Our Farm

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Our 700 acres is mostly heavy forest, rock cliffs, creeks, marsh, beaver floods, with a few fields mixed in. The farm belonged to my husband, Kevin's Great Grandfather, Peter. When he came from Ireland on the fated ship the "Hannah" this is where he came to begin his new life in Canada, raising cattle, sheep, and working the land. 

In the '50s the farm went out of the family when the last of the old people here passed on. In 1995 while living in California, Kevin saw the old farm for the first time while on a visit here to see his cousin. He found the man who owned it at the time and he bought it. When he retired from the Coast Guard, he moved here and began to build a home. There was nothing left of the old farm, no house, outbuildings, fences. So he had to start fresh, just as his Great Grandfather once did. 

He built the house himself in 2000 while living in a little trailer and with only a generator for power. 
Slowly things grew. He got power in, the house got closed up, his dog ran away and came to my house... and then a year later, I came along, and with me came a farm full and house full of animals. 

We built our barn in 2008, and got water and power to it in 2009. 

Most of our land is for conservation. We enjoy the many wild animals who live here and that we are lucky enough to see, photograph, and co-exist with. 

We live off the road, back in the bush, and live a fairly isolated life back here. It's not for everyone. But we take great comfort in living away from the "real" world. Our world is a quieter and much simpler one. It's full of hard work, but rewarding. We respect the nature around us, and try to live in harmony with it. 

We log on the farm to supply ourselves with firewood and make maple syrup every spring. In 2010 we bought a new evaporator that will allow us to produce a gallon of maple syrup a day... small by the big producers standards, but it was a huge step for us, having made syrup out of a little tiny pan for many years. We started building a sugar shack in 2011 and finished it during the spring of 2013.

A lot of our animals are misfits, like our 175 pound Dorset ram who is completely blind. He grew up in a playpen by the wood stove in the living room, and would only sleep at night if I rocked him to sleep in my lap in the arm chair. One of our ewes, Lila only has three good legs. Then there is Henrietta who is a hermaphrodite. And Horace the Black Welsh wether, he's just a complete mental case.

Most of my animals are misfits and here because other people didn't want them, but they fit in just fine and there is plenty of food and love to go around. We also have a herd of rescued rabbits. Since 2005 when we first started taking in surrendered, old, and special needs rabbits, we have taken in, adopted out, and loved and cared for, over 100 rabbits. I've slowed down now, at one time we had 80 rabbits in my care! That was A LOT of work! I do not have any more than 20 rabbits here at any time now, and would like to keep that number a bit lower. I do not adopt rabbits out now, or breed them, I keep surrendered or rescued rabbits and allow them to live out their lives here - which is why I only usually accept senior rabbits (10 plus) or disabled rabbits, when I have room. Rabbits live a long time, 10-14 years and most every rabbit we've had here has lived to be at least 12 or older! 

 I also raise Dairy and Pygmy goats at the farm. I usually have anywhere from 12-20 goats here depending on whether it's kidding season or not. I have a small dairy herd (of Saanen and Alpine goats) and a small herd of breeding Pygmy goats mixed in with my fat and lazy wethers and Henrietta.

I make soaps and jewelry, and lots of preserves, and Kevin does woodworking and makes Windsor chairs by hand... we both enjoy crafts and art. We grow a large garden every year and I preserve a lot of food every fall. We harvest wild grapes from our land, and mushrooms from the forest. In 2012 we started growing the first of our wine grapes, hopefully in the future we'll be able to start making our own wine and beer. We'd also like to experiment with growing mushrooms - if we can ever find some extra time.

We have Saanen/Alpine kids for sale usually between April and June.
In the future as our Pygmy herd grows, we'll have Pygmy kids for sale. 
Sometimes we have chicks for sale, usually eggs, the odd goose, and every once and a while a spoiled fiber/pet lamb or two.

I'm hoping to have our Etsy shop open soon where you can find some of our hand crafted goods from the farm. 

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