Blondie Acres

Home
Blondie Acres

Premier Vacation Stay and Farm Experience in the Blue Ridge and Ellijay area of North Georgia.
(5)

13/10/2024

Early on a cool September morning, farmer Josh Payne tends to his flock in Concordia, just east of Kansas City, Missouri. As Payne opens the gate, about a thousand sheep round the corner and bound into fresh grass. The pasture the flock grazes was once corn and soybeans, along with the rest of the P...

07/08/2024

Please please please SHARE! See link in the bio for a clickable and shareable link. Thank you all so very much.

25/05/2024

Pulse check! Here's a pie chart of how 2024 is going.

26/04/2024

Me - I've got XYZ to do today! I need to get hustling.
Also me - not before I sneak up and take a photo of these precious two.
Also also me - : dies from cuteness overload :

13/04/2024

"Men are pigs." No, no. Most men aren't nearly on the level of awesome that Frank is. Gimme a man with his qualities (maybe a little less fat and hairy 😂,) and I wouldn't be single for long!

08/04/2024

Eclipse selfie game on point! Look closely for the eclipse in the glasses!

07/04/2024

Most will see this photo and think, "Aw! Baby goat!" This is the bright side of owning a farm. Cute babies, pretty scenery, fun animals, and many other upsides. That's what owning a farm is to most people because we don't see posts of the tough, difficult, or downright painful experiences of this lifestyle.

It's not all hugging babies, saving animals, and laughter. What's not seen in this photo is my heart aching every time I hold this baby. This baby that I'd have sacrificed to keep my sweet goat Bluey alive. Nature said no to this notion. Nature doesn't care how many hours you slept in a barn awaiting your favorite goat to go into labor. Nature doesn't care about meds given to help your favorite goat. Nature will take what you love from you in the most abrupt ways that you can't take time to feel. It only gives time for making decisions. Decisions like letting your sweetest and favoritest goat go in order for her offspring to have a chance at life. Moments after having to let her go, cut her open, and deliver her kids with your own hands and no one around you to give you any strength or support.

That's farming too. People don't like to think about the bad things happening so we underestimate the likelihood they'll happen. Then we only paint happy pictures online. A painful heart from a brutal experience that this life can serve up.

I share my life here with those I know along with total strangers. At times it feels like my life is a fishbowl for others to only experience the enjoyment from. I accept this. Though there are times like my being in a barn at 1:30AM, having to make the toughest of decisions that make me realize that I am allowed to have some "sacred selfishness" even in this fishbowl. No one experienced this with me. I don't have to share what joy I have from that event with them. I can keep that for myself, and not feel ashamed of it.

This post is as much educational as it is telling my story along the way. It's also a gentle request that if you visit my farm, and you notice there's an animal I'm not sharing with you. There's a reason for it that could very well be caused by an experience I'm still recovering from. Please don't pressure, or pry. Allow me to enjoy a piece of my farm in private. The story told is never equal to the story happening in real time.

Thank you

06/04/2024

I am here to chew bubble gum and rustle jimmies, and I'm all out of bubble gum.

City folks have been escaping the city and buying their dream mountain home for the past few years. Good for them! Now let's get those knickers in a twist. City folks, you moved to the "Smoky Mountains." Please come to terms with the fact that Smoky mountains means they're going to be smoky. Regularly in the springtime the forestry service will do controlled burns of large swaths of forest land. More often than not it's going to be on the most beautiful of dry days. Yes, it does negatively effect the air quality. Yes, it's bothersome to those with respiratory issues. However, this isn't an unknown fact of moving to the woods. The woods need to be maintained so that way a wildfire doesn't end up at your doorstep.

Why am I bringing this up on a small time farming page? Because just like farming, maintaining forestry is as equally foreign to people who have never known anything but the city. Moving out to the country is fantastic, but we have fires, we have dogs that bark, we have elements that are different than the city. If those elements that make the country the country are not acceptable to you. Maybe it's best that you simply stop by for vacation every now and then and not move here.

Now that I have sufficiently hurt somebody's feelings somewhere. By the way I'm not sorry for speaking the truth. I will add in a bit of educational material that could potentially help not only the Smoky mountains be less smoky, but also benefit the forests as well as agriculture.

The great industrial agriculture that is feeding "the world" is also killing it. Whether we like to think about it or not animals are raised in the millions in feed lots, and it is those feedlots that are not helping the health of our planet Earth. Mother nature gave us animals, land, and forests. It is possible to manage the Earth with animals on it and not kill the planet. Cattle feed lots are blamed for the hole in the ozone due to methane, but despite the number of cows on feedlots increasing by some 60 to 70% in the last 20 years. The hole in the ozone has not actually gotten any larger. Supporting farming in smaller communities versus the commercial farming options that we find at most grocery stores would actually allow us to help the Earth. Why? I refer back to the Smoky mountains.

Pigs were meant to grow in the woods. Not on feedlots. If we were to adapt to managing our forestry with hogs and goats. It could actually be done efficiently and effectively enough that we no longer have to burn our forests as frequently as we do causing smoke that does have a negative effect on our atmosphere and ozone. Now, using those hogs in such a manner you can feed local communities healthy and naturally raised meat. This helps the local community, it helps manage the nearby forestry by cutting down on the need to burn, it helps the earth by burning less, and it takes a step away from commercial farming that only bleeds the Earth of every resource it naturally gives us to artificially produce food to feed the masses.

There's your food for thought from a small time farmer that actually gives a damn about the Earth that we live and breathe on.

18/03/2024

Long time no post! How's everyone been?!
The Barn House has been hopping this year! Due to a reschedule at the end of this month, Easter weekend is now available! This is the first weekend in 2024 that has opened back up. If you're looking for a quick weekend getaway. This is your opportunity! Link to Airbnb in comments.

Update - This year has been absolutely Non-Stop. Seriously. I hope your year has been a little more chill than it has been here on the farm. There's been life, death, upgrades, repairs, pastures turning from brown to green, and everything in between. Warmer temperatures coming earlier than expected this year put everything into hyper drive the past few weeks. All the projects that needed to get done over the winter are now scrambling to get done so that way summer doesn't sneak up on us!

This past week I was away from the farm for more than 18 hours for the first time since 2021, and it was so I could go to a regenerative farming clinic! LOL leave it up to me to take a break from my farm to go learn about farming. It was still a much-needed break. A lot of big changes are going to come from this new path of learning that I'm on. Regenerative farming is something I've always believed in but never had guidance or a mentor to learn from. The land, the animals, humans and everything in between are going to benefit from these changes. This farm that brings so much peace and happiness is only going to get better!

Hopefully before the end of spring the Vista house will be available for vacation rental for smaller families that love farm views!

Another addition to the farm by summer time will be family Farm Animal Encounters & Educational Q&A that will be available to the public. This will grant the opportunity for families to experience the animals, and to have their questions answered about the animals and farming. Many young children these days are not exposed enough to farm life and I want to inspire the next generation!

Let me know how y'all are doing in the comments! Would love to hear from you! Any ideas as to things you would like to see happen or become available on the farm. Please let me know those too!

Airbnb

01/01/2024

Happy New Year everyone! We're back to the horses having and even better view than me over at the neighbors! Lol. They are on winter vacation with all the grass they can dream of. That means mama gets to really go to work on the farm now! We're going to keep on being the best we can be no matter the year!

19/12/2023

As winter is already here in a big way this year, here's another reminder!

Address

Website

https://airbnb.com/h/blondieacres

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Blondie Acres posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Blondie Acres:

Videos

Please please please SHARE! See link in the bio for a clickable and shareable link. Thank you all so very much. #thankyou #helpneeded #airbnb #farmstay #ellijaygeorgia #blueridgega #cherrylog #northgeorgia #smokymountains #mustlovedogs #getaway #vacationhome #vacationinblueridge

Staying at Blondie Acres is a whole experience inside and out! Create your memories here. #vacation #visitblueridge #themountainsarecalling #escapethecity #farmstay #ellijayga #blueridgega #cherrylog #farmexperience #babygoats #goatsofinstagram

Shortcuts

Address
Alerts
Contact The Business
Videos
Claim ownership or report listing
Want your business to be the top-listed Travel Agency?

Country:

City: