MuldrowHomeFarm
Loving the herd life
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2020
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- 180
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- 544
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1999 is the year we met......I will merely highlight what has brought us here......but suffice to say, a lot of love, patience, forgiveness and so much grace, it cannot even be measured.
I am assuming that the initials, "DH" stands for Dear Husband......at least, I am hoping they do. If not, then please know that DH here does stand for Dear Husband.....because to me, my husband, is a very Dear man......
I met DH at Hollywood Video, where we both worked. Our marriage is a 2nd marriage for both of us and he has 4 boys, one of which, I claim and he calls me Mom. I came into our marriage with a daughter and son. Both my kids were younger than his youngest by about 2 years. So....we had a blended household of a 15 yr old boy, a 13 yr old boy, a 10 yr old girl and a 7 year old boy. I didn't have teenagers, so I had no idea what I was in for......
Fast forward through all the drama of having that household incurred........the oldest boy that lived in our house, JM, joined the Air Force upon graduation and that was wonderful and terrible at the same time. He is now 36, medically retired after 15 years in the AF, survived a kidney transplant 2 years ago in February and is back home with us at the farm, with his incredible wife, who we absolutely adore! They have been married for 8 years and she is our angel!
Our daughter married an incredible young man, who joined the K9 unit in the Army and they are out East finishing up his contract so they can move home to the farm in a couple of years. We are praying for a baby in 2021, as they have suffered 2 miscarriages in the last 2 years.
Our youngest son joined the Air Force when he turned 24. A little slow out of the gate, but he loves it and is up North "living the dream", as he puts it. He plans to finish his contract, maybe do a couple more years and then come home to the farm. We shall see what God has in store for him and us!
DH and I decided very early that we liked each other, as well as, loved each other enough to work together. From 1999 to 2006, we were lucky enough to have jobs that allowed us to be together all the time. In 2006 we had a financial set back that required us to move from South Texas to Midland, Texas, or as I like to call it.....HELL. Please, I know that many people love West Texas and I was born in Houston, Texas so I am Texan, through and through but to me, Midland, Texas is HELL. If not for the fact that it is a desert, it is because of the family members who resided there that were trying to "help" us, all the while trying to destroy our marriage behind the scenes. We endured 2 years there until I said, "I am going home, to South Texas." And so we did.....we ended up in South East Texas about 20 minutes from Louisiana and 40 minutes from the Ocean....which is why I moved as far South as I could.....(we cannot afford Galveston or I would live there). Also, Galveston is where we met........
Anyway.....in 2008 when we moved to SE TX, I found out that DH grew up as a beekeeper, with his father and grandfather and they once owned 4000 hives. He RELUCTANTLY agreed to teach me how to keep bees and we currently run between 400 and 600 hives locally. We had not been able to work together since 2006. DH took a job that he enjoyed but hated to be working without me, as I hated to work without him so we set out to do what we could to work together again as soon as possible. 2018 looked like we would be able to do it but it ended up being 2019 before we made it a reality.
2017 JM moved home with MM and had his kidney transplant. He has blossomed. We bought 56 acres of uncleared land and went to work. Little did we know that uncleared land would be so difficult to make into a farm of any kind......but we are loving it! Now, because we are in SE TX, we have endured Hurricane Harvey and Imelda. Both have dumped so much water on us that we keep floaties on all our goats. Thank God we did not have animals in Harvey and we did not get the goats until the week after Imelda.
Another notable event is that a young friend of mine, that is the same age as our daughter........I met her when we worked together from 2009-2011, gave birth in 2018, to an amazing baby boy. Her family is out of the picture and we have adopted them as ours. We went through her pregnancy and his birth with them and now he is 2 and a half.....the absolute light of all our lives......we couldn't love him more if he was biologically ours. He will never know that he is not ours! They live with us and will build a house at the farm when the time comes.
We timbered the majority of the property and divided it up. 38 acres for our son and our precious MM. 18 acres for DH and me. At our age, we thought 18 acres would be just about perfect. Wow....18 acres is HUGE. So, we gave an acre to CS and our baby boy. Henceforth, he will be known as The Super Hero, Captain Spiderman. He loves Captain America and Spiderman. A picture will follow so you can see what I mean.......please, feel free to laugh, as he thought this outfit up all by himself.
Then we gave 2 acres to our daughter, AG and 2 to our youngest son, JE. Thus reducing our land to 13 acres. We might just be able to take care of that!
I did make sure that we left about 60 feet of brush on the front and side of our property to block any potential neighbors. I can safely say, it was not enough brush......
I grew up on a farm, 330 acres and we farmed soy beans, cows, horses, goats and chickens. That, of course, was 1000 years ago (I am 52 now) so I thought I had enough knowledge to do what we needed to do. I learned to drive a tractor when I was 6. I could saddle my own horse at 6, Even though I had to stand on a 55 gallon drum and jump of to cinch the blanket on her, I did it. I left the farm at 18 and SWORE I would never go back. Well, I didn't but at 40, I couldn't remember why I left. I love farm life and surprisingly so does DH, even though he is a Pirate at Heart, he was just born 200 years too late.
2018 allowed us to start our dream by putting in a 75 foot driveway. We then started fencing in the outer perimeter of the first portion of the property. We chose the best fencing for goats we could find, which means it is fairly expensive and now damn near impossible to get......we have to order it by the pallet. About $2k a pop. We get a slight discount by buying a pallet. We had the front and the sides fenced but the back was not fenced.......but it was a long, long way to the back of our property and we back up to the LVNA canal, which is right next to the RR tracks so we figured any livestock would just stay up front, which, thank heavens, they did...we went to auction.
DH decided that it was time for natures lawn mowers, since I refused to buy him a Cheeta Lawmower for $10K. We took $1500 and went to see what we could see at the auction barn. It was exciting and sad. I will not go into the auction scene but I hate the thought of going back. I will, mind you, because I am a rescuer at heart and DH knows this and accepts it. In the last 10 years, we have housed, vetted and rehomed over 40 dogs. This year we have had 2 litters of little black puppies dropped at our gate at the farm. All vetted and rehomed. I am proud of this. We never refuse something God puts on our doorstep. The auction wasn't put on our doorstep but now that I know what it is......well, I will go rescue from there again but now I know how to quarantine, thanks corona, and that is helpful.
We walked around the pens and wrote down all the numbers of the goats we wanted to bid on. We were given specific instructions by our leader. DH would be doing the bidding. Only Nannies and NO PREGNANT GOATS. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.......
Everything was going well, right up until DH started bidding on an OBVIOUS Billy Goat. He was beautiful but he was a BOY. I am on one side of the room, JM (son) and MM (dil) are on the other side of the room. We are frantically looking at each other and the back of the room, where DH is now in a bidding war for this boy. I am gesturing wildly and JM is mouthing to me, "What is he doing?" DH never, NEVER, looks at us...his trusty spotters......he just goes right on bidding......and winning this boy. After he finishes, he glances at me. Noticing my STUNNED face, he mouths, "What?" I mouth, "It is a BILLY." He says, "What?" I make the hand signs for LARGE COJONES and say very loudly, "HE HAS BALLS! HE IS A BILLY!" Everyone around me busted out laughing, of course and DH looks down and says out loud, "The number shows it is a Nanny." I shake my head and DH looks over to JM who mimics my hand gestures. Just then the auctioneer says, "Hey, sorry about that, I gave the wrong number on that last goat." But by then, we had already bought him so.....oh well.......no, they would not go back and re sell him.....so we took him home. At the end of the day, we ended up with one nanny with twin billy kids, I just couldn't let them be split up, 1 billy and 14 nannies and 2 wethers. As we were leaving, the boys were already out back loading up our herd, we girls went to the potty. I got stopped by a little goat that was being sold with no bids. I asked the auctioneer if she was a nanny and he said yes. The bid was $40. No one bit. They were about to move on so I bid $35 on this little thing. I couldn't believe my ears when some dude from across the room bid $40. I just stared at him and said, "Seriously? He asked for $40 900 times and you never said a freaking word." I turned to the auctioneer and said, "$50" then just stared at the Dude. He remained silent. And this is how I ended up going outside to my wonderful DH and saying, "We have one more to load. I'm sorry. No one wanted her and I couldn't leave her." DH just shook his head and sent JM to find my last little girl. Imagine my shock when JM brought me a goat that stood about 14 inches tall. My son said, "Here is your goat, Mom." He looked at his Dad and just started laughing. I had bought a teacup goat. OMG. She was precious. I loved her so much and DH said, "Honey, we are buying goats to clear our land. What exactly, is she going to do?"
I had no response but I loved her.
DH and JM, along with me and MM, had built a surround that was about 40x40 with a temporary loafing shed *pics to follow* for our little herd. We brought them to the farm and put them in our "pen" with the loading shed and set a round bale of hay in the center. We thought we were set.
A friend said, "Do not name them if you intend on eating them." So, I promptly named all of them. I know we will be eating some of them this winter and I am ok with that. As a matter of fact, I am looking forward to devouring Jane. She is quite a little B*tch. She will taste lovely. She does have beautiful babies and we will get one more kidding out of her before we send her to freezer camp but she is terrible.
I have always loved to write but I have never had a subject that I could just latch on to and write that felt so right. I would apologize for the length but this is my journal so I won't.
Since we were so uninformed about goats and had no frigging idea what the hell we were doing, we ended up losing a few before we got the information we needed. I am not sure how much I can type without it booting me out so I will post this and start another post, just in case.....
I am assuming that the initials, "DH" stands for Dear Husband......at least, I am hoping they do. If not, then please know that DH here does stand for Dear Husband.....because to me, my husband, is a very Dear man......
I met DH at Hollywood Video, where we both worked. Our marriage is a 2nd marriage for both of us and he has 4 boys, one of which, I claim and he calls me Mom. I came into our marriage with a daughter and son. Both my kids were younger than his youngest by about 2 years. So....we had a blended household of a 15 yr old boy, a 13 yr old boy, a 10 yr old girl and a 7 year old boy. I didn't have teenagers, so I had no idea what I was in for......
Fast forward through all the drama of having that household incurred........the oldest boy that lived in our house, JM, joined the Air Force upon graduation and that was wonderful and terrible at the same time. He is now 36, medically retired after 15 years in the AF, survived a kidney transplant 2 years ago in February and is back home with us at the farm, with his incredible wife, who we absolutely adore! They have been married for 8 years and she is our angel!
Our daughter married an incredible young man, who joined the K9 unit in the Army and they are out East finishing up his contract so they can move home to the farm in a couple of years. We are praying for a baby in 2021, as they have suffered 2 miscarriages in the last 2 years.
Our youngest son joined the Air Force when he turned 24. A little slow out of the gate, but he loves it and is up North "living the dream", as he puts it. He plans to finish his contract, maybe do a couple more years and then come home to the farm. We shall see what God has in store for him and us!
DH and I decided very early that we liked each other, as well as, loved each other enough to work together. From 1999 to 2006, we were lucky enough to have jobs that allowed us to be together all the time. In 2006 we had a financial set back that required us to move from South Texas to Midland, Texas, or as I like to call it.....HELL. Please, I know that many people love West Texas and I was born in Houston, Texas so I am Texan, through and through but to me, Midland, Texas is HELL. If not for the fact that it is a desert, it is because of the family members who resided there that were trying to "help" us, all the while trying to destroy our marriage behind the scenes. We endured 2 years there until I said, "I am going home, to South Texas." And so we did.....we ended up in South East Texas about 20 minutes from Louisiana and 40 minutes from the Ocean....which is why I moved as far South as I could.....(we cannot afford Galveston or I would live there). Also, Galveston is where we met........
Anyway.....in 2008 when we moved to SE TX, I found out that DH grew up as a beekeeper, with his father and grandfather and they once owned 4000 hives. He RELUCTANTLY agreed to teach me how to keep bees and we currently run between 400 and 600 hives locally. We had not been able to work together since 2006. DH took a job that he enjoyed but hated to be working without me, as I hated to work without him so we set out to do what we could to work together again as soon as possible. 2018 looked like we would be able to do it but it ended up being 2019 before we made it a reality.
2017 JM moved home with MM and had his kidney transplant. He has blossomed. We bought 56 acres of uncleared land and went to work. Little did we know that uncleared land would be so difficult to make into a farm of any kind......but we are loving it! Now, because we are in SE TX, we have endured Hurricane Harvey and Imelda. Both have dumped so much water on us that we keep floaties on all our goats. Thank God we did not have animals in Harvey and we did not get the goats until the week after Imelda.
Another notable event is that a young friend of mine, that is the same age as our daughter........I met her when we worked together from 2009-2011, gave birth in 2018, to an amazing baby boy. Her family is out of the picture and we have adopted them as ours. We went through her pregnancy and his birth with them and now he is 2 and a half.....the absolute light of all our lives......we couldn't love him more if he was biologically ours. He will never know that he is not ours! They live with us and will build a house at the farm when the time comes.
We timbered the majority of the property and divided it up. 38 acres for our son and our precious MM. 18 acres for DH and me. At our age, we thought 18 acres would be just about perfect. Wow....18 acres is HUGE. So, we gave an acre to CS and our baby boy. Henceforth, he will be known as The Super Hero, Captain Spiderman. He loves Captain America and Spiderman. A picture will follow so you can see what I mean.......please, feel free to laugh, as he thought this outfit up all by himself.
Then we gave 2 acres to our daughter, AG and 2 to our youngest son, JE. Thus reducing our land to 13 acres. We might just be able to take care of that!
I did make sure that we left about 60 feet of brush on the front and side of our property to block any potential neighbors. I can safely say, it was not enough brush......
I grew up on a farm, 330 acres and we farmed soy beans, cows, horses, goats and chickens. That, of course, was 1000 years ago (I am 52 now) so I thought I had enough knowledge to do what we needed to do. I learned to drive a tractor when I was 6. I could saddle my own horse at 6, Even though I had to stand on a 55 gallon drum and jump of to cinch the blanket on her, I did it. I left the farm at 18 and SWORE I would never go back. Well, I didn't but at 40, I couldn't remember why I left. I love farm life and surprisingly so does DH, even though he is a Pirate at Heart, he was just born 200 years too late.
2018 allowed us to start our dream by putting in a 75 foot driveway. We then started fencing in the outer perimeter of the first portion of the property. We chose the best fencing for goats we could find, which means it is fairly expensive and now damn near impossible to get......we have to order it by the pallet. About $2k a pop. We get a slight discount by buying a pallet. We had the front and the sides fenced but the back was not fenced.......but it was a long, long way to the back of our property and we back up to the LVNA canal, which is right next to the RR tracks so we figured any livestock would just stay up front, which, thank heavens, they did...we went to auction.
DH decided that it was time for natures lawn mowers, since I refused to buy him a Cheeta Lawmower for $10K. We took $1500 and went to see what we could see at the auction barn. It was exciting and sad. I will not go into the auction scene but I hate the thought of going back. I will, mind you, because I am a rescuer at heart and DH knows this and accepts it. In the last 10 years, we have housed, vetted and rehomed over 40 dogs. This year we have had 2 litters of little black puppies dropped at our gate at the farm. All vetted and rehomed. I am proud of this. We never refuse something God puts on our doorstep. The auction wasn't put on our doorstep but now that I know what it is......well, I will go rescue from there again but now I know how to quarantine, thanks corona, and that is helpful.
We walked around the pens and wrote down all the numbers of the goats we wanted to bid on. We were given specific instructions by our leader. DH would be doing the bidding. Only Nannies and NO PREGNANT GOATS. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.......
Everything was going well, right up until DH started bidding on an OBVIOUS Billy Goat. He was beautiful but he was a BOY. I am on one side of the room, JM (son) and MM (dil) are on the other side of the room. We are frantically looking at each other and the back of the room, where DH is now in a bidding war for this boy. I am gesturing wildly and JM is mouthing to me, "What is he doing?" DH never, NEVER, looks at us...his trusty spotters......he just goes right on bidding......and winning this boy. After he finishes, he glances at me. Noticing my STUNNED face, he mouths, "What?" I mouth, "It is a BILLY." He says, "What?" I make the hand signs for LARGE COJONES and say very loudly, "HE HAS BALLS! HE IS A BILLY!" Everyone around me busted out laughing, of course and DH looks down and says out loud, "The number shows it is a Nanny." I shake my head and DH looks over to JM who mimics my hand gestures. Just then the auctioneer says, "Hey, sorry about that, I gave the wrong number on that last goat." But by then, we had already bought him so.....oh well.......no, they would not go back and re sell him.....so we took him home. At the end of the day, we ended up with one nanny with twin billy kids, I just couldn't let them be split up, 1 billy and 14 nannies and 2 wethers. As we were leaving, the boys were already out back loading up our herd, we girls went to the potty. I got stopped by a little goat that was being sold with no bids. I asked the auctioneer if she was a nanny and he said yes. The bid was $40. No one bit. They were about to move on so I bid $35 on this little thing. I couldn't believe my ears when some dude from across the room bid $40. I just stared at him and said, "Seriously? He asked for $40 900 times and you never said a freaking word." I turned to the auctioneer and said, "$50" then just stared at the Dude. He remained silent. And this is how I ended up going outside to my wonderful DH and saying, "We have one more to load. I'm sorry. No one wanted her and I couldn't leave her." DH just shook his head and sent JM to find my last little girl. Imagine my shock when JM brought me a goat that stood about 14 inches tall. My son said, "Here is your goat, Mom." He looked at his Dad and just started laughing. I had bought a teacup goat. OMG. She was precious. I loved her so much and DH said, "Honey, we are buying goats to clear our land. What exactly, is she going to do?"
I had no response but I loved her.
DH and JM, along with me and MM, had built a surround that was about 40x40 with a temporary loafing shed *pics to follow* for our little herd. We brought them to the farm and put them in our "pen" with the loading shed and set a round bale of hay in the center. We thought we were set.
A friend said, "Do not name them if you intend on eating them." So, I promptly named all of them. I know we will be eating some of them this winter and I am ok with that. As a matter of fact, I am looking forward to devouring Jane. She is quite a little B*tch. She will taste lovely. She does have beautiful babies and we will get one more kidding out of her before we send her to freezer camp but she is terrible.
I have always loved to write but I have never had a subject that I could just latch on to and write that felt so right. I would apologize for the length but this is my journal so I won't.
Since we were so uninformed about goats and had no frigging idea what the hell we were doing, we ended up losing a few before we got the information we needed. I am not sure how much I can type without it booting me out so I will post this and start another post, just in case.....