Wheaton Mountain Farm stays in Bucksport Maine and will be ready for our 2020 kidding and hatching seasons! We will yet again offer hatching eggs by mail and have Nubian doelings for sale.

After much, much consideration… We are NOT moving!

We let strangers into our home to consider buying it from us. Tour after tour said the same things. Some people even pointed out the yard was a mess, meaning the fencing, mini-barn, coops, garden… It killed me to think of another person tearing up all we have worked so hard for. That and, WTF is in Bradford? No really, what.

More factors of course played into our choice. The cost of running power or putting up solar. Pouring slabs. Putting in a road for that matter. It hit a point that we’d have to stay overwinter either way because it was so hard to move livestock, and there was no barn or coops ready for them to move into there.

Over the past few weeks I have begun nesting and it forced the feeling of ‘home’ back into my torn heart. I do so love it here. We were married here. Had built a life here that we thought was forever. We can do anything together when we put our heads together—well, except making money off dairy goats. The jury is still out on that one. Wheaton Mountain Farm stays in Bucksport but many hurdles still lay in the way of making money farming.

We are still planning on buying the Bradford property as a ‘farmer’s retreat’ and hunting lodge. We only have so much land here in Bucksport. Moving to Bradford would have given our herd and sawmill 225 acres to graze and harvest. That was a hell of a carrot leading us north. Wheaton Mountain Farm stays in Bucksport Maine… but on only about 30-acres.

But seeing the forest through the trees is truly difficult. While walking the forest there in Bradford we appended across a rare path randomly in the middle of the property. No rock wall, not on a boundary—just there. We literally could see through the trees.

We had a falling out with close friends, who are also our neighbors. They were in our wedding. We have picked lettuce together. Gone out on double dates. Shared countless bottles of wine together. I couldn’t let it go. I was infuriated. It was a truly sad series of events, with a side of lies and a gracious sprinkling of petty behavior.

How do you get past that—literally? I’m not sure how. It does wane with time. Everything does with time. Hell, we invited my ex-husband to Thanksgiving. Slowly the wound does begin to heal. A nasty scar still festers and won’t be closed up for some time, if ever. I can’t let it get in the way of my goat bliss. Ten minutes with my sweetheart cud-chewers is usually enough to melt any problems away. How can you not love that derpy face and floppy ears?

I can’t wait until kidding season to see what lovely kids will be born in April. We will have Nubian doelings for sale beginning in Late April through May. We will have bucklings also, but plan to wether them unless specifically reserved. I plan to sell one doe once she’s in milk and her kids have milk available from other dams. Young, in-milk “fresh” Nubian doelings for sale aren’t overly common given their 10+ year lifespan and their ability to give milk for 18-months. They only kid once a year and with a 50/50 chance of doelings it’s a tight market. Get a hold of us early to inquire about Nubian doelings for sale.

Sometimes I have difficult to manage emotional distress hurdles as a part of living with bipolar. This is no secret. Over the years it has naturally mellowed out substantially. With the aid of medications and an ever-patient husband, it’s manageable. I just stay home if I’m having a rough day. I know how to cope—but the daily buildup of angst and dissent was unbearable for quite some time. You see, I have to drive past their house twice on our little dead-end road each time I come and go. I felt intently pushed out with them having known this about me.

I miss my bestie. Sometimes I still think it will be ok, and we can be friends. So I let it go, only to realize it cannot be. Either way, I think I can push through it. This whole fiasco is hands-down the original basis and deciding factor in our first thoughts to leave. I have distanced myself, as if I never got to know them. It’s hard.

I need to save out some soothing chamomile from our lovely display beds next winter. This years’ garden went to hell while I lost time in my day as a sudden bed and breakfast manager at the house next door we are selling. The good news is, that Goliath of a house is now under contract and due to close in January.

The new owners will not be moving in until August of next year and we have volunteered to manage it until then. By spring it will ramp back up but I refuse to let it take my life over. I’m having a housekeeper help from the get-go this year. I need to learn to set my phone down and ignore it while I work—especially in the garden which should be a soothing place to relax and mindlessly pull weeds.

I’m tempted to play a podcast, jam-out from my truck speakers, or invite a friend to harvest or pull weeds with me. It’s hard to admit, but I’m on it ALL the time and need to set some breaks for myself. Listening to the birds and sucking up sun is what I need to do this time around.

Pullet Graduation!

On a much lighter and farm news-worthy note: our spring 2018 hatchlings who became lovely young pullets over the summer have begun to lay. Yesterday three vivid green Olive Egger eggs and a deep mahogany Black Copper Marans egg adorned the nesting box. I wonder what today’s newly graduated hens shall lay. They HATE moving.

I’m still waiting on my Robin’s Egg Blue line from our Ameraucanas. They tend to lay later and less often than my Marans and, depending on the cross, the Olive Eggers too.

Next week I will begin listing Olive Egger hatching eggs by mail to 46 US states. CA, WA, HI, AK and another I cannot recall have too strict of laws around imported poultry that I cannot compete with major hatcheries. I have not interest in submitting blood samples quarterly. Our hatching eggs by mail are NPIP certified and meet Federal and State Dept. of Ag. requirements. ALL HATCHING EGGS BY MAIL ARE DOWN TO THEIR (long awaited) OFF-SEASON SALE PRICING.

When the chickens herd the big news that Wheaton Mountain Farm stays in Bucksport Maine they did back-flips and clucked cheerily. They will be happier with the open land here to roam. The forest in Bradford is a scary place for a chicken.

Old Fashioned Soap

I finally got around to listing our soaps on the website for those who had been awaiting. I currently have lavender and unscented, but will have evergreen tip oils made soon. Everything is grown, raised and foraged from our land aside from scrap tallow from a few friends’ farms all from loved and ethically-raised livestock.

Evergreen tips are sustainably harvested on our land and indoor grown herbs allow for fresh oils made all winter long. Winter-mint, wild strawberry, blackberry and other scents are available by season. I bought some fancy moulds but have yer to use them.

Stay tuned for fails—I’m sure there will be. My soap tends to come out very thick and begins to cure too fast. This makes it hard to fill intricate holes and lines in the new designs. Between the blooming flowers, teeny fairies and the deeply cut tree-of-life moulds it ought to be a learning experience.

My fresh lavender is doing well inside but needs to multiply to keep up with demand. Clipping it back, putting it in batter light and adding liquid organic seedling nutrients really seem to be doing the trick.

Kevin built me a sweet cloner out of a plastic bin and a mist fountain he found on Amazon. He’s a handy man. I think I’ll keep him around. As soon as my hydroponic spinach grow has completed, I’m planning to clone some of the lavender to save in preparation of the spring milk surplus. Wheaton Mountain Farm stays in Bucksport Maine and so does all the learning, fails and chicken drama.