive of our efforts, if not quite as exuberant as we are, but they've been with us every step of the way, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

My Siblings: My brother supports his wife, and maybe he even has a share in the madness. Don't let this guy go to auction with his wallet!!! The pigs are his fault, and some days we even blame the ducks on him, though he won't take any responsibility for that!
My sister isn't convinced. She is the kind of girl that you can take out of the city, but you can't take the city out of her. But she can bake a mean apple pie, and mow the gigantic front lawn like a champ, so I think we'll keep her after all!

The Animals: Today we have 8 horses, 2 Shetland ponies, 1 donkey, 2 llamas, 8 alpacas, 15 goats, dozens of chickens, 3 turkeys, 11 ducks, 5 dogs, 9 cats, 2 pigs, 8 steers, 6 cows, 2 heifers, and 1 bull. I think that's it, for right now. The number keeps changing as we sell some animals, eat others, and buy still more. For example, I still really want a few sheep, but I'm waiting for the right time to do that. But I'm working full time right now, and fitting the farming in wherever I can, and taking anything else on at the time would be ridiculous.

Okay, that's everybody. Keep checking in as I'll be talking about land usage, buildings and construction, gardening and greenhouses, keeping poultry, keeping goats, training horses, dealing with cows, holding onto pigs, trying to go green, being part of a community, raising crops, and rehashing our mistakes so you can learn from them.

But for now, I'm signing off. Happy Small Farming.