What's been happening on Our Tiny Farm

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It's been a really long time since I posted an update on Our Tiny Farm. It's been an interesting and busy time as we continue to work through our transition from a very small working family farm with crops, bees, and animals to something more suitable to two mature adults who don't want to work quite so hard anymore. Last time I posted, we only had our two donkeys, Chester and Meadow, and an "unintentional" hive of bees. Well, it's still that way. The photo above is of Meadow in her blue coat and Chester in his red coat last winter. You all know what a beehive looks like, so no pic of that. 

We had a population explosion in February and March as we helped some friends as they adopted two mini-donkeys and a mini-horse. Meet Wilson, Forrest, and Harold in the photo above. They settled in very quickly.

Harold the mini-horse is quite the character! He tried to be the alpha of the herd, but he was no match for the donkeys. He reluctantly accepted his position in the herd and everyone got along well. These three stayed with us for about a month and a half while their new "parents" finished up the fencing and paddock for them on their own little farm. The three of them are now at their forever home and we follow their antics on social media.

So, now we are back to just our two donkeys and that has created an unexpected problem. We have never had so few animals on our farm, and that means there is WAY too much grass for the donkeys to eat. The paddock area, which was always our sacrifice area and had little for the donkeys or horses to eat, became as lush as the pastures. So the donkeys have put on some weight which is really not healthy for them. We now limit their pasture time even more than before, weigh the nightly hay and provide it in a slow-feed hanging hay ball, and keep the paddock closely mowed. Meadow also wears a grazing muzzle anytime she is on the pasture. We are strongly considering making the paddock all gravel.

It was an interesting spring and summer here with extremely high temperatures and an extended drought followed by days of endless rain. The donkeys handled it well. They have fans in their barn and access to fresh, cool water at all times, and the fly masks keep the flies and gnats out of their eyes and ears.

I have been working to increase the donkeys exercise now that they don't have pasture friends to run and play with. In the picture above, you can see the rubber chicken I got them sitting on top of their treat tin. There are lots of fun videos of other donkeys playing with squeaky rubber chickens, so I bought two of them. My donkeys LOVE toys of all sorts. BUT they are terrified of these squeaky rubber chickens. They won't get near them. I still use them to exercise the donkeys, though. I throw the chickens and the donkeys run!

Because of all the unusual weather conditions across the nation, a hay shortage is predicted for the coming year. It felt very good to get enough hay put up early for our two donkeys. If we board any donkeys this coming year, arranging for adequate hay for the boarders will be part of the agreement!

With donkeys, we know to expect the unexpected. Like the morning a few weeks back when I walked out of the house and saw the donkeys on the pasture! We put the donkeys in the double-fenced paddock at night for protection (from coyotes, dogs, and bears); so they should not have been on the pasture. Well, I found the pasture gate on the far side of the barn standing open (we rarely use that gate) and two donkeys with HUGE grass bellies looking at me with little smirks on their faces. We have no idea how they got that gate open. 

I just thought this was an interesting picture from the barn camera one evening. Hubby was in the tack/feed room filling the hay ball, and Chester had followed him in and his shadow was reflected on the barn floor.

We love our two little donkeys, but it is clear to me that they need the company and stimulation of having additional donkeys or horses on the farm. So in the coming months, I need to spend more time with a business consultant and a CPA to figure out how to set up our business to be in good order for taxes and insurance, lower our risk, and be profitable. We definitely want to offer boarding again and donkey visits from time to time. But after our first small business consultations, we learned that the structure we had been working under for 17 years, put us under too much risk. I hope to fix that soon.

Recently someone asked us what else we are growing on the farm. Right now we don't have any other crops or animals on the farm. With everything else going on in our lives (mine in particular), that has been good. But I am looking to maybe partner with some nearby farm or someone without their own land to make use of parts of Our Tiny Farm that we aren't currently using. Doesn't make sense to me to be mowing a pasture! Hope you have a wonderful autumn and get to enjoy sunsets like the ones we are so blessed to have often here in western North Carolina.

Our Tiny Farm During the Year of COVID

In December 2019 I wrote a post about how we were transitioning Our Tiny Farm for the next stage of our lives. I am still working full-time as a faculty member in the Department of Horticultural Science at  NC State University, but I am starting to think about what I want to do next. 

We also have an RV that we really enjoy exploring this beautiful country in. So raising cattle, garlic, and vegetables don't fit quite as easily into our lives and plans as they used to. 

We have decided that we will continue to raise our own donkeys and provide a temporary home for a few others. We enjoy them so very much. And when we travel, our very capable son, who lives on the farm, takes care of them for us. THAT is one of the keys to our being able to make this transition and keep the farm; having a young, strong son who enjoys living here with us. He gets free rent and we have built-in farm help.

These are our two donkeys. Chester is the brown miniature donkey on the left and Meadow is the small standard donkey on the right.

The farm behind us also raises donkeys and one summer day a baby was born right next to our fence line. This donkey is less than five minutes old!

We put up a nice supply of locally grown hay for our donkeys. We have a good relationship with our hay supplier and are assured that they use no persistent herbicides on their fields so we can safely use the manure on our gardens and provide it to others without risk to sensitive plants.

The plan for 2020 was to grow a small, manageable garden that would be easy to maintain and not put a guilt trip on us come harvest time. Well, old habits die hard and before I knew it, hubby had planted a sizeable garden. We enjoyed lots of fresh, homegrown tomatoes, beans, sweet corn, summer squash, zucchini, butternut squash, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes. 

We also froze and gave away much of what we grew. Now this big garden area, which we have managed following practices and using products approved by the National Organic Program, is sown in cover crops. Next spring our plan is to keep this area planted in soil building and pollinator friendly plants and build raised beds close to the kitchen!

We had a very special treat this summer. We had several elk from the Smoky Mountain National Park find their way into our community. People were posting pictures of them on social media from all over our area, and then late one afternoon, a big bull came to our area. Here he is just strolling across our farm. All the horses and donkeys just stood and stared. 

On a very sad note, we had to say good-bye to the most loving, wonderful dog in the world, Traveler. Traveler came to us from the Foothills Humane Society 12 years ago. He was our constant companion. He got along well (most of the time) with all the farm animals and the house cats. He is missed very, very much.

In addition to boarding donkeys, we will continue to be beekeepers and bottle honey.

It was an excellent honey year. Our friends and family will be enjoying this for a long time.

Easter night we had a terrible storm come through with high winds and a deluge of rain. Our Tiny Farm was hit particularly hard. We don't know if it was a micro-burst, straight line winds, or a tornado, but twenty VERY large trees were blown down in the middle of the night. We were so blessed. The only damage to the house was to the gutter on the corner of the porch.

Like many others, I became quite proficient at making many kinds of face masks for family and friends.

We till up the garden each spring using the Troy-Bilt rototiller that my mother, siblings, and I bought for my father when I was a teenager. They don't make them like that anymore!

Carpenter bees were making swiss cheese out of our barn, so we hung four of these traps on the barn this year. They really work!

These daffodils were here when we bought Our Tiny Farm in 1999. Who knows how long they were there before that!

We see beautiful sunrises and sunsets from our farm.

Our big excitement in January was going out to see the donkeys in the morning and finding that a bear had tried to push his, or her, way into the donkeys' paddock. Several years ago I had my husband reinforce the fencing on the paddock area where we confine our little donkeys each night. He moved the six-strand electric fencing to the outside and put woven wire fencing on the inside. The bear reached through the upper electric wires and pushed the woven wire fencing out of the big heavy staples on the corner post. We assume that as he/she pushed forward, he/she made contact with several of the electric wires and was shocked enough to give up (we keep that fence very hot). There was a footprint left in the mud that I asked some of my bear hunting friends to verify that it was indeed a bear (although, what else could have done that?). Since then, we have a trail cam mounted.

And that was our COVID year on Our Tiny Farm. Today I was planning for our very small Thanksgiving celebration later in the week. It will just be three of us this year but we are looking forward to Zoom video calls with parents, siblings, and my daughter and family. Aren't we fortunate to have such technology to get us through this pandemic. Stay safe.

 

Quick update on Our Tiny Farm

I have been focused on promoting my new book the past few months and have neglected providing photos and words about the farm. So here is a quick update. First, someone asked for a better picture of the horse we are boarding right now. So here is a picture of Teddy. He is a real sweetheart and gets along beautifully with all our animals. I hope he is here to stay for awhile!

 

I always feel an immense sense of relief when we get the hay put up for the winter. Last year the hay was awful; we had to do a lot of supplemental feeding to keep the weight on the animals, and we didn't do that well for the older horse. So it is wonderful to have good quality hay stacked up and ready to go.

The little donkeys definitely approve of the hay we purchased for the winter. Within an hour there wasn't a scrap to be found. Even with a pasture full of green grass, the donkeys prefer hay.

 

One of you asked for a close-up of Chester, so here you go. He is an adorable chocolate mini-donkey with a kinked little tail, a pot belly, and the biggest most expressive brown eyes I have ever seen. You can't help but to give this little guy a hug...which he likes very much.

Another one of you asked for a picture of the portable shelter we have for our steers. So here it is. As you can see, it is on skids. On the other end, there is a strap that we hook right up to the tractor and tow the shelter wherever we want it. The steers use it all the time all year long.

This was just a pretty day on the farm this summer so I took a shot of the barn with the mountains in the background. We are so blessed to live in this beautiful area.

Poppy settled into this giant mixing bowl on the computer hutch (it has been there for years, she just discovered it). It is now one of her favorite places to sleep. Cute.

These are beautiful sirloin roasts from our pasture raised Black Angus cattle. After a long slow roast in the oven, they made for a number of delicious meals.

One of the great delights of living on a small farm is all the fresh food on hand to create tasty meals, like this one.