Gray Hobby Farm

23/08/2024

Thanks to Jenn who coordinated a private group goat yoga event yesterday. Clearly the goats love you!

15/08/2024

When you own a hobby farm, and provided services like goat yoga, farm classes for kids, and have to take care of the animals, garden, etc. it is a lot of work daily.

Despite the work, there is big upside. We eat healthier, we get more exercise, and we get to love our animals. Most importantly, we do as much of it together as possible. Here we are taking some time with our babies. The babies know they are loved and are always so excited to see us. We are equally excited to love them back. This photo captures their love and playfulness all in the same picture.

12/08/2024

Precious!
Beru is a first time Mom this year. And she had a set of twins (Jaden and Reid). Named after two of our favorite Timberwolves. She has been a wonderful mom and her babies are sweet and cuddly and lovable. Yesterday I was able to capture a photo of her letting her baby Jaden feed on her. She loves her babies. And she has done a good job of preparing them to be adults. But she still lets them nurse which is adorable. Thought I'd share. Reid is on the other side trying to get on as well.

10/08/2024

Interesting egg facts:

The photo below was an egg that had been laid about 10 seconds earlier. I saw it come out of the chicken grabbed my phone and took a picture. If you look closely you can see that it's wet. That wetness is a little tacky and called a bloom. When it dries it seals the pores of the shell. Therefore, we can store those eggs on the counter for at least a month at a time.

The laws that grocery stores have to abide by requires eggs to be washed. When you wash an egg you remove the natural protective coating (the bloom) that seals the egg to keep it fresh. That is why the eggs we buy in the store are in the refrigerator. In many countries they do not refrigerate their eggs. People simply buy the eggs from the store off of a shelf and then wash the eggs themselves. That is also how we sell our eggs at the farm.

20/07/2024

Snowy is adorable. She is our rodent control specialist at the farm. And while she may like her snuggles with many farm visitors, I wouldn't want to be a rodent. This is her favorite place in the morning to gather sunlight.

16/07/2024

As most of you know, these poor babies lost their mama tragically. Otherwise, we would not be bottle feeding. We believe it's in the best interest of the babies to bond and feed with mama. But in tough times, we make due. While I love holding the babies while I feed them a bottle, there are times where time is of the essence. They love this bottle feeding device I built. And it's so cute watching them chug. They are adjusting so well to their life without mama. And growing so fast. Look at those tails wag.

04/06/2024

Sad post:

Sometimes farm life can be emotionally devastating. You haven't seen many posts about the most recent babies for a reason. Unfortunately we lost our beloved Daisy. Daisy was the best goat mom ever. She always loved her babies, paid attention to them and actively made sure they were doing well. Unfortunately she got very sick during delivery and a large stillborn baby was too large for her to deliver. We rushed her to the University of Minnesota to see the vet team but they could not save her. Daisy delivered three healthy babies but the fourth one was larger than those three combined. Unfortunately there is sometimes nothing you can do.

This is the last photo I have of daisy. She was not feeling well and she just wanted to put her head on my chest and have me rub her cheek. Mary reminded me that she likes to be scratched right on the side of the jaw. Mama knows best. Before she passed she was able to make it to her feet one last time and feed her babies and give them all kisses. She was a tough lady.

Daisy will be extremely missed. She was in the first kidding that we had on our farm. She also was our best jumper. Moving forward, we have three orphaned baby goats. We give them tons of love and have been bottle feeding them five times a day. They won't be in yoga right away as they aren't big enough to fend for themselves yet, but they WILL make appearances.

God blessed us with a special animal for 6 years. She knew her name, many commands, and was just an absolute sweetheart. She will be deeply missed by all of us.

28/05/2024

This was about a half hour ago. I left for one second and Mary yelled for me and there was another baby. Daisy loves all her babies so much.

28/05/2024

Here are Daisy's triplets. #3 born just seconds ago. Precious!

28/05/2024

Jaden and Reid are learning to jump. Preparing for goat yoga.

28/05/2024

Mary needed a snack, so I was laying on the floor helping babies to nurse and getting licked by Daisy when I turned and there is Mary with Snowy. Snowy spends a lot of time with the goats but I've never seen her in the barn. She knew something must be going on. She climbed In through a window.

28/05/2024

Daisy is in labor. First one came out beautifully. Second one stuck with head down. Mary had to go in and rearrange, break amniotic sack and pull out the baby. Our vet Sharon walked Mary through it. Sharon is awesome! We nursed the baby to health and now mama is loving it up, kissing it, etc. Daisy is a good mama.

This photo is what is going on in the stall right next to us. Beru's babies are sleeping through it. They are exhausted after a long day of play time. And they are snuggling. It is adorable. Pictures of Daisy and her babies will follow when we are in the clear.

27/05/2024

Beru is such a caring and beautiful mama goat. These babies were her first kidding. And she has done wonderful. If her babies leave her side, she bellows for them and searches for them. It is precious to see that relationship. The baby boy with the white on his face is Reid, and the baby girl that I am holding is Jaden. A very precious family.

FYI: Daisy is due any day now. I plan to post videos of the birthing if it isn't too hectic. I couldn't do that with Beru as I wasn't home at the time, so Mary was hectic. More photos and videos coming soon!

22/05/2024

Announcing! Baby Goats!!

Beru had her babies Sunday night. Sorry we are so late getting this out. More photos to come. It's just been very hectic. Both babies were under 2 pounds, but are very healthy and active and Beru is being a great first time mama. And Adorable! We feel so blessed!

09/05/2024

We feel extremely blessed to have Chickens! While it is not a money-making endeavor (we lost almost $2k last year despite selling a lot of them), we did get eggs for personal use which made up for some of it. But few people know how sweet chickens can be. We routinely love and cuddle our chickens. They follow us around the yard, and often beg to be picked up. Last night, one of them got locked out of her coop (she stayed out past curfew) and she jumped up on the window sill and knocked with her wings until we came out to cuddle her and put her in for the night. These birds are pets to us. They are smart and loving. We continue to keep our chickens after their egg laying years are behind them which is another reason we lost money on them. They are our "lovebirds". haha.

03/05/2024

This is mostly likely, our favorite picture of goat yoga ever. The relationships between people and goats are special. This was from 2 summers ago. While this type of thing happens every class, it takes a parent to capture it and send it to us. You have to experience it to understand it.
Classes starting soon!! www.grayhobbyfarm.com

22/04/2024

If you love goats, Goat Yoga is for you! Tender moments like this are plentiful!

19/04/2024

Baby goats from Beru are due May 19th. We are so excited!! Here is a photo of Beru as a baby. I am sure her babies will be just as precious. Once the baby pictures start getting posted, the yoga classes fill up quickly.

18/04/2024

Our son Sean, his friend Blake, and Maz during goat yoga.

Registration open at www.grayhobbyfarm.com

11/04/2024

Our dear friend, Jean Davidson, is in New Prague. Every year, Mary and I get our garden plants from her. She sells the best plants, and they are already growing in her greenhouse. I have a catalog of all her offerings. FB wouldn't let me post the catalog, so if you want to see her offerings, email me at [email protected] and I will respond to you and include her catalog. This year we are getting 20 tomato plants of 14 varieties, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, broccoli, green and red peppers, jalapenos, snack peppers, shish*to peppers, and more. So if you want to support a great person who is local, you can pick up right at her farm in New Prague. I've been getting my stuff from her for 20+ years!! Pictured below is an heirloom tomato from last year.

11/04/2024

Sharing some of our favorite Goat Yoga photos from last couple years. www.grayhobbyfarm.com

10/04/2024

Dairy and Snowy are the cutest and sweetest cats I've ever met. They follow us all over the farm, bring us the mice they catch, and sit on the doorstep waiting for us to come out and give them loves and snuggles. Precious!

08/04/2024

Some of our regular clients are out of town and the chickens are laying eggs like crazy. Organically fed, free range chicken eggs. $6/dozen. [email protected] if interested. Or text 952-239-2408.

29/03/2024

Exciting News!!

Goat yoga classes are online and ready for registrations!

go to www.grayhobbyfarm.com and click the "register now" button on the home screen and follow prompts to register.

Thanks all. We are looking forward to another fun year!

We have a small hobby farm in Prior Lake, MN with goats, chickens and ducks. We have a large garden and fruit trees. We are offering goat yoga in the spring. We will be selling fresh, organic produce. Other produces include organic, free trade goats milk soap, carmels, jams and more.

27/03/2024

We love our pet goats. I could spend all day loving them up.

21/03/2024

Mary loves to snuggle our friends chickens. Wayne and Mary have the sweetest girls.

11/02/2024

Their instincts are always interesting. Even though they have clean and fresh water, they drink out of puddles by choice.

12/01/2024

Thought I'd share! Thanks to all farmers!

09/01/2024

We have a cycle of organic farming here where nothing goes to waste. We feed our animals organically. The , yesterday I cleaned out both the small chicken coops and spread them on the south garden for fertilizer. Then Mary, Sawyer (our neighbor ) and I did the goat barn (mostly Sawyer). All of the goat waste goes into the north gardens and becomes organic fertilizer. The chickens love to kick and scratch in it looking for bugs, etc. It also helps smooth it around the garden for perfect composting. They all ran down there first thing this morning. But as soon as I cracked the door they all started running up to see me so I didn't get much on video. But you can see the organic refuse on the garden. It will be rich soil by summer.

09/01/2024

It may have been National "snuggle a chicken" day, but here at the Gray Hobby Farm every day is snuggle a chicken day. Here are some of our favorite snuggles from last couple months including one from our Duck Motorcycle.