Caleb and Monet are pictured in the 2007 Costume Class at the WV State fair.

Caleb's write-up for the class:

Hello!
I’m Johnny Cash.
I’m the man in black with a guitar on my back and a pretty little goat by my side.

Mama told me not to take my gun to town
But I just didn’t listen, that Sunday morning coming down.
I got in a fight with a boy named Sue; I’d put him in a song.
I’m a man; just flesh and blood, I know I did wrong.

I guess I had it coming; they couldn’t let me go free.
But I broke out of Folsom Prison, where I’m supposed to be.
I’m headed down to Jackson, to my girl so fine.
When I marry you, June, I swear I’ll walk the line.

So I built me a car one piece at a time,
And I’m driving down to Jackson to see my girl so fine.

And here is a photo of a new soap. Unfortunately this photo does not do our "Lavender-Mint" justice.

This bar is created by suspending cubes of green mint soap in a lavender scented cream colored base. The cubes are dispersed throughout the bar, and then a few are sprinkled on top for a fun, chunky bar that smells divine.

Becky

GCH MonaLisa, Antoinette, Abbey Road, and GCH Maire
2007 Dairy Herd

These hardworking girls made us proud during the ADGA One Day Official Milk Test at the WV State Fair.
GCH MonaLisa produced the most milk of all does of every breed…. for the second year in a row!
We earned stars on multiple does, including two yearling milkers!
Monet milked 11.5 lbs with 4% butterfat; Antoinette was just behind her with 11.2 lbs. This is the kind of production we love to see in yearlings.

What to do with all that milk ? Farm visitors usually ask this question first. We still have three kids drinking milk once a day. The resident Holstein steers Bernie and Ice drink bucketfuls every day. Much of the excess milk is made into cheese. It’s impossible to make enough cheese to keep everyone satisfied.
A few of our favorite cheeses are ranch, bacon horseradish, basil roulade, and cheesecake made with creamy Queso Blanco.
And of course the soap production uses plenty of milk. Lately we’ve been restocking favorite soap varieties and testing some new ones. Today’s soap production included Lemongrass-Sage, Peppermint-Eucalyptus, Tropical Smoothie, and Lavender-Mint.
Where to find our soaps? If you don't see what you are looking for on the website, or you want a local pickup, just call or email. We have over a dozen new varieties of soaps not yet on the website.
You can find me at the Bedford Farmer's market on Tuesdays from 4-7 PM, and occasional Saturdays at the Westlake market from 9-1.
Becky

On Thursday evening we decided to attend the Star and Stripes Invitational show at Freedom Fest in New Jersey. Some of us attended the show, while others staffed our booth at the Horse and Hound Bedford Wine Festival in Bedford VA.
Friday was a busy day at the farm, packing for the show, trimming feet for the show, etc. At 8:30 AM Brooklyn was picked up and left for her new home. In total five customers stopped by the farm in 24 hours.
Saturday we sold soap! The new soap display shelves made looked so nice! The event was huge, lots of food, art, and craft vendors, selling items like handmade jewelry and candles, leatherwork, woodwork, original paintings, etc. plus ten different wineries offering tastings, unique food vendors, some corporate booths, live music all day, a Barney impersonator from the Andy Griffith show, horse parade, dog agility contests, and more. It was quite interesting. We sold MANY bars of soap and a few lip balms. We completely sold out of several varieties: Ocean Breeze, Peppermint-Eucalyptus, Lilac, Sandalwood-Patchouli, almost all of Lavender and WakeMeUp too.
In New Jersey Ring one Abbey was RGCH, ring two Priority was RGCH, and Maire was BOB. The Freedom Fest included cow, Boer goat, dairy goat, sheep, hog, rabbit, chicken, and baked good judging going on simultaneously under one huge roof! Fun....
Becky

Updates and new soap scents....

The BLOG has been neglected.
It’s time to change that. I’ll start with a few updates.

Abbey Road is an incredible two year old! She keeps winning…. two of her most recent wins included earning a GCH leg over 20 milkers and placing RGCH over 18 milkers!

Priority just won two legs placing GCH in both rings 6-23-07. She held on to win BOB in one ring, but was beaten by her herdmate CH Dixie-Does Trademark C Eva for BOB in the other ring.

The chickens are laying about 11 eggs a day, and they just turned 4 months old.
It’s dry here in Evington. The lush springtime gardens are parched and some plants have been lost. We are picking tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, and potatoes. The sunflowers are gigantic and in full bloom. The sunflowers planted around the chicken house do a wonderful job of shading the run and help the chickens stay cool.

I have been busy soaping! We currently have many wonderful new soaps added to our product line.
I spend more time making soap than updating the website,so all of these new soaps are not listed yet. Here is the list:

Apple Orchard
Clear Complexion (unscented luxury bar)
French Vanilla
Jasmine
Jeweled Citrus
Lavender
Lilac
Lemongrass-Sage
Oatmeal Milk n’ Honey
Peppermint-Eucalyptus
Sandalwood-Patchouli
WakeMeUp (coffee blend)

Let me know if you want to add one of these soaps to your order. They should be loaded into the shopping cart soon.

Becky

Employee Of The Month and Early Eggs
And Farmer’s Markets too….

Every month after totaling up milk records we list the does in order of production on a leader board in the milk room. It’s nice to see production numbers at a glance and perhaps it inspires the girls to try to see their name a little higher on the list next month!
In May our “employee of the month” was GCH Dixie-Does Dreamy MonaLisa 13*M
Producing 457.5 lbs in 31 days for a daily average of 14.74 lbs!
She is a hard worker and one of the reasons why I have made cheese three times this week…. and it is only Wednesday!
Cubed Queso Blanca marinated in olive oil with basil and chopped black olives anyone?

Yesterday one of the 2007 pullets laid an egg. The pullets are 3 months and 2 days old! We’ve never gotten eggs from pullets that young, in fact our previous record was 4 months, nine days.
There is no doubt that it is a pullet egg however. We raise chickens on the all in, all out principle and all the old hens were sold in March. Amazing!
Last night was our first farmer’s market of 2007! Come see us Tuesday evenings in Bedford and Saturday mornings in Westlake!
Becky

Congratulations!Dixie-Does Caspians Jacqueline was GCH at the Clarkesville GA show for her new owner Angie Peevy! Jacqueline joins her litter sister Jacqsonné in winning GCH her first time out!

It’s show season!
Saturday was our second show of 2007, the SDGA/MDGA Memorial Show in Leetown WV.
Antoinette won 1st yearling milker in both rings. Monet and Mairedith traded places right behind her each earning one 2nd and one 3rd in a class of 4. In the two-year-old class Abbey Road won both rings, Paris stood 2nd to her in one ring and 4th in the other.
Priority won her class in ring one and then went on to be RGCH. In ring 2 Priority was 2nd.
MonaLisa won the challenge class and was BOB in ring one, then MonaLisa stood 2nd in the champion challenge class in ring two.
The kid show followed. Primadonna was 2nd and 4th in a large class of 8 juniors.
Jacqsonné was 2x1st Sr kid and India was 2x 2nd behind her.
In ring two Jacqsonné was GCH and BJDIS at her very first show!!

We also showed four does down in GA last month. We had 1st two year old with Catarina’s daughter Eva and second with Abbey. Eva was GCH AND BOB to FINISH her first show out as a two year old!!!
Priority was 1st 3 year old and RGCH, and we had 1st yearling milker!