Stonywoods Farm

11/27/2025

Fresh ground turmeric from my farm. Oh I wish you could smell it. Yum

11/26/2025

So I made wind blocks today for the chicken coop. I didn’t workout quite like I imagined, but for the next few days it will be fine.

08/20/2025

This fundraiser is about honor, resilience, perseverance and a Village. Because we … Aimee Darling needs your support for Finan and Keanti's Journey to Health

08/20/2025

We found them; now we have to get them healthy again.
Can you help?
You can help by sharing, commenting, and/or sending some money, even $1 adds up.

This fundraiser is about honor, resilience, perseverance and a Village. Because we … Aimee Darling needs your support for Finan and Keanti's Journey to Health

10/14/2024

So today I had a phone message, and email, and a text, from FEMA, all telling me the same thing. I have been approved to go and get a hotel room. 1 room for every 4 family members.
Seriously? Maybe 2 weeks ago, but my home has power, a roof and running hot water now.
FEMA, you wrote me to say I was not eligible for any FEMA aid, yet I can go get a hotel room? I wonder if the hotels are somewhere nice, maybe Canada?
I do feel like I need a vacation but...Seriously? I never requested any type of accommodation, only help with the trees.

10/07/2024

PLEASE HELP Our Dear Friend in Barnardsville, NC

One of the sweetest most kind-hearted women I know has been hit especially hard by this hurricane.
Marcia Kummerle will be 80 in a couple weeks. Her neighbor rescued her from the rising water. Her barn, Angora goats, cat, studio, and her ability to make a living has all been wiped away.

She has no heat or electricity and the temperatures are going into the 30's next week. Winter is coming.

Amazon is having a Prime day in a few more days please consider sending anything you feel can make a difference.
IF ANYONE is so moved, a solar generator it would be an incredible gift help to her start recovering from the shock of what has happened.
We are hoping for a propane heater or two and the tanks for them. She also needs some way to allow her to cook, so she can have some hot food.

God Bless all of you for taking the time to read about Marcia and I hope you might consider sending her something, every dollar will make a difference.

A group of us are planning on going up there the weekend after this coming one. If you want to donate anything special for me to take up there with me please PM me. I know and trust everyone involved, so don't hesitate to send them to Esther Futrell.

The latest update on her home is below from Alison N Bell today:

"Construction friends of Jonathan and Esther Futrell, Judd and Jason, made it Marcia's to assess the damage. They took a good look at everything and agree the house itself is good to go!!
The decks, however, are precarious at best. Marcia told them the back deck, which is how she is entering the house, needed some work before the flood. The front deck is currently be held up by the debris and the steps are gone. The back lean-to area needs new posts on the backside.
There is a local guy, who is known as Bear who is helping. Esther is going to get me his info so we can get a list of supplies.. lumber etc, that is needed to make the decks safe.
Esther's mail is up and running and she said she can receive packages.
Packages can be sent to:
Marcia Kummerle
c/o Esther Futtrell
191 Wonderland Range Road
Cleveland, SC 29635
Jonathan is making trips up that way and can get them to her.
Please keep it to essentials and survival type gear until she is able to get packages to her place. Please do not expect it to get there to Marcia the day it arrives... they are NOT close by, but they will make sure she gets it, just may take a day or so.
So far, the work party for the 17th-21st will include Johnny and myself, Mea Stone, Joel and Emily Simon and others that are closer to Marcia.
Esther and Jonathan said they have heavy equipment they can bring what they think will help."

"As for a Go Fund Me... not sure if one has been set up yet, but I haven't seen one. If someone local can get to her to help her set it up, it would be great. I have people willing to help, but we really don't want her giving personal information over the phone/email.
Until then, her PayPal is: [email protected]"

08/11/2024

It is with great sadness I am letting you know another great Angora goat woman, Sue Benham has crossed over onto the greener pastures so many have gone before.
I met Sue years and years ago when I helped
Deborah Sharp rehome her goats. I took a trailer on two northern loops and one was up to Sue's to drop off a whole bunch of goats.
I had a strange dream about her before I met her, upon my arrival to her house she showed me where she had her goats and they were all in swimming pools with little floaty things holding them above the water. I asked her about the dream before I started the trip, if this was true and we laughed, she said no, her goats don't like water and she didn't have swimming pools for them.
Sue loved helping others, and by getting a bunch of goats from Deb she was helping a friend. I saw her numerous times over the years. She lived close to the McCauls and Avelene was a woman who we both looked up to. Sue was always willing to help others and always had nice things to say about people.
I will think of her reunited with all her beautiful goats that went before her as well, because I know how much she loved to just sit and be with the goats. It is that special power they have over all of us.
RIP Sue, we will miss you, until we meet again.

05/04/2024

Cicada theme continues with:
The forestry workers acting out the Cicada cycle. OMG too funny. Hope you laugh too.

Picture this: The DuPage County, Illinois, Forest Preservation team dressed as buzzing bugs, staging award-worthy performances to explain the imminent invasion of the cicadas. - Videos from The Weather Channel | weather.com

03/23/2024

The birthing story.
I was filling the water buckets and heard a baby cry, where is it coming from?
I walked out and looked west where a stand of trees are and I see Cypress under the tree with a little baby.
Omg she has kidded several days early and in the dirt. I look around to make sure no other baby is out there and scoop up the baby and coax Cypress back to the barn.
I put her in the cleaned out kidding stall and dip the babies umbilical cord in some iodine. Then, I run to the feed room and grab a snack for her and to the house for some warm molasses water.
When I got back to the barn, a head was sticking out and she was pushing but the baby was stuck, no legs presenting. I watched for a few minutes to make sure she needed a little help. So I put a glove on and went in with one finger under the babies head and fished out one leg, that is all it took and he came flying out.
At this point I had already seen the little black baby latch on to mom’s teat and get a good drink of colostrum so I knew she was fine. She was up and walking around just like I expected.
The little boy, on the other hand, was having some issues getting his back legs under himself so he could stand. He looked like a frog.
This means it is harder for him to scooch around and find the teat to get his first life giving nourishment that is so important. So as usual I go into the kidding stall and am trying to get him to latch onto Mom. Well let me tell you something about baby boy goats, they are a lot slower than their female counterparts and he is just not getting it.
By this time Mom has tried to bite me, hooked me a couple times behind my knee with her horns, telling me to get out and leave her be. But the babies cries were weaker sounding and I worry. So, I am preserving to get him to find the test and latch on good enough to at least get a couple gulps of milk. Well Cypress caught me by surprise and suddenly head-butted me really hard on the upper back part of my skull, above and behind my ear. When I say headbutted me, I don’t mean gently, she actually cracked her horn, which is now wriggling, I found out a bit later.
Omg, my whole brain must have shifted in my head, it felt like it was reverberating inside my skull. I could feel pain on the other side of my head. Yes, I got the hell out of there as fast as I could. It took me a few minutes to see straight, but wow what a headache I got.
Please understand it is not her fault, it was mine. She was only doing what her instincts were telling her to do and she did not want me messing with her babies. But, I didn’t want to lose this baby because it can’t get to her teat to drink, and I didn’t expect it.
I went inside and got a halter, lead rope and Roman. I had Roman hold her while I got the baby boy to drink and I did get him to drink.
He is doing much better and has gotten his legs under him now.

I relearned a lesson I already knew, goats are dangerous and if you put yourself in the wrong situation you will get hurt.
Thankfully everyone is ok.
I did have visions of her knocking me unconscious and pummeling me to death.

03/14/2024

I have a hive mind question:

As some of you know we have had an issue with our electric in the barn. We have a break in the wire underground somewhere. The fix was only temporary and I need to do something about power in the barn. Right now I have lights and my radio, but I can’t run my clippers.

The conundrum is: run wire for traditional power or try solar?

To run wire from the feed room to the barn is over 330 ft so the wire alone is over $500, then to dig the trench or rent the trencher, and get it all hooked up.

So I have been researching the portable solar power generators. A lot of people use them for camping, RVs or as a home back up. I know my clippers need to work and they are 150watts, I have two lightbulbs and a ceiling fan. I would like to run two heat lamps if necessary.

So my question is:
a portable solar generator or traditional electric wire?
Does anyone have experience with them?
Do you have a brand you like or would recommend?
How many watts is reasonable?
Should I get one that I can add too?
Pluses, minuses?
Other ideas, suggestions or help welcome.