The first three months on the farm have really flown by.

Summer has now turned to autumn and the green leaves have mostly turned to yellows, oranges and reds. We saw our first measurable snow fall of the season this past weekend (approximately 2 weeks earlier than average – more on this for a later post).

Here is a short video of the goats running across the pasture to greet us. The goats have a lot more individual personality than I would have guessed before moving to the farm.

Now is a good time to look back and reflect on the start of the adventure.

The start of the process has gone very well. With the farm mostly set up when we arrived, it was not hard to get into a good summer routine to take care of our animals. The summer weather was great, with only a couple of days reaching the upper 80’s, meaning it was easy to spend time outside in fields.

The amount of work required to run the farm is both more and less than expected. On the one hand, the minimum daily chores to fill water buckets and provide supplemental feed only take a short time, maybe 20 to 30 minutes per day in total.  On the other hand, there is always more time that could be spent out among the animals and there are a lot of longer-term improvements and adjustments to make to the farm to make it our own.

Overall, the experience has been very positive. We feel so lucky to be able to wake up each day in such a beautiful location. The goats and chickens provide tons of enjoyment and surprises on a regular basis.

Pineapple and a few Hens

We have learned a lot and have a lot to learn. Winter will surely bring new challenges – some of the water buckets are already icing over during the night.