Tuesday, October 13, 2009

birthday goats

"what about the goats?" you ask? "i was told there'd be pictures of goats!" you say?
























never fear, we met plenty of goats on sunday (open creamery day in maine). first we meandered up to tourmaline hill farm in greenwood, where we met about twenty noisy goats including emily, pictured above. there were also ducks, pigs, and many lovely chickens.
























after that, we drove down to harrison, which is about an hour northwest of portland, and visited little falls farm. which was gorgeous - kind of my idea of a perfect little farm, actually, down a long meandering dirt road, beside a winding creek, nestled in these beautiful trees. the house is a charming old farm house with some shingled additions and a row of solar panels alongside.



















there's a huge hay field with moveable "chicken tractors" that allow the chickens to roam pretty much free as they fertilize the field and happily eat bugs and grass and stuff. the goats are really affectionate. m befriended one in particular, and for a while i was imagining loading her into our little car and bringing her back to portland with us.



















except for the general omnivorousness going on around this farm (for example, i asked where the chickens go in the winter time, and the answer was basically "in the soup pot"), it is my country living dream.* mary and john grow ninety percent of what they eat - including asparagus and beans and more - and are mofga certified organic. everything on the farm connects to everything else, and nothing is wasted.
























the goats don't have their horns removed, which is a pretty common practice.

















and they give birth on their own, with no interventions at all, often finding a quiet spot way back in the woods to do it, something they wouldn't be able to do on most farms.

















after we left the farm, we passed this building and paused to admire it. it looks like an old school house, or maybe a church. we all four briefly imagined buying it and fixing it up and living in it. and buying some goats. and then we drove home to portland.




















*although, to be precise, i only have this country living dream about two months out of the year. the rest of the time, i'm a devoted city girl. but those backyard chickens are sounding better and better to me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw many goats & sheep & llamas in the land outside Santa Fe & Tesuque, &, come to think of it, in Santa Fe (we were at a stop sign, & I looked over and a llama was munching on something & looking at me -- I said to Chuck, "Is that a...llama?! He said, "Yep!"" Ze wagged his tail.

Hey, Happy Birthday to you guys!!!

Sooze

Liz Woodbury said...

thanks, sooze! i just this minute got a box from you guys - i'll wait to open it til m gets home!!