Rock Bottom Farm is a family farmstead located in Richmond, ME. Raising registered Nigerian dairy goats and kunekune pigs on pasture for pork production.
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Please see our website for more information!
11/20/2024
Less than 90 days until the arrival of 2025 kids!
I bred early this year .. I usually plan for late-March / early-April kids, but I will worry about kids being born and getting cold regardless — I watch cameras and run to the barn at all hours of the night — so why not do it in February instead of April?! Something bright to look forward to in the cold, dark, New England winter!
Kids are expected between 2/2 and 2/28 with a couple of stragglers later in the spring!
Are you ready for goat snuggles?!?
10/26/2024
Now accepting all pumpkins or fall squash! Mostly, the pigs enjoy these treats .. occasionally goats / chickens.. and even a livestock guardian!
10/06/2024
This is actually how we keep the weeping cherry tree pruned so perfectly .. (Myrtle)
09/26/2024
Five days of veterinary-guided medical treatment..
Five days of belly rubs, ear scratches and whispered words of encouragement..
Five days without any water intake..
Five days of eating only hand-fed apples, bananas and raw eggs..
Five days with a body temp
09/24/2024
Thanks to Nigel! 💛 We are expecting mini Nubian babes for Valentine’s Day! 💞
Breeding started early this year. A few of the yearling girls were ready to go and with the cooler fall temps, everyone is coming into heat! 🔥 I’m probably about half way through the herd with kids due starting in late-January and February this year! I may regret this decision — but who doesn’t need something bright and snuggly to chase off the winter blues! ❄️
09/22/2024
The big Smitty isn’t feeling so hot tonight .. pneumonia, maybe … it can move SO fast .. we’re throwing everything at him, all the meds, all the treats, giving lots of belly rubs and ear scratches .. hoping that he pulls through!
09/08/2024
Griff is 7 months old (!).. he lives full time with the doe herd & Julia .. he catches treats, walks beside me (off leash!), comes to his name, knows voice and hand commands .. is not at all concerned with ducks or chickens and is easily “called off” cats or other temptations. Really, remarkable!! 🤍🖤
08/19/2024
Breeding plans for 2025 kids are coming together. I’ve sold more kids than I planned (or expected) to this season. A *huge* thank you to everyone who has purchased a Rock Bottom Farm goat!!
We generally send all of our extra kids or culls to freezer camp. This year I only have two goats to send!!
I’m still milking, still making cheese and planning fall & winter soaps. If I can stay motivated, I may try venturing into lotions / body butter this winter.
Pictured above are Edie, Lana + Gretchen .. all ladies who I am SO eagerly awaiting kids from! 🩶❤️🖤
08/15/2024
One more new sticker!!
Featuring Julia, baby Griff and some frisky goat kids! 🤎🤍🖤
08/09/2024
New stickers!
Artwork by Julia Loring!! 💚🩷🤎
07/22/2024
07/21/2024
Hay day!! .. We’ll be sweating our faces off over here this afternoon!
07/18/2024
Rock Bottom Farm Lady Madonna
D: Rock Bottom Farm Edie
S: Haymaker Farm Hey Jude
. has been super-shy, but I’m liking what I see! 🤎
07/15/2024
Goats are the real reason we are here.
Chickens were the gateway animal, but goats was where this was always going. June (pictured here) is the daughter of Sunflower Farm Adele and Sugar Moon Salted Caramel .. if ever there were a person who regretted selling a buck, it's me. :-D If I knew what I had when I had a Sugar Moon buck, I would have never let him go.
June had quintuplets one season. We lost her doe. She has has delivered a single buck every season since. I'm hoping someday I'll have a girl to keep from her!!
07/14/2024
What plants are you growing / harvesting / using for their medicinal benefit? So many plants that just grow in our environment can be used to alleviate / cure minor ailments. This BIG patch of motherwort benefits your heart, anxiety and can alleviate menstrual symptoms. I did not plant this -- it just grows here. It did not grow in this place last year, so it must have been carried here by another animal or the wind!
We also enjoy comfrey, yarrow, mullein, broadleaf plantain, jewel w**d, purslane, etc.
What grows in your landscape that can be added to your holistic care stash?
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Videos
Fall Pumpkins!
Now accepting all pumpkins or fall squash! Mostly, the pigs enjoy these treats .. occasionally goats / chickens.. and even a livestock guardian!
Smitty update: he’s hanging in there. Body temp was very low last night, I threw everything at home (antibiotic, anti inflammatory, steroids) .. I tucked him into a pile of hay and went to bed. He got up and ate the food I left him overnight but took quite a bit of persuasion, a raw egg and a big push to get him up - then he ate a bowl of fruit and soaked grains.
Still not himself, but he made it through the day. Hoping for progress tomorrow! 🤞🏼This is the first time we’ve had a sick adult pig in 6 years of raising and breeding pigs — there is always more to learn!
Tallying up the numbers and submitting registration papers! The 2024 kidding season brought 28 new babes to Rock Bottom Farm. We lost two — one stillborn and one died hours after being born. We had two bottle babies, and I held back only four kids! I’ll watch how these kids grow and decide who stays / goes as they mature and freshen! 🩷
Another successful nest! These ducklings look like a mix of Cayuga and runners. 🖤
We were fortunate last year to have all the hay we needed, and didn’t have to sacrifice quality, but I can’t say it isn’t still a relief to have the barn filled up again with gorgeous fresh hay! I start to stress when the barn is about half full, anyone else with me?!! In August we will stuff the barn to the rafters with second cut to get us through another winter. Keeping fingers crossed for lots of sun & just enough rain!! ☀️Thanks for the help @jake.mac11 @emhackett @tripp_mac_1124 & Amber Dodge
Bottle baby!
💜 UPDATE: Joey has a home! Phew!! 💜
Looking for a bottle baby?!
Joey might be the girl for you! *loves* snuggles, petting, talking, long walks in the yard and is literally “in your pocket” .. she’s a runt, small for her age, and I’d prefer that she go to a pet home — though she may grow very well and could potentially be a homestead milker. Mom easily milks a half gallon a day at peak.
We have other does / wethers who could go with her as companions if you don’t already have goats. She’s very, very sweet, but making me crazy with her demands for milk, love and attention! 🤍
PM for details. Must be prepared to commit bottle feeding.
Looking for the Good! 💚
My #applewatch recorded nearly 16,000 steps yesterday as I moved fences, moved animals and went about my usual “day off” tasks. While setting up hog net to move the sows and piglets onto grass I stopped to watch the goats playing on the rock pile.
THIS is the part I love .. but it doesn’t happen without busting my buns! 💚
Both aspiring farmer's with many ideas for hobbies and projects, Scott and Melissa joined forces in 2015. With four boys between the two of them, they set out to embrace this crazy life; following Scott's motto: "Today is today!"
Scott works full time for the City of Hallowell as Police Chief. Melissa is a Nurse Practitioner at the Richmond Area Health Center.
Scott's interests include composting (everything!), vegetable gardening, metal work, tumbling stones, re-purposing discarded furniture, photography, searching for lost treasure on abandoned properties and collecting rocks and fossils along the river banks of the Kennebec, kayaking, bikes and camping.
Melissa enjoys flower gardens, small craft projects, canning, animal care taking, collecting rocks for gardening / landscape designs, baking, camping and accompanying Scott on river trips or any other adventure he can stir up!
|| Chickens ||
The gateway animal. At first it was just for the joy of collecting fresh eggs at the end of each day. Then came the endeavor to humanely raise chickens for our dinner table.
Currently, we raise Red Rangers for meat, and choose not to medicate the birds we will eat. We feed our meat birds a good-quality, high protein chicken feed, offer plenty of kitchen and garden scraps and the whey leftover from the cheese making process. Since moving to Richmond, we have started working on plans for pastured chicken and will offer a chicken co-op for 2019 (message us for more details!).
Our laying hen flock is quite diverse. Some of our favorites are Araucanas / Ameraucanas, French Black Copper Marans, and Orpingtons. This will be the third year we have hatched out own chicks. Keep an eye on our Instagram and / or pages for pictures of our egg rainbow!
|| Maple Syrup ||
Scott's venture into "sapping" eventually led to the purchase of an evaporator and a passion for small-scale maple syrup making. From mid-February through early-April you can catch a glimpse of wood smoke and white steam pouring from the roof of the sap house, with Scott inside, stoking the fire and watching the sap boil. Bottles feature the "SMACK'S" label, representing "Scott Mac & Kids", the sugary-sweet start-up for Rock Bottom Farm. The kids play an integral role in the collection of hundreds of gallons of sap throughout a season. You can usually find them hanging around the sap house, chopping wood for kindling or throwing snowballs at each other. Each season we produce enough syrup to supply our family for the year, and a little extra to share with friends and family. We hope to continue to grow this part of our homesteading adventure.
|| Goats ||
Goats joined our farm in June of 2016. Melissa had an interest in raising dairy goats, inspired by an undergraduate college term spent in Namibia at the Cheetah Conservation Fund where she worked on a project to promote the use of livestock guarding dogs on rural farms to protect sheep and goats from predators, with the primary focus on preventing the killing of cheetahs. Fast-forward nearly a decade: the opportunity to have goats was within reach, and Scott said "go for it!". We started our herd with two Nigerian Dwarf does from Sunflower Farm in Cumberland. We now have a herd of 14 registered Nigerian Dwarf goats! Kids will be for sale in the spring.
|| On the Horizon ||
We moved our operation to a larger property in fall 2018 after stumbling on a 200-year-old farmhouse with 27 acres of land. We have plans to continue our expansion and would like to introduce a farm stand in the summer of 2019 to offer fresh fruits, vegetables, goat milk products, and eggs to our community. We've got grand ideas, and hope you'll follow along and join us when you see something exciting!
After all, small farms cannot make it without the support of the community!
