Farm Planning: Milk and Cheese: February 2011

      This is Rosemary the mini Jersey cow. I hope she will be joining us here on Black Bear Farm soon.What is the delay, you ask?
      To accommodate Rosemary, Smithfield Township needs a new backyard livestock ordinance . Right now, the ordinance enacted in the seventies prohibits all but 4H projects on less than FIVE acres!! So it's okay to build a barn, you just can't put anything in it!!

      Since folks have rediscovered the thrill of laying hens in the backyard, and the benefits of fresh, warm eggs, and composted manure for the garden, we are hoping this ordinance will right the wrongs of the plastic/petroleum generation. 

Kathy Mae's Chickens

 This is Kathy Mae, raised on Pond Hole, "down the road" from where I grew

Kathy Mae

Handicapped helen, Lacks vision and has a Deformed Beak.

up on Turkey Knoll. Kathy is now in Georgia ( note the sunshine and bare arms). She posted these pics and  text exactly the day that Marty and I were shoveling out our 120 foot driveway,  after the fourth major storm in three weeks. Marty has four wheel drive, but my car had been iced in for a week.

Our driveway after we hand cleared it . . .A job well done.

       As Kathy wrote: "We went to the chicken show in Newnan, GA, and got two chickens from a local farmer. Helen was free!"  I noticed Marty out front, shoveling like a banshee. This was curious, as he had acquired a snowblower in September. All winter, he had proudly strutted behind it, humming as he filled the engine, smiling as it did all the work, no, near glowing, as it did all the work!