My first ever Blog and Post

My name is Ruth.  I live in a small town in Sterling, CT and consider myself a "make it yourself" kind of person.  I am married to a wonderful man and have two great boys that are 17 and 20.  I love to supply my family with anything and everything homemade.  The majority of my week goes to working as a tax accountant for a national bank, this is what pays the bills and supplies our health benefits and retirement someday, the other part of my week goes to the small farm we have.

We have been trying to make our small farm profitable on a small budget for about 4 years.  We first tried chickens and beef but realized quickly that our 11 acres and limited budget was not enough to supply enough grazing to reduce the feed price and actually make a profit when the cattle was large enough to market (CT law would only allow selling live animals).  We were also selling eggs from our 45 chickens, or should I say, trying to sell eggs.  At the time the supermarket was getting less than a dollar a dozen and again with the cost of grain we were loosing money selling them for a dollar a dozen.  We had to cut our losses and move on.

We settled on Goats.  They are smaller animals, cute as could be, sweet, give you plenty of milk, eat much less than cattle and they even wag their little tails when they see you.  I could sell milk and make cheese....    Perfect.... 

I put a call into the CT Dept of Ag to find out what I need to do to start making cheese and selling milk when my ladies have their babies.  They asked "will you be selling raw milk".....  Apparently there are a lot more hoops you must jump through with raw milk than pasteurized milk..  I opted for pasteurized as a starting point.  I told him about my plan for creating a cheese making space in my basement so I could milk the girls and get the milk cooled down right away and then process into cheese in the same area...  This was the best scenario in my mind.  He seemed ok with my plan and we made an appointment for him to come look at my place, I was very excited.

Well, the basement will not work because the ceilings are to low to be able to cover all the water pipes with a non porous material and still be able to walk without being hunched all the time.  The only other option would be a separate building with hot and cold running water, cement floor with two separate area for milking and processing.  Then it must be equipped with all the processing and pasteurizing equipment.  It will cost over twenty thousand dollars.  Ugh...  what next.  Soon I will have to give up all together...

My final attempt at making this farm profitable (pay for their grain and hay is what I consider a profit).   I am trying Goat Milk Soap.  ....  Stay tuned for my soap making progress...  I have to admit - it is fun..