Li'l Belly Acres Farm

04/25/2024

04/25/2024

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04/02/2024

01/16/2024

Want to help a small business without spending a dime? We are really close to hitting 1000 followers on both Facebook and Instagram. We’d love it if you’d like and follow (if you haven’t already) to help us get there. This helps the algorithms put us in front of new prospective customers. Thank you in advance!!!
Monkey Hill Farm on FB
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12/07/2023

This looks promising...

Nuffield Scholar!

I got the very exciting news last week that my application to be a 2024 Nuffield Scholar had been successful. It was a long application and a pretty intense interview so I didn’t have high hopes but was totally delighted as it’s been a dream of mine to do this for years.

My research project is to look at dairy goat herds in countries which have a more established tradition of making artisan goats cheeses, to see what we can learn about the genetics and farming systems that underpin successful cheese-making dairy goat herds. I’m hoping to travel to France, Greece, Spain and Italy - countries with some of the longest traditions of goat farming and cheese production.

I can’t wait to meet the other Nuffield Scholars and start the journey. Huge thanks to and JP Crilly our farm vet from who wrote my references and encouraged me to go for it. - thank you so much 😊

10/19/2023

When you've been raising goats for any period of time, you figure out what works and what doesn't. For those who are new to goats, they may be unaware of the dress code required.

1. If you have long hair, wear it tied up high. Goats see your hair as fine dining hay and will chew it up when your back is turned, leaving slimy cud filled broken hair chunks matted up in your remaining hair.

2. Do not wear anything with dangling strings or fringes, or they will suffer the same fate as loose hair. It's best to think of a goat's mouth as a PTO on a tractor.

3. No open toed shoes. It may seem inoccuous, but inevitably your heaviest goat will see your bare toes and assume they are pink caterpillars that need smashing.

4. Crocs are great barn wear...until they aren't. If mud or snow or birth fluids or urine will be a concern, its best to stick to boots. Never, never, never wear your good shoes to the barn. You will inevitably forget you wore them to the barn the next time you head into town, and there will be a hay-filled poo clump stuck to the bottom that will turn heads.

5. Have a barn jacket. This will become a sacred clothing article, as its pockets will become like Mary Poppins' carpet bag, possessing every instrument you will need in a pinch. It will possess syringes, medication bottles, thermometers, weight tapes, fence staples, pocket knives, baling twine, flashlights, and the buttons your goats have probably chewed off of this sacred jacket.

Beyond this list, express yourself in your individual fashion, but be aware that whatever you wear to the barn will ultimately belong to the goats and not you. The barn will snag you, the goats will shed on you, milk will spill on you, etc. Eventually, you will become one with the barn, like Davy Jones' crew to his ship. Its okay. You are in good company 🐐

09/07/2023

's are no-dig raised beds with a difference. They hold moisture, build fertility, maximize surface volume, and are great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs.

Hugelkultur, pronounced Hoo-gul-culture, means hill culture or hill mound, 's.

Instead of putting branches, leaves and grass clippings in bags by the curbside...build a hugel bed!

Simply mound logs, branches, leaves, grass clippings, straw, cardboard, newspaper, manure, compost, or whatever other biomass you have available, top with soil, and plant your veggies.

05/08/2023

Revolutionary!

02/24/2023

Excellent mission... and excellent coffee! ❤️

Quincy and Whitni Henry founded Campfire Coffee in 2020 in Tacoma, WA, fusing their love for coffee and nature to create a business that encourages people of color to enjoy the great outdoors.

02/19/2023

☺️

02/14/2023

Some music to set the mood for Valentine’s Day.

02/10/2023

Whoo hoo! Baby goats are on the way!!! Scanned the does today and it looks like they have all settled and are due in May. Will post individual does with pedigrees soon.

02/08/2023

So satisfying 🤣

12/17/2022

PSA - Goat p**p makes perfect snowmen eyes. You’re welcome 🤣

11/19/2022

No truer words... ❤️

You see milk, but I see the 40 faces of animals whose entire lives I shepherd. Their stories are carved into memory the way only joy and agony can brand your perception of reality. I don’t so much recall every single icy night in the barn, warm pressure of birth canal against forearm, the sensation of catching a slippery hoof in the uterus to help guide it out, velvet teat clasped in the palm, the low talking to calm a nervous doe, the fickle daggers of hay against skin when tossing into feeders, the warm breath of a baby against the neck, the way they sigh into your chest as if your universes were always intended to collide, as if it wasn’t all based on an impractical decision made in a cubicle after frantic google searching to find a Life With Meaning.
I don’t remember these things. I feel them.

You see milk. I see purpose, possibility, pride, promise. I made a promise to them, myself, this precious piece of land that quivers - still - on the edges of some dream I barely dared to consider.

But here we are.

It’s not milk. It’s an entire constellation - bottled.

11/11/2022

Waterwheel Creek has another lovey litter of pups ready to join some lucky person's farm. I could not be happier with my Sweetie who is now a year old. She is true to her name, funny, and is a fierce and diligent hunter all the while completely ignoring the goats. Highly recommend this breeder for your next working terrier ❤️