The Dancing Goat

11/03/2024

Some kitten cuteness to brighten your Sunday.

11/03/2024

11/01/2024

It has come to my attention that some of our customers and visitors are not parking in the appropriate location. We offer a 4 car parking lot and DIAGONAL parking just beyond the driveway if the lot is full. Do not pull in on the right side of our driveway in the grass. Not only does that block others who have pulled into the lot spaces, but it kills our grass. Unless you have a child or pet in the car, leaving your car running just burns up our grass. Please leave all pets in the car as we are a biosecure property and do not allow outside animals. Please do not pull in the middle of the lot and block it for others - there is space for 4 cars, please keep that in mind. There are marking sticks beyond the driveway to denote how far you can pull in SO YOU DON'T GET STUCK IN THE DITCH! Please do not leave your car hanging out in the road. Never park across the street on our neighbor's side. We have great neighbors and it is rude to park on their property!!

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween from The Dancing Goat and its cat rescue families.

10/29/2024

Thank you so much, Annette for your kind words and birthday wishes. Annette is one one that keeps our followers in good cover pictures (she is an awesome photographer and writer) and helps with social media, as well as being my ride or die goat getting cohort in mischief, Goat Nanny Coordinator and helps Anne with the Cat Nanny Coordination for the Rescue. I could only wish that everyone had a friend like Annette at their side. Yes, today was the BIG SEVENTY and so traumatic at that. Where did the last 50 years go? Yes, I worked, what else do you do on your birthday?

Yesterday was spent working on a hay deck to get our hay up and far from the ground in the event of flooding. We had been using pallets, but they break down under the weight of the 4-700lb round bales and end up wicking up dampness (and water in rains) from the ground and we lose that hay. While it was an outlay for the materials, it should pay for itself over the next year or so from what we have lost in the last 6 months with the torrential rains and storms. Many thanks to Bill Wymer, my son's father in law who came from Ocala last week to lend a hand and helped get it started and framed in. I didn't ask permission so his is an incognito picture! Many thanks to Lino who pushed through his pain and lended a hand yesterday. We are so close to finishing today! Then the tent will go on top as was before - but a new one that hubby brought back from his evacuation to SC during Milton!! This is so exciting to know we have a safe and dry place for the hay rolls! Yes, there will be a ramp for rolling them up. And instead of deck blocks, I found these cool easy to level pedestals that function as deck blocks and can be adjusted when needed in the future. They are rated to hold 479lbs each. High tech red necks!!

10/28/2024

Happy birthday to our absolutely fearless, selfless leader, Pam Lunn. She can and has outworked everyone at the farm, regardless of age; is always the first to help people in need; tirelessly supports her neighbors and community; treats her animals like family; and provides opportunities for young people and others to be of service. Pam is such an asset to our community and a true blue friend. Please join me in wishing her a memorable day. Of course, she’ll be working as usual. We love you, Pam. ❤️

10/26/2024

Don't forget - orders for cow milk must be in this morning before 11am in order to be able to get it at our Sunday Market. Confirmation will be made for orders this evening or early tomorrow morning. We cannot confirm orders until we KNOW our inventory for market and multiple emails 'did you get my order" will just slow me down. If you have not received a confirmation by 10am Sunday morning, please email again. I have had several people who have been emailing but forgetting to put in the 83 in the email. Our direct email is [email protected] and if you forget the 83, we do not get the email. Also remember we take cash and Zelle for payment - no cards, no Venmo, no paypal, no cashapp, no ipay.

As you know, our milk supply was down considerably with back to back storms and our products are very limited. Order now in order to make sure you get what you want!! We will have a very limited amount of kefir (finally our first should be ready later today after the storm) and some flavored kefirs.

Lakeview Farm Market, Dunedin Fresh Market and Raw Pets was stocked yesterday. Also Fuzzies and Furries in St. Pete received a delivery last Tuesday.

Eggs are increasing considerably already for the year and just in time for the holidays. The quail are doing great and producing eggs and there is HOPE (but don't order yet) for duck eggs. Our newest ducks have given us a whopping TWO eggs this week so we are waiting on the dam to open and the eggs to come gushing forth!! Watch this page for the announcement!

Many thanks to everyone for your patience and support. And please forgive the mess at the farm. We are doing all repairs in a priority order taking in consideration the needs of the animals first. Cosmetics will come later! Have a great day and get those orders in as soon as possible!

10/22/2024

We are in desperate need of help to unload hay tomorrow (WEDNESDAY) at 9am. I am a man down so it is just Lino and I to unload. HELP!!! Please! You will not leave empty handed!

10/21/2024

Greetings St. Pete Customers. We will be in our new location tomorrow evening. The goats are bouncing back in their production but not in time for yogurt and kefir and cheeses tomorrow - except feta and cottage. We will have milk (goat and cow), feta, cottage cheese and eggs - chicken, quail and banty!

10/21/2024

St Pete Meet Up Customers!!! Please get in your cow milk orders by 8:30am in the morning. I know some have already come in and I will check that out in the morning.

Our new location this Tuesday:

10/20/2024

Don't forget the Fall Fest at HorsePower for Kids & Animal Sanctuary is running today. Please patronize this farm. Armando, the owner, is a dear friend and has worked so hard to get it open after all these storms blowing through. It is their major fundraiser of the year. The farm was flooded by the tidal surge during Helene and after days of works and postponing the original date, was poised to open on the 12th. Then Milton put the kiss of death on the 12th and finally this weekend after a flurry of preparations (and a ton of money for repairs, labor and replacements) it is open. Be sure to say hello to my camel friend, Camille and friends, Koa and Kai the wolves! If I can't be at my farm, this is my second best place!! There may be no way to recoup the money he has put in these preparations but let's see if we can bring enough people to make it happen! Share this please!

10/19/2024

Remember 8:30am Saturday Morning deadline for ordering Hammertime Hollow cow milk for Sunday Market.

Also volunteers needed tomorrow to build a deck to keep our hay rolls off the ground. 9am to 3pm. If you can come, please PM me.

10/17/2024

Our girl Josie, one of the triplets born at the farm in March. Though they’re not babies anymore, she and brothers JoJo and Jonah still love attention and petting. And peanut hay. Not necessarily in that order. ❤️

10/15/2024

Don't forget, cow milk orders need to be in this morning by 9am!!

Also we are very short on goat milk. The goat's production is down since the storm. Yes, they will come back but they are very stressed. Also putting all the bucks in the barn for the storm has all the hormones rev'd up and so many are in heat!!! The bucks are also blubbering fools!!! We are in the height of breeding this week!

No St. Pete Meet UP this week - we will resume our regular schedule next week at the new location!! If you have ordered for St Pete, please resubmit it within 5 days of the Meet UP!

Next on the priority list: we attack rebuilding the roof on this chicken pen before we get another rain storm.

We will be having a Volunteer Day on Saturday 9-3pm. If you plan on coming, please PM us so we know how many people to prepare to utilize. The big project will be constructing new fronts on the chicken pen row. They are seriously in need of love and another storm could take them down!

10/13/2024

Another Udder Uber day! LOL

10/13/2024

Fallen Halo Stolichnaya aka Stoli made her retirement walk today. She was the daughter of Grey Goose (aka GG) and Sand Dance The Great Swami and part of our Russian Vodka line. We name all our goat families in themed names. She has been milking her final time for the last 7 years and we decided that it was time to retire her and we opted not to rebreed her as she would be over 10 years old when kidding. We are probably not good farmers, but we are humane farmers.

We thank her for the babies and milk she provided for all these years. She has been moved this morning to the C.A.L.F (Caprine Assisted Living Facility) with three of her other friends. Her days will be spent chomping on good hay, sunning herself and enjoying the good life with friends, Amy, La Nouba and Angiari. 💞💕❤️

10/12/2024

Important notes!

We will be open tomorrow. Eggs and goat milk are limited. If you get your cow milk order in by 2pm we can add you to it. We purchase our hay in cash and need to replace a good bit so cash is king this week as well as some other cash purchases to keep the farm running. We will still take Zelle as well if you cannot pay in cash. No other forms of payment.

We will be having volunteer Saturdays the next two weeks. I will prioritize necessary tasks and get supplies in place. Watch our page - probably 9-3pm work days. Must be 15 and up, please.

We are so grateful for getting through this storm and worry about all our customers and friends. Please let us know if we can possibly help you and we will see what we can do. Our hearts go out to those flooded out of their homes and even without homes. We will keep you in our prayers and wish you a quick recovery!

10/12/2024

We have power tonight!! And we will be back open on Sunday for our regular market hours 1-4pm!!! All cow milk orders must be in by 9am tomorrow morning. Don't expect me to have extra and you drop by to pick it up. We are ordering what you order from us! Please read our pick up policy we posted last week below!

Too many people are not picking up their pre-ordered products and not even having the decency to let me know they won't be here so I can release it to others that want to buy it. All pre-ordered products MUST be picked up at least a half hour prior to us closing market or I will release them for sale during that last half hour! I hate to penalize everyone and require prepayment (not to mention the bookkeeping nightmare I do not have time to deal with) so from this day forward, if you do not pick up your preorders, you will not be allowed to preorder in the future without prepaying. I guess that will just be a half nightmare!! Why people? Why did it come to this? And if you prepay and don't pick up during market hours, you forfeit your products. I am not going to be overwhelmed with people trying to pick up outside of our markets. Remember, we are a working farm!! The rest of the time lately I look like I have been mud wrestling...and probably have with some animal - so do not need people coming by and distracting us from our work.
In addition, if you tell me you are going to Zelle/or have Zelled and the Zelle is incorrect or not there by the time I reconcile the following day, you will be required to pay cash upon pickup in the future. I will no longer take your Zelle - and you know we do not take any other form of payment due to the fees. I have had some banks that took until the opening of business the following day and I understand that. But if you have just been dragging your feet/forgot/too busy to pay, I don't have the time to email you asking for the payment.
I am so sorry to have to make this post but we are a real business. We have bills that need to be paid. Especially during these stormy times we are over the top with damage control and trying to keep our animals high and dry and do not need extra work! We are a small farm - time is our enemy and pennies make dollars. I am sure it is not the intent of ANY of our customers to cause a hardship on us, but it does. I am trying to run the farm, run the books, run the orders/deliveries/inventory/staffing/you name it and totally overwhelmed. Losing money on left over products that there were people waiting in line to buy should not be another issue!
Thank you to all of those who come to pick up their products, pay timely and understand what this is about!! This is for the 2% of our customers that habitually do not pick up!!