Couple to give away their $350,000 Alabama goat cheese farm

Daily Mail ^ | April 30, 2015 | Lydia Warren

[Roos_Girl]

If you've ever dreamed of owning your own patch of land and a successful home-grown business then a 200-word essay and $150 is all is could take for it to become a reality.

Paul and Leslie Spell, of Humble Heart Farms in Elkmont, Alabama, are giving away their goat cheese farm - complete with their house, 20 acres of land, 56 goats, cheese-making equipment, recipes and even a dog - to the person who writes the best essay about why they should run it.

It will cost entrants just $150 to apply and, with an expected 2,500 applications, the couple say the fees will pay off the rest of their mortgage and leave $20,000 in operating funds for the new owner.

'It's for real,' Paul Spell told AL.com. 'We've had a pretty successful run here and I thought it was time for us to go help so

[Cowman]

20 acres is not enough land to graze and grow food stores for ten dairy goats.

Start contracting lawn mowing service to all the neighbors

[Salamander]

They’re genetically hard wired to freak out and fall over.

Poor things have no choice.

All to save some stupid sheep.

Sucks, don’t it?

[Salamander]

There’s one in every crowd.

:)

[Salamander]

For that, you need sheep.

Goats are lousy lawnmowers.

Mine go around and pick at the weeds and tall grass at the edges and leave the rest of the lawn alone.

We have to mow their pasture every couple weeks or they’ll get lost in there.

[Covenantor]

That's worth repeating.

Kids just having fun at the playground.

[FreedomPoster]

I buy their stuff. There is a cylinder of their chèvre in the refrigerator. I am not familiar with the guys the article is about.

Belle is quite good, award winning.

[goat granny]

I wanted to see how my flock would react to my taking my dog, leashed into the barn....I just opened the door and took 2 steps inside...that room was full of cud eating goats. I just stood there, the dog didn't move. Every nanny got up and ran out. The 2 billys and 2 wethers just stood their ground, didn't turn their backs to a dog. I turned around and left, just wondering how they would react. The males would have fought, they were my 4 biggest ones...The large breeding male had horns that from point to point was about 44 inches across but the other 3 had good size horns also, they curled and I wouldn't want to get him mad at me.....He was fine except during breeding season and I wouldn't even go into the pasture until I spotted where he was. He had the record for amount of mohair sheared at one time....he gave 44 pounds, twice the average for a adult male.

[blackdog]

I had a spider leg lamb. I was told to just hit it over the head. We left him with his mom in a pen. even though he had an extra joint in each leg, he would kneel to walk. His mom always found him and cared for him well out in pasture. Strangest looking thing.

I lost most of my sheep on cool spring nights. They would sleep too sound after the evening grazing period and would roll to their sides. Then the gas would build and They would struggle onto their back and couldn't right themselves. If you don't get tipped over sheep back up in four hours the pressure cuts off the main artery and they die. Even if you save them they are slightly paralyzed in the back end for about a week. I would lose about ten a year that way. We used to do a pasture walk around midnight to catch most of them.

Once the nights stay warm and the ground heats up the problem stops.

[goat granny]

I wanted to see how my flock would react to my taking my dog, leashed into the barn....I just opened the door and took 2 steps inside...that room was full of cud eating goats. I just stood there, the dog didn't move. Every nanny got up and ran out. The 2 billys and 2 wethers just stood their ground, didn't turn their backs to a dog. I turned around and left, just wondering how they would react. The males would have fought, they were my 4 biggest ones...The large breeding male had horns that from point to point was about 44 inches across but the other 3 had good size horns also, they curled and I wouldn't want to get him mad at me.....He was fine except during breeding season and I wouldn't even go into the pasture until I spotted where he was.

[goat granny]

same with cattle. Friends raised black angus and hubby stopped at the apple orchard for the skins left from making cider...the cattle loved it.. He dumped too much into the pasture and later when they looked out the window they had 3 cattle down...went out screaming and yelling to get them back on their feet. Were successful with 2 the 3rd one wouldn't get up and died of bloat 2 days later. If you call a vet, they can use a awl and puncture the proper chamber of the stomach, leave in and allow the gas to get out, sometimes that saves the animal...first kidding season when I was dumb, lost 2 kids to bloat didn't know what to do...managed to save one that bonded to me and he could be let out of the pasture and walk around the farm with me...bloat will kill a animal with several chambered stomach....its sad. If you can get the animal up and keep it up for a while, they walk off the bloat. But your problem is the first time I ever heard of your problem with spider legs ...the more you talk with farmer with animals the more you sure can learn...

We use to do a evening walk along the pasture fence, with goats they stick their head through the old fence to eat the other side of the fence and couldn't get their horns back through. We'd have to help them get their horns out. They could push their horns through, but the horns wouldn't get out of the fencing, they would get caught in the top of the fence hole....

[Salamander]

Pygmies and Nigerians are complete sissies.

One of my dogs zipped through the gate and gave chase to them one time and I thought they were gonna have strokes.

Ran around the machine shop, straight into a corner, totally freaking out with the dog right behind.

Good thing it was one of the Ibizan Hounds and not the Dobes.

Pitiful.

*But*, when the fence is between them, Spike thinks she’s 10 feet tall and bullet proof.

Antagonizes the something fierce.

Even after the chase.

I don’t think they’re extremely bright goats.

[Salamander]

Good grief!

8-O

[blackdog]

When I first moved to farm in Wisconsin, I had a terrible time with Quack Grass in my soy beans. It really hit my yield bad. So the next season I was discussing it with the neighbor farmers at pancake breakfast and they explained to me that if I did all my sub-soiling, and tilling at nights when the sun wasn't up I would halt the division of the roots. So for that whole month I did all my work at nights in the fields.

Little did I know all my farmer neighbors were watching my tractor lights and laughing their butts off. As my seedings emerged, the Quack grass again outpaced the crops. I then realized I was being the new source of entertainment.

After that I just gave in to Monsanto and used roundup ready seed. Then I plotted my revenge on a bunch of 80 year old men who got me good!

[goat granny]

I know pygmies are small, but what is the size of the Nigerians? Maybe size makes them feel naturally vulnerable. I know Angora's hate rain and snow. If their hair gets too heavy with water, they become vulnerable and head for the closest barn it sure cuts down on their ability to protect or fight a predator. Of course a large predator would be deadly....

[goat granny]

I don’t think they’re extremely bright goats.****************Thats funny....lol

[Salamander]

I have no idea.

Far as I’m concerned, they look the same to me. :)

Mine have *never* been wet.

They abhor moisture in any form.

If it even looks like it *looks* like it might rain, they high tail into their shed.

When there is dew on the grass, they will not come out until it dries up.

Case in point, I didn’t think little Moon Unit would ever get used to her new shed and actually enter it, willingly...and then it drizzled.

*Boom!*

She was in like a bullet.

I think if I ever had to give one a bath, it would probably just stop heir heart.

[goat granny]

Us new farmers give the neighbors lots of laughs. Had a neighbor call me to tell me my Bred turkeys (Royal Palms) were in his back yard heading for the woods....I ran over to his place and found a good size stick on the way. Funny, the turkeys saw me coming and I had to get in front of them and switch them down his drive way and they headed home. Gobbling at each other all the way....just 4, 1 gander and 3 geese...thats when my neighbor smiled at me and said he and his wife found us quite entertaining. I had to laugh, probably others felt the same way....

[goat granny]

belly laugh.....