Monday’s Homestead Barn Hop #22
Hey guys!! I’m so glad you could join me, Jill, Amy, and Megan for another fun-filled Homestead Barn Hop! It has been so inspiring visiting everyone’s homesteads and seeing what you’ve all been up to! Keep the great ideas coming!
Anybody who has a dog or a cat knows that when you have pets it can be hard to get away for a little vacation once a year. Unless it’s a small dog that you can take with you, arrangements will have to be made either at a boarding facility or with a friend or family member who can care for your pet until you return.
But imagine how this problem is compounded when you have chickens and a milk goat to find care for. The needs of these animals are a little more complicated. You can’t put them in a boarding facility. And you can’t let your friend take them to their house for a few days. Well, not unless they have a farm of their own and a trailer, and even then it isn’t practical to load up a couple dozen chickens to transport! No. These animals have to stay on location, and they require daily (even twice daily) care.
Finding a farm sitter can be nearly impossible. And if you are blessed with a willing vessel, if you have a milk cow or goat, you’ll still need for that person to know how to properly milk.
I say all of this because this has been our dilemma. We wanted to get away for a weekend, but didn’t know ANYBODY who could farm sit for us. But after I sent out an SOS message on my personal facebook page, I was blessed to have a couple of friends respond with an offer to help. I could hardly believe it! And one of them even has a milk goat of her own, so she knows the deal. How great is that?!
We were so blessed by the willing hearts of our friends to help us out… those willing to learn to milk a goat just to give us a break, and those offering to drive a good distance each day in order to be of some assistance. But in the end, our dear neighbors have offered to care for the homestead while we’re gone. They’ve had milk goats in the past, and they own chickens, so they know how to go about things here.
In exchange, we’re happy to let them keep all of the milk they get for themselves, and the eggs they collect, and any garden produce that comes in while we’re gone. Though I wish it could be more. What a blessing to have people willing to lend a helping hand.
If you know somebody who has farm animals, consider the blessing you would be by offering your help so these people can get away for a couple of days. The work isn’t really that hard, and you’re more than likely to be compensated with delicious, fresh foods.
So, this weekend we’re heading to the beach for a little R&R. It’ll be fun for the kids in particular. My family has a house within walking distance from the beach, and we are blessed to be able to stay there pretty much whenever we want.
I’m gonna be EXTRA busy this week making sure everything is good here before we leave. I’ll be so ready for a break by Friday!
Do you have a faithful farm sitter? How do you get away for a weekend?
If you have something fun to share from your own homestead, link up below and show us what you’ve got!
From recipes and herbal remedies, to gardening tips and animal advice, we wanna hear what you’ve been learning!
This is the one thing that is keeping us from getting a cow & goats. We do go out of town occationally & it’s hard to find someone to take care of the chickens. My dad can do it for us but I know he really doesn’t like to. My husband & I have talked about this a lot. Our kids are all teenagers, the oldest is a senior in High School this year.(Boo Hoo! I’m going to be a blubbering mess this whole school year! I already teared up this summer when he had his senior yearbook pictures made & he had to wear a cap & gown.) Anyway, with the kids getting older we have realized that we could be all alone in as little as 7-8 years & we think that we would like to do a little traveling like my parents did when I left home. It’s going to be hard trying to figure out what to do!
Thankfully we have good neighbors too. I have one neighbor that takes care of the goats and another neighbor that takes care of my garden, horses, chickens, cats and dogs. I actually have many neighbors that would help out if we needed it. It’s nice living in such a community.
One of my other neighbors has alpacas. Before her knee surgery she lined up about 10 different people to take care of her alpacas, dogs and property. So on Tuesdays I go and take care of her alpacas and dog. She chose a day a week for each of us so none of us have too much to do. It works out perfectly.
As Debbie said, that is also the reason we haven’t gotten any animals that require milking. We’re able to get someone to come twice a day to feed the pigs, cats and dog, and to lock up and let out the chickens, but if we had something that required milking, we’d never be able to go anywhere, unfortunately. That’s great that you were able to work it out!
So far when we want to get away, my parents or our neighbors have been willing to feed our horses and dogs and check on our chickens!
It is a blessing!
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