Farmgirl Sisterhood

I'm Dawn Mathews and this blog is about me and a plot of land we call Pretty Farm. It's named after my goat, Athena, whose nickname is Pretty. This pic is of me in Ivins, Utah hiking the red canyons. What a beautiful place to spend a month.

This is one of our Pekin Ducks, Fluffy. You can see where she gets the name. We are also partial to Indian Runner Ducks.

I am holding one of our 14 chickens. Black is a Black Sex Link. I know, we need to get more original on the names, but when you have this many wandering around, well, you run out quickly:)

Athena is my bestie. She and I have a tried and true friendship and I love her so much. She really does understand us and loves us unconditionally.

She's also a snack hoarder! Tried to get my food everytime. Hey goat, what's that over there?
Baby bunnies are always exciting on the farm. We have one breeder buck and three does. The picture below is of my goat milk soap business The Thankful Goat. I sell goat milk soap, goat milk and honey lotion and body butters, massage oil, chapsticks, perfumes, shower gels, and sugar scrubs. Browse my selection at www.thethankfulgoat.blogspot.com

The two pics above are of my goose, Agnes, when she was a baby and Steve my husband and my son, Isaac, processing out our meat chickens. Nothing tastes like a fresh steroid free bird.

Our Hera had just given birth to Perseus. I was helping him get his first bit of milk. Birthing goats is messy business.
But oh so rewarding. This is Athena with Lavender and Rosemary. We kept Rosemary (right) for expanding the herd this year.

Here are our breeding rabbits. The hutch is constructed to keep out the sun, rain, snow, and wind but let the fresh air through. They love the Rabbie Condo. And we love the free fertilizer. We also eat the rabbit meat. It has a better flavor than chicken.
Our first batch of spring ducks. Pekins, Indian Runners, and Hybrid 300s.

The Spring garden was a big producer. Cabbages, garlic, onions, lettuce, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, and swiss chard.
We do a big garden that holds all the pumpkins, watermelons, beans, corn, zuchini, tomatoes, and squash, but we make raised beds for the smaller plants. These are great gardens and produce like crazy!

I just recently joined a group called the Farmgirl Sisterhood. I found it in Mary Jane's Farm magazine and I'm so happy I joined. They help farmgirls like me be more prepared for life. If you like to farm and garden and just love making things, you would love this magazine and the Sisterhood. I even found two chapters of local members who get together and do things. You can learn how to sew, can, camp, conserve, and 100s more things and earn merit badges for doing them. That's why I started this blog. I want to see how many merit badges I can earn. So from time to time I'll be posting my projects on here. And in the process I'll be teaching you how to do new fun stuff. I can't wait to get started. If you want to learn more about the Farmgirl Sisterhood, check it out at www.farmgirlsisterhood.org