A new life in Montana.

I was raised on a farm in England so I guess homesteading is in my blood. My husband is an English city guy who is enjoying this new way of life but would not like to earn his living from it! God has been so good to us and blessed him with a job that he can do from home even though his company is 2,500 miles away! Our son, 13, is like me--he loves the outdoors and at this time wants to make it his career. Our daughter, 14, enjoys her goats but is also a great bookworm. Then there is the new addition, Daniel, who will soon be one. Who knows what he will want to do but we're hoping that he will enjoy the country life. We have been homeschooling for a few years now and love it. We enjoy the freedom that it brings and the time we get to spend with our kids.

We started the homesteading adventure in March 2001 when we purchased a 39 acre farm in the mountains of West Virginia; very beautiful and secluded. Being in the mountains, 29 acres was almost vertical, giving us just 10 acres of pasture. There we started raising animals and boy did we learn a lot! Our daughter got into pygmy goats, we already had dogs, we raised chickens for eggs, chickens for meat and decided to try our hand at horses. After 18 months we decided that horses were definitely not for us, so we found them all good homes and filed that experience under, "Been there, done that!"

From the beginning we knew West Virginia would not be a permanent stop. We came to see it as a stepping stone and in August 2003, we made the long trip to our new home in north central Montana. A big change! We brought the dogs and goats with us. We are now on 110 acres up on the Milk River and we love it. We still have a lot to learn. The house was in great shape so that has been a real blessing as we have been able to concentrate our work on the outside. There are some buildings here but they all need cleaning out and some TLC. Before winter set in with vengeance (as I am writing, we have 18" of snow on the ground and yesterday we saw the lowest temperature yet,--40[degrees]F) we were able to get all new electric to the barns and put in heated waterers. There were already outside faucets but unfortunately one broke just before the big freeze so we had to turn them all off and the kids are having to haul water from the house. A bit of a pain but until we can get a Bobcat in here to dig it all up, there is nothing we can do.

Michelle's goats have settled in well although a couple got pneumonia and one aborted. Maybe the journey and change in temperature put more stress on them than we thought. We now have new laying chickens and are looking forward to that spring day when they start to lay. Someone gave me three meat goats, two of which are due to kid in the very near future. They have been a great addition to our "family" and due to their size and horns will stand up to our dogs, which is great. One of the goats is part Cashmere and I am considering whether to try and find a Cashmere buck. Does anyone out there know anything about Cashmere goats? True size, temperament, etc.? Is there a market for the wool?

After the goats we acquired four piglets. My son has been longing to raise pigs so we decided to let him try out with these first (they are Hampshire crosses) to see how he does before we invest in something long term. He would really like to breed and raise the Large Blacks, the ones with the floppy ears. He has done some research and believes they would be good for our climate but if anyone has first-hand experience we would love to hear from you.

Getting the right kind of food for the animals is pretty tough up here. We are in beef and ranch country and no one sells ground feed of any kind. Occasionally we can buy rolled oats but it is very expensive so now we are looking into buying barley and getting it rolled. After looking into the feed supplements that the feedstore sells for pigs, we don't want to touch it! We like to raise all our animals on natural food, i.e., no animal protein products which could consist of who-knows-what! We are raising these pigs for meat and would love some sausage recipes. We try to eat healthily and do not like our sausage sweet, so no recipes with sugar or preservatives in them, please. Any others would be great.

One of the many advantages of being in Montana is that we are able to buy organic wheat flour at a great price and it was grown here. Does anyone have any good bread machine recipes for whole wheat flour? Any that I have tried so far turn out dry and after the first day it gets nasty.

As a lot of folks do in winter, we are busy planning for spring. We have a lot of pheasants around here and also a big wildlife area with a slough (old river bend) that houses deer, grouse, coyote, porcupine, beaver, skunk, etc. Because the slough has water in it we also get mosquitoes. Last year they were really bad. I have read that Muscovy ducks are great mosquito eaters so I would like to raise some in spring along with turkeys and pheasants.

Also, it is good to continually be reminded how important it is to strive to be out of debt. Ronya Hammonds and Henry Van Zee's letters should be taken to heart.

I would love to hear from other folks who have advice or are doing things similar to us. And if we can help you at all, we would be more than willing.

LIZ POMEROY

MONTANTA

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