Hello!
Long time no see my friend - totally my fault by the way. I am so guilty of getting caught up in the day to day and forgetting about our friends and family who follow us or expect regular updates in their inbox. And let me be completely transparent, life with two toddlers is BUSY. I've talked about that before, you've all heard the story.
So what have we been doing this fall.
Well Levi started his 5th year teaching Ag Education at our local high school this year which has him very busy with students, the Morgan County fair, the annual apple butter stir and the National Convention trip all packed into the fall.
The boys have been going to daycare 2 days a week since mid July and absolutely love it which is such a blessing.
I really struggled with mom guilt at the thought of sending them to someone else as well as with the cost of day care but that is a topic for another time. When we finally chose to send the boys two days a week, I couldn't ignore the fact anymore that I wasn't getting any of the big stuff done while the boys were with me because it just wasn't safe but since starting we are doing great! Charlie also started another year of Tuesday school at our church and he absolutely loves it. He doesn't hesitate to say goodbye and shoo me away. I can't imagine what Kindergarten is going to be like next year. He'll be fine, I have no doubt, it's me that will again have the problem.
Both of the boys took full advantage of the indian summer we had through the beginning of November. We played outside, made millions of leaf piles and hiked our wooded hillside. Charlie is especially excited for "Buck Deer Season" as he calls it because they have been seeing some nice bucks on our trail camera. Shot gun season for white tailed deer will start in Ohio the week after Thanksgiving. Levi says he may actually take him along this year if he wants to. Stay tuned!
We are almost one year into Rocky Knob Meats and have been so blessed to sell almost all of our meats to wonderful customers, friends and family. We're really excited for 2023 because we'll finally be able to ship our meats NATIONWIDE! This has been a long time coming with lots of background research and heartache trying to make it happen but it is finally coming to fruition.
We added some new animals to the farm this fall too. Roscoe and Enos, our guard donkeys. They are learning our sheep and the sheep are learning them. You can see more about them here.
The sheep, goats and cows have been rotationally grazing our hayfields and pastures all summer with great success. Getting the most out of our pastures has been a goal of ours for awhile to be as efficient as possible. It was a lot of work moving temporary fence, setting up smaller paddocks to concentrate the sheep and making sure there was water and shade access everywhere but it went really smooth. We saw amazing success with the sheep and goats targeting the flowers and seeds on a couple different weeds in the pasture which should dramatically lower that specific weed in next years pasture. I'm excited to see it in 2023.
Currently, we're getting ready for breeding season for the sheep. The rams will be turned out the Saturday after Thanksgiving which will have us lambing again this year mid-April through the end of May. Since it went so well lambing in the late spring last year we are going to do the same thing again.
Pumpkin season was a great success this fall too! If you haven't been around long you might not know that we actually started our farming journey in 2016 as a u-pick pumpkin patch and corn maze. Some twists and turns have happened along the way - mainly the result of a global pandemic and two growing boys, but pumpkins are still around. We have had a self-serve, on the honor system pumpkin stand in our driveway for the past three years and it seems each year it gets better and better. We can't thank our local community enough for all the support they show us.
I think that's it for now. I am determined to show up for you all more as we approach the holidays and the new year. It is a goal of mine to get back into your inboxes each week with an update, new recipe to try or new YouTube video to share. Feel free to hold me to it!
We'll see you soon and talk to you sooner!