Power was out for 46 hours after hurricane Michael came up from the Gulf Coast. Extremely heavy rains and wind took out power around here for 90% of all customers!
We managed okay but another day without power would have forced us to bring in water for all of the animals.
The camping gear came in VERY useful. This peculator makes excellent coffee.
We bought a generator to keep our freezers going. They are full of pork from our hogs.
Wow!
I am in awe of our placings at the Dixie Classic fair here in NC yesterday. Thank you Lord for your blessings on me 
and to my husband for doing all the heavy loading & unloading Thank you to Don George for assisting with showing and Teri Sines for taking the photos. I would not have any photos if it wasn’t for her!
Lucky*Star’s LB Faythe – Won 1st in the 3 yr old class; then Grand Champion Senior Lamancha, and then won Best of Breed! AND Best in Show!!!! 
MLRT Victoria – Won 1st in the yearling milker class and Reserve Champion Lamancha!
MLRT Ashara – Won 1st in the Sr. doeliing Lamancha class and Grand Champion Junior Lamancha!
MLRT Vanilla Latte – Won 2nd in the Sr. doeling Lamancha class and Reserve Grand Champion Junior Lamancha!
MLRT Cristal Champagne – Won 5th in her Intermediate Lamancha class.
THEN won Premier Lamancha Exhibitor!!!
<3 <3
MLRT Ashara won Grand Champion jr Lamancha MLRT Vanilla Latte won Reserve Grand Champion jr Lamancha
MLRT Ashara won Grand Champion jr lamancha
MLRT Victoria won Reserve Grand Champion Sr. Lamancha (yearling milker)
Lucky*Star’s LB Faythe won Grand Champion Sr Lamancha, Best Udder, Best Of Breed!!
Our vain attempt to keep fair-goers from petting the goats.
The girls relaxing in their cozy pens 🙂
Loaded up and ready to go to the fair!!
Awesome husband just finished loading the truck & trailer <3
Awesome husband helping load the girls <3
September 2018 was the first time that we attempted to AI our goats ourselves. The last two years, we have had Capra-Gia (Mark Stevens) to AI them for us. We are THRILLED with our 66% success rate!!
Three mature does were AI’d and two of the three conceived. This 66% success rate is great for a first attempt. Tempo Kim and MLRT Victoria both conceived and will freshen on February 2, 2019. We induce parturition to ensure we are home during every delivery due to possible life-threatening complications that may arise.
After trying to use tarps for years to cover our hay & shavings and replacing them once/twice each year, we decided to try using re-purposed vinyl signs/billboard tarps instead. They are extremely heavy weight and priced reasonable.
I can say that we are thrilled with them. Their quality, durability and UV resistance will allow them to stay useful for many years.
We have used https://billboardtarps.com/ for our needs with great success and very fast shipping.
We added four (2 x barrows, 1 gilt, 1 boar) Mangalista x kune-kune cross piglets that we purchased from Santee Field Farm. (Thank you Hannah) One to butcher for our church, one to butcher for a friend and two for us. The gilt and boar are breeding stock for ourselves. They are only eight weeks old and will stay in a small pen (16 x 16) until they are large enough to train to our electric fence. Then they will have a large forest area.
Our two large hogs that you see in the background are scheduled to go to the butcher in a few weeks so our freezers will soon be full.
8 weeks old Mangalitsa/kune-kune
cross piglets
