About the Farm
How we ended up in Virginia?
After deciding that I was going to move to a bigger farm to start a sanctuary, I began the search for a new farm. I wanted to find a farm that I fell in love with which would make a great new home not only for myself but for all the animals. I looked in NJ, DE, MD, SC, KY and finally VA. When I drove up to this farm, I had not even entered the driveway when I knew it was the one.
What made this one so special?
It was 31 acres which was a dream amount of land. It already had fields that were ready so I could move my farm full of animals immediately to their new home. But it also had open fields to be able to expand the number of pastures we would have as well as having a huge barn with 14 stalls inside and 5 outside stalls plus two additional older barns that had character but were so functional as well. I worried about all of this well before the house but this one did have an old farmhouse dated back to 1850 on it that didn't need too much work with lots of charm and an amazing front porch.
History of the farm
My neighbor whose barn is in the distance is the 7th generation to live in their farmhouse. Our farm was originally part of a 500 acre farm.
A Cementery
There is cemetery on our farm which has my neighbor's late ancestors buried at. One of the cemetery stones dates 1790 to 1845.
What we call the falling down barn
Behind the house and intermingled with 2 of the goat fields is a very old barn. It provides shelter for the Eight is Not Enough gang. However, the main part of the barn is not structurally sound as one wall is collasping. It is now braced but we are in search of someone with the proper equipment that can jack the wall up while a new foundation beam is put into place. The building has so much history and I am determined not to lose it.
Sunsets and Sunrises
The farm has absolute the most amazing sunrises and sunsets. They never fail to disapoint and never fail to amaze.
Morning Fogs
As beautiful as the sunsets are, our morning fogs make for beautiful scenes as well. We often get a thin layer of fog that lays over the fields and sometimes the fog is so thick, I can't even see across the property.
The Tree
Pictures will never do my favorite tree justice. The trunk of the tree is massive and each branch is equivalent to small trees. It resides along the fence line between our big field and one of the original other fields. It provides lots of shade but most of all pure beauty in each of the seasons.
Green Grass
We love green grass here on the farm. We are super lucky to keep green grass throughout most of the summers and into the fall. Green grass means we feed less hay which saves on our hay costs.
The Train
So in the goat field is a 3 piece train that the goats love to play and lay on. How did I get this train, well it's a funny story. I came home one night from looking at farms and was scrolling through my feed and saw this train that was actually 6 pieces. As most normal people do (LOL), I say OMG, my goats would love this. So the next day I went and bought it. Moving it was extremely difficult and getting it heare from Maryland was even more so which is why I said I would only keep 3 pieces however now I wish I had all 6. :)
The Pond
It is like another world on the farm! In the back corner of the farm, we have a huge pond. It is an absolute spot. I wish you could see it from the main part of the farm but there is a woods in between. But when you walk back there, you feel like you have entered a serene, fairy tale setting.
Storms
When summer storms move in, we can literally see them move across the farm. I am not a big fan of storms and the clouds we see are very cool but very intimidating at the same time.
We see storms coming in the distance. These views are from our big barn where I often wait out the storms.
Rainbows
Because of our massive skys we see, we are super lucky to see many lucky rainbows. We often get full rainbows and I absolutely love getting pictures of all them. Sometimes it is still raining and I will go around in the rain to each field.
Fall Colors
Fall colors on the farm are beautiful. Our trees across our street provide a beautiful backdrop as well as the trees in and behind many of the fields. We hope one day to add tree line our driveway that circles behind the house and goes back to the big barn where there is a loop. The circle makes it so easy for me to manipulate the horse trailer when I have to pull that.
So Peaceful
It is often hard to get out of bed because I am tired but once I am outside, I often am out for hours before eating breakfast. I love the all the different times of the day but early morning is one of my favorite and on the weekends, I will go field to field and visit with the animals an extra amount of time and just soak of the quiet, the birds, and now listen to the guineas. LOL.