Bigger Hammer Farm

08/21/2026

Garlic was a huge success and epic failure all at the same time. Look at these beautiful bulbs. The failure is that only 1/3 survived the cartoon character living under ground. Every day a new bulb would disappear including the long green tops. Straight down into the ground. I tried traps which slowed down the disappearance. It was so sad to watch my garlic bed Shrink and there was nothing I could do about it until I could harvest the garlic. Lesson learned and next year some wire cloth will line the bottom of my garlic bed.

08/19/2026

08/09/2026

Since I un expectantly found myself with my week day early mornings wide open I decided to teach myself how to milk my goats. It was a long process to get the technique right, but so much harder to train my 2 skittish does to want to be milked. After a few weeks and almost giving up on them it all clicked for all 3 of us. Then it was time to experiment with ways to use goat milk. I was the only one brave enough to try the milk as a glass of milk and found it to be just as good as cows milk. My kids were willing once I turned it into ice cream or chocolate milk. The ice cream was so good. I also made cajeta (Mexican Carmel) which was a labor of love and really good. But once it solidified it was hard to use for anything. I also turned some into Chèvre and we enjoyed an afternoon of goat cheese and crackers. My favorite was an iced goat milk cafe late. I really wanted to try to make butter, but that requires an extra appliance. I was just trying to see if milking my goats was possible as well as learn something new. With a lot of patience for the goats and YouTube it was totally possible. Now we wait for the next kidding season this fall.

07/31/2026

07/30/2026

We are officially lavender farmers. Our little 1/4 acre we prepped last fall has finally got the start of some thriving lavender plants. So far our only mistake was tilling the ground first before spending many man hours staking in the tarps to cover the entire 1/4 acre. But it looked so clean and pretty afterwards. But what happened the rest of the year was a whole lot of wind. The ground was too loose and our steaks did not hold. 250 feet long by of 5ft wide roles of tarp were blown all over the property. We fixed it twice before we decided to let the wind do what it was going to do until Spring came and it was time to plant. The kids about cried when they saw the devastation the 2nd time knowing we were about to ask them once again to help hammer down steaks on their hands and knees. 2000 steaks to be exact. Spring came and I single-handedly fixed what was actually still somewhat tacked into the ground. I started with that and then made sure I had enough ground covered for the 192 plants we had ordered. We had shoved all the tarps that didn’t make it into the horse barn for storage and it came in handy with my vegetable garden. Anyway, 192 plants ordered and 191 of them are growing strong. Only 1 loss. We will continue to order more lavender each year until the entire 1/4 acre is covered and we look forward to the things we can do with the lavender to add to our farm stand. Or it will just sit and be pretty and smell great. Win win.

06/19/2026

Clementine the cow gave us a gift a week early. We missed the birth by a matter of probably 30 minutes. The entire herd was protecting mom and baby the first couple of hours and we couldn’t get too close so we left them alone. I came back out a couple of hours later with a cup of coffee and a bucket to sit on and a promise to Rich I wouldn’t get too close and do something stupid while he was at work. So I sat down about a 1/2 a soccer field away just to watch. Mostly to make sure I get confirmation that the calf is nursing. Moments later the entire herd came to me and circled me including the new calf. I kept my cool and stayed seated and let them do their thing. So I got lots of selfies with a couple of them and touched the nose of one of them that NEVER lets me within 5 ft of her. And then the calf came right up to me. I was able to tell it is a boy and got his umbilical cord sanitized as well as a pet on the head. All the while watching mom carefully to make sure she was ok with all of it. It was the most amazing experience. So meet Tangelo who was named by niece Brylee.