HTH Farm

Hi! We're Melissa and Sean Bramble, and Hermit Thrush Hill is
our small homestead. Our goal is to approach self-sustainability
while maintaining breeding groups of as many appropriate
heritage breeds of livestock as possible. Through natural,
chemical-free methods, such as pasture raising, we intend to offer
our animals a happy, healthy, and productive life.

We started Hermit Thrush Hill because we believe that the
industrial agricultural practices in our country are environmentally
unsustainable, disrespectful of the animals we rely on for our
nourishment, and detrimental to the genetic diversity of
agricultural plants and animals, which directly impacts human
health.

We are happy to offer some of our animals, plants, and seed for
sale, as well as other products we produce. Please feel free to
explore our site to learn more about our homestead and heritage
breeds in general.

As we grow, we learn. As we learn, we grow.

Much of what we have done over the last few years since we began this homesteading
endeavor has been experimentation. Some endeavors have stuck, some haven't, and
some have needed tweaking.

Our wonderful Boer goats are leaving the homestead. After our first crop of bouncing,
playful kids we realized that butchering any of these little devils would be out of the
question. Without that necessary outlet for excess or cull animals, goats aren't a practical
member of our family. We will miss their friendly, silly antics.

Icelandics proved to be incompatible with our tiny Soays, so they will largely be leaving.
We've brought in a small flock of Shetlands to balance out the Soays' flighty personalities
and so far they are proving a wonderful match to our primary livestock - Soays!

We traded in our lovely Percherons for a massive team of Brabant-cross geldings.
Doc & Whisky tip the scales at approximately 4300lbs. and have been a real delight.
Weekly road trips are now the norm and we're looking forward to getting to work with
these boys in the spring.

The future of Hazel Amanda (our Tamworth gilt) is currently being discussed. We vowed
to not breed her until she had her permanent digs in place. She will be 4yo this year and
this hasn't happened, so this year we will make our move one way or the other.

Lambing season is fast approaching! We have 20 Soay ewes that spent the early
winter with their beaus and 4 Shetland ewes. That means lots of lamb-y fun starting in
April!
Lily (American Milking Devon cow) was confirmed pregnant only a few weeks ago. She
is due July 20, 2012. We're crossing our fingers for a heifer calf this go-around. Lily has
been an excellent mother to Asterion and has been a dream milking.
Clearing and fencing new pasture and building structures are on the project list again
this year.
Plenty of eggs will be hatched!