As we continue learning how to farm, Chris and I continue to have new experiences and try to do what’s best for the animals and our shoppers. Here you can read about some to the changes we’ve made.

Gwen and Grace have become interested in me, and I have become a full blown farmgirl. I have a lot to learn with these cows, like the lingo. I didn’t know a cow was a female that had given birth, I thought they were all just cows, then they fell into categories, like bull, steer, heifer and so on.

As Summer comes to an end, and we just found out our pure Red Wattle breeders are actually Heritage Mutts, that pretty much sums up our Summer. But as we take a real look back, Fluffy Butt Farms LLC had a big summer! We sponsored our towns very first movies in the park, Riley attended her first herding class, we're now breeding our own, chicken meat, pork, beef and goat. Chris is finishing his last two Goats On The Go!® jobs, and I have started a coffee subscription and a new loyalty program on our website! It's been busy, but I feel as though we're heading in a great direction!

in addition to having a farm, we also have a coffee addiction. Sometimes I get super shaky after drinking coffee which I attribute to my forgetting I’m no longer in my 20’s and a pot of coffee no longer sustains me all day. Oh those were the days, I could eat a muffin top and drink a pot of coffee and be fine until dinner. As I’ve gotten older, I need to eat at least two large meals a day, or three small meals, and half a pot of coffee in one sitting is pushing it for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been drinking coffee all my life.

Spring has officially sprung and so have all the goat babies! 20 born with one loss at birth, four more goats to go and then the kidding season on our farm is officially over. March has been insane. So insane that my hopeful goal of finally organizing the house has been left unaccomplished, yet again.

In my last post, we had so much to look forward to in 2022! But we didn’t even get to ring in the new year before 2021 threw a punch. I finally got Covid, and then as soon as 2022 started, it all got even worse.

2021 took us on a wild ride, we were focused on expanding our goat operation, trying out the farmers markets, and I took a week of coffee roasting classes. We upgraded our website, I started blogging, which is harder that I first thought, and then we upgraded again. We started off Spring at both the Bedford Charter Township and Richland Farmers Markets, but soon ended up adding Plainwell, and Otsego to the list. We met some amazing people at the markets who have really given us some great tips and we've even developed some great friendships. The farmers markets are where I learned that my coffee roasting skills are good enough to earn back repeat business, which was when I decided to take some classes and really start learning more about what I’m doing.

I’ve mentioned a few times in my blog posts that we feed our dogs raw, meaning raw meat. Also called a whole prey, or Franken prey, diet. There are other versions of this where people add veggies and fruit. I opted to exclude those for two reasons, 1. Addie won’t eat them, and 2. I was trying to get to the bottom of her allergies. So here’s our story.

The pig was inside the electric netting enclosure for about 20 seconds before she decided to challenge the electric netting. She sniffed it, got shocked, and jumped through the netting. Here’s where we both had the same thought, “huh”. We never even considered the fact that she might start running away from us down the hill and through the woods.

Of course you’ve guessed it already, we need more goats! I told Chris my thoughts, but he wasn’t so sure. So I explained it again, “we can’t sell our herd’s kids for meat, they cost too much. We need commercial goats, something that would be profitable immediately”. He humored me and allowed me to search. Within a few days a man down in Alabama posted that he needed to sell his whole herd. My first thought was “ROAD TRIP”! It took Chris a little longer to get on board with the idea, but he got there, and it turned out to be an amazing experience.

Chris and I found ourselves at the National Kiko Registration’s goat conference a couple of weeks ago. We drove eight hours to Cookeville, TN for said conference. We decided a few months back to attend, and with the gas shortage, and my recovering from a very recent major surgery, we didn’t know if this conference would actually work for us. There’s still so much work we need to do on the farm, and I haven’t been much help.

At the height of the pandemic, our meat suppliers shutdown their freezers, and there were limits on the amount of meat that you could purchase in the store. I had to seriously consider going back to kibble, but even the higher quality kibble was out of stock. So now what? My father-in-law suggested to Chris that we get and raise meat rabbits. Chris assumed I wouldn't go for it, but mentioned it anyhow, and the next thing I know, we were driving to pick up four rabbits. I told him how I was raised on it but honestly don't remember eating it, or how it tasted, but then again my mom told me it was chicken. So I assumed it tasted like chicken.

We saw laying hens as a money saving opportunity, little did we know that's not exactly true. People in the Facebook groups call that first egg, the Thousand Dollar Egg, and for good reason!

When Chris and I started Fluffy Butt Farms BC in June 2020, it was because of me. The realization that I was relying on the grocery stores to feed me, and they had failed, it really scared me. Eggs were gone, chicken, beef, pork, all gone. So we went out and bought seeds, fruit trees, Chickens, meat rabbits and dual purpose goats. But still, we had to wait for all of our work to start producing food for us.

Like so many people all over America, we wanted to move away from the big city and grow/raise our own food.