The past (almost) month has been quite busy with hurricane relief efforts, Airbnb guests, and farm projects.
First off, thank you to all who donated hurricane relief funds to the Cherokee Clay Food Alliance (CCFA). To date, we’ve raised almost $30,000 and are busy distributing that collection to nonprofits in impacted areas of Western NC.
Shortly after hosting our donation drive, CCFA somehow found ourselves in charge of operations accepting incoming supplies at our small regional airport and distributing those supplies, via air and ground, to impacted areas. It was a wild, hectic, unexpected ride but we’re proud of the work we have been able to do thus far. If you’re interested, you can read a recap of our efforts in the Impact Report I wrote for the org.
To add to the chaos, we posted our guesthouse on Airbnb and immediately started receiving reservations. Our Airbnb calendar is open 6 months out so if you want to come visit, let us know early so we can block those dates off!
One lucky Airbnb couple even got to help us rescue a goat!
One of our guests went for a morning walk on our Perimeter Trail and when he came back, asked if we’d lost a goat. We were a bit confused, until he told us he saw a goat in our stream, by the driveway. We walked down the driveway and, sure enough, there was a small black goat just standing in the stream. As we got closer, he started letting out little moans that sounded more like “help me” than “stay away.” He didn’t budge as we got closer, or even when AC jumped to the other side of the stream, where he was. AC picked him up out of the water and brought him up to the driveway where he wasn’t quite stable on his feet, and the little guy stayed glued to a human – us or the guests, whoever he could get closest to. I was on my way to run errands so AC and our guests walked across the street to our neighbor’s who owns goats, and found that this particular goat belonged to a different neighbor and had gotten out at some point the previous day. Well, that neighbor wasn’t home so the goat hung out with AC and our guests for a while.
When I got back, the goat was still here and was still a bit off-kilter. The neighbor still wasn’t home, but we were gearing up to head to town so we put him in with our chickens, who weren’t thrilled with the new guest. As we were leaving, little guy laid down and didn’t move…like, for a long time…so long that we thought he might be dying! We went back in to check on him and he couldn’t hold his head up, was a bit drooly, and seemed to be taking very shallow breaths. We thought he was walking toward the light, y’all. In a last ditch effort to not have a goat die on our watch, we lifted his head and dipped his little mouth into a bowl of water, then AC pulled some lettuce from the garden to feed him. He wasn’t really into the water, but he gobbled up the lettuce like a kid inhales candy so AC got him some more. Long story a little bit shorter, we must have magic lettuce because our little buddy suddenly jumped up, shook it out, and started eating the weeds in the chicken yard. What?! Seeing that he was on the up-and-up, we continued with our plans to head to town. Later, our neighbor let us know that they’d scooped up their pet goat and took him to the vet who said he was probably just dehydrated (though I’m still convinced that poor goat experienced some sort of trauma during his big adventure the night before).
He was a cutie and we were totally prepared to keep him, if it came to that! Which leads me to my next update…
We started working on infrastructure for future goats and rabbits! We’re working on a goat shelter that’s very similar to our garden shed. We’re building it out of pallets and it will have two sides: one side will be the goats’ bedroom and the other will be used for storage and milking. Last weekend, when we were in Chattanooga for my nephew’s birthday, we found a great source for pallets! We loaded as many as we could into the back of the truck and will get another load when there again in November (and maybe even in December). The picture below, on the left, shows the side we built before we found matching pallets in Chatt, and the side we built after we found matching pallets. We’re going to re-do the first side so everything is uniform; it’s more work now, but will save us a lot of headache in the long run.
AC has also been building out a rabbit hutch from lumber we had around the farm – she’s pretty resourceful when it comes to things like that.
Tonight, we did some leaf peepin’! We went on a really nice drive through the Nantahala Gorge and into Cherokee, NC for some exploring. The leaves were beautiful and downtown Cherokee was hosting a murder mystery scavenger hunt that we jumped in on (though it turns out we are NOT good detectives). We then made our way to the Cherokee entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and ended our excursion with an elk sighting!
Oh! We also got a new barn cat! Some folks at my church had a neighbor who passed away and left a cat behind. They had been feeding the cat for a while, but couldn’t fully take it on because they already have too many of their own cats. Considering that the two cats we got from the humane society were scared of their own shadows and haven’t shown themselves for a while, I figured we could use another mouser. And this girl is the sweetest! She’s all black and we named her Bagheera, after the panther in The Jungle Book (we call her B for short). Every morning, when I walk out on the porch, B runs over from the garden shed (where she sleeps) and hops in my lap for morning scratches. She’s the most dog-like cat I’ve ever had; she loves attention and she follows me around the yard like a puppy. She’s my new best farm friend!
Until next time!
Charli
Thank you for the update!
I am obsessed with B!!!
And she’s obsessed with anyone who will scratch her head and let her cuddle in your lap! 🤗