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The Program Director and Board of Directors are excited to announce our plan to make major renovations to the farm starting in 2023 through an upcoming Capital Campaign we are calling: Growing on the Farm. Homeplace on Green River was established as a non-profit in 2001. It has grown each year in the 21 years that it has operated. We have added programs, events, activities, and projects one at a time through the dedication of a wonderful board of directors. Until 2020, the farm was managed solely by the board. In the two years since being joined by a program Director, Homeplace has worked to strengthen our branding, our administrative side of things, and the focus of our ambition. We believe we are well poised to take steps toward the next big adventure. As stewards of this incredible place, we are tasked with the preservation of the grounds and the wonderful historic buildings on our site. To ensure they survive through this century and are enjoyed by the community, some much needed renovations must take place. Beginning in 2023, we will be launching a multiyear capital campaign to fund a massive, multifaceted renovation and improvement project. This project will have many aspects but essentially three main phases. Phase One: Raising the Barn
Having such a beautiful and functional facility at Homeplace for rentals and events will allow us to be more financially self-sufficient and enable other more mission-centric programs and activities on the farm. Also, we believe that a beautiful facility will be something the community will enjoy for years to come when we utilize it for our festivals, vendor events, and educational programs. Phase Two: Going to Market We want to make our feedlot, with is a 6000 square foot space on an incline more useable by pouring seven 40 by 24 foot concrete terraces and improving the bottom end to showcase our pond. We will call it The Market Pavillion. This space will be more handicapped accessible and just more functional. We will use it for large vendor events, produce/farmers market style spaces as well as a performance/presentation space. Phase Three: Bring it Home The historic Tate House was built in 1802 and has been partially renovated. To make the full house a useable space will require a large investment, but one that we believe is worth while. We would love for the house to eventually see it’s 300th year and we have an opportunity to help ensure that it can. We plan to renovate the rest of the home and add a few modern amenities to make it a rental space. We will rent it to visitors and Event Renters, as well as hold history-focused events and possibly even use it for artist residencies and to host visiting educators. This will preserve the home while making it a source of financial support for Homeplace. Over the next few years, we will be working on grants, holding fundraising events, and reaching out to donors big and small across our region. A successful Capital Campaign will enable us to grow the farm and protect Homeplace on Green River for generations to come. This project will benefit our region as well as it will enable us to hold events that draw visitors from a wider area, boosting tourism and local businesses. Help Get Us Started!
You can plant a seed at the farm today by making a financial contribution, or by committing to lending a hand later in the campaign. Click the link to learn more: #HomeplaceForTheHolidays
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 In October, we had a series of events intended for the children and families of our area. Each Sunday, we had our corn maze open, and some additional activities were provided by a variety of student groups who partnered with us to add value to the events. Harmon Furniture sponsored the events and covered the costs of all materials! On Saturday, October 22nd, we had a Homeplace Halloween, a pumpkin carving and craft event. Unfortunately, the turnout for all the events was a little low, so next year we will reduce what we offer, but we are glad we tried something new and made some great friends along the way. We would like to say special thanks to the Campbellsville University Cheer and Dance teams, the Education Club, and the Lindsey Wilson College Bonner Scholars!
 The Goats on the farm are thriving! A second “flush” was completed last week and we are expecting babies from the first round to be born in early December! For those who don’t know, a “flush” is where an impregnated goat is anesthetized and the uterus is physically flushed of fertilized eggs. Those eggs are collected and implanted into “recipient” female goats. As many as 30 fertilized eggs can be collected in one flush allowing one purebred doe to produce a vast quantity of offspring. We are in partnership with local Boer Goat breeders Chris and Marie Anderson who keep their recipient herd here at Homeplace. We just love the life these goats bring to the farm, pun intended! So stop by for a cool weather hike and check out some adorable baby goats in just a few weeks!
If you are interested in learning more about how a flush works, click the "read more" link for more information and images. Please be advised, images depict a medical procedure and may be too graphic for some viewers.
Homeplace on Green River was honored to be a part of these couples' special day and we wish them all every happiness in their lives together! We are taking bookings now for 2023 and 2024! Congratulations to the Happy Couples!
We realized that not only is Homeplace the perfect facility for a homesteading conference, but that these are the very values our local culture is built upon. So when we had the opportunity to partner with the wonderful Homestead Preparedness Network, we felt like it was a match made in Heaven. Thus, the Heartland Homesteading Conference was born!  This three-day family-friendly conference was from September 16th to the 18th. Attendants could come for one, two, or all three of the days and had the option of camping right on the grounds so they could mingle and build new friendships. We had guest speakers from 7 different states. They did demonstrations and spoke on all these incredible topics:
 Homeplace on Green River is Proud to have found a new Partner with The Homestead Preparedness Network, now called the Mutual Assistance Group Network, to organize and host Central Kentucky's Homesteading Conference. Homeplace and the M.A.G. Network share a mission to create programming and content which promotes responsible land management and stewardship, best environmentally conscious practices, self-reliance, and foster fellowship and the sharing of knowledge and resources amongst like-minded people interested in the lifestyle of homesteading. Our event was attended by over 200 people and we believe this is just the beginning. We know that the homesteading community, especially amongst the younger generation, is strong and getting stronger. While the movement has been gathering speed for several years, the pandemic most assuredly added fuel to the fire and we feel there has never been a better time to get involved in a big way with homesteading education. The next conference has already been set for September 29th-October 1st of 2023. We can’t wait! Enjoy this slide show of images from the conference! The 14th annual Fall Heritage was September 10th this year. The weather just barely held off for us and it was a lovely day. The threat of rain slightly diminished attendance, but the turnout was steady and everyone had a great time. We were blessed to have the folks from the Liberty Nature Center back after a 3-year Covid-related absence. They brought their raptors which made the experience quite a hoot! The kids from the Taylor County 4-H Livestock Club were absolute rockstars. In addition to bringing their adorable animals to delight the public, they brought kids games, and informational displays, and helped with the horse rides. Thank you 4H! We are so proud to have these amazing young people on the farm. Of course we had our craft and food vendors, and great live music. Folks also enjoyed the kiddie barrel train, hay and wagon rides. All in all it was a great day! Enjoy this slide show of the events of the day!The Heartland Homesteading Conference
By Lyn Stanton & Billy Joe Fudge  July storm rolling across the farm. Dear Friends, Summer is here in all its sweltering glory. The fields are plowed and sown. Schools are out of session, their regular wards turned to lose upon their families and yards. Sidewalks are scorching and making time to visit the lake or the pool is a weekly priority for many. Each evening, the smell of cook-outs glides through the air in our towns, and ice cream just tastes its best this time of year. Farms are busy and bustling with animals enjoying the season’s bounty and the days are filled with never-ending chores. All the heat, the sun, the work, the games, the time with family and friends, all these things make the fabric of life in the summer. There is such wonder and magic to it. But for all the simple joy summer brings, there is much to cause us anxiety and unease these days. Without going into many particulars, we can say 2022 is a year of uncertainty for all of us. High fuel costs, high fertilizer costs, high costs of everything, and drought conditions in Kentucky and much of the surrounding area are contributing to that sense of uncertainty. However, in the true spirit of the American Way, we are plowing forward. And at Homeplace, we are finding ways to provide some relief from economic woes with affordable rental rates, accessible family festivals, and dynamic education programs teaching self-reliance and sustainability, subscribing to that old adage about giving a fish, versus showing how to use a pole. But before we dive into whats to come, let us share with you some highlights from the year so far as we have rounded the halfway marker. We also want to make sure to thank all the great businesses and folks who have helped us this Spring! So let's take a look back to our 2022 Plow Day Spring Festival. After missing our festivals in 2020 because of Covid and a wet 2021 Plow Day, we had an extremely successful event on the last Saturday of April. Thanks should go out to all our event sponsors, demonstrators, our hardworking and devoted board members, vendors, and those that sacrificed their time and energy to stage our many events, including folks who hauled their horses and mules from all over Kentucky and beyond. Enjoy a few snap shots of the day! Spring Plow Day 2022 Slide Show
 Something to look forward to, we received a grant from The Honorable Kentucky Colonels to improve our barns with some bling, some bass, and some heat! We have purchased heaters, a sound system, and a ton of warm twinkle lights to install in our Bank Barn! Starting this fall, our barns will have a permanent sparkle after we wrap the interior poles in the lights and in the bank barn, guests will be able to link a play list from their phone right to the sound system via blue tooth. Plus, as the weather shifts towards winter, we will be able to keep parties going with some high mounted heaters to keep our barn in use for much more of the year. Looking Here at the Homeplace Farm, we have been beating the heat by keeping busy and getting ready for a very busy lineup of fabulous events coming soon for our community and region. Now saddle up your mule, hitch up your britchen' and let’s ride into the future. This summer and early fall are crammed full of family-friendly activities. Our calendar has never been this intense.
On July, 14, our Goat Recipient Program will officially be born (pardon the pun) before our eyes. I know most of you are getting ready to “Google” Goat Recipient Program right about now, so let me explain. Generally speaking, there are two commercial types of goats; milk goats and meat goats. The milk goat males, of course, do not produce milk and are sold for the meat market. Their slender body type usually produces a small and low-quality carcass for the market. Consequently, many milk goat producers are using meat goat bucks to introduce hybrid vigor into their milk goat herds which produce better carcass weight and quality. Goats typically give birth to one, two or three kids (baby goats). However, they will most often produce several more embryos that will fail to develop into fetuses. Producers of valuable meat goat breeding stock such as the Boer breed do not want to waste these valuable embryos. Therefore, they often use surrogates and harvest the extra embryos from their females and implant them into females of other breeds to act as mothers for the high value Boer goat kids. Homeplace is proud and thankful to be partnering with Chris and Marie Anderson of Boerderline Goat Farm of Campbellsville, Ky. There are currently about 40 nanny goats being lodged at Homeplace which will soon become surrogate mothers to Boerderline and other area goat farm embryos. On July 14th we will have an embryologist here on the farm who will spend the entire day flushing does and implanting them into surrogates on the farm. The goats which reside here are not just surrogate mothers, but lovely and delightful little clowns who enjoy their peaceful pasture and visits from people. Soon we will have some feeders installed so that visitors can toss cracked corn and other treats. We welcome you to stop by to see them and us! Upcoming Events
 By Billy Joe Fudge Near the end of the last century, my oldest daughter asked me to perform the marriage blessing and prayer at her reception. This was to be my first foray into the wonderful world of marriage blessings and prayers. Given that lack of experience, I set out immediately to petition the Lord Almighty to send Divine inspiration and soon. Well, as is His nature or should I say His Super Nature, He took what I considered to be an immoderate amount of time in downloading it to me. Thankfully it arrived just in time. You may not be in the market for a marriage blessing and prayer but just in case you are, here are the first four lines of mine. “May your springs be green with renewal, May your summers be cooled by a soft breeze, May your autumns be filled with color and May your winters be warmed by your love for each other”…  Yes, it is March, the first month of spring, and spring is indeed a time of renewal. The first plants to go green in spring are perennials. Perennials have roots that have held sugars and nutrients all winter long while waiting patiently for spring to arrive. Sunlight, warming temperatures, and spring rains trigger the movement of sugar and nutrient ladened liquids from the roots up through the stems of plants that do not suffer winter dieback such as trees. The sap travels to the end of twigs and limbs where the buds and leaf meristems use this super juice to grow new and longer stems, leaves, and flowers. Those perennials that die back such as clovers, grasses, and plants that come back from underground stems and bulbs such as onions, crocuses, etc. will usually respond earlier in the spring than woody-stemmed plants.  In our WINTER 2021 NEWSLETTER I made the following statement or promise. I said, “winter is going to be chocked full of planning and growing the Homeplace on Green River/Kentucky’s Outdoor Classroom brand” and that has certainly been the case. The planning is ongoing with a couple of grants applied for, the appointment of five new energetic, talented and creative board members, and the table is set for hundreds and hundreds of students to attend educational field days this year. Also, the seeds are planted for expanding existing events like our Plow Day Spring Festival on April 30th, the Fall Heritage Festival on September 10th and Family Farm Day on November 5th. Additionally, we are working on other events for the Fall, the likes of which have yet to come to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We are still in planning, but we look forward to sharing the particulars of these when we have them sorted and are ready to unveil our plans.  We have also been increasing our outreach to get the word out about our facility for rentals, and are on track to book more events this year than ever before. Our beautiful and historic campus carries the stories of countless families from our region who have celebrated life’s moments at Homeplace in Green River, and we are so proud to be an integral part of people’s special days. Our rental income supports our operational expenses and our Kentucky’s Outdoor Classroom programming.  So, we have sap already running up the stems of perennials, and seeds are planted in good soil and will soon be germinating and producing for all to see. We are excited. The future of your Homeplace on Green River/Kentucky’s Outdoor Classroom is bright. It is true that it is going to be a busy spring. It is true that we need much help. It is true that you have done much and we thank each and every individual, business, or organization that has invested time and talent, and treasure to assist us in our efforts “to protect and promote rural American culture through the sustainability of agriculture and natural resources, utilizing education, conservation and the economic opportunities of agritourism”.
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