Trans* farmers?

[Charlize]

I'm sure i'm not alone.  ours is a relatively small farm by many standards.  We have a herd of 40 meat goats  which are sold for the most part to the halal market.  We also produce approximately 75 gallons of maple syrup in the early spring which is somewhat unusual for NJ.  I started a sawmill operation up about 10 years ago to handle a plantation of white pine that my father had planted when i was a child.  There is no softwood market for softwood logs here but the lumber sells well.  At almost 70 with a dodgy heart i'm a bit limited but enjoy keeping busy on the land.  My son and his family live next door in my father's old house and he helps at times but is busy as a public defender.

Farming in NJ is difficult but there is a great market here for our products.  Hope to hear form others who deal with gender while repairing machinery or handling livestock.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Kirsten]

Well I am not quite the same kind of farmer, but I do grow medical cannabis. Indoor though so things are not really the same. But it is a valid and LEGAL grow. And I do carry multiple patients and create medicines from flower to concentrates to edibles depending on what they require. I also donate to a local family who have a child that needs cbd concentrates for a medical condition that causes seizures. 

Beyond that I teach others how to do it for themselves, set up their own systems, and get them started.  And on occasion I have even gotten to go into larger commercial ops as a consultant for setups and strain recommendations. 

I started this about 6 years ago with the hopes of making it into a career. Unfortunately the cost to get a commercial startup is so immense I’m stuck in a smaller scale setup for now. But Now I am simply hoping it will support me after retirement in 12-15 years. And hopefully by then I’ll be in a new location with a nice greenhouse rather than what I have now. 

[Guest]

Wish I did have a small farm, we are into growing edible things in between the flowers. Three years ago we had four tomato plants and we wound up canning 27 quarts of tomatoes. This year I bought a Mexican grown vine ripened beefsteak tomato and harvested the seeds. We started them indoors in peat cups and currently have ten plants going, so I expect we will be busy eventually. We grew several pickle cucumber vines and canned several quarts of dills and several more of sweet pickles. I bought a commercial electric meat grinder that we use for making our own Italian sausage and for grinding up cucumbers and other stuff for making relish. We really need a mini-farm to have a real garden and I'd like to have a dozen Rhode Island Red hens. 

[Jani]

My little "farm" has some flowers but the main crop is grass.  Boy, how I hate to mow the lawn!!! ?

[Guest]

Ugh mowing the lawn, whose idea was it to have lawns anyway?

[Guest]

Just now, Marci said:

@#%&* Got no idea how to quote someone......Anyway was wondering whose idea it was to have lawns? There has to be better things to do with our time than following a lawnmower around the yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jani]

When I lived in Virginia Beach years ago our yards were small and we were required to maintain them.  My neighbor to the right was like me saying, "I'll mow it but I'm not going to encourage it!"  

 

To quote, just highlight the passage you want to quote with your cursor.  A small pop up will ask "Quote Selection?"  Clicking it inserts it in a new dialogue box.  

Just now, Marci said:

@#%&* Got no idea how to quote someone......Anyway was wondering whose idea it was to have lawns? There has to be better things to do with our time than following a lawnmower around the yard.

 

Jani

[Charlize]

Jani next time you get to Jersey bring a dog crate and take a couple of goats home to do the lawn for you.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Guest]

12 hours ago, Jani said:

 

To quote, just highlight the passage you want to quote with your cursor.  A small pop up will ask "Quote Selection?"  Clicking it inserts it in a new dialogue box.

Thanks Jani, I knew it couldn't be a convoluted process!

[Jani]

Yes that is all I need!  Goats!!

 

I wanted a "goat" when I was younger but it was GTO!

 

Jani

[Laura Beth]

I graduated college with a Livestock Technology diploma in 1994 and worked on different farms and ranches. I grew up in the farming industry raising pigs, cows and at one time we had 57 goats. That being said I will not get another goat ever again because of the stink of the billy goats and the taste of the milk. Our lawn mowers were calves we let run around the yard so we just watch what they could get into.

 

I would love to have some land and raise some livestock and grow a garden. My son would have to do the work of looking after the animals mostly but I think I could manage to work in the garden with my disabilities.

 

Laura Beth 

[KC1]

Not sure if I would say we farm but we are country.  We have two horses, one goat, one ewe, 8 hens and 2 roosters, four dogs and a cat.  In the summer we patio grow (because of the goat) vegetables and herbs.  When it REALLY gets to winter we heat 2/3s of the house by an outdoor wood furnace.  To take the edge off the oil heat we use, we have an old Glenwood parlor stove in the TV room that we use often when we are home.  I wish I could say we make money off the critters but they are just hay burners.  This year I am doing a trade off for our wood...half for the logger and half for us.  We give away the eggs we get over run with.  So maybe we are farmers?