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The Jeeters were sort of helping us along in our homesteading skills. They already had chickens and goats and had raised pigs for 4H. They lived about 4 hours away. Whenever we could, we would go and stay the weekend with them. They are very dear friends and when we are with them we just take up where we left off without any re-aquainting. We called and asked them lots of questions about getting goats and what it took to care for them. They had an Alpine goat who was due to kid. It belonged to their son, Johnny Reb. Johnny and Joshua, who at the time was "Billy Yank" but has since seen the light and is now also a "Johnny Reb;" decided to do business. Johnny was going to sell Joshua this new kid if it was a doe. Joshua did extra chores, bugged the neighbors for chores and saved every penny he could get his hands on.

Well, the great day came and a little doeling was born. Joshua was beside himself with excitement. We wanted to go as soon as possible and pick her up, so that she would bond with Joshua. He named her Ellie. She was black with white splashes on her. The whole family went to pick her up. We found someone locally to buy milk from to feed her and we had bottles, and all the baby goat things we thought would be needed. It was such an exciting time!! We brought her home. Goats are herd animals and do best if you have at least two. We had planned on getting another goat fairly soon, and we were going to get another baby.

It did not take long for us to realize how much money we were going to be spending to keep this baby in milk, so we went ahead and jumped in with both feet. We found another goat, Minx, who was in milk and we bought her. The Lord has been so good to us in picking out our animals. We had no clue what we were doing. I picked Minx because she was brown. =) We found out later that she came from one of the best French Alpine herds in Florida. Our friends the Jeeters could not believe that we had a Sand Dance goat. We did not even know what a Sand Dance goat was. =) That is the herd name by the way. We had to go about 8 hours in the opposite direction to get her. We left on Friday and were going to spend the night and then go get her early in the morning and start for home. After we left my back went out. I hurt so bad, I was almost physically ill. It was very hard trying to sleep that night. We got up early that morning and headed out to the fair grounds. They were having some sort of Chataqua fair and the owners were there. She was sort of spoiled by the man who owned her. He gave her Hardy's biscuits and Nutter Butter cookies. We wanted to get started home because I was miserable and the ride was not really something I looked forward to, but I wanted to get it behind me. We had taken Ellie with us since she was not even two weeks old yet. She was getting four bottles a day. We stopped at a rest area and Joshua got out to walk her on a leash. Someone stopped and asked him what type of dog she was. =) Minx was not happy to be taken away from all that she knew and loved (and I think ruled). We even stopped at Hardy's and bought her a biscuit. She would not eat it. Once we got her home and settled she bonded right away with Joshua, because he milked her.

We had a huge water oak tree in our back yard. The owners had built a platform like treefort in it. We put up lattice and stock panels underneath that as the goat pen. The one huge limb leaned way over. We could not keep Ellie in the pen. She would climb the leaning trunk and jump out over the fence. She had so much bounce. She would run and zig and then zag with lightning speed. She would jump up and put all 4 feet out to one side and then land on them. She was so much fun to watch. We ended up putting her into "The Back Forty" with Minx and the chickens. Ellie was already spoiled. We would go and get Minx out to milk her. Ellie would try to sneak out too and often succeeded. We called her the "scape goat". If she was blocked from getting out, she would get mad, stomp on all fours over to the spools that were there for the goats, jump up on them and snort at us. This amused us greatly. Things settled into a routine and we began to think with satisfaction of, "this was the life for us."

Now, goats do no like to get wet. So, a shelter had to be provided for them. We named ourselves The Master "Tarpenters." We can build a shed or whatever is needed with those wonderful blue tarps. So, a shed was soon in place. Whenever rain was in the air, the goats would hide out in their beautiful blue shed. Our son is a contractor with his own business. He gets lots of repeat business because he has a cabinet makers eye. He has very good taste and every thing is plumb and square. He was not fond of the tarpentry then and he abhors it now. =)

We were drinking and sharing goat's milk, selling eggs and the animals were paying for much of their own feed. This was getting fun. However, goat's milk is naturally homogenized so we could not make butter, and were not able to use the cream. We would go and visit the Jeeters and good friends of theirs had a jersey cow. We would bring home about 3 gallons of milk. Oh, how we loved that milk. We would skim the cream, make butter and enjoy those glasses of rich milk. So, we began to pray for a Jersey cow.

That fall, both of the goats were bred, so there would be new baby goats in March. We had been keeping our eyes and ears open for a jersey cow, but they were VERY hard to come by in Florida. There was one dairy that we heard of farther South that had only jersey cows. We called them and asked about buying a cow or a heifer calf. Heifer just means a girl calf who has not yet had a baby. The only thing they would sell us was a 7 week old baby and they wanted $700 for her. We were not ready to pay that for so young of a calf. We went and looked at a couple and somehow did not think that something was right. One of them, the people just sort of contradicted themselves a couple of times and we were more unsure of them then we were of the cow. Now, I have to put in here... God chose our animals. All of the animals we ended up with were great. We had no real clue what we were doing. We would take a book along and would look at the pictures in the book of what you were supposed to look for and then look at the animal. I am sure we were a source of amusement to people. At times we disagreed on if this cow had a straight topline or not, or if they udder was pendulous. =) We were way out of our league. We continued our search for a cow and after months of looking we found an ad for a Jersey cow who was pregnant. She was a ways north of where we lived. We asked lots of questions over the phone. She had calved once before and was a good milker, but no one there wanted to milk anymore. We believe that she was 3 years old. This was November and she was due to calve at the end of December… they thought. They had her out in a field with some of their beef cows and a very handsome Santa Gertrudis bull. So, they were not exactly sure when she had been bred. This bunch of cows was kept on a piece of property a short ways from their farm. We asked him not to sell her because we were pretty sure that we would take her. We went to look at her. We got there before the farmer did. So, we had our handy dandy book out and we were trying to check her out. He must have come to feed them, because when they saw us, they came walking over. We did not dare go in the pasture because of the bull. We decided that she looked really good (at least to our untrained eyes). God was so good, not only did we get a great cow at a wonderful age, but she was only $450 and we would have our first calf out of her in about a month.

We bought her and brought her to the home of our friends (who we will call the Pastor Family) since we had to go out of town. We had a family function to attend in Ohio. We wanted to go ahead and bring her closer to us because of how far along she was in her pregnancy. We did not want her to have to have a long trailer ride any farther along than she was. The Pastor Family had a 10 acre farm. They had horses. They were used to handling large animals and they started to try and get her people friendly. We knew when she calved, that we would have to start milking her, which means we had to be able to get her and lead her. We put a control halter on her to help things out. When we got back, we brought Buttercup home to The Back Forty. She fit in nicely. We were all a bit unsure of her because she was so large. One of the biggest enjoyments of farm life for us has been to watch the animals. They are all curious by nature. They stare if you bring a new animal around. They were all really staring at Buttercup. To them, she was HUGE. They were all afraid of her at first. If she was up in the front corner, the goats and chickens were in the back corner. After just one day of her being there we noticed MANY piles, and began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. We were going to be buried in manure. Of all things, the chickens came to the rescue. They scratched through all the piles getting undigested grain and the problem was solved. (This was before we went to grass feeding instead of grain feeding). We had our own two legged fertilizer spreaders. We came out and all the piles were spread. It got so bad, that when Buttercup did drop manure, all the chickens would come running like we rang a dinner bell or something. I know that was gross.

We (the DeLand Jeeters as we were now called.... This is a term meaning "hillbilly") knew that we offered great entertainment to the neighbors. Almost the entire back wall of the Green's home was windows so they had a splendid view of The Back Forty. They had six children who delighted in the animals in our yard. Part of the entertainment came in the form of feeding Ellie a bottle, or throwing a ball for Star, or petting Minx, and even giving a try at milking. However, there were other forms of entertainment offered as well.

Michael, Joshua and I were all in The Back Forty working one day. Star was not allowed back there because she would keep trying to herd the chickens. She could not stand being away from her human family, plus those chickens were back there and they seemed to be in desperate need of being rounded up. So, under the fence she came. She caught one chicken and had all its tail feathers pulled. The back end of it looked like the chickens you buy at the grocery store. Well, this day was no different. We were out there working and under the fence she came. She started after the chickens and the three of us started after her. We were calling her very loudly and all trying to cut her off. She was too busy to listen to us. Joshua saw an opportunity and dived for her. He missed and hit the ground and landed on his belly. We were laughing so hard, it was difficult to stay with the task at hand. When Minx (the goat) saw "her boy" hit the ground, she was sure that the dog had intentionally hurt him. She had no love for the dog anyway. She would try to butt Star or bite her fur whenever Star was near. This time the dog had gone too far..... she had sent "her boy" flying. Minx CHARGED after that dog with the intent to kill. She had always been so lady like. Even when you tried to hurry her up, she just went at a gentle trot. We had never seen Minx run so fast or so furious. She was running like a deer being pursued by a pack of dogs. She was going to GET THAT DOG!!!! So now, we were chasing the goat who was chasing the dog who was chasing the chickens. (sounds like a song...) Then the cow who was VERY pregnant got all excited by the commotion and started in the chase as well. She was running and jumping and leaping. We were beside ourselves with laughter over the whole situation, yet worried about Buttercup being so upset so close to calving and we were full of frustration at trying to catch that dog. Finally, Joshua caught Star and started leading her up to the gate. He was going to tie her up. I was holding onto Minx so that she would not charge the dog, when all of a sudden, Buttercup went charging after Joshua and the dog. Michael and I hollered for Joshua to look out, and he got out the gate just in time. For twenty minutes Minx and Buttercup were very agitated. Minx was doing 360 degree jumps in the air. Some people would have to pay to see that kind of excitement. The neighbors got it for free.

We were going to visit the Jeeters down in Naples again, but now with animals, we had to find someone to take care of them for us. My dear friend Cordelia Rose volunteered to come and do chicken chores with her beloved Road Warrior. The Mountain family came and learned how to milk the goat and do our other chores. The Mountain family would get to keep the milk and Cordelia Rose would get to keep the eggs. We warned her about our mean rooster, which I will tell you about shortly. We were almost to Naples when Michael’s cell phone rang. It was the Greens who lived next door to us. They said that we had a fire in the Back Forty. They were trying to put it out and would keep us posted. We called the Mountain family and they were already on their way to our house. We had smoked some chickens in our smoker grill. The coals had sat several days, so we thought it was just ashes. We had put the ashes in the compost pile. Evidently, there were some live coals still in it. It caught the compost pile on fire and it burned several fence posts up. They got it put out with no one getting hurt and the animals were all fine, just stirred up from having a fire so close.

We had a mean rooster named Rocky who literally ruled the roost in The Back Forty. If any human dared to come into his territory without a weapon, he was quickly spurred. No one dared turn their back on the large Barred Rock rooster. It kept getting worse, and people were being wounded. He especially did not like Joshua. Joshua would walk out in the back yard and call out "voofer" (don’t ask me what that meant, it is just what he said) and you would hear the rooster start his mean clucking, he would drop a wing and then come running. When Cordelia Rose and Road Warrior came to take care of the chickens, they were on the look out for Rocky. Road Warrior picked up a large stick we kept by the gate. Cordelia pointed out which rooster was mean. However, she made a mistake and pointed to our nice rooster. Road Warrior was keeping that rooster away from his beloved. Cordelia noticed that the other rooster kept jumping up to say hello to her. Then it dawned on her, he was not saying hello, he was trying to spur her. She quickly told Road Warrior who came over to keep Rocky at a distance while they did the chores. This was getting old. Some one told Michael that he needed to show that bird who was boss. So, Michael came home from work took up an old broom with no bristles left and headed to the back. As soon as he stepped into the gate, Rocky issued a "cluck, cluck" warning and then he charged! Michael stepped forward and swung that broom fast and hard, but Rocky was very cunning. He jumped right over it. So, Michael swung again, and again. Rocky avoided being hit by jumping over the broom. Michael was very clever also and seeing what Rocky was doing, he raised the elevation of his swing. The broom hit the rooster with a "whack." Rocky tried to stay outside the range of the broom, but did not give up. Michael slowly advanced and swung again stepping into his swing to connect. Finally, feeling like he showed ol' Rocky who was boss, he stopped, threw the broom over his shoulder and headed for the house. As he turned, there was Mr. Green leaning on the fence. He had been watching the whole time. He said, "I thought Mark McGuire moved in next door." SMILE!

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All writing and photography on Amazing Graze Farm is Copyright © 2005-2008 by Marci Blubaugh All rights reserved.