About

Everything you may or may not want to know..:

Contact:
ohiofarmg AT gmail dOt com
(of course in standard email format (name@gmail.com) sorry web crawlers you're not grabbing my email!)

Who ARE you?
There's me - ohiofarmgirl and my husband, The Big Man. We are a small, almost organic, kinda self sustaining, pretty much self reliant, small farm-for-us in Ohio. We have about 100 pieces of poultry including the usual suspects -- chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, and those damn guinea hens that scream like howler monkeys. We get feeder pigs in the summer for a fall harvest, and we have dairy goats that provide us with milk, cheese, and supplemental feed for the barnyard. We have a huge garden that will be even better this summer.

A brief introduction...
I am Ohiofarmgirl. I live on a small kinda-organic farm in the Midwest. Married to The Big Man, we have a busy little barnyard and 15 acres of fun. We don’t farm for profit – we farm for us in the most self-sufficient, sustainable way we can. Are we eco-nuts or survivalists? Nope, just regular folks who wanted to do something other than have a work-a-day life.

Why do we do this? Why the hell not? Farming is a great way of life – but not always a great way to make a living. We want to do this now while we still have the time and energy for the long days, the hard work, and having the weather and the seasons as our only boss. We gave up a lot of must have’s to live like this but we don’t regret it. Maybe one day we’ll go back to civilization but for now, we are enjoying every minute.
(read the whole story)

What do you do? For work? Real work.
The Big Man is now off work, but generally he's the one that has the job. Me, I'm the one that works. Depending on who you ask I'm either retired or a slacker. I consider myself a farmer, altho I had to choke out those words at first. I don't spend hours on a tractor, I'm not overly concerned with the Futures market, heck... I don't even have overalls. But I do work this property, I do all the planting, manage the critters, corral chickens, and milk those goats. I tried to list 'farming' on one of those airline credit card offers and they laughed at me. But sure, I'm the farmer here.

How'd I get here?
Read the gory details here but suffice it to say I gave up a big corporate life to dig in the dirt and play with chickens. Its totally cool.


Why are you doing this?
Why not? I know more than a few baby boomers who waited until retirement to enjoy their lives...and then either dropped dead, or are impaired somehow physically, so now they are restricted to sitting around. Me, I'm not buying that traditional life for a second. I did everything I was 'supposed' to do. I ticked every box in the "success-o-meter" chart and it just wasn't very satisfying. I felt like I was missing out on something but I couldn't figure out what it was. When the chance came and jumped...and landed just where I was supposed to be.

Whats it like?

The Truth about Farming
 I loved this comment from Chai Chai so much that I'm interrupting this goat series to give some insights into The Truth About Farming.

Here is what she said:
“I can't help but read this and try to picture in my mind all the chaos going on around you (smartalec goats, mean chickens, crazed geese, wayward ducks, evil pigs, cats and dogs living together!) and wonder what I'm getting myself into.”

It reminded me of when my friend Eliza said once that “evenings on your farm must be so relaxing” and I could tell that she had a perfect picture in her mind's eye of the sun gently setting over a tranquil barnyard....
(read the whole story)

How did you do it? How could you afford to do it?
I worked incredibly hard, made good decisions, was blessed, and frankly, got lucky. I learned the hard way not to wait so I lept when the opportunity came up.

Isn't it irresponsible - to leave a good job?
You may have my old job. Really. Go ahead. Tell 'em all I said 'hi.' But I do miss Italian coffee and French pastries. Oh well. Guess I'll have to live with fresh eggs and a big slab of ham.

Kinda saucy aren't ya?
You have no idea

What are 100 things I should know about you?
Check it out here - but not quite 100.... good 'nuff tho.

Anybody have any questions? Here is a great place to put it all out there.