Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

William wrote:

<<Hi Marie
   
  Sounds like you're doing a great job.
   
  Wondering if you are a working farm or rathar keeping a few animals.  I
keep thinking cheese making would be fun (but I suspect you might need quite
a few sheep or goats) to get enough milk.  But artisan cheeses are certainly
tasty and perhaps finacially lucrative if done well.>>

This was once a working dairy goat farm, but I lost my husband and partner a
couple of years ago and have been regrouping ever since.

Artisan goat cheese farmsteads are springing up everywhere. Don't even
consider it unless you are willing to work every waking minute and have a
good relationship with your health department. It's not impossible to
succeed, but it's damned hard. The most successful operations do not use
outside labor and are small and run with the greatest attention to
management possible. If you get serious about doing this, I will look up my
late husband's explanation of why you are out of your effing mind (and he
loved the work).
   
<<  The sounds of the coyotes is ominous.  Are you out west??>>

For people in Boston or New York City, I might be considered to be out West.
Actually, I'm in central Illinois, about 200 miles south of Chicago and 100
miles northwest of St. Louis. First came the deer, then came the coyotes. I
suppose we should be grateful that the coyotes must get some fawns each
year. On days when I go into Springfield early in the morning (before the
state truck picks up road kill) I generally see 3 or 4 dead deer.

Marie