Brookhaven Mill Farm-North Carolina

A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Cheryl at Brookhaven Mill Farm-North Carolina. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Cheryl at Brookhaven Mill Farm, North Carolina. Hello Cheryl, how are you? Hi, I'm doing well. How are you doing? I'm great. I was looking at your website and your story is so cool, so tell me about yourself and what you do.

00:29
Okay, so let's see, I'll just give you the brief rundown. At age 60, I purchased a farm, my first farm, and I am now 66. So I have been running this farm for the past five and a half, almost six years. I am in central North Carolina, right outside of Greensboro, and I diversify a bit as far as the farm model goes. Because I...

00:58
physically do not grow crops. I decided to grow livestock, and I am now centralized around growing sheep. I started with East Friesian sheep, and now I've diversified into a different breed that's a little more parasite resistant in this part of the country. And it's a Catawdin-Dorpor cross. Right now, I have about 30 head. But raising sheep is kind of boring. It's like golf. If you don't do it, it's kind of boring.

01:29
So what I do on the weekends is I open my farm for an agritourism destination. So I get locals from Greensboro and visiting to come out to the farm and not only see the sheep, but to see some of the other animals I've added. Sheep get along really well with goats. So I've added some goats and a couple of donkeys for a guardian, a couple of...

01:57
dogs, a lot of cats, and chickens, ducks, and geese. And it just makes for a wild menagerie of animals for people to feed and just get excited about learning. Awesome. I have two questions. I'm gonna forget one of them if I don't ask both at the same time. One is about the cross-breed of your sheep and one is about the fact that you started this at 60. So we'll start with the sheep one. The cross-breed that you have. Catodin is a hair sheep, right?

02:26
Yes, that's correct. Is the other one also a hair sheep? Yes, Dorpher is also a hair sheep. And you know, it's really just a bunch of mutts out there, but they have had four lambing seasons coming up on my fifth lambing season, Valentine's Day. We're expecting lambs. And each lambing season is getting more and more specific to the Katahdin look, the fine features, the sweet face, the little smile.

02:56
and just easy to handle, very docile, very good choice for meat. And not so much milk that I can tell. I'm going to try to milk some of my ewes in February. I morphed into this mutt breed of mostly Katahdin now, but some dorper, because the sire, the ram, is a dorper. But he's also a cross.

03:26
So he's a Dorper St. Roy cross. So these girls have all been lambing.

03:36
Some have been lambing for four years, some have been lambing for three. This year I've got a couple of first time moms, so it's gonna be interesting to see what they're offering exhibit as far as the traits that I'm trying to get to, which is worm resistant, hair, completely hair, because the original seven sheep I started with six years ago when I bought the farm were all German breed, East region, and they were wool.

04:04
So I've just about bred the wool out of the lands now. Okay, that was what I was gonna ask you about because I haven't actually talked to anybody who's bred a hair sheep and a wool sheep and how that works, because I have no idea. Is it just like any other animal that you breed with a different variety? That's why it's.

04:27
And then you get wool sheep or hair sheep or like maybe a wool hair sheep. I don't know. Yeah, you get a wool hair sheep and that's what's so funny is because it's taken a couple of generations now of lambing to get to the point where all the lambs are now starting to look like hair lambs. The first experiment, the first lambing when I crossed the dad with the, you know, the

04:57
lambs. Some of the lambs had the nubby, woolly texture. Some had sort of a half and half fill. And now they've been bred back to their father. And their offspring now exhibits very little wool nubby. But sometimes you'll get one that looks like it's... Where did this one come from? It's got almost like Velcro.

05:26
fleece, which is really hard to shear. So not only have I saved money for the farm by going to hair sheep, because it's quite expensive to shear, have a shearer come and shear 30 head of sheep. So this year, the shearer is only going to have to shear six sheep, which are the half and halves, but they still need that wool taken off.

05:55
how to be comfortable in the summertime. Okay, that's what I was wondering about. And the only experience I have with breeding anything, and it wasn't like on purpose because we're dumb, is our female barn cat wasn't spayed. And she was an incredibly long haired cat, like ridiculously long haired. We called her Floof because she was so long haired. And her last litter, she had seven babies, and three of them

06:24
were long haired and four of them were really short haired. Like, not hairless cats, but really short haired. And we capped one male from Malitter and he is a dilute orange. So he's like beige colored. And his hair is as long as his mama's. And he's gorgeous. And we adore him. And I call him fluffy butt because he's so fluffy. But.

06:52
I've never actually bred an animal on purpose because that's not my job. I don't do that. But it's weird how genetics work and it's always really interesting to see what happens when you do cross different lines. Yeah. And unfortunately, that's the adventurous and exciting part of breeding sheep is what am I going to come out with because you're putting some thought into it. It's not just willy-nilly. I keep one ram because I know he's proven.

07:21
I do sell my other ram lambs once they've been weaned from their mom. But the downside of it is you also have to be very conscientious not to keep sheep that are going to be genetically flawed. And like they get worms, they have prolapsed uteruses, they have toes that constantly have to be trimmed.

07:48
It's just me that runs this farm. And so I have learned, and it's been a very hard lesson, that I don't want those moms breeding again, because they're passing on a trait that's high maintenance for me. Yes, undesirable traits are called undesirable traits for a reason. Yeah, that's right. OK, so that leads me back to my second question five minutes ago. So you said you did this at 60, and now you're saying that it's just you.

08:17
You must be in fabulous shape. I'm not, my cardiologist will tell you that I am 60 pounds overweight. I'm morbidly obese according to the medical definition, but I feel great. I live a healthy lifestyle. I don't smoke. Of course I drink wine, but you know, I have a healthy outlook on life. I've been widowed for 18 years. My husband passed away unfortunately.

08:47
Um, three years into our marriage, he was my second husband. And so he would have loved this place. Um, but I just decided I've always been a risk taker. I've, I've grown up working in aerospace and department of defense, uh, as my career hat, and I just retired after 43 years of working, um, as a contractor for the government, I was in the Navy for a short time, but my, my day.

09:17
job for the last 43 years has been very technical. And I've always had a side hustle. And this farm allows me to let my creative juices and my business acumen come out because I also run a bed and breakfast. And so I get, and I have a farm store. So I get a chance to do a little retail, do a little hospitality, do some animal husbandry. And I just love it.

09:45
So it's taken me, I'm sorry that it took me so long to figure all this out. But I think everything happens for a reason and at 60, it just all fell together. I'm right there with you on, sorry that it took so long to figure it out because I have been doing this podcast for a little over a year and I love it. And I wish I had started it when I was in my forties, not when I was 54. I hear you. Or 53 or whatever it was. So yeah, but you never know.

10:13
all the things that you spend your life doing become the next thing you're going to do, I feel like. Absolutely. Dead straight on that Mary, dead straight. Yeah. So do you have a great perinase? Because I hear a dog in the background. Yeah, I have. So I've partnered with a food bank and so it's taken me time to do that. Let me see if I can shut him. Oh, no, no, it's fine. I don't mind. He's barking. I just hear him.

10:41
Well, I, so this food bank gives me, you know, we have a lot of food waste in our country. It's, it sounds like a good problem to have, but all this food goes into the landfill. And I've been able to partner with the local food bank that gives me boxes and boxes of food that is not for human consumption. Maybe it's gone past the expiration date at the grocery store. And so they, they give me a truckload of food and I just came in from my pickup.

11:11
I have a pickup every week at this food bank and I share it with my neighbors because a lot of this food is actually very good food. Like if you can imagine a bag of lemons and maybe one lemon is bad, they throw the whole bag into my pickup. And so it's ridiculous not to share that with my neighbors and that's a neighbor that's just pulled up, which is why my dog's barking.

11:36
Ah, I see. Okay. And was I right on the breed? Is he a great Pyrenees? No, I chose not to go with a great Pyrenees because they have a terrible habit of wandering. They sure do. Helps to find their boundaries. This is a Romanian sheep dog. He is bred to protect his flock from bears and wolves, which we don't luckily have a lot of here in North Carolina, but we do have coyotes.

12:06
Thankfully, I have not suffered any losses from coyotes or neighbors dogs with him around. Nice. Is he big? He's huge. He's 120 pounds and their breed will get up to 200 pounds. He won't reach his full weight limit because he had some challenges with his hips and bone structure when he was born. So, he has a bit of a handicap, but he's topping the scales at 120.

12:35
And he looks a lot like a St. Bernard, but if you're curious or anybody's out there curious, it's a bucovina shepherd dog. Okay. The reason I thought it was a great Pyrenees is because friends of ours, hi Tracy and Paul, Tracy listens to the podcast all the time. They have two great Pyrenees and the bark on your dog sounds very much like the bark on their dogs. So that's why I asked. Oh yeah. Well, I hope their Pyrenees stick close to home. I was just afraid to take a chance and have mine wandering.

13:03
Um, they've told me that they do wander, but they don't wander far because the neighbors send them home. They tell them go home and they do. So, okay. So it's, it's okay. I don't think the dogs have been lost for any real amount of time. So I think it's fine. I think that, I think that the dogs, um, Lagatha and I can't remember the male dog name, male dog's name.

13:28
But anyway, I think that they know where they belong and they find their way back pretty quick. And the other thing is that as I say all the time, we have a dog, but she's more like a person in a dog suit. She's a mini Australian shepherd. And so when she barks, it's this very arf noise, not the big woof noise that yours is doing. Interesting. I'm always curious because I am very sound driven and thank God I have a podcast because I get to hear all kinds of different tones and tenors.

13:58
voices all the time, but I also do it with animals. And it's always very interesting to me how you can recognize certain animals' sizes by the sounds that they make. You would have made a great sonar person on a nuclear sub because one of the traits they look for is someone who can identify a school of shrimp versus a ship. Oh, funny. Funny. Yeah, I have been told so many things that I missed my calling on. I could have been at least a hundred different things at this point in my life.

14:29
But this is where I've ended up. So, okay, so I can't believe it's just you doing all of this. You must have like a huge wall calendar that you have stuff on so you can keep track. Yeah, so one of the, in my professional life, part of my job was managing and organizing documents and software. And so I think that that is the skill that I put to use here at the farm. I do keep a calendar.

14:59
I have a lot of bookings for kids' birthday parties. I have to make sure, and my biggest fear is I'm going to overbook. That's just, you know, same with the B&B. I have to make sure that I'm managing these reservations very carefully and giving everybody the experience what they're looking for. So that's a lot of PR involved, but a lot of behind the scenes stuff as well. So I've had to wear a lot of hats, just like any entrepreneur out there, especially in agritourism.

15:28
You are the bookkeeper, the financier, the marketer, everything. You're the face the public sees. And, and so it's the biggest challenge I've had doing this for six years now is. Setting boundaries, you know, just now, right before this podcast, uh, earlier this morning, I had opened up our little snack bar and I have a set time on Tuesdays where people can come and pick up fresh milk and.

15:56
I have to adhere to these schedules very strictly because I've got other things on my plate to do, which was being this podcast. And so I closed up the snack bar at the time. And just before I came online with you, somebody pulled up and wanted some milk. Now they were 35 minutes late. And it's been the biggest challenge is when is the customer always dry and when is this is a farm and I have to keep a schedule.

16:26
And a lot of times I find the latter works better. If people really want the milk, they have to come when I'm available. And it's a terrible thing to say when you're dealing with the public, but it is just me and I can't, I can't be constantly stopping what I'm doing and running out and helping somebody because maybe they heard I had fresh eggs. So I do open just on the weekends to the public to come and shop for things at our farm store or at the snack bar.

16:57
or go into the petting zoo, but I absolutely keep the gates closed during the week, unless it is a private appointment, like a milk pickup.

17:08
Yes, and don't feel bad that you have a schedule that you need to keep because your time is as valuable as anyone else's. Yeah. That's been a hard lesson because I am now supported. The farm is supporting me now. I don't get a paycheck. So it is hard to remember that I am still an employee and ambassador of the farm. And it's just, it's going to be interesting at tax time. That's all I could say.

17:36
There is no W-2 to show my accountant, so it'll be fun. Yes, we actually had to do that last, well, this year in 2024 for 2023, because we had a CSA in 2023. We were selling things at the farmers market and just stuff. And my husband was like, I'm bringing our tax person this file folder of all my spreadsheets. Do you think it'll be right? And I'm like, I think that he will be very happy to see that.

18:06
And when we walked in and the guy was like, okay, so what's the deal? And he took my husband's W2 from the job that my husband had for like three months of 2023. And then he was like, what else you got? And my husband was like, well, here's what we've been doing. Here's all those spreadsheets and handed them to him. And the guy looked through them and he said, I am so impressed with you. You would not believe how many people start businesses and bring me every receipt from the year.

18:36
And it's like a box. Yeah. No, I go through my box and put it on a spreadsheet as well. I just don't have any W-2s. So how do you, maybe we can talk offline, but yeah, it's going to be a challenge because I don't pay myself. So this is going to be an interesting tax year. Yeah. Gotta love it. Taxes are hard. I think even if you are rich, taxes are hard. It's just how it is.

19:06
But anyway, I wish you all the luck in the world with that. And yes, we can talk about that afterward. We're done with the recording. Because I don't know if I can help you, but I will try. OK. So tell me about the history of the place that you own. Yeah, so this is my dream property. I thought my last property in Lake Lure, North Carolina was my dream property. My husband and I purchased that in 2004. And it was a vineyard.

19:36
He was from California. It was just an amazing piece of property. Lake Lure is such an amazing place. It's so sad, the devastation that it's just gone through with the storm. But we were living four miles from the lake and had 10 acres and a guest cottage. And it was gonna be our retirement home. And unfortunately he passed the following year. So I kept the home as a Verbo for 12 years while I worked on different contracts for the government around the country. And

20:04
And the Verbo was a great thing to have, tax-wise, but it kept me from feeling grounded. And so I finally came upon North Carolina, the central part of North Carolina, and saw a farm that was an 1800s historic farm. It was just incredibly beautiful. The house sits upon a hill and it's 23 acres and it had the barn. It had all the infrastructure. I wouldn't have to do anything.

20:34
because I'm winging it at this point. My husband's not here to build stuff and fix stuff for me. So I found that it was on the market for 200 days with nobody putting in an offer. I figured it was either haunted or it was just in such bad shape. Nobody wanted to deal with it. But when I took a tour of the house, there were renters living here. I was so impressed with how it was already set up where it would be a perfect B&B. It was just...

21:03
It was just the house of my dreams, two story, 1882. It's just incredible, the architecture inside, the original wood floors, everything was just beautiful. I just kept pinching myself. So I got it at the price I needed to have it at. And from that point on, it was just learning about the house. Old houses have noises in the night. It certainly is not haunted.

21:31
If anything, there are very good ghosts here. There's been a very long history of a family passing it on to its generation. And so I have some really good provenance with this house. Three doors down is a 93 year old lady who was born in this house. And she can tell me all sorts of stories about what her father and his father did growing up here. Both were born here.

21:58
So she was the third generation to be born here. And it's just so incredible to hear history coming from her lips. I mean, so I have a lot of provenance with the house. I've got a real spiritual connection to the house. And it's just so funny because I don't know any of these people. But I have their pictures in the hallways. It's like when you come in, everyone always asks, oh, are these your ancestors? And it's like, no, it's the ancestors who built this house.

22:28
So people who stay here really all seem to enjoy stepping back in the past because I do serve a traditional breakfast on China and the house is furnished in 1930s and before turn of the century type furniture. So it's just been like living in a doll house. I just love it. You sound like you just love it. The joy is coming through the headphones.

22:56
Yeah, it's really interesting when you buy a house that old, or property that old, because back when that house was built, it probably wasn't as big as it is right now. I'm sure that they added on to it. And back then, I'm pretty sure there wasn't electricity. Yeah, you are absolutely right in remnants of how life was back then. I discovered the outhouse my first year living here. Someone had parked it.

23:24
behind an old shed and it is certainly an outhouse. But yeah, you're right. It has become modern with each generation that has lived here. You know, it's funny that you bring up the outhouse. Back, oh my goodness, it's gotta be at least 10 years ago. My husband and my youngest son and I went for a hike and there's this beautiful hiking trail.

23:52
about at least half an hour from where we live now. But back then, we lived about 15 minutes from this trail. And there was an old, old, old brick house. And it was like a, I would call it a mansion for the time it was built, because it was probably built about the same time as your house. And red brick, and it had a brick outhouse. Oh, no kidding.

24:22
that horse or that bull is built like a brick shithouse. And I had never actually understood that they made those, that a brick outhouse actually existed. And we came around the corner of the house after wandering around the outside of the house and yep, brick outhouse. And I just laughed myself stupid for like 15 minutes. My husband's like, why are you so tickled?

24:48
And I said, because brick shit houses actually exist, honey. I had no idea. Oh my gosh. It, you know, I guess that was the way you could show your wealth back then, you know, because I've never heard of a brick, Johnny, Johnny house. That's what they call it here in North Carolina, Johnny house. Yeah. So it was just funny. And I was actually thinking about it the other day, cause I have photos from that, that hike and we took a picture of the brick outhouse. So.

25:18
But either way, very funny to me, probably no one else will giggle, but I thought it was a riot. And the other thing is that I'm assuming that your home went through the whole transition from hurricane oil lamps, whatever you want to call them, and candles, to gas lamps, to electricity, to where we're at now. And you write on about the original structure I learned, again, from my 93-year-old neighbor.

25:47
who learned from her father that the original structure was pre-1880s. It was just a two-room farmhouse that her grandfather grew up in. And you can feel the transition when you're walking from that part of the house into the addition that was built in the 1930s. When the family was expanding.

26:16
And they needed additional bedrooms and living quarters. And so that's what I love about this house is because, you know, you can put an egg on the floor and it'll roll. It's just crazy. Not very fun when you're trying to retile a kitchen though, because they did have to level my kitchen because it was so off kilter. Then, you know, so that's not fun when you're in that type of remodeling, but gosh, the

26:44
the little nooks and crannies where they put, they actually took the original house and attached another structure to it. And you know, nothing matches up perfectly, but that's what I love about it. Character. Absolutely. It oozes character. Yeah. Our home that we live in now, that we moved into a little over four years ago, was completely remodeled before we ever set foot in it.

27:14
And there used to be a bedroom downstairs and it was probably just a small bedroom. It was big enough for a twin bed and maybe a side table and possibly a small dresser, but I doubt it. And the house now is a two bedroom and both bedrooms are upstairs. And what they did is they opened up that bedroom and it's part of our living room. And then a side of that bedroom is a walk-in closet for coats and things. And.

27:42
At first I was like, this is great. It's, they set it up almost like open concept. It's really pretty. And now having lived here, I kind of wish they'd left that bedroom downstairs alone. Because number one, it would have been a great place to have as a guest room for my kids when they come home.

28:04
And number two, my husband snores and it would have been a great place for me to go at night if he's keeping me awake, but no, the bedroom is no longer downstairs. So it's interesting how people change the inside of a home, but the outside tends to look the same for a long time. Yeah, the parlor, what I use to serve breakfast in, it has the only working fireplace in the house. There were four fireplaces in the house.

28:33
four flues where a parlor stove might have been hooked up to it. And three are non-working and one downstairs is working. And I learned from my neighbor that that was her parents' bedroom, that they had the heat and they all used to gather in the parents' bedroom when they needed extra heat. But they had working fireplaces or working stoves. And she said that the fireplace was always the warmest spot in the house.

29:03
That is now my parlor. So the only thing you can tell that it could have been a bedroom at one time is there is a closet, which I'm turning into a powder room. I just need a place for guests to wash up when they're downstairs before I serve breakfast. Normally, they're upstairs in the bedroom, and that's where the bathroom is. But you're right. Every time a generation has been here, they've added something to it. Also, I learned that.

29:32
With their family, they only had one bathroom, which was an unusual back in the early days. But the bathroom was upstairs when she was growing up, which would have been in the thirties. And so they had indoor plumbing then by then she said she never used the outhouse. But in the thirties upstairs was the bathroom. They added a bathroom downstairs. So I actually have two bathrooms now, but I want to add a third, a half that just to have.

30:00
guests be able to go in and wash up downstairs. I love that we're talking about this because this isn't about growing plants or growing animals. This is about growing a house. I think that's amazing. You brought it up. No, I think it's great and and you're using that home as part of your agritourism business. So it fits. Yes, and I have to watch when people come out to the farm that they don't wander inside because they know it's a bed and

30:30
So sometimes, you know, there are strangers, complete strangers walking around, which is a little unnerving, but I guess it's to be expected when you come across a house like this. Yes. And I mean, there's a lot of history there. And I think that you probably are a history buff and so am I. And we are not the only ones on the earth that love historical buildings. So I'm not surprised to be like, I wonder if I can just go take a peek.

31:01
So, all right, well, Cheryl, we have been talking for 30 minutes and, oh, actually almost 31 minutes and I tried to keep this to half an hour. So I appreciate your time so much. Thank you. It's been very, very rewarding to be able to talk to you and share about not only the house but the farm as well. And I appreciate the exposure and the time you took as well, Mary. Thank you. Oh, for sure. I love doing this. You have a great day, Cheryl.

31:30
You too. Bye-bye. Thanks again.