The Goats

Acorn, Turnip, and Apple

End of April

Cousins Nick and Asa

The boys had a lemonade stand over the weekend - and made a decent amount of money. They advertised that half of the proceeds would go to "Race for Life".

Asa caught this sunny in the Codorus Creek. He's warming up for Minnesota in June.

New Mower

The Smith family has a new tractor! We decided it was a good idea to just bite the bullet and get a new tractor. We were having so many troubles with the old one; like the belts constantly falling off, one of the three blades not even working, extremely high noise level of the mower, and just one headache after another with the dang thing - it was nickel-and-diming us to death; and it was just frustrating. Our field grass had grown so tall and dense that it took a few mowings to get it to look good. Now it looks great and we can actually hang out over there, which we hadn't done yet this year. We even took the goats over to browse (with great difficulty because of their skittish nature), and Asa has been able to go fishing. The grass was literally taller than him. Once the grass began to grow, it was out of control in no time. John is very happy with his new tractor and is finding all kinds of things and places to mow.

Envirothon Victory!

Jake's Envirothon Team, the Environmentalists, ranked as gold medalists - earning them a blue ribbon in this year's York County Envirothon this past Tuesday. Jake and his team have been studying most of the school year to compete against other 3rd and 4th graders in York County.

The Envirothon is a nationwide program that encourages our kids to learn more about our natural environment through competitive events. Senior High Envirothons are held throughout North America and Canada. York County is one of the few places to offer the Envirothon competitions beginning in the third grade.

John took this photo of just a portion of the crowd of teams and some parents during the awards ceremony at the end the all day event.

Jake and one of his teammates both crossing fingers and arms in hopes of victory.

DC Trip with sister Janice and her family

The Washington Monument from the other side of the mall. Growing up, I always thought this was the Pentagon. As a child, my dad took occasional business trips to "the Pentagon", and this is the image I saw in my head. John laughed at (with?) me when I first called it that, and he still gets a laugh out of it and can't resist poking fun at me every time he sees it.

The very famous and powerful spot where MLK gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

John got a shot of us in front of the Jefferson Memorial.

Asa and Natasha at the foot of Thomas Jefferson.

It was a very rainy and chilly weekend in DC. That didn't stop us from visiting all of the must-see spots. After a two day DC visit, we drove back to Pennsylvania - a 2-hour drive. Janice, Steve, and Natasha stayed for almost a week. I can't believe it, but I didn't get any pictures of them at our home!

Back in PA, we visited an Amish home - which is now a museum site where we learned a thing or two about the Amish. I was able to show them Wehrly's auction, Brown's Orchards, Perrydell Farm, our goats, and the simple beauty of our valley.

Asa Lost a Tooth

Asa lost his fourth tooth today.


He plans to leave the tooth fairy this note.

Not sure how that will work out...

24/7 badness

Three Nigerian Dwarfs

Last Saturday three new arrivals joined our farm family. Apple, Acorn, and Turnip; two month-old Nigerian Pygmy goats. Unfortunately, they are not friendly right now. They are very scared of us and won't come near unless there is food involved. I am hoping that with time, patience, and food treats they will learn to accept us as part of their family.

These goats will just be pets - at this point. They are a miniature breed, so will always be small. This is part of the reason I wanted them. They should be much easier to handle. However they do have horns; we'll see how that goes. People that have goats with horns swear that they'd have it no other way; people who have goats without horns say they'd have it no other way. Supposedly the horns make great handles if needed.

The bucklings (Acorn and Turnip) will be castrated later this month. Castrated males are referred to as wethers. They are more gentle and don't have that strong smell like unaltered males do.
They are very healthy and happy so far. The thing I will concentrate on the most is spending plenty of time in their yard and letting them get used to me. They love Fritos, so I'm hoping that the best way to a goat's heart is through it's stomach. We'll keep you posted.