since all talk around our house lately is of fence posts, types of fence, dairy cows and the family sheep herd, i thought i'd begin a blog series on the steps forward (and backward!) we're taking toward an actual, functioning family (hobby?) farm here in our hills of western pennsylvania.

the two biggest reasons to get a family dairy cow and a few sheep in the same pasture is:
 - the amount of grass that we have and don't want to mow ourselves anymore
 - our own family dairy and free wool!

we've been looking almost everywhere for fencing. right now we're still looking for fence posts. kenny eyes trees that line our woods and wonders if they'll be sturdy enough. we've learend that locust trees make the best posts - as they last the longest without rotting in the ground. this is good to know as we'd kinda like the fence to outlast us!

our barn is old and rusty (not rustic - very rusty and is almost a hazard at this point!) so we want to use the wood from it to construct a smaller, more manageable barn where the pasture will be (on the other side of the property from the barn). it will be big enough to have a milking area, and house the animals at night. we'll reconstruct the chicken coop off this new barn. after the new barn is up, we'll burn down the remainder of the old barn. or the fire department will burn it down for us.

then, once we have the fence and the barn up, we need to buy animals! i've been researching what we need to know before we show up at a cow or sheep auction and i think i want to take a dairy cow farmer with me. we don't want to end up with a mean cow or sheep that run from us each time we come to feed and/or milk them.

the pros outnumber the cons at this point in caring for our own dairy cow AND sheep. but here are the "cons" that creep up every now and then:
 - cows do not take a day off, therefore you cannot have a day off. we have to be around to milk the cow twice a day (some jersey cows go down to once a day after their calf is weaned).
 - the vet bills for farm animals are much higher than house pets. i'm planning some bartering. :)
 - we're going to have a LOT of milk if we can't find enough families to share it with. we'd like to share the milk and have the families donate towards the winter feeding of the cow (when they can't graze) or help us milk when we need a vacation day or two.

we are at the very beginning stages of the process. it could be a year or a few years before we're set up and ready for our family farm to start working. all i know at this point in the game is that our cow will not be named betsy. or bessie or any derivation of the name "elizabeth."  she will have a very cow-appropriate name.

and don't say "betsy" is cow-appropriate name. :)