The Intermittent Farm Report Beginnings

Some years ago I began relaying tales of our farm life to close friends and family.  I called it The Intermittant Farm Report because I was never certain when I would write one.  Farm life comes at you fast so I've decided to write about happenings a little more frequently.  Thus this blog is born.

Let me briefly introduce ourselves.  We retired (early) from our professional lives to western WV in 1996.  We went from suburbia to outhouses overnight.   Our rustic lifestyle was fun back in the steep wooded hillside that we lived on but I yearned for something a little more farm-like.  One day while chugging to town on our rough county road I noticed a for-sale sign in a meadow that was several miles closer to the hard road than we were currently living.  It was a farm!  Never mind that it had a ramshackle house that we spent 5 years  demolishing  and rebuilding.  Never mind that the entire back field was covered with what appeared to be generations of discarded "stuff".  It had a barn, a smidgeon of nearly flat land for a garden and room for perhaps a bit of livestock.

Fast forward to 2012 (or maybe 2011 would be better).  We have been raising a large garden, had and got rid of chickens, started a rustic furniture business, acquired 3 Italian Spinoni, a mixed breed dog, a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats, and a Mini-Lamancha.  In 2011 we had our first goat kids, milked our first goats and made our first cheese.  I decided that having goats and producing my own dairy products was my "thing".  I love anything dairy and never dreamed I would be able to produce my own delicious goat milk.  We're not really homesteaders but we enjoy producing as much of our own food as we can, and living relatively simply and self reliantly.  Come with me as we venture into 2012 to take an intermittent look at what daily life is like here on Twiggity Farm.