This past summer ended the season for 3 of our house animals, beginning with Gracie, our sweet dog of 11 years at the age of approx.13, passing away July 7th. Followed by Olivia, our first farm cat, passing a week later, and then finally Oliver, one of our original animals of 8 years passing later in August. There were moments of great mourning, but as is so often with farming - there were lots of gains this summer as well.We ended up with three ducks, beginning with the taking on of a small mallard who ended up having special needs, but lots of fight to survive. We have been watching our other two ducks (two Rouens) morph into what we now know are a male and female and we look forward to
seeing what the growing season of 2020 brings when they are of age and may be raising ducklings of their own.The summer of 2019 also found us with four silkie chickens which we discovered were all hens so another rooster, a cochin named "Muttly Crow", was added to the mix. 2020 should find us reintroducing the silkie/cochin cross birds that we had in 2018 before a predator wiped the whole flock out.
Finally, we gained another doggo from our local Humane Society. A small (tiny is more the word), chihuahua/dachshund mix named Poquita. She has been keeping things hopping around the farm as she is the youngest of all of our critters and has LOTS of energy.On the small business side, we found ourselves with
eggs to sell (finally!) at the Seymour Area Farmer's Market almost every weekend. We were able to sell I.P.A. Bites (Incredible. Pupper. Appetizers.)® at the Indiana State Fair and made a connection with the State of Indiana's First Dog, Henry Holcomb, through a donation of treats to the National Republican Women's Federation for their swag bags to be given at an event in September. We also received a partnership with a local drugstore in town, Family Drug, to have our treats given to pooches that rode with their owners when picking up a prescription. All of this, plus selling treats at the Farmer's Market, has made the creation of these little bites well worth the effort.
Finally, our marketing took a step up in getting to order farm branded t-shirts with our logo on them for our town's local Oktoberfest.
The summer of 2019 was a tiring one, and not everything went according to plan (don't even ask about what happened to the garden this year - ha!) but a lot of things went very right and we're looking forward to seeing what the summer of 2020 brings.
