I’ll be at the Lafayette Street Market again this coming Thursday, May 17. The address is 1441 East Lafayette in Tallahassee, at the Video 21 store.

We’ll have Mayhaw Jelly and Mayhaw Cake Slices as well as our other specialty jellies and some country fresh eggs. We have special requests for DE (Diatomaceous Earth).  Click here to learn about it.   We will bring some goat shanks. Someone wants them for a curry recipe they’re going to make for guests. We still have a few other items of goat from our last processing. There are chops that can be marinated and a few packages of ground. I do have about 5 packages of ground lamb available also.

We don’t have much lamb right now. We will be processing the first week of June. I will take orders for half or whole lamb or goat. You buy the lamb or goat and I can arrange for delivery to Johnston’s Meat Market for processing for you. They will cut and wrap it to your specifications.

May 9, 2012 we noticed two, darling kids bouncing around in the pasture. We haven’t picked them up yet so we’re not sure whether they are boys or girls. The white one shows up nicely but the other brown and black blends in completely against the background. There are many more on the way in the next weeks. This is such a fun time.

The Golden Girls and one other Mini-Myotonic are showing signs of eminent birthing also. This will add to all the excitement. Fred came in from morning rounds and said one of our little Mini-Myotonics has a kid at her side. We saw she was in labor yesterday so we put her in a  barn stall. This breed is naturally small so the kids are tiny  and more vulnerable when born. Several of these girls gave birth in late January and those babies have already gone to new homes. It is hard to part with them but they go to special places.

See more photos in the Gallery by clicking the image.

Last Saturday we noticed there wasn’t any water coming from our faucets. Strange thing. Fred and I immediately went out to check our water source to see if the electricity had gone off or if we had a major break and all the water was running into a pasture somewhere. Oh, nothing that simple. In the pump house, the motor was purring but the water wasn’t filling the tank.  Fred found he could shut off the well pump a short while then turn it back on and the tank would fill which then gave us water into the house. We did this little trick for the remainder of the weekend.

Our faithful well repair guys came Monday morning and cut a hole into the roof of the pump house with a chain saw. They had to do that to get the heavy duty well pipe out of the ground. There are seven of them going down 160 to 180 feet total. The motor and pump are at the bottom of the pipes. No using a rope and come-a-long for that task.

Anyway, all went well (no pun intended) for just a little while. New motor and pump assembled to the bottom pipe and each successive pipe attached as it all went back down. Everything going great so far. Fred and I are guessing how much it was going to cost. They really hadn’t been there all that long. Two thousand, twenty-five hundred – just a drop in the bucket – or well in this case. Now the clinker.

The last pipe wouldn’t go all the way down. The guys worked hard at it. Clink, clink went the big machine, wrench, turn, wrench, turn, went the guys with a sprinkling of cuss, cuss. None of these efforts helped. It just wasn’t going to go back down. The tested the well to see if they could get water and got a limestone and sand slurpy (really slurry) instead. Whoops, well walls collapsed.

Here are our choices. Tear down the existing building so the “big” machine can get in to ream out another hundred feet or dig a completely new well. New well, hmm! What does that entail. We get to play with a ditch-witch to lay new power source and new pipes after we figure out where the new location should be.  Tearing down the building sounds better all the time. Check in for the next edition of this saga and we’ll tell you our decision. Probably have photos too. Ah, the country life.

For more information call 850-487-4556.

The Mayhaw Festival is behind us and it’s a little quieter here at the farm. I’ll be at the Lafayette Street Growers Market this coming Thursday. The address is 1441 East Lafayette in Tallahassee, right across from The Moon and easy parking.

We’ll have Mayhaw Jelly and Mayhaw Cake Slices as well as our other specialty jellies. Probably some country fresh eggs too.

We don’t have any goat or lamb to speak of because we won’t be processing until the first of June. I will take orders for half or whole lamb or goat. You buy the lamb or goat and I can arrange for delivery to Johnston’s Meat Market for processing for you. They will cut and wrap it to your specifications.

We did sell jelly, eggs and cake, and the vendors sold some of their wares so everyone was happy. Like the Tallahassee Democrat  said, “Warm winter crimps crop, (but) not fun at the Mayhaw Festival.” They did a very nice write up and posted a bunch of pictures on the local front page. We bought lots of copies.

Wanted! Gangsters, and Molls Speakeasy

The benefit will include entertainment by a 7-piece Swing Band called Swing Shift with accompaniment by the lovely and sultry singer, Betsy Gray.

Between the hours of 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, Jail tours (quite spooky) will be given to enable the community to see the progression that Main Street has made inside the Old Jail Museum.  Also between the hours of 6:30 pm until 8:30, Photographer, Suzanne Murphy will be available for photos for those who would like a Kodak memory of their night.

To top off all of this excitement, Guests can enjoy a drink from flowing Champagne fountains, Decadent Chocolate from Tupelo’s, Light Bites, and who knows, maybe we will even get Raided because of all of the fun we will be having.

Two hundred invitations have already been sent out, but we always have room for more.

Contact Main Street Monticello President, Margie Stern @850-210-4097 or mstern3409@aol.com if you would like to support this community event and have a very fun filled night with many of your neighbors.

For more information call 850-487-4556.

“Just wanted to tell you that we really enjoyed the beauty of your property and meeting and watching your animals.  Thank you for letting us spend a night there.  Hope all goes well with the festival this weekend.

“I think the attached pics capture the feeling we experienced on your ranch. Good memories!”

So, I was inspired to start sharing these wonderful comments on a new Testimonials & Reviews page here on the website. Stoney and Claudia are the only one’s there now, but you can add your testimonial.

Look for the button to submit your own review next time you’re on the website, or send us your testimonials by email and let us know it’s okay to post.