(Morning everyone from sunny California. Wasn’t yesterday great with our first UN-Blogger post from Sally who has been part of the Fellowship for Ages. And now let me pass the day to Di who has been a Member of the Fellowship of the Farmy since DAY ONE! Over to you Di…)
After 12 years of teaching overseas my husband, Jack, and I decided to embark on a new adventure. That adventure involved finding a piece of land in a beautiful, out of the way place back in the USA and starting a subsistence farm. We found our land in North Central Arkansas and are working on the subsistence farm part of our dream. I learned of our Dear Celi just as she was beginning her blog 2 ½ years ago from Chrissy Hellyer, a dear friend of both of ours whom Celi and I have taught with at different times in life.
Following Celi’s blog daily is such a joy, as The Farmy Fellowship knows, and I am excited to be a part of it today! Jack and I decided to take you all with us for the morning feeding, which, of course, revolves around the barn, a circa 1952, smallish, all wood building, that we hope lasts another 61 years! Please excuse the building materials. A new floor for the goats is going in soon. The right side, most of which we replaced with new wood, we converted into the henhouse.
First thing in the morning our dogs and cats greet us. Our precious cats, Boo Bop and Sweet Pea.
Dolly is our Blue Heeler, like Boo Nanny, super smart, the perfect farm dog, peering into the house at dawn. You’ll see her in many of the pictures, just as we see Ton Ton so many of Celi’s shots.
Our other precious pooch is Daphne, a German Shorthair Pointer. She must remain on a long leash when we feed, as she would tear off, following her instincts racing like a deer through the woods chasing birds, rabbits, and squirrels totally heedless of our shouts to COME, DAPHNE, COME!!!
Chickens, ducks, guineas, rabbits, goats and pigs all need to be fed. And Taylor, the goat must be milked. 
We have two mamas and one baby, all Lamancha goats, tiny ears, so friendly, great milkers, and all absolutely adorable! Cricket is still nursing Betty Boop (black baby) and will dry off naturally. We are drying off Taylor (as her babies left in the spring) and then a suitor will arrive soon to spend a month here on the farm with them and next spring, we should have 4 more babies! Very, very exciting! Our goats are providers, like Daisy is to Celi’s farmy. (Note the hammocks in the background. Hard to find time to hang in them, but most important to do it!)
We have started milking every other day for a week to begin the drying off process, and then every three days for a week. In the spring after the babies are weaned we milk twice a day. Thereafter, all activities revolve around milking/ feeding times.
Oink, oink, or shall I say SQUEAL, SQEAL? Yes, we are coming piggies! They line up waiting, jostling and squealing. Roxie, our big mama on the left, is mama to the three on the right. She, and the two babies beside her are Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, a heritage breed originally from England. GOS hogs are gentle, hardy, gorgeous critters; producers of wonderful pork and lots of lard.
Happy when eating and being scratched, these pigs, too, are absolutely adorable!
To close this post we’ll show you the very cool greenhouse that Jack built this summer. We’ll be moving plants into it soon, as cold weather is on it’s way.
We so hope you have enjoyed the visit to our farm. What a treat for me to share with you all. It’s wonderful to be one of the Fellowship of the Farmy and to share in Celi’s adventures and in the responses of all of you daily as well!
Wishing you all a fabulous day from Little Ditty Farm!
The Kitchen's Garden 
74 responses to “Welcome to Jack and Diane’s Little Ditty Farm”
You are so welcome Beth Ann! Is was fun! We do have some sweet wonderful animals, that’s for sure! 🙂
Hi Jack and Diane, I bring greetings from Northern Ireland, on this holiday to your farmy. I love the colourful greenhouse, and would love one for my garden!
Hi Grannymar! How cool, Northern Ireland! Ireland is also on my wish list of places to visit. All the pictures I’ve seen show it being so lush and green. But from what I read it also gets wet and cold. A greenhouse would be great for you there! Stay warm and cozy!
Yup, I’m going to be humming Jack and Diane all day too! 🙂 Lovely little farmstead you have…I’m so happy when I read about good stewards of their land and animals, no matter how small! I too have been all over the US…we live in Washington state…but have never been to Arkansas! Do you have mild winters? Thanks for the sweet guest blog and showing us your little slice of paradise!
Chris
Hi Chris! Yes, thank goodness we have fairly mild winters here! We usually get 2 or maybe 3 light snowfalls that are gone after 3 or 4 days. And we get lots of sunny days too, which is wonderful. The autumn is beautiful here too, but I’m never really ready for it to come. I prefer my daily swims in beautiful Bull Shoals Lake just one mile down the road. But, I am am loving the four seasons. Happy November! 🙂
wow!….sweet!!
thank you for the tour.
love all the photos….the inquisitive and wise faces of all your animals….
and the barn with the flags.
all so very wonderful….!
Thank you so much! It really was fun to do this for Celi! XO
That has to be the cutest greenhouse EVER!
Christine
Hi Christine! Thank you so much! I will tell Jack. He worked really hard on it. Did everything himself using old windows he scavenged up and the door he traded for. It will be fabulous to get everything going for the spring. And our porch plants have moved there for the winter! 🙂
This was a fun tour. Your farm is so colorful–the red barn, the flags, and best of all the multi-colored greenhouse. I love it. Love the unique beautiful faces of the cats. And Dolly and Daphne and Taylor. And Betty Boop. I’ve never seen goats with tiny ears before. I’m partial to goats, being born in January. Visited Hawaii once and made sure to visit a tourist place called Surfin’ Goats. I got to actually milk a goat. Let me tell you this was the highlight of my trip. Goats are so sweet-faced and they look at you like they love you. They let you hold them under their chins.
Never been to Arkansas, but my husband was stationed there at the Air Force Base in Blytheville. He was 20 years old. He’s 78 now, so that had to be in 1955! Egads! HELP! It’s probably not there any more.
Hi! Love your La Mancha goats! Ann Taylor! 😉 I am a small woman so I love Ann Taylor! Great name! From Celi’s Jimmy Choo’s to your Ann Taylor! I am considering Nigerian Dwarf goats. Great milkers, smaller, don’t eat as much and therefore….less p-o-o-p! LOL Friendly too! From experience I like less poop! Although I am quite experienced in that line of work!!!!! LOL
This will make you laugh…my golden retriever was great at herding! No nipping at heels either! 🙂
Love your pups!!! Interesting barn and greenhouse! Friends of our’s just built one and as soon as we have some time will go get a look see! Then decide if we will do the same or what we will do differently. Nice to see other greenhouse designs first! I save seeds and I’m into heirlooms. You too?
Love your kitties!! Great names for everybody! I think a proper name is most important! 😀
I find your choice of piggies interesting. How do you like Arkansas? I was there many years ago and couldn’t get enough of Catfish and Hushpuppies! LOL Ugly critters, but delicious! We have tourneys here in North Dakota! Lots of catfish in the Red River in Grand Forks! It is a big event every year!!!! Do you fish?
So nice to meet you!!! Would love to follow your blog if you decide to start one! Ta ta!
Howdy, neighbor to the east! FD and I venture out of Oklahoma to your neck of the woods to visit Eureka Springs, and sometimes to the Ouachita National Forest area, for romantic weekends every now and then. I absolutely loved the tour of your little farm, and the photos were great! Enjoy this beautiful autumn season!
Hi! So you live in a beautiful neck of the woods too! We are very fortunate!!! The leaves are falling now and the trees are gorgeous. I do enjoy the fall! Have a fabulous autumn too! See you in the comments lounge! 🙂
This is for all my farm friends. I know you will appreciate this!
And on the 8th day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker!”. So, God made a farmer!
farmersforthefuture.ning.com/profiles/blogs/so-god-made… Cached
never knew of Spotted Pig; coins a new phrase for me, “Well, I’ll be a spotted pig,” probably said a trillion times; lovely pictures, admiration from a City mouse
Gosh, I haven’t heard that saying, but I like it! I’m going to start using it too! Thank you!!! 🙂
Hi..your greenhouse is great. Wish I had one! Thanks for the tour. You have a neat farm. I love your barn. If only it could talk what stories we would hear.
Hi Connie! We do hear stories of ‘way back when’ around here, and they are wonderful!
We hope to keep the old barn standing for a while longer, that’s for sure! Have a fabulous November! 🙂
Hi Diane and Jack. Thanks for showing us around. AR is so much more beautiful that many realize. Such darling kitties and dogs, too. That greenhouse is wonderful. So glad you gave the tour
You are so very welcome! It was fun putting it together. You are right, folks don’t know much about Arkansas. But it really is a beautiful state. Many lakes and rivers and mountains too. 🙂
Thanks for the farm tour, Diane! Hmmm…swimming in Bull Shoals, eh? Mighty good fishin’ out there, too… My Dad’s family is from Salem (near Ash Flat), and we used to go to the lake every summer when we visited. Dad moved back when he retired…I love those hills in the fall!
Then you know exactly what I’m talking about!!! The clear, cool waters of the lake are divine! Honestly, on summer evenings I take Dolly (the Blue Heeler) and we go and swim for more than an hour. It’s hard to get out of the lake! And now, with the gorgeous leaves falling, it’s fabulous! 🙂
Hello Diane, So happy to meet you. Thanks for the great tour of your lovely farm. Especially love your cats (as I am a crazy cat lady). All of your animals look wonderful….can tell you enjoy caring for them. You are lucky, you know, that you live in such a mild climate, compared to ours.
How big is your farm? Love the greenhouse, too.
HI Emily! I am very thankful that the climate is fairly mild here! Although I still get cold super easy as I’ve lived in the tropics half my life! We have 25 acres, but only about 4 of them are cleared. The rest is beautiful forest….with rocks underneath. Growing things here is not so easy. First we must grow the soil. We are doing just that! And now the greenhouse will help get the growing season started even earlier! Yeah! 🙂
I love it Di! How wonderful of Celi to think of doing this. She does have such good taste in the Fellowship! Welcome!
She is wonderful, isn’t she? Celi is one talented, smart lady, that’s for sure! With great ideas! See you in the farmy lounge! 🙂