[Ag-eq] new Member

[Nella Foster]

Welcome Susan:

Your farm sounds absolutely beautiful.  From your description it reminds me 
of the family farm in Arkansas where I grew up.  I dream of returning there 
some day.

I hope you will keep us all posted on your progress.  It sounds like such an 
exciting adventure.

I live in Phoenix Arizona on a small horse property.  I have 3 mules and 2 
goats.  The property came with several older citrus trees, which I'm trying 
to nurse back to health.  I enjoy growing a few herbs, tomatoes and peppers. 
I've thought about getting a few chickens, but need to do some more research 
first.

I use the mules for trail riding and ride as often as possible.  Since I 
have 3 of them I also let friends ride so the mules can get exercised.  For 
the most part they are well mannered and trust worthy.

As I said I have 2 goats; a retired dairy goat and her son.  They just 
wander around eating weeds and making nuisances of themselves!  Every so 
often my nanny goat has a false pregnancy and starts making milk.  The vet 
says it is o.k., just to milk her.  I wonder if anyone else has seen this 
with goats?

I also have 4 dogs, all of which were rescues.  3 of them are seniors now 
and rather low energy.  The young dog has a lot of energy and is still 
adjusting to the farm animals.

Once again welcome and I look forward to hearing more from you.

Nella


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Roe" <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net>
To: <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 6:49 PM
Subject: [Ag-eq] new Member


> Hi Everyone,
>
> My name is Susan Roe and my family lives on a 60 acre farm just outside 
> Richmond, Virginia.  It has been in my family since about 1912 and my 
> grandfather and his sons had a truck farm business.  My father then went 
> from large scale farming to only about 5 acres in market gardens and the 
> rest was left to feed fields, pastures for horses and a few cattle and the 
> whole 60 acres was ringed with woods that dated around the time of the 
> Civil War.
>
> Through the intervening years, grandparents and parents passing, myself 
> and my husband living 1-1/2 miles away in Virginia Beach while he was in 
> the navy, landscapes change and memories of old fade away....
>
> That is until we both decided it was time to come home and make Dogwood 
> Farm the heritage farm we always dreamed of.
>
> Now, we have a two-story western red cedar log home, which looks out over 
> vegetable gardens, a 20tree fruit orchard (newly planted), an expanding 
> herbgarden, an experimental vegetable garden, a two part shrub garden 
> (newly planted) for this years nursery cuttings, a rememberence garden, 
> and marked off sections for future expantion.
>
> We also have 3 flocks of brown egg laying hens, housed in 3 coops with 
> their own 12 foot square enclosed outdoor runs.  I sell eggs to local 
> customers, but several of those customers take them to friends as far off 
> as West Virginia.  I am hoping to get a fourth flock this spring and move 
> my older flock to two chicken tractors.
>
> My husband is almost finished with the new barn where we plan on having 
> two dairy goats and several sheep.  We are looking into either a lama or a 
> small burro as a pasture guard for the sheep and goats.  There are far too 
> many hunting dogs that roam through the place for my liking.  We have 
> never had a problem,and I don't plan on having one either.
>
> I am totally blind and have been so for 31 years.  I am extremely 
> fortunate that my husband feels the same way I do about the farm and don't 
> mind starting off with building a local customer base, one 
> product/produce/craft at a time.
>
> I am really looking forward to being a member of this group and love to 
> share successes along with failures.  We do learn by both.
>
> Looking forward to meeting all of you.
>
> Susan
> dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
>
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