Welcome To Free Spirit Farm!
Valerie Hirschhorn-Techno Farmer
Located at 7662 Shenandoah Dr , Elizabeth Co 80107
freespiritalpacas@gmail.com 303-646-1745
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Feb 20, 2010
Ok so I may be able to link to my real blog, try this
Feb 19, 2010
You know how you never feel more like a parent than when your child is throwing up at 2 AM? Well you never feel more like a farmer than feeding triplet goat kids in the dark while it is snowing. I love it though and prefer freezing and being covered in milk and Who knows what else to any sort of paperwork. I feel called to farming in a way that I used to feel called to work in the pediatric ER. I got my new chicks or Peeps as I like to call them, on Tuesday. They were supposed to be delivered on Monday but it was a holiday so by the time I got them most were already dead. Thankfully Mcmurry Hatchery will replace the dead ones. They are a good company. I also ordered my Muscovy Ducks but they wont be ready until June. They are ugly as sin but they are good eating, less fatty than other ducks and they reproduce and lay eggs well. I also want some Sebastopol Geese but they are sooo expensive, but beautiful. All the rest of my animals are fine. I have 8 baby goats, and 3 fainting goats that I just added. I will be looking to get some boer goats soon for meat. We processed out meat cow a few weeks ago and I am thrilled with how it turned out. I recommend grass fed, clean processed beef for any meat eater out there. Our Milk cow rosie is having a small bout of mastitis in one of her quarters, so we are treating her for that and we won't be able to drink her milk for 4 days...UGH! Plastic milk is disgusting and we will just go without until Tuesday. I just got into the show Lost, so I am watching it on DVD. I am on season 2, it is very good, so I am going to go now.
Jan 21, 2010
Ah... A new year. Since I haven't updated since september here is a short recap. I have 4 wonderful alpaca babies. One girl, Gweniver, and 3 boys, Aston Martin, Ace and Jose Cuervo. They are adorable and I will post pics soon. Last night and today we had 5 baby goats. 4 boys and a girl. Mia is the last milk goat to kid. It will be very soon. We may have some pregnant boer goats but it is still hard to tell. We have 2 milk customers for the cow, so she is feeding 4 families. Not bad for 1 cow. Now that the goats are kidding we will be milking them soon. The alpaca breeding went well and I believe at least 3 are pregnant. Any other breedings will happen in early summer. We don't want any babies born during a blizzard if we can help it. I thought we might have to move to Virginia for my Hubby's job but he got a better offer in Co springs so we don't have to move! Hopefully the house will sell in Summer and we can look for our ranch. That will be so exciting. Christmas was wonderful because Not only was my Husband home from overseas but my youngest brother came home too. I hope neither one has to go back. We got the inside of the house painted and it looks great. Can't wait to get the rest of the things done around the house. It is so hard to look at all the snow here and know I am too injured to ski, so I am going to try to learn to ski in a special chair or on a bike. If I do not kill myself maybe I will be able to enjoy skiing again. My favorite show, Burn Notice, is on so I will update again soon.
September 21, 2009
So even though the leaves haven't turned colors and fell off the trees yet, I am actually looking at our first snow of the Fall/Winter. It is the earliest I have ever seen. It just tickles me to see it too, I love snow and snow days. I just don't expect them in September!
I have decided that October will be the month I write a diary and I will post it. I am horrible about updating so that will be a challenge. There isn't a lot to do in october either but I do want to get some food canned and make some jelly and cheese so I can at least document that. I did get some corn the other day and it was delicious. So this year I can add growing corn successfully and milking a cow to my list of new things. Craig seems to be doing well in Africa and has his own bathroom over there. That is a thrill to him because now there are no more midnight treks in the desert to answer nature's call.
September 8, 2009
Well Fall is almost here. I love fall. so what have we done since summer started? Well I got a few tomatoes, blueberries, cherries and apples this year. The birds stole the rest. That was nice to get something though. I may have some corn soon. I would be happy with an ear or two. I have planted a fall garden of brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and carrots. I plan on putting greenhouse panels on my barn frame so I will be able to grow in the fall and winter, I hope. I have planted over 20 trees including maple, cottonwood, willow and apple. I love red leaves in the fall. I have 4 new baby alpacas and a new girl. Belle has a very promising son from Axion Jaxion, Meg had a boy named Ace, Spirit had a boy named Aston Martin and Espy's girl is Gweniver. The little boys have a lot of potential and I can't wait to see them grow. All the girls will be bred in about a week, that should be a real hoot! Craig is heading to Africa for awhile. After that who knows where he will go? We had a good summer of goat milking and now we have bred them and drying them up. Our cow Rosie has us drowning in milk so no need to get any from the store. I have become very good at making Mozzarella cheese and butter. I want to make hard cheese but it takes so looong. I really want to move to more acreage with some good barns and outbuildings. I will have to get the house ready for selling and that should take about 6 months and over 10k. I do love this house but I want to have all my animals in one place. The boys have started school. Jack is in 8th and Mason is in 3rd. I can not believe my kids are getting so old, and they are dragging me with them! Tomorrow is My 14th anniversary. I am in shock, more because Craig is actually here. I think this is the 5th anniversay we have been together. We are going out to eat at a cool restaurant where you cook your food on a 1000 degree lava rock. Other than that we have both boys down with the flu so we won't be parting too hard. I will probably be writing soon but knowing me it may be awhile.
June 5, 2009
Well I suck at updating , I know but I have been busy. I went to farm school in Washington State and it was Awesome! Not only did I learn so much stuff like making cheese, jelly, grafting trees, and eating what I previously thought were weeds, but I met some of the Best people. We had a chef making all of our meals and I think I ate like 18 lbs of bread. It was soooo yummy. My alpaca, Espy, had a baby girl and both mom and baby are doing well. Our cow, Rosie, had a baby calf also a girl. Lucy is very cute. Rosie will be bred to a mini Jersey stud so we can eventually have mini Cows! I have been so busy in the garden. Farm school inspired me to come home and work like a dog. So I have planted all kinds of flowers and veggies. My fruit trees have been doing well until the long necked goats (alpacas) ate the dang leaves off most of them. UGH! hopefully I will still get some fruit. Milking has been going well. We joined the Raw Milk Association of colorado so we can sell our goat and cow milk raw. I have made a lot of goat mozzarella. it is so easy and very mild, not goaty. Can't wait to try making stuff out of the cow milk. We have had so much rain in the last 2 weeks. It is so green. I thought I was looking out the window at Dublin. My pastures are finally growing back so I will have some alpaca munchies by mid summer. Kids are out of school and Craig is headed back to afganistan again. I have the gardens and the animals to keep me busy though. I will write again in a few days...or weeks if I can remember Darn ADD I keep getting distracted by shiny things.
May 1, 2009
Well since the last updating we have had wet weather every weekend. I can not complain because we need the rain or snow, as the case may be, very much. I had 30 trees planted last thursday. Actually they were like big twigs. Well we were supposed to get rain the whole weekend but there was none friday or saturday. So since sunday was so sunny I loaded my van with containers of water and compost. Of course I spilled a ton of it in my van, but i got all 30 trees watered by hand. About 3 hours later it started raining and then we got 4 inches of snow! Oh well, At least the trees are really well watered. I have sold 6 puppies and I have 2 left. They all have gone to really good homes. I am happy about that but it is always sad to say goodbye to a puppy. Today started out good... craig and I took a puppy to his new home, the did some errands and went out to eat. then when we got home one of our sweet young alpacas was sick and laying down in the field. I couldn't get any vet on the phone because it was 5 PM on a saturday, and despite trying to revive her Karina died. We are all mourning. She had a lot of potential to be a great award winning animal and it is such a loss. On a good note though my little goaty, Leroy, found a great home with a nice lady named Dawn. I think he will be spoiled beyond belief over there. I am so glad when one of my animals can go to someone who will love them. Our Jersey cow will be here monday. Rosie will be having her calf in June then we will have some delicious milk and cheese and yogurt. I think between the cow and the goats we will have milk coming out our ears. If anyone out there needs some fresh, clean, beyond organic milk you know where to find me.
April 13, 2009
I seriously can not belive how fast time goes until I write the date here. Mason had his 8th birthday. He got a 4 wheeler and he is putting it together with my dad. It is really sweet. I think I will wrap him in bubble wrap when he rides it. 4 of the 8 pups have found their new homes. I can't wait to see them grow. I made everyone promise to email me pics as they get bigger. I have a bottle baby goat that is running around my house like a nut. He was a triplet but he is the only one who lived. At least I know next time to take the babies away and feed them because Mia didn't do so good at it. We are getting milk out our ears now so I guess we will join the raw milk association so we can share the joy of goat milk eith others. it really is good and sure tastes better than the soy I have been drinking for 10 years. I have had a long day and I have just been dissapointed by my favorite show HOUSE so I think I will call it a night.
March 28, 2009
I really need to update more and I am sorry. Since The last time I updated we have Had Jack's 13th birthday. Craig came home from another business trip, we finally got a good snowfall, The inlaws came to visit and we had an early 8th birthday for Mason. Oh and I crashed Craig's truck into the frikin' mailroom! I will post a pic as soon as I can. All the animals are doing well, except my new peeps did not make it. I do't know what happened there since I have been raising chicks for 3 years and I have never had them die like that. My replacements will be here this week so I will try harder this time. I am looking foward to spring really coming and getting some plants in the ground. I realy hope to get some fruit from my trees this year. We got some new neighbors, Quincy, Kelly and their kids. I sure hope they like animals. I think they will be a good addition to the neighborhood. They seem really friendly and they have a boy Jack's age so hopefully they can play together. Quincy even dug my dad out when he drove his SUV into the ditch after the snowstorm.Thats a nice way to meet a neighbor! Thank you Q! Colleen took the boy goats away from their mom's a few days ago and now my nubians are giving me twice as much milk or even 3 times. Those boys were stealing all my milk! from the size of them i will need to look up some good goat recipies in a few months. I will write again soon. Promise.
Ok so I may be able to link to my real blog, try this
Feb 19, 2010
You know how you never feel more like a parent than when your child is throwing up at 2 AM? Well you never feel more like a farmer than feeding triplet goat kids in the dark while it is snowing. I love it though and prefer freezing and being covered in milk and Who knows what else to any sort of paperwork. I feel called to farming in a way that I used to feel called to work in the pediatric ER. I got my new chicks or Peeps as I like to call them, on Tuesday. They were supposed to be delivered on Monday but it was a holiday so by the time I got them most were already dead. Thankfully Mcmurry Hatchery will replace the dead ones. They are a good company. I also ordered my Muscovy Ducks but they wont be ready until June. They are ugly as sin but they are good eating, less fatty than other ducks and they reproduce and lay eggs well. I also want some Sebastopol Geese but they are sooo expensive, but beautiful. All the rest of my animals are fine. I have 8 baby goats, and 3 fainting goats that I just added. I will be looking to get some boer goats soon for meat. We processed out meat cow a few weeks ago and I am thrilled with how it turned out. I recommend grass fed, clean processed beef for any meat eater out there. Our Milk cow rosie is having a small bout of mastitis in one of her quarters, so we are treating her for that and we won't be able to drink her milk for 4 days...UGH! Plastic milk is disgusting and we will just go without until Tuesday. I just got into the show Lost, so I am watching it on DVD. I am on season 2, it is very good, so I am going to go now.
Jan 21, 2010
Ah... A new year. Since I haven't updated since september here is a short recap. I have 4 wonderful alpaca babies. One girl, Gweniver, and 3 boys, Aston Martin, Ace and Jose Cuervo. They are adorable and I will post pics soon. Last night and today we had 5 baby goats. 4 boys and a girl. Mia is the last milk goat to kid. It will be very soon. We may have some pregnant boer goats but it is still hard to tell. We have 2 milk customers for the cow, so she is feeding 4 families. Not bad for 1 cow. Now that the goats are kidding we will be milking them soon. The alpaca breeding went well and I believe at least 3 are pregnant. Any other breedings will happen in early summer. We don't want any babies born during a blizzard if we can help it. I thought we might have to move to Virginia for my Hubby's job but he got a better offer in Co springs so we don't have to move! Hopefully the house will sell in Summer and we can look for our ranch. That will be so exciting. Christmas was wonderful because Not only was my Husband home from overseas but my youngest brother came home too. I hope neither one has to go back. We got the inside of the house painted and it looks great. Can't wait to get the rest of the things done around the house. It is so hard to look at all the snow here and know I am too injured to ski, so I am going to try to learn to ski in a special chair or on a bike. If I do not kill myself maybe I will be able to enjoy skiing again. My favorite show, Burn Notice, is on so I will update again soon.
September 21, 2009
So even though the leaves haven't turned colors and fell off the trees yet, I am actually looking at our first snow of the Fall/Winter. It is the earliest I have ever seen. It just tickles me to see it too, I love snow and snow days. I just don't expect them in September!
I have decided that October will be the month I write a diary and I will post it. I am horrible about updating so that will be a challenge. There isn't a lot to do in october either but I do want to get some food canned and make some jelly and cheese so I can at least document that. I did get some corn the other day and it was delicious. So this year I can add growing corn successfully and milking a cow to my list of new things. Craig seems to be doing well in Africa and has his own bathroom over there. That is a thrill to him because now there are no more midnight treks in the desert to answer nature's call.
September 8, 2009
Well Fall is almost here. I love fall. so what have we done since summer started? Well I got a few tomatoes, blueberries, cherries and apples this year. The birds stole the rest. That was nice to get something though. I may have some corn soon. I would be happy with an ear or two. I have planted a fall garden of brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and carrots. I plan on putting greenhouse panels on my barn frame so I will be able to grow in the fall and winter, I hope. I have planted over 20 trees including maple, cottonwood, willow and apple. I love red leaves in the fall. I have 4 new baby alpacas and a new girl. Belle has a very promising son from Axion Jaxion, Meg had a boy named Ace, Spirit had a boy named Aston Martin and Espy's girl is Gweniver. The little boys have a lot of potential and I can't wait to see them grow. All the girls will be bred in about a week, that should be a real hoot! Craig is heading to Africa for awhile. After that who knows where he will go? We had a good summer of goat milking and now we have bred them and drying them up. Our cow Rosie has us drowning in milk so no need to get any from the store. I have become very good at making Mozzarella cheese and butter. I want to make hard cheese but it takes so looong. I really want to move to more acreage with some good barns and outbuildings. I will have to get the house ready for selling and that should take about 6 months and over 10k. I do love this house but I want to have all my animals in one place. The boys have started school. Jack is in 8th and Mason is in 3rd. I can not believe my kids are getting so old, and they are dragging me with them! Tomorrow is My 14th anniversary. I am in shock, more because Craig is actually here. I think this is the 5th anniversay we have been together. We are going out to eat at a cool restaurant where you cook your food on a 1000 degree lava rock. Other than that we have both boys down with the flu so we won't be parting too hard. I will probably be writing soon but knowing me it may be awhile.
June 5, 2009
Well I suck at updating , I know but I have been busy. I went to farm school in Washington State and it was Awesome! Not only did I learn so much stuff like making cheese, jelly, grafting trees, and eating what I previously thought were weeds, but I met some of the Best people. We had a chef making all of our meals and I think I ate like 18 lbs of bread. It was soooo yummy. My alpaca, Espy, had a baby girl and both mom and baby are doing well. Our cow, Rosie, had a baby calf also a girl. Lucy is very cute. Rosie will be bred to a mini Jersey stud so we can eventually have mini Cows! I have been so busy in the garden. Farm school inspired me to come home and work like a dog. So I have planted all kinds of flowers and veggies. My fruit trees have been doing well until the long necked goats (alpacas) ate the dang leaves off most of them. UGH! hopefully I will still get some fruit. Milking has been going well. We joined the Raw Milk Association of colorado so we can sell our goat and cow milk raw. I have made a lot of goat mozzarella. it is so easy and very mild, not goaty. Can't wait to try making stuff out of the cow milk. We have had so much rain in the last 2 weeks. It is so green. I thought I was looking out the window at Dublin. My pastures are finally growing back so I will have some alpaca munchies by mid summer. Kids are out of school and Craig is headed back to afganistan again. I have the gardens and the animals to keep me busy though. I will write again in a few days...or weeks if I can remember Darn ADD I keep getting distracted by shiny things.
May 1, 2009
Well since the last updating we have had wet weather every weekend. I can not complain because we need the rain or snow, as the case may be, very much. I had 30 trees planted last thursday. Actually they were like big twigs. Well we were supposed to get rain the whole weekend but there was none friday or saturday. So since sunday was so sunny I loaded my van with containers of water and compost. Of course I spilled a ton of it in my van, but i got all 30 trees watered by hand. About 3 hours later it started raining and then we got 4 inches of snow! Oh well, At least the trees are really well watered. I have sold 6 puppies and I have 2 left. They all have gone to really good homes. I am happy about that but it is always sad to say goodbye to a puppy. Today started out good... craig and I took a puppy to his new home, the did some errands and went out to eat. then when we got home one of our sweet young alpacas was sick and laying down in the field. I couldn't get any vet on the phone because it was 5 PM on a saturday, and despite trying to revive her Karina died. We are all mourning. She had a lot of potential to be a great award winning animal and it is such a loss. On a good note though my little goaty, Leroy, found a great home with a nice lady named Dawn. I think he will be spoiled beyond belief over there. I am so glad when one of my animals can go to someone who will love them. Our Jersey cow will be here monday. Rosie will be having her calf in June then we will have some delicious milk and cheese and yogurt. I think between the cow and the goats we will have milk coming out our ears. If anyone out there needs some fresh, clean, beyond organic milk you know where to find me.
April 13, 2009
I seriously can not belive how fast time goes until I write the date here. Mason had his 8th birthday. He got a 4 wheeler and he is putting it together with my dad. It is really sweet. I think I will wrap him in bubble wrap when he rides it. 4 of the 8 pups have found their new homes. I can't wait to see them grow. I made everyone promise to email me pics as they get bigger. I have a bottle baby goat that is running around my house like a nut. He was a triplet but he is the only one who lived. At least I know next time to take the babies away and feed them because Mia didn't do so good at it. We are getting milk out our ears now so I guess we will join the raw milk association so we can share the joy of goat milk eith others. it really is good and sure tastes better than the soy I have been drinking for 10 years. I have had a long day and I have just been dissapointed by my favorite show HOUSE so I think I will call it a night.
March 28, 2009
I really need to update more and I am sorry. Since The last time I updated we have Had Jack's 13th birthday. Craig came home from another business trip, we finally got a good snowfall, The inlaws came to visit and we had an early 8th birthday for Mason. Oh and I crashed Craig's truck into the frikin' mailroom! I will post a pic as soon as I can. All the animals are doing well, except my new peeps did not make it. I do't know what happened there since I have been raising chicks for 3 years and I have never had them die like that. My replacements will be here this week so I will try harder this time. I am looking foward to spring really coming and getting some plants in the ground. I realy hope to get some fruit from my trees this year. We got some new neighbors, Quincy, Kelly and their kids. I sure hope they like animals. I think they will be a good addition to the neighborhood. They seem really friendly and they have a boy Jack's age so hopefully they can play together. Quincy even dug my dad out when he drove his SUV into the ditch after the snowstorm.Thats a nice way to meet a neighbor! Thank you Q! Colleen took the boy goats away from their mom's a few days ago and now my nubians are giving me twice as much milk or even 3 times. Those boys were stealing all my milk! from the size of them i will need to look up some good goat recipies in a few months. I will write again soon. Promise.
Jan 20, 2009
This has been a rough week for me. My poor mom got really sick tuesday morning and i made her go to the ER. It was a good thing she went because it turned out to be an abdominal aortic aneurysm. She had emergency surgery and spent 3 days in ICU. She is still in the hospital but doing much better. Thank You SKY RIDGE MEDICAL CENTER for taking such good care of my mom. As if that wasn't enough my dog had 8 puppies saturday morning. Thankfully all of the puppies are healthy and sooo cute. Lakota my Shiloh Shepherd turned out to be a good mom. Sunday Colleen and I took the kids to idaho Springs to pick up some brewers's grain to feed out animals. It will hopefully cut down on out feed expenses this year. Monday my Husband Craig had to go get a mole biopsy, but the doc said it was probably nothing. We will see. We have been having really nice warm weather so I really need to clean the pasture. There is always so much work to be done.
Jan 22, 2009
It is one thing after another here. The good stuff: I was able to get my mom out of the hospital. She was so doped up that she was hallucinating and it was soooo funny. Also, I had 3 baby goats born yesterday. I actually had a wierd day dream that they would be born that day, I am a psycho...I mean psychic. The bad news: my stupid van decided to die on me as I was taking my kids to school. So I had to have it towed back to my house and I have no idea what it will cost to get it fixed. I wanted to trade the darn thing in anyway for a SUV but I decided to wait until we had refinanced the house. So that plan has gone a bit south. Oh well God gives us the good and the bad and we roll with it. I am actually blessed beyond words.
Jan 26 2009
I had 2 more goats both girls. But then we had a pregnant goat and her babies die. It is always good with bad. I am so looking foward to getting some milk for us soon. The babies will get all of it for a week or two then we will start milking for the humans. Nubian milk is quite tasty and makes some darn good ice cream. we will be selling Milk shares in a week or so after we get the production up.
Jan 31, 2009
I did a ton of work today! I went to Idaho Springs wich is about 1.5 hours away and scooped a pick up truck full of beer grain. We use it to feed the animals. It is very heavy when it is wet. Then I came home and scooped alpaca poo for about 2 hours until it got dark. I can barely lift my arms but at least I won't feel guilty for eating a lot of superbowl snacks. I am not into football but I am all about the snacks. My puppies are 2 weeks old today. They have opened their eyes and are such little fat things. I will put up a pic tomorrow. At this point I can not imagine letting any of them go but if I kept them along with their mom and dad I would literally have a half ton of dogs! That's a little much. My total baby goats is 7, 4 girls and 3 boys. I gave one baby girl to colleen because she nursed it back to life after amost dying twice! Her name is flopsy and she is now a bottle baby and just Looooves Colleen. My last pregnant girl isn't due for awhile. In a month or so we will have baby goaties all over the place.
Feb 21, 2009
I haven't written in a while but i have been very busy. The Pups are 5 weeks old today! They are so cute and puffy and snuggly. I can't believe how fast they grew. I will be working on finding them good homes in the next 3 weeks. They were in the laundry room but after being up all night with with the yippers, I moved them to the garage with a nice cozy area and within hours it was all torn up and poopy. 8 puppies are way more messy that I thought. We have had some really nice weather lately so I moved all of them into the dog run so they could have some sun and dirt and some more room to move around. They really liked it. I took craig over to see the goaties today. he had never seen the babies and they loved him!
Craig with Flopsy