Welcome to Meadowgate Farm’s BLOG.

We hope that you enjoy reading about what’s going on down on the farm.

September 18, 2010 Come on out for our GRAND OPENING, Saturday, Sept. 18, from 1-7pm. On this special day, along with all the usual fun things to do and see, we will have pony rides and face painting free with admission. We challenge you to conquer our corn maze. It’s a doozie -- we get lost in it ourselves sometimes! The tractor will be pulling hay rides, and we’ll also have hand and bottle-feeding, goat-milking, and egg-collecting sessions. Don’t miss out on the fun!

August 23, 2010 It’s not just pygmies anymore! We’ve had the miniature goats for quite awhile here at Meadowgate Farm, but we’ve decided we’d also like to try our hand at a milk goat. Meet Lacey, a Nubian nanny that was dehorned and bottle-fed as a kid, so she is a very gentle milker. Nubians are 3 to 4 times as big as our pygmy goats. Lacey gives about a gallon of milk a day when she freshens, or gives birth, each year. That’s a lot of goat cheese!

August 16, 2010 We had some drama this weekend on the farm. The first of our fall lamb crop were born on Saturday, a set of spotted Shetland x Southdown Babydoll sheep crosses. They were strong and healthy, so no issue there. The problem was that another ewe (momma sheep) that was in labor stole one of the lambs and adopted her before her mother could finish cleaning her off! Luckily, the thief gave birth later that night to a big single lamb, so she has enough milk for both.

August 5, 2010 Prince Thumper has a new girlfriend! Isn’t she pretty? Our male bunny, a black and white spotted Miniature Holland Lop, was getting lonely, so we got him some friends. This is Princess Dot, a grey and white spotted mini Lop. She should have a litter of kits (baby bunnies) just before our Grand Opening in September. The rabbit family here on the farm has also been joined by Flopsy and Mopsy, more young minis. Come play with them this fall!

July 24, 2010 This summer sure was a hard one to grow corn. We got some irrigation working (pumped up from the pond) to deal with the irregular rain, and fought off an invasion of army worms, and now the corn is growing beautifully. We just cut the maze pattern this past week. It’s exciting to have a corn maze now instead of just a corn patch! We can’t wait for the corn to get up high enough for us to test the maze for difficulty. Any volunteers?

July 15, 2010 Meadowgate Farm made front page news! Patti and AJ hosted the Merry Weather Garden Club’s meeting this month, and the guests spent as much time in the barn as they did in the gardens. Now Patti’s painted barn quilts are the talk of the town. At the meeting, AJ also gave a presentation on agritourism (inviting the public into the world of agriculture), which inspired the headline for the article, “An Important Word”.

June 2010 We have three new additions to the family - Sneakers,  Sammie, and Scout, who are miniature Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs. Man, can they make some noise when they are mad! Here, Sammie is only 3 weeks old. They still drink from the bottle several times a day, of course, so they are a lot of work. But they are so cute! And we know that feeding them from the bottle like this will make them very gentle for all the visitors who will be feeding and petting them this fall.

May 2010 Congratulations to our favorite biddy (a Silver-laced Cochin hen), who patiently sat on her eggs for 3 weeks and hatched out a brood of beautiful chicks. Can you see all three of the chicks that are peeking out from behind her wing? We’ve always been amazed at how a hen will set all that time, hardly getting up even to eat or drink. And their dedication to motherhood doesn’t stop when the chicks hatch. They cluck and worry nonstop about those chicks!

March 2010 Spring is so fun on the farm, with all the critters reproducing. Our first babies of the spring are here -- two sets of twin pygmy goats born just a few days apart. Here are the twin billies, both spotted like their daddy, Shakespeare. What good lookin’ little fellas! We love to watch them run and kick up their heels, and play king of the mountain on the goat climbs. The little stinkers keep getting out of the fence though - that sure makes their mommas mad!

January 2010 We have been painting more than barn quilts! This winter we gathered up all our animal models and had them sit for their portraits. Now our barn is graced with a picture of our little menagerie - cow, pig, sheep, horse, rooster, bunny and all. Don’t miss it when you come out to visit us.

October 2009 Well, our trial pumpkin patch was a huge success. We literally have pumpkins coming out of our ears, and the pigs will only eat so many! It’s the week before Halloween, so we have decided to donate pumpkins to the teachers and students of local schools. We took trailers full of hundreds of pumpkins, like the one in the picture to the left, to primary and elementary schools in Meriwether, Pike, and Fayette Counties. What fun to share our harvest!

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