What are the opening hours?

Monday 10am - 4pm Tuesday 10am - 4pm Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm Saturday 10am - 2pm

Tiptoe Acres

Located in Honokaa,HI we focus on the smaller things in life. Like breeding mini Jersey cows and mini
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11/23/2023

Happy thanksgiving!

We are grateful for this life. For these cows, for their milk, for land to raise them on. ❤️

May your day be filled with good food and even better company ❤️

11/19/2023

Excuse us while we deal with a nasty sickness running through our household. 🤮😮‍💨 we are exhausted and trying to keep the farm running while also being sick is no fun.

11/17/2023

30!! After years and years of trying (30 of them to be exact!) I’m finally here 😂😉 maybe this is the age I stop rounding up how old I am. 😆😉 I woke up with a lovely little cold - complete with body aches and a fever. 🤷‍♀️ so I’m not immortal yet I guess. 😆 maybe next year!

My sweet kids made me cards and breakfast and picked me flowers! Can a girl be any luckier? I think not ❤️ here’s to another 30 and then another and another. ❤️

11/15/2023

Dry to a pond in 24hrs 😳 so much rain!! It was awesome - though I felt bad that my cows were in a bigger pasture with no stall. Moved them this morning and now it looks like the rain has moved on 😂❤️

11/10/2023

Moving cows to new pastures - that share along the fence with our tenants horses. Lollipop was intrigued 😂❤️

11/10/2023

Little gumdrop walking back from the milk barn with momma ❤️ such good and lovely girls 😍❤️

11/07/2023

Family and farm pictures were taken yesterday!! Gumdrop was the center of some cute photos! Can’t wait to see how they all turned out ❤️

11/02/2023

Look at how much Lollipop has changed over the years 😍❤️ she’s no longer that little fluffy slightly shy girl - she’s snuggly and quick to please and oh so dainty. ❤️

11/01/2023

Our current milk crew ❤️

Rosie and Lollipop (pictured) are giving us each a gallon and 2cps a day - while feeding babies and only being milked once a day. ❤️ these girls are being fed on pasture grazing - and are supplemented with just 4cps of alfalfa pellets and 2cps BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds). We are not pushing for max production - I want healthy happy - largely pasture fed cows. When they stop feeding their calves I anticipate we will get 1.5-2g each every morning. ❤️ for now we are sharing and that’s perfectly okay.

10/31/2023

Just another morning milking our awesome mini cows! Rosie is such a patient cow and great to hand milk. Right now we are calf sharing - which is a process where momma feeds baby and then we separate for 12hrs and milk before she goes back to feed her baby. Our tiny cow is giving us 1gallon a day right now milking only once and while still feeding her calf. ❤️ pretty awesome.

Kelly and Gemma (9 and almost 8) can milk her out in about 15 minutes by hand. Such hard working and dedicated girls I have. ❤️

10/29/2023

It’s spooky just how amazing this bull is. Rocking Robin Ranch Holdin is easily one of the most gorgeous bulls I’ve ever seen. He moves like a dream, is so easy to have on the farm, and has amazing lines behind him! His father Rocking Robin Ranch Romeo is quite the bull and you can see Holdin has inherited well. We hope to collect semen on him beginning of next year and offer it for sale!! So you too can have amazing genetics in your herd.

10/27/2023

Lollipop is my heart cow. I love her gentle snuggly personality, her dairy build and short structure, and her high production. I also love that she passed her snuggly personality to her calf. Gumdrop is every bit her mothers daughter ❤️

Milking today for the first time in our barn and it was a dream! ❤️ I love this space and the barn so much! Looking forward to sharing this space with horses and their therapy trainer soon!

10/23/2023

Submitting small business loan applications today 😳🤗 we’ve got some BIG things coming and I am excited and SO ready for this next stage!

10/21/2023

Magni wants to remind you all that even though he doesn’t make milk - he is an important and beautiful part of our herd!

He really is growing so well and into SUCH a lovely bull. Nice and small and so incredibly level. 😍 Rockikg Robin makes some of the best cows!

10/20/2023

Got an update on Rosie’s 2022 calf Peaches! She’s the heifer at the back. She is looking beautiful and so very much like her mother it’s crazy! ❤️ can’t wait to see and hear about her baby when that time comes next year!

10/15/2023

The jersey flop 😆 this was her “I don’t want to and you can’t make me!”

Thankfully we just stood patiently for a minute and she decided being dramatic wasn’t working in her favor. 😂 this is why you want to start lead training young!! When they are 50lb it’s funny. But not at 500.

10/15/2023

Lead training day one!

We kept it simple for sweet Gumdrop today. Just a short walk and lots of praise. She did good. We had moments of Jersey drama and flopping - but lots of successful walking too. ❤️🙌

10/11/2023

Happy 3 month birthday Jellybean! She is growing so nicely and looks so much like her momma.

We are gonna let her nurse momma for another month to two and then wean her and she is grazing well and growing very well.

As soon as we get the news that our move is solid (hopefully today) then I’ll begin the fencing on a stall and run and we will move her to the barn for more hands on training and desensitizing. ❤️ Her natural personality is more distant and that’s lended itself in her being a little more wild. Which we don’t want - so moving her to a smaller space where we can get hands on her several times a day will make a big difference in her milk cow years.

10/10/2023

Did you know there’s a difference between a juicer and a blender? 🤔I didn’t - at least I didn’t think their differences mattered. Well….today I thought some orange juice would brighten this otherwise overcast morning. Since I’m handmilking 2 cows right now my hands are spent and using a hand juicer wasn’t an option. So I cut off the peels and tossed them into the blender. That’s when the learning began. 😂 Blenders do NOT make freshly squeezed orange juice. Not at all.

So - tell me friends. What is your favorite juicer and why? I’ve got lemon, lime, orange, and tangerine trees so this juicer will get plenty of use.

10/10/2023

Sisters - same bull different dam. Jellybean in the back is 3 months and Gumdrop is 1 month. ❤️ it’s fun to see their similarities and differences. Jellybean pale with white around her eyes and nose and legs. She is also thicker - she’s got a denser build more like a tank and teats that are LONG already. Gumdrop is a true red with her cutie mark on her hip. Her build is dainty - she has a very dairy build with a light frame and teats small enough to not be visible in her thick baby coat 😂

Both of them are heterozygous polled and A2/A2. Love both these girls for different reasons.

10/09/2023

Happy 1month birthday Gumdrop!! Don’t let her mug shot at the end fool you - she is as sweet as her name implies. And oh so little with a nice dairy frame. ❤️😍

10/07/2023

Another Saturday is here!! We are celebrating Tuckers birthday with cake and the Mario movie. Enjoy your weekend like a Dolly enjoys her guava!

10/06/2023

Fall is here!

Now I know some of you are thinking - you live on a tropical island you don’t have a fall. FALSE!

The weather does cool here (5-8°) and it’s a noticeable change. We can even grow pumpkins! While we didn’t grow pumpkins this year - here are my fall colors. Orange season is coming 😍😍❤️ bright oranges the size of my fist or bigger - makes the very best orange juice you’ve ever had!! 😍🤤🍊 and second - deep red/orange flowers on my favorite tree right outside my porch ❤️ fall has arrived and I am here for it 🙌

10/06/2023

Another day in the books! 3 cows milked, babies loved on, cows walked out to grazing and back home for the night. ❤️ all in time for dinner 🙌

10/05/2023

Is there something you want to do? Something that excites but also terrifies you? I have something to tell you -

You’ll always find a million reasons why you can’t do that thing. So look for the dozen reasons why you can and let those be your focus! Get creative and take some calculated risks. It’ll be scary - sometimes more than a little - but it’s worth it to be able to live even part of one of your dreams. ❤️

To start a farm we had to leave the comfort of our nice easy house. I had 3 babies under 3 (yeah you read that right) and a husband with no farming experience who is a self proclaimed indoor enthusiast. I had to learn a lot of things on my own - with more than one baby strapped to me. I had a background in animals - but not to this extent. It was hard. It was scary. It was joyful. It was rewarding and 100% worth it. It was just the start of me turning dreams into my reality.

10/03/2023

A boy and his calf ❤️

10/03/2023

I recently learned jerseys can have pink OR black tongues - and some get two toned. Little miss Gumdrop is displaying what a two-toned tongue looks like - she’s got the cutest little black tip on her tongue ❤️🐮

09/30/2023

Get yourself an experienced milk cow for your first cow if you can.

I know calves are cute - trust me I do - but unless you’ve trained an animal to lead and unless you’ve milked an animal before (and I don’t mean once or twice a couple sq**rts on a farm tour - I mean empty bag, pail full daily for a reasonable time in your most recent years) starting with a calf is going to be a rough ride. An older milk cow that you can get in milk and even better bred is going to make your learning curve so much easier. Milking is much more intense than people expect and there is an art and rhythm to it that takes time to learn (and time to remember if it’s been a while). The last thing a new excited family needs when learning how to milk is a 600-1800lb cow who is also learning.

Also - just because a cow is a dairy cow and is older does not mean they have been consistently milked and is trained to be milked! So please be sure to ask “what is her milk routine? Is she used to being handmilked or machine milked?” - in a perfect world you can go to the farm and actually try to milk her or watch the process for yourself. This will let you see if the cow has any attitude problems (kicking - doesn’t lead well - doesn’t let down) and also let you see what to expect and what to do when she comes home with you. ❤️

An older cow will cost slightly more upfront (but be cheaper in the long run) - she may not be as snuggly with you if she came from a larger operation- she may only have 6 good yrs left. But her seasoned yrs have left her experienced and patient and that training is invaluable. Trust me. I’m grateful every day we got Rosie ❤️ and I had 5yrs of milking under me already.

09/27/2023

Why do teats matter?

I am always surprised at how little people seem to consider the udder when buying their dairy animal. Having cared for & bred dairy animals for almost 7yrs I share some thoughts on this very important part of your animal (most of this can be applied to your cow OR goat).

Color - personality - A2 status - polled - these are all things new cow buyers might be looking at when determining what animal to buy. Often over looked are these questions “how large are her teats (for cows front AND back)? How large are her orfices? Has she been machine or hand milked?”

Teats are a huge part of your daily routine with your dairy animal and knowing what your milking plans look like will go a long way in making sure that you get what you’re wanting. If you are wanting to hand milk - let me tell you teat size and orfice size are WAY more valuable than color or polled. Using this picture above of my 3 girls I can tell you right now B is my favorite to hand milk - closely tied by A. While C is pure misery and causes so much physical joint pain. The reason B is my favorite over A (even though size wise A is the most comfortable) is because her orfices are large - which means I get more milk out per sq**rt - a lot more. Which shortens how long it takes to get the same gallon out of each cow.

NOW - you might be thinking “C really sucks. Who wants a cow with teats smaller than a mini goat?” And you’re right in the fact that I have had Nigerian dwarf goats with larger teats. HOWEVER - large teats aren’t always what you want. If you know that for your milk setup you’re planning on using a machine then A is the absolute worst candidate. Her teats are LARGE - and you’re not going to get inflation cups that fit that size. This means that if you were going to machine milk A - it would be incredibly uncomfortable for her and if not very careful you could cause permanent damage to her. So for a family wanting to use a milk machine C is your golden cow. Both her front and back teats are almost the exact same size - and they are small enough to easily fit standard (and maybe even small) inflations.
Can you guess which cow belongs to which teat?

09/26/2023

Jellybean is maturing into a lovely girl - but darn it she is my escape artist!! Testing all the fences 🙄 she managed to break into the new pasture where I was separating her mom at night - I thought “no problem we’ll just separate her momma into the adjoining pasture and she’ll go back” NOPE! Instead she’s just adopting Dolly as her milk bar 🤦🏼‍♀️🙄 cows! I tell ya. Always something.

09/25/2023

Loving on gumdrop and making sure she’s used to several different people loving on her. ❤️ we want cows that are comfortable and friendly with not only us - but guests too.

09/25/2023

Sisters ❤️ same dad - different moms. Both A2/A2 and heterozygous polled.

Jellybean’s momma is our rockstar Rosie - who’s 42” and a high cream producer with LARGE teats perfect for handmilking. I can already tell that Jellybean is gonna have nice larger teats like her mom! But hopefully she’ll be a little smaller ❤️

Gumdrop’s momma is our smallest jersey at 38”. She’s supposed to be a high producer (according to genetics) though it’s too early into her first lactation to really know. Lollipop has small teats - the smallest of our herd. Great for a machine but far less ideal for handmilking. I expect Gumdrop to keep her mothers tiny stature while also improving teat size. ❤️

09/24/2023

A slightly grainy photo as the sun was setting last night. But a great size comparison! This is my man (6ft) next to our girl Lollipop. As you can see she is pretty tiny - with a nice udder! Lollipop is almost fully grown and currently she is 38”. I expect Gumdrop to be as tiny as her momma with the same great personality and milking potential.

09/24/2023

Sometimes you get home from a Costco run and discover that your cows broke out and got into everything 🤦🏼‍♀️😬 cows I tell ya!

09/23/2023

Happy 2 weeks Gumdrop! You’re a sweet stubborn princess like your mom! ❤️❤️

09/21/2023

Her natural mascara and eyeliner is SO striking 😍😘 Gumdrop is staying small like her momma and is gonna he a beautiful red like her momma too. ❤️ every day I am so grateful for her!

09/21/2023

The “you’re late bringing out my treats” face - courtesy of Rosie 😂😬

09/19/2023

Dolly - I am so so glad that I didn’t eat you or sell you the first month when we were adjusting. 😂❤️you’ve gone from being my least favorite cow to my most favorite to milk (🤫 don’t tell Rosie). Dolly has gone from being a head butting, dominance challenging, kicking while being milked jerk - to the sweetest girl with easy to milk front teats and large orfices. ❤️

So if you’ve just gotten a milk cow and you’re thinking steak instead of ice cream might be in your future - wait just a minute longer and keep trying.

Things I didn’t consider when I was feeling frustrated with my new girl that now seem obvious:

1. She was new to the farm (duh I know) which means she didn’t know where she fit in. Was she higher on the totem pole than me? Than the kids? Finding her place took time and repetitive boundary setting by us.

2. She was new to hand milking and I hadn’t earned her trust yet - and she was unfamiliar with our farm’s system. This took more then just a week (what I was expecting) and instead took almost a month of every day milking!

3. She was in pain! Our new bull had started nursing her and by the time we learned that and were able to do something about it - the jerk had chewed through part of both her back teats! Again it took time with us doctoring them up for them to fully heal.

Now that cow that used to make me cry tears of frustration makes me smile and she comes over every day to give me kisses ❤️

So hold on to that cow - don’t make any rash decisions directly after a milking fight. You might have a real gem and merely need to give her some grace and follow the settling in process through to the end.

Address

Honokaa, HI
96727

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 4pm
Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm
Saturday	10am - 2pm

Website

www.tiptoeacres.com

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Gumdrop is just as snuggly as her momma and oh how I love it! ❤️ little cows heal hearts. #tiptoeacres #minicow #minijersey #babycow #gumdrop

Halloween had some awesome guests moving into our barn! A gelding and a mare (Gemma is in love and suddenly I can’t pull her away from the barn) and two mini ducks 😱😍 love seeing life fill the barn. ❤️ #farmlife #homesteading #myneighborisbetterthanyours♥️

The suckling and milk bubbles will never get old ❤️ that’s the sound of contentment right there. #babycow #minijersey #miniaturejersey #tiptoeacres #farmlife

Lollipop is doing SO much better now that she has flatter pasture and isn’t pregnant ❤️ unfortunately it’s likely even with her injury fully healed that she will will always have a slower more gimpy walk. But she isn’t in pain and moving around is much easier for her ❤️ so grateful we were able to move and give her a better layout for maximum success and comfort! #lollipop #tiptoeacres #somuchbetter #farmlife #minijersey #miniaturejersey

Occasionally I’ll have a customer say “oh man your cow is so cute! we just need our own milk cow!” While I think mini jerseys are amazing and having a milk cow is one of the greatest things a family can own - it’s easy to get starry eyed and make decisions without really weighing the costs. And there are costs. 102° outside and hotter than Santan’s undies? You still have to go out and milk. -20° and so cold your snot is gonna freeze INSIDE your nose? Yeah you still have to milk. Christmas morning and kids want to open presents? Well Bertha needs milking first. You’ve got the flu and things coming out both ends? Better bring two buckets out to milk. We live in HI and the weather is pretty darn perfect year round - but at least once a week we get torrential rain when I need to milk. 😂❤️ its just part of the costs associated with having the blessing of a milk cow. I’ve gone out to milk with fevers, sprained ankles, so pregnant I can’t see the pail, and every other ailment more times than I can count. I have waited and gone to urgent care and the ER AFTER milking more than once. Cause when you have a milk cow as part of your family - you are committed to her health and comfort. She’s 1st priority most of the time - and she rewards you greatly for it. ❤️ #milkcow #dairyfarm #tiptoeacres #minijersey #homesteadlife #farmlife

It wasn’t till we moved all the adult cows that that hole appeared 🤦🏼‍♀️ wait till you see the second spot she got out of after that one!

Yesterday we moved Jellybean over so she could be with Gumdrop and I have loved watching Jellybean be big sis. ❤️ She loves to check on her snd give her kisses. ❤️ #jellybean #gumdrop #tiptoeacres #minijersey #miniaturejersey #babycow

Making sure Gumdrop get lots of handling and socializing ❤️ - also making sure she’s nursing in the middle of the day when it’s the hottest. #tiptoeacres #gumdrop #minijersey #babycow

Four days. It has been four days since Gumdrop was born. 4 days of bottle feeding and milk not letting down and some mastitis and frustration all around. Every day I have tried twice a day to get baby to latch to momma. When I would have success getting Gumdrop latched - Lolipop wouldn’t let down and we’d be back to square one. Bottle feeding isn’t my favorite. It doesn’t help that new bond with calf grow - especially for a first time mom. Also it’s a major pain to have to milk out the cow only to turn around and feed that hard earned milk back to her baby 🤦🏼‍♀️ SO grateful we had GREAT success today! I even got a half gallon milked out after the feeding ❤️🙌 I’ll take those victories ❤️😊 #farmlife #tiptoeacres #gumdrop #lollipop #minijersey #miniaturejersey #babycow

Those first couple hrs with a newborn calf are always so special! Since we try to let mommas and babies spend a lot of their time in the pasture as cows instead of in a stall - they go through a “wild” stage that doesn’t start getting better till they are about 2 months old and we start separating the calfs at night. These first couple hrs though for the first several days however - we can and do get a lot of snuggles. ❤️❤️ #babycow #miniaturejersey #minijersey #tiptoeacres

Welcomed this morning around 6am (I’m guessing as I missed it again! 🙄) a beautiful healthy calf and a healthy momma! Doing everything we can to keep them that way. ❤️🙏 #minijersey #tiptoeacres #miniaturejersey #babycow #calf #newmommy

Seriously though - I’ve always loved getting out of the house and away for the day. Two days home back to back is too many. I have gypsy blood in my veins and sitting still has never been for me. - but this place brings out a different part of me. So friends - if I suddenly am MIA - this is probably where I am. Drinking fresh milk, eating fruit picked from our trees, and watching my cows do their thing. I don’t need rescuing - but you can join me anytime 😉❤️ #tiptoeacres #minijersey #myhappyplace

Another day, another round of fresh milk. Filtered, chilled, and bottled. ❤️ don’t skip the important steps when handling raw milk - every stage from prepping the udder down to chilling it quickly is important for long lasting fresh tasting and safe milk. 😊🐮🥛 #rawmilk #hawaiifarm #tiptoeacres

Last night Peaches got to spend the night in her own pen as we begin to separate at night for easier milk sharing. She got a halter put on too - it’s safe to say she’s not talking to me right now 😢

Today was butter day!! One gallon of thick cream got me 8.5 sticks of butter 😍❤️ My freezer is gonna finally get well stocked 🙌🙌 For those curious this is what making butter looks like! Cream + blender is my preferred method though there are plenty of other ways. after a minute or so on high you get whipped cream (when you saw it getting thick and slowing down) then it breaks the whipped cream up into butter and buttermilk. - I take the butter milk and mix it with water and use it as fertilizer. ❤️ this process was an hour or so and I still need to wash all the buttery dishes 🤣❤️ so just know - if I ever gift you butter it is truly a gift of love. #rawmilk #freshbutter #homemadebutter #tiptoeacres #bigisland #hawaiifarm

When the snow has melted and mom lets you out into the yard!

Nothing beats neck rubs and Lolli begs for them every morning 😆❤️

Nothing better than fresh hay!

Getting a good run in before bedtime ❤️

For those who are interested here’s our setup currently. (A couple changes in the works) Floors are concrete with gravel on top and then rubber mats.

Well that didn’t take long 😂😘🐮

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How it all began

How does one become a crazy goat lady you might ask? For most of us it happens almost over night - you start with one and then in a blink there’s 10 (but really - how they multiply so fast is a mystery). For our farm however the process was a bit less mysterious. In 2016 we were “living the life” in a nice community in Lehi - beautiful house, fancy neighborhood, garage bigger than the backyard (it wasn’t that big of a garage) kind of area. I hated it. I loved the house and the soaker tub - but longed for the peace, space, and adventure that much of my childhood had afforded me. Being the MLS house hunting addict that I am - I started looking at farm homes purely for fun. Within a couple weeks I had found a house on an acre with a huge barn in Provo for less than we had bought our house for. WHAT??!! Was buying land really an option for us? Apparently it was - and that was the start. I began feverishly hunting the MLS for farm houses - nothing was the perfect fit and I was getting discouraged. In an attempt to get this thing out of our minds we decided to walk through a house in Springville - the photos gave the appearance that the house was in horrible shape. The plan was to go look through the house and accept that living the farm life was a dream we weren’t going to be able to live. Life has a sense of humor though and when we pulled up we were shocked. The land had a childhood magic to it - and the house was WAY better than the photos made it appear. The rooms were all bigger than they looked and while there were certainly a lot of future projects that would need to be done we loved a ton about it. Completely surprised at how much we liked it we talked about it for days. This was going to be our home - and it has since been the only place in my entire life that has truly called me home every single day. While we were under contract but before moving in I found a lady online that raises Nigerian Dwarf goats. She happened to have a ton of bottle babies for sale so we struck up a deal and I came home with 4 does and 1 little buck (now our stud Rocky). That was the start to my journey learning about Nigerians, goat milk, and the cool thing of being a dairy farm. In my youth I had bred and raised pygmy goats but that is a whole different box of chocolates. Since moving in to our farm house in February 2017 the only thing that can explain what has happened to us is Goat Math. 5 bottle babies has quickly turned into a farm of 9 Pygmy Goats and 23 Nigerian Dwarfs. I tell myself that my limit is 35 goats total.....but we all know how that goes. lol Thank you for following us and I hope that you will enjoy watching our journey and participating in the learning and love of goats.

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How it all began