Stoltzfus Homesteads

01/21/2025

A couple of weeks ago, we had a FF give birth in the field, dry her babies and leave them there in the freezing temps. Normally we bring in our girls a couple of days before they kid and put them in a kidding stall, but somehow we over looked Penelope. We have a theory behind why she did it (may have something to do with what happened to Mr. Ed).

On this farm a goat isn’t a dead goat until it’s a warm and dead goat. So we warmed them up and loved them until we had to face the hard truth that they were in fact dead.

People always say to us “How do you do it? How do you deal with becoming attached and they don’t make it?” Well unfortunately a famous saying comes in to play.. “When you have livestock, you have deadstock.”

Sometimes it’s a lot harder than others to let go, but that’s part of farming.

Even if their sole purpose is to be eaten, it’s still hard.

So the best we can do is love them while they are here, and then keep on keeping on after they are gone.

01/16/2025

Winnie girl has the most gorgeous markings. 🩷

01/15/2025

What you get when you ask your 4 year old to take a picture….

Anyway. The girls have names!!

Mostly white one is Winnie - Named after my Ed man whom I called Edwina. (thanks Aunt Deb ☺️)

Dark Brown is Chicken Nugget -Clearly named by Waylon who has a thing for naming goats after random food. 😂

Stay tuned for much cuter pictures of their gorgeous coloring!

01/14/2025

Here is a rough draft of the long-awaited schedule for our Homeschool Days Down on the Farm!
There may be some changes, or additions to the events. We are still working with Spiritual Fruit Farm to figure out the best time for their demonstration!

Our petting zoo will be available the entire duration of the event, along with the scavenger hunt (with prizes), farm themed crafts & "Touch a Tractor"!

Get your tickets here...
https://stoltzfushomesteads.square.site/

01/14/2025

Trying to make a cute video of our handsome Billy chowing down on some fresh hay, & Incase you can’t tell, it was time to do evening barn chores. The calf wasn’t to happy he wasn’t allowed to have more to drink. 😆 Listen to Jerry in the background telling him to hush. 😂😂

01/11/2025

2 more Does born this morning!!

Name suggestions?

01/07/2025

This lady had a date with The AI Technician today!!

Probably not the kind of AI most people think of… we are talking Artificial Insemination!

We have been waiting for her to go in to heat for a LONG time now, & just when it seemed she wasn’t going to, boom it happened.

So excited to see if we have a bull calf or a heifer calf in 9 months!

🩷 🐮 🩵

01/06/2025

We are excited to announce that Spiritual Fruit Farm has accepted our invitation to join us for our Homeschool Day on the Farm!!

The time for the presentation will be announced along with the rest of the schedule in the next few months!

Purchase your tickets to see the awesome presentation, experience our petting zoo, butter making, soap making class and so much more!

Tickets are only $10 per child and adults are free with the purchase of at least 1 child ticket.

https://stoltzfushomesteads.square.site

01/04/2025

So much truth in this! Muddy season = Messy eggs! When we sell them we rinse them off, but when they stay with us for consumption they do not get washed. Any extra “unmentionables” are scraped off, but not washed.

Once in a while, I'll post a photo of my homestead fresh eggs and get some nasty comments. But in real life, eggs sometimes get dirty. In the winter, when it's mud season, they are almost always dirty. This doesn't mean the eggs aren't suitable for eating, nor does it mean the hen house is dirty. It just means my birds go outside 😁

In addition, I never wash eggs before storing them. All eggs have a natural coating (called a "bloom") that prevents harmful microorganisms from penetrating the shell of the egg. Therefore, I simply refrigerate my eggs, dirty or not. (Yes, I keep eggs from touching other foods in the fridge - by simply storing them in a cardboard egg carton.)

Bonus: By not washing my eggs until I use them, my eggs last 6+ months in the refrigerator without going bad.

Tip: To wash eggs, I don't use any cleansers. They pe*****te the eggshells. Instead, I use a vegetable brush (set aside just for cleaning eggs) and running water.

01/04/2025

One of these does not belong… 😂🐐🐮

01/03/2025

Kinda quick, kinda long Farm Update…
When we started the homestead, we had the intentions of sustaining on our own as much as we could. Throughout our first couple of years, we have gotten a decent start, but we still have a long way to go.
A couple of weeks ago we made a poll asking how many people knew the large majority of our animals were rescued or we gave them a home that someone else couldn’t for one reason or another. Most of you knew, but there are plenty that do not.
With taking on more animals comes more costs. Feed, vet, supplies, hay, etc. to offset the costs we decided to start our cuddle sessions, which quickly turned into our traveling petting zoo. Lately there have been multiple people commenting about our prices going up, or unfollows because of being tired of seeing our “advertisements” but our expenses along with everyone else’s are rising.
We do A LOT of free, or highly discounted events for the community, which we LOVE doing, but we need to offset those costs with other forms of income. A simple follow, like or comment on any of our social media helps with getting us one step closer to making another form of income so that we can not only keep doing our free events, but keep rescuing the animals that need a new loving home.
Our farm (along with a lot of others) barely breaks even at the end of the month. We will keep doing as many free, and discounted events as we can, but please know when we are selling items from our animals and you see our advertisements for our cuddle sessions/traveling petting zoo we are barely making a profit if any profit at all.
We will try our best to mix up our content so there aren’t as many advertisements for our petting zoo, and more of our cute animals.

Thank you to EVERYONE for your support and we are excited to see what 2025 brings!

01/02/2025

2024 was a wild ride…
Thank you all for riding along!

2025 will bring plenty more adventures, make sure to follow along!

12/31/2024

Since we gave a new home to some feathered friends we now have an abundance of eggs! We have chicken and duck eggs for sale $3.00/dozen & 1/2!
We are hoping to recoup a little $$ from the extra feed we are using for our new feathered friends by selling the extra eggs we have!
We have green eggs, brown eggs & duck eggs!

Send us a PM to make sure we have some before just stopping in!

12/27/2024

Everyone meet Noel! I said if we had a doe over the next week we were going to name her Noel, so here she is! In all her teeny tiny cuteness. 🎄

Commence kidding season! 🐐

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas from our Family to yours!
🎄 🐐 🎅 🐮

12/24/2024

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Just buy that goat! 😉