Hello beautiful peeps,

We are doing well this week. I did make an error in last week’s newsletter. I said Scott’s treatment protocol is 5 weeks. It is actually 7 weeks. So there you go. I’m already all mixed up. We shall see how I progress. Some days time seems quite normal while on other days it drags on and on. That’s usually between appointments. Many days feel surreal. They all blend together to make our lives interesting. 

New items at the Farmer’s Markets this week include TOMATOES, Jet Star and Black Krim. Both are slicing tomatoes. You’ve probably heard me say this before but, these are my all-time-favorite tomatoes. That’s why I grow them. The Black Krim is higher in acid than the Jet Star. That also means the flavor is out of this world.

INDEPENDENCE MARKET CHANGES: I’m not sure where I will be in the market  arrangement tomorrow. I’ll be there somewhere. There is a row of people next to the courthouse as well as where you’ve seen me these last couple of weeks. Again, please bear with us through this cycle of growth. 

Sheep

The sheep are still contentedly grazing and free from any foreign animal harassment. Mack is doing a wonderful job. We did catch a couple of coyotes on the game cameras this week. But I think Mack scared them off. All four sheep are still safe. They still hide from Mack. I have no idea how long it will take them to get used to him. I’m just watching and waiting at this point. I’m also still thinking a lot about adding more sheep back to the flock. We would like to have at least one more dog to help out. I hope that materializes soon. We shall see.

Cows 

Rosie has been taken out of the milking rotation. We have downsized the amount of milk we handle. I’m no longer making cheese. There is still a great need for herd share milk and Newton still gets lots of fresh milk. He is growing like a weed and we want to make sure he continues on that path. Anyway, we are still milking Violet and Butter. Rosie was late in her lactation cycle anyway. Some of you are new and won’t know that she delivered way back in February. Her milk production was already beginning to decline so we moved her into the nursery herd. She likely won’t be dried up right away. Princess is her calf. She is quite a resourceful young lady. She will nurse any cow that will stand still for her. Her official nursing mother is Cloud, but I have no doubt she will discover extra nutrition is available from Rosie. Later in the fall we will wean all of the calves so their moms will get a break before birthing the next calf. That will happen in October or November.   

Quail

Last time I said we were done with quail hatching. However, I noticed some genetic issues in the last batch of babies and we need some new stock. The current plan is to get about three dozen fertile eggs. We will hatch those out and keep enough hens to restock our breeding cages. In the spring we will order another batch of new fertile eggs and keep a few roosters out of that batch. That should get us back on track with solid genetics for a few years. That’s the plan. We shall see how it goes.

Creamery and Scott’s Other Stuff

Scott is watching all sort of YouTube videos on electric stuff. He is gearing up for creating the electrical plan on paper.

In other creamery news, Scott is working on revamping and cleaning up the small cheese cave. It is a constant battle with the mold. Of course we want the molds. It is what gives the cheese its great flavor. However, we don’t want it growing out of control, hence the constant battle. It grows all over and Scott spends hours wiping down the shelves. It is a labor of love.

Garden

I have tomatoes running out of my ears. And peppers. I’ll be making another batch of pepperoncini soon. And some of those yummy tomatoes are going to go into a couple of batches of salsa. Look for that at the market soon.

I have so many beautiful tomato fruits that I decided to bring them to the market. I’ve packaged them up into approximately 1 pound bags. Stop by and pick out some beautiful tomatoes to take home with you.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Independence and Wytheville Farmer’s Markets

I will be at the Independence Farmer’s Market on Friday 9 – 1 and at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market on Saturday 8 – 12.

As mentioned above, I’ll have fresh tomatoes.

I have apple pie filling, peach pie filling and blueberry pie filling. A deep dish pie requires 48 oz of filling. I’ve got you covered. Two 24 oz jars or a quart and pint jar.

I’ll have the pickled pepperoncinis in pint jars.

I’ll have blueberry and blackberry jam at both markets as well as mild pepper jam. STRAWBERRY JAM is back. 

I may have a couple of dozen quail eggs and definitely will have quail meat in 1 lb packages.

We have ground goat (approx 1 lb), grass-fed ground beef (approx 1 lb) and ground lamb (approx 1 lb). I also have a very limited amount of lamb cuts. Loin chops, rib chops, stew/kabob meat and two lovely petit legs.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, the Independence market location has temporarily changed. Due to construction on the new covered facility, we are relocating to the parking lots east of the Court House.

I’ll see you in my usual location at the Wytheville Farmers’ Market.

Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Independence Market on Fridays between 9 am and 1pm, the Wytheville Market on Saturdays between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon, at the farm Saturdays 3 pm to 5 pm or Tuesdays 10:00 am to noon. Email me to let me know if you want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 am to Noon. We are at Independence Farmers’ Market on Fridays from 9:00 am to 1 pm.  

As always, you may visit us at our dairy farm in Claudville, Virginia Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 noon and Saturday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm. Find out how we raise our animals and why you will love the taste of tradition that is inherent in all of our products. Herd share holders will be able to see up close how their cows are cared for and the cheese operation and where it is stored. 

Peaceful Heart FarmCast

In this week’s podcast, “A Cancer Diagnosis” is the topic. We have had a whirlwind month and a half. This is a short podcast to bring you up-to-date on what’s happening and what to expect with the podcast in the next few months. I’m not going to bore you with every little detail of our ordeal over the coming months. Instead I’ll be replaying some of my favorite podcasts. I may create some new content as time allows. Please pray for us during this time.  

Free Downloads

I want to follow up on my previous FarmCast, The Taste of Cheese where I talked about developing your expertise with using descriptive words. The FREE downloads of Classifying Cheese by Type and Category and Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary are still available at our website. Please stop by and get your FREE resources. 

You can LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. Or, if you have an Alexa device, just say: “Alexa, play podcast Peaceful Heart FarmCast.”

And don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the Peaceful Heart Farm podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, TuneIn, Stitcher or Spotify

Hello beautiful peeps,

All is well here on the homestead. Sure we have lots and lots of doctors appointments to work into our schedule, but we are managing. We appreciate all of your prayers. There was some good news among all the bad. The treatment is only 5 weeks and recovery should be only a month or so — not the original 4 to 6 months we were anticipating. God is good.

New items at the Farmer’s Markets this week include blueberry, peach and apple pie filling. Are you ready to makes some pies? I’ve been very busy this week.

INDEPENDENCE MARKET CHANGES: The Independence Farmer’s Market is having a shelter built for the vendors. While that construction is going on, we will be set up east of the courthouse. Herd share peeps look for me there. I don’t know exactly where my location will be and it may change from week to week. All of that is still being worked out. Please bear with us through this cycle of growth. 

Sheep

There is isn’t much to say about the sheep. There are still four of them out there. We may have some babies in September or October. That would be a blessing. Mack is caring for them whether they like it or not. They still haven’t warmed up to him, but I think it will come in time. They were terrorized by dogs so I understand their standoffish nature with Mack. Again, I think they just need time.

Cows 

We are going to leave Violet as she is for this year. Because of the problem with the hormone shot, she did not come into heat on the scheduled day. We don’t really know when she would come into heat again. The AI tech was ready to start over from the beginning but we have decided to just let it go for this year. We believe all of the other cows and one heifer are pregnant. Violet can get with the program with the rest of the herd next year. Trying again at this late date would put us right back in the same situation. Violet would have her calf much later than everyone else and would come back into heat much later than everyone else. That means two AI sessions instead of one for everyone. She is a very good cow, and even though we will be feeding her through the winter with no calf in the spring, she is worth keeping and having her next calf in 2023.   

Quail

I’m pleased to say that we are done with quail hatching this season. All of the new babies are snug in the penthouse. There are 22 on each side. The egg laying girls have a newly cleaned hutch and they are content. Egg production will drop for the next month and a half as we wait for the new babies to reach maturity. After that, I think we can expect to have over 30 eggs every single day. I’ll be making more pickled quail eggs. Ask me about them at the market. There is a curry flavor, a standard pickle flavored variety and a few are pickled with garlic and beets.

One other note with the quail. We have noticed that we are starting to see genetic deformities in our babies. That means we will need to order some new eggs in the spring and upgrade our genetic pool. It happens every few years. There is no way to really keep up with which rooster is fertilizing which eggs. They all get cleaned up and stored together. Even though we always have at least four roosters, the genetics eventually deteriorate. It is all part of raising quail. I’m sure the people providing the eggs for hatching have a method to ensure genetic diversity. I just don’t know what it is or how it works. I’m good with continuing to rely on their expertise in this area.

Creamery and Scott’s Other Stuff

In the previous newsletter I said this is the last creamery update for quite a few months while we wait on Scott’s healing. However, as I mentioned above, his treatment will be much less than we originally anticipated. He is looking forward to getting back to it in the coming weeks — designing the electrical system and even pulling some wire is on his agenda. At the moment he is helping me snap and shell beans and peas.

Garden

Tomatoes, peppers, herbs and the crowder peas are all that is left. I say “all that is left,” but those plants are producing magnificently. I ended up freezing some tomatoes for later processing during the winter. All of my time with garden stuff is focused on finishing up canning the green beans, shelling/canning the crowder peas, and chopping/freezing the green peppers. At some point I’ll need to freeze some of the onions as well. 

The pepperoncini peppers bloomed and produced another crop. I’ll be pickling more of them. Look for them at the market.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Independence and Wytheville Farmer’s Markets

I will be at the Independence Farmer’s Market on Friday 9 – 1 and at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market on Saturday 8 – 12.

As mentioned above, I’ll have apple pie filling, peach pie filling and blueberry pie filling. Enough for one deep dish pie requires 48 oz of filling. I’ve got you covered.

One pound (plus) bags of crowder peas will be available at both Independence and Wytheville Farmer’s Markets. I’ll have the pickled pepperoncinis as well.

I’ll have blueberry and blackberry jam at both markets as well as mild pepper jam. Still no of strawberry jam. At the moment, I just don’t have time to make it. 

I have quail eggs by the dozen and quail meat in 1 lb packages.

We have ground goat (approx 1 lb), grass-fed ground beef (approx 1 lb) and ground lamb (approx 1 lb). I also have a very limited amount of lamb cuts. Loin chops, rib chops, stew/kabob meat and two lovely petit legs.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, the Independence market location has temporarily changed. Due to construction on the new covered facility, we are relocating to the parking lots east of the Court House.

I’ll see you in my usual location at the Wytheville Farmers’ Market.

Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Independence Market on Fridays between 9 am and 1pm, the Wytheville Market on Saturdays between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon, at the farm Saturdays 3 pm to 5 pm or Tuesdays 10:00 am to noon. Email me to let me know if you want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 am to Noon. We are at Independence Farmers’ Market on Fridays from 9:00 am to 1 pm.  

As always, you may visit us at our dairy farm in Claudville, Virginia Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 noon and Saturday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm. Find out how we raise our animals and why you will love the taste of tradition that is inherent in all of our products. Herd share holders will be able to see up close how their cows are cared for and the cheese operation and where it is stored. 

Peaceful Heart FarmCast

In this week’s podcast, “A Cancer Diagnosis” is the topic. We have had a whirlwind month and a half. This is a short podcast to bring you up-to-date on what’s happening and what to expect with the podcast in the next few months. I’m not going to bore you with every little detail of our ordeal over the coming months. Instead I’ll be replaying some of my favorite podcasts. I may create some new content as time allows. Please pray for us during this time.  

Free Downloads

I want to follow up on my previous FarmCast, The Taste of Cheese where I talked about developing your expertise with using descriptive words. The FREE downloads of Classifying Cheese by Type and Category and Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary are still available at our website. Please stop by and get your FREE resources. 

You can LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. Or, if you have an Alexa device, just say: “Alexa, play podcast Peaceful Heart FarmCast.”

And don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the Peaceful Heart Farm podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, TuneIn, Stitcher or Spotify

Hello beautiful peeps,

It has been a couple of weeks since I sent out a newsletter and I missed the markets last week. Some of you know already that Scott had surgery. He is healing well. Having both tonsils out at his age is quite painful but he did the milking today! I have been doing it for over a week with a little help from a neighbor for the heavy lifting. There is going to be an even longer healing period over the next four to six months and we ask for your prayers.

INDEPENDENCE MARKET CHANGES: The Independence Farmer’s Market is having a shelter built for the vendors. While that construction is going on, we will be set up east of the courthouse. Herd share peeps look for me there. I don’t know exactly where my location will be and it may change from week to week. All of that is still being worked out. Please bear with us through this cycle of growth. 

Sheep

Mack, our new livestock guardian dog, is learning all about our sheep. We are so grateful for him. The sheep are still a little shy of him, but he is right there for them when they need him. I’m sure the sheep will warm up to him in due time.

Cows 

Violet should receive her artificial insemination on Sunday. However, there was a problem yesterday. Scott needed to give her a second hormone shot. She somehow kicked him right in the chest and the needle was bent 90 degrees. After Scott caught his breath, he straightened the needle and tried again but a lot of it dribbled out and did not make it under her skin. The needle mechanism was too damaged. I have no idea what will happen next with that faux pas. I’ll let you know next week.   

Quail

We hatched out about 47 quail eggs. There are 44 alive and kicking and growing like weeds. They are one week old in the brooder. In another week they will be up in the penthouses on both sides. The hutch will be completely full with 22 on each side.

This is the last batch of quail I will be hatching this season. I have too many other pressing things to take of to keep up with breeding these cute little guys. We will keep lots of good breeding stock and start up again in spring 2022.

Creamery and Scott’s Other Stuff

This is the last creamery update for quite a few months. The bottom line is there will be no progress until Scott is fully healed. We’ll catch up again sometime in the spring.

Garden

The green beans are done and the crowder peas are taking center stage. I picked two 5-gallon buckets a couple of days ago. I will have crowder peas at the farmers market. 

I think I have enough canned green beans for a couple of years. They really produced, and they were beautiful and very tasty. 

I have picked a few tomatoes. They still have a way to go. I’m okay with that. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them in any case. These are beautiful slicing tomatoes. I could make sauce, but it would take a long time to cook down and thicken. We shall see. Perhaps I will bring some to the market.

The green bell peppers are really yummy. I picked a little over 1/2 of a 5-gallon bucket of those. We are still enjoying fresh banana peppers every day. It’s a good thing I really love them.

Remember those pepperoncini peppers I was collecting? I pickled them. I’ll bring that to the market this weekend.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Independence and Wytheville Farmer’s Markets

I will be at the Independence Farmer’s Market on Friday 9 – 1 and at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market on Saturday 8 – 12.

One pound (plus) bags of crowder peas will be available at both Independence and Wytheville Farmer’s Markets. The pickled pepperoncini will be a new item as well.

I’ll have blueberry and blackberry jam at both markets as well as mild pepper jam. I’m still out of strawberry jam. 

I have quail eggs by the dozen and quail meat in 1 lb packages.

We have ground goat again. And we have grass-fed ground beef (approx 1 lb) and ground lamb (approx 1 lb). I also have a very limited amount of lamb cuts. Loin chops, rib chops, stew/kabob meat and two lovely petit legs.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, the Independence market location has temporarily changed. Due to construction on the new covered facility, we are relocating to the parking lots east of the Court House.

I’ll see you in my usual location at the Wytheville Farmers’ Market.

Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Independence Market on Fridays between 9 am and 1pm, the Wytheville Market on Saturdays between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon, at the farm Saturdays 3 pm to 5 pm or Tuesdays 10:00 am to noon. Email me to let me know if you want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 am to Noon. We are at Independence Farmers’ Market on Fridays from 9:00 am to 1 pm.  

As always, you may visit us at our dairy farm in Claudville, Virginia Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 noon and Saturday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm. Find out how we raise our animals and why you will love the taste of tradition that is inherent in all of our products. Herd share holders will be able to see up close how their cows are cared for and the cheese operation and where it is stored. 

Peaceful Heart FarmCast

In this week’s podcast, “A Cancer Diagnosis” is the topic. We have had a whirlwind month and a half. This is a short podcast to bring you up-to-date on what’s happening and what to expect with the podcast in the next few months. I’m not going to bore you with every little detail of our ordeal over the coming months. Instead I’ll be replaying some of my favorite podcasts. I may create some new content as time allows. Please pray for us during this time.  

Free Downloads

I want to follow up on my previous FarmCast, The Taste of Cheese where I talked about developing your expertise with using descriptive words. The FREE downloads of Classifying Cheese by Type and Category and Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary are still available at our website. Please stop by and get your FREE resources. 

You can LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. Or, if you have an Alexa device, just say: “Alexa, play podcast Peaceful Heart FarmCast.”

And don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the Peaceful Heart Farm podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, TuneIn, Stitcher or Spotify

Hello beautiful peeps,

Joyous good news!! It looks like we have found our livestock guardian dog. Mack will be coming to his new home on Saturday. I’ll be at the market and look forward to meeting him when I get home. Yippee. We are so happy!! 

Sheep and Goats

We can start moving forward with research on finding the perfect kiko goats for our farm. It will take a little bit of time for Mack to get adjusted to our farm and to learn about us and what animals he needs to protect. That’s great because we need some time to locate the best goats for our purposes. Then there will be the challenge of introducing Mack to new animals.

The sheep are peaceful at the moment — all four of them.

Cows 

The cows are apparently all pregnant (except for Violet) but we won’t know for sure until we do preg checks in a few months.  

Violet is past her time to come back into heat after giving birth. We may have to move forward with artificially stimulating her into heat. It is really important to get her back on track with the rest of the herd where they can all be bred at the same time. Our time window on that is to get her bred in the next three weeks or so. We can push it a little past that, but now would be ideal. 

Quail

The incubator is humming along and the eggs are in “lockdown”. I took out the automatic egg turner. The peeping will begin on Friday evening or Saturday morning at the latest. We had a power outage for a few hours on Monday. We had to crank up the generator and plug in the incubator to keep the temp and humidity regulated. The temperature was quite low and the humidity high but it leveled out pretty quickly. I’m thinking it was less than an hour of temps and humidity out of range. You’ll hear the results in the next newsletter.

Creamery and Scott’s Other Stuff

Still no change with the creamery. Maybe next week he will be able to get started on figuring out the electrical stuff.

Garden

The green beans are coming on strong. Scott and I picked three 5-gallon buckets full this time. We got rained on and quit for a little bit. When the rain let up, we finished up. Though the rain started up again, it was pretty light. 

The crowder peas finally have blooms. Looking forward to picking those in the near future.

I have lots of small tomatoes. The green bell peppers are nearly ready. We are enjoying fresh banana peppers every day — They are a great additional to eggs. I am stocking up on pepperoncini peppers. I have plans to make pickled pepperoncini and bring it to the market for you guys.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Independence and Wytheville Farmer’s Markets

I will be at the Independence Farmer’s Market on Friday 9 – 1 and at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market on Saturday 8 – 12.

I’ll have GREEN BEANS and blueberry and blackberry jam at both markets. I’m  still out of strawberry jam. Maybe next week I’ll have some again. 

I have quail eggs and quail meat in 1 lb packages.

We have ground goat again. And we have grass-fed ground beef (approx 1 lb) and ground lamb (approx 1 lb). I also have a very limited amount of lamb cuts. Loin chops, rib chops, stew/kabob meat and two lovely petit legs.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ve set up a delivery point at the Independence market. Let me know if you want to switch your pick up to Independence.

I’ll see you in my usual location at the Wytheville Farmers’ Market.

Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Independence Market on Fridays between 9 am and 1pm, the Wytheville Market on Saturdays between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon, at the farm Saturdays 3 pm to 5 pm or Tuesdays 10:00 am to noon. Email me to let me know if you want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 am to Noon. We are at Independence Farmers’ Market on Fridays from 9:00 am to 1 pm. Masks are no longer required at the Farmers Markets. 

As always, you may visit us at our dairy farm in Claudville, Virginia Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 noon and Saturday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm. Find out how we raise our animals and why you will love the taste of tradition that is inherent in all of our products. Herd share holders will be able to see up close how their cows are cared for and the cheese operation and where it is stored. 

Peaceful Heart FarmCast

In this week’s podcast, “What I Love About Homesteading” is the topic. There have been so many downer days with predator attacks, I just wanted to set the record straight. Life on the homestead is not always this way. There are so many blessings. I’ll give you some ideas and also ask you what you love about reaching for your dreams.  

Free Downloads

I want to follow up on my previous FarmCast, The Taste of Cheese where I talked about developing your expertise with using descriptive words. The FREE downloads of Classifying Cheese by Type and Category and Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary are still available at our website. Please stop by and get your FREE resources. 

You can LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. Or, if you have an Alexa device, just say: “Alexa, play podcast Peaceful Heart FarmCast.”

And don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the Peaceful Heart Farm podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, TuneIn, Stitcher or Spotify

Hello beautiful peeps,

The green beans are coming in right now. I’ll have some at the farmer’s markets. Stop by and see me.

Advanced warning, farm updates are a bit of a bummer this week.  

Sheep and Goats

The goats are all gone now. We decided to go ahead and process all of them and move more swiftly toward building a new herd of Kiko goats.

The Kiko is a lovely goat were developed in New Zealand. They are very hardy, have parasite resistance (that’s a big deal for all ovine species) and require very little hoof maintenance (that’s a big deal for me.)

We made an appointment at the butcher for our last five cashmere goats but ended with only four. We really, really need a good experienced livestock guardian dog. They are really hard to find. Sometime on Saturday we lost four sheep and one goat to a dog attack. We lost a fifth sheep who was injured so badly we sent her to the processor in lieu of the goat. Please come and see me and let me know of any dogs that may be available.

I was literally stunned by this latest attack on our livestock. We have been raising these animals for 10 years and have never suffered these kinds of losses. In March of this year we had 21 sheep and lambs. Today we have four. It’s devastating for us financially. And it is devastating to my emotions. It has invoked a strong anxiety in me that we will never be able to safely keep these animals and we love them so much. Additionally, we calculated sheep and goats to be 25% of our business income. Will we have to completely rethink our business plan? NO! We need a dog or two or three.

We think it may be a neighbor’s dog that is attacking our livestock but we don’t really know. We are certain that it is a couple of dogs and not coyotes this time. We have the last four sheep in the front pasture and hope that will keep them safe until we can get a dog to protect them. Enough of that downer stuff.

Cows 

The cows are all doing very well. Virginia and Perrin are completely healed from their bout with pink eye. The flies appear to be under control and we will be staying on top of that situation for the rest of the summer.

I am so excited that there are still no signs of any of the cowgirls coming into heat again after their initial AI experience. We have been watching closely and everything looks good right now. That would mean 100% success on the first try. It also means we will have six calves born within days of each other. That could be tricky. 

Violet is nearing her time to come back into heat after giving birth. It should happen in the next few days. The AI tech is on standby to rush out here to administer her AI. She won’t have her calf with the rest of the girls, but we want her delivery date to be much closer next year than it was this year. Fingers crossed she takes on the first try. 

Quail

The incubator is humming along. Another 10 days and the next batch will begin to hatch. It’s always an exciting time as that day approaches.

The penthouse grow-out cage is getting a little tight. There are 22 birds in there that are nearly six weeks old. Only two more weeks before they reach full maturity.

I had one cage of birds in the breeding level that was contributing to raising my level of anxiety. Two different roosters had been attacked in that cage. The second one was pecked so badly that he died. I thought there must be another rooster in there and we had misgendered one of the birds. But I checked and checked and rechecked. They all look to be hens. That’s when I tried the second rooster. In less than a week he was dead.

Scott processed the last batch and moved birds around while I was at the market a couple of weeks ago. He put a new rooster into that cage. I checked every day and it looked like all was going to be well with that group of birds. Then two days ago that third rooster was bloodied. Again, he was so bad I thought he might die. So far it looks like he will make it and come back to full health. 

These birds can be so vicious. I removed him immediately and set him up in a private room to heal. When I went back to the cage to see if I could identify the culprit, I found one of the hens with blood all over her breast. She also got a private room — and an appointment for processing in the next batch. Birds are vicious creatures. The lady was lethal in her attacks and we can’t have that in our flock. We also don’t want to breed that trait into the flock. She will have to go. 

Creamery and Scott’s Other Stuff

The creamery is still on hold. Scott is mowing fields, clearing out and cleaning up the blackberry vines and tying up the tomato plants. He still has some other landscape clean up tasks on his agenda. At some point he will sit down and figure out the electrical wiring for the creamery. You know . . . in his spare time. 

Garden

The onions are laid out and drying. They look really good. I’ve decided to leave them as they are for a while and keep using them fresh. At some point I will still need to freeze some. But for right now, they are in a cool and relatively dark location. I think they will keep just fine for two or three months.

As I mentioned above, the green beans are ready. I picked two 5-gallon buckets full over a three-day period of time. One of us will be picking green beans every few days. It is actually a fun activity. Reaping the benefits of hard work is always fun. Picking can also be hard work but so worth it.

The crowder peas continue to do well, but still no blooms. I have lots of small tomatoes. The green bell peppers are starting to get big. I can’t wait for them to be big enough to pick. I’m enjoying fresh banana peppers just about every day — Mixed in with beef or added to a salad. Tomorrow perhaps I’ll have some chopped up in scrambled eggs. I have quite a few and they are so tasty.

That’s it for farm news. Now on to the farmer’s market update. 

Independence and Wytheville Farmer’s Markets

I will be at the Independence Farmer’s Market on Friday 9 – 1 and at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market on Saturday 8 – 12.

I’ll have GREEN BEANS and blueberry and blackberry jam at both markets. I’m out of strawberry jam. 

I have quail eggs and quail meat in 1 lb packages.

We have ground goat again. And we have grass-fed ground beef (approx 1 lb) and ground lamb (approx 1 lb). I also have a very limited amount of lamb cuts. Loin chops, rib chops, stew/kabob meat and two lovely petit legs.

Herd Shares

Herd Share Peeps, I’ve set up a delivery point at the Independence market. Let me know if you want to switch your pick up to Independence.

I’ll see you in my usual location at the Wytheville Farmers’ Market.

Add on as you desire. Yogurt, milk and all cheeses and butter are at your service. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, Saturday and/or Tuesday. 

You can pickup at the Independence Market on Fridays between 9 am and 1pm, the Wytheville Market on Saturdays between 8:00 am and 12:00 noon, at the farm Saturdays 3 pm to 5 pm or Tuesdays 10:00 am to noon. Email me to let me know if you want anything extra this time. 

I still have new raw milk cheese shares and a couple of milk shares available. Contact me via email (melanie@peacefulheartfarm.com) or phone (276-694-4369).

Please go HERE to learn all about Herd Shares.

Let’s Get Together

As always, we love meeting you in person.  You can find us at the Wytheville Farmers Market on Saturday from 8:00 am to Noon. We are at Independence Farmers’ Market on Fridays from 9:00 am to 1 pm. Masks are no longer required at the Farmers Markets. 

As always, you may visit us at our dairy farm in Claudville, Virginia Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 noon and Saturday afternoons from 3 pm to 5 pm. Find out how we raise our animals and why you will love the taste of tradition that is inherent in all of our products. Herd share holders will be able to see up close how their cows are cared for and the cheese operation and where it is stored. 

Peaceful Heart FarmCast

In this week’s podcast, “A Day in the Life on Our Homestead” is the topic. Do you ever wonder what it is like to live the homestead lifestyle? I’m sure you all have your own ideas about what that must be like. In this episode I give you a peek into a day here on our homestead. This particular day is very, very busy. Every day is not this full of activity, though I do enjoy challenging myself. I always want to see just how much I can accomplish in any given day.  

Free Downloads

I want to follow up on my previous FarmCast, The Taste of Cheese where I talked about developing your expertise with using descriptive words. The FREE downloads of Classifying Cheese by Type and Category and Expand Your Cheese Vocabulary are still available at our website. Please stop by and get your FREE resources. 

You can LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE. Or, if you have an Alexa device, just say: “Alexa, play podcast Peaceful Heart FarmCast.”

And don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the Peaceful Heart Farm podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, TuneIn, Stitcher or Spotify