The Beginning of Black Oak Hollow.....

When we moved to North Carolina two years ago, we knew our adventure was going to be completely different than anything we have done so far in our 29 years together.  My husband, Rob and I (Stacy), were looking for something different other than a cookie cutter, McMansion on a postage stamp in a subdivision like we were use to. We also thought it might be a good idea to find some land considering I was known by our previous H.O.A. as the crazy dog lady with 6 dogs.  Actually two of them, Grimmie and Dougan, belonged to my children who moved with us but if you are a parent, you know how that works... Mom has 6 dogs. A farm seemed rather appropriate considering we had a cat, 6 dogs, and two koi fish. And we found the perfect place in Albemarle, NC... a 20 acre farm that included an acre pond, a barn, two outbuildings, wood working building, and a house built in 1924.   

As my husband talked about the farm, I realized I had no idea his visions were so grand as compared to my visions of a hobby farm of just birds...a few birds. Well as it has it, we are just birds, but we have grown from a mere startup of 9 Rhode Island Reds, given to us by a neighbor, to 172 birds total. This includes Rhode Island Reds, Cochins, Silkies, Ameraucanas, White Leg Horns, Comets, Muscovy ducks, quail, and a pair of free range birds, again, given to us, one Black Maran/Rhode Island Rooster, and one Comet hen. We also have one mysterious yellow tabby barn cat that rests with the free range birds and plays with the 8 dogs. And yes, you read that right, 8 dogs. We were blessed with my late father's german shepherd and two new sheepdog puppies from our very own Cleo.  

So now that you have an idea of where we started from, I will begin tomorrow with the tales of the farm at Black Oak Hollow beginning with Pip, our rippled Muscovy duck.