Welcome

Well, here I am. Never thought that I'd get dragged into the 21st century technology as a blogger. A website yes - but blogging no. Nevertheless.....
A friend recently asked me what I had been up to - and my old standby reply leapt out, "not much". I guess that I should probably have more to say than that..... so here goes:

My name is Shannon Mayfield. I'm a happily married 30 year old female living on the outskirts of Pendleton, Or. (in the Mission area, to be exact). My husband and I have a little 5 acre farm that we raise poultry, livestock, and vegetables on. It's a lot of work keeping a farm up and operating smoothly, but it's a very rewarding venture as well. Craig, (my husband) owns and operates the local Harley aftermarket motorcycle shop in town, where he spends most of his time being very busy. Our business in Pendleton is not a big dealership operation by any stretch, but it's a nice cozy little laid-back place for the local bike riders to get their machines worked on. (I'll have more to say about the business later on.)

Our farm currently consists of: 8 horses, 1 pony, 2 cows, 225 chickens, 6 turkeys, 9 pigeons, 4 grey partridge, 1 goat, 3 sheep, 4 barn cats, 2 beagles, and 2 indoor housecats. As you've probably guessed, this is enough to keep me buried in work each day. If I'm not feeding something, I'm generally cleaning something up around here. Our farm is quaint and peaceful for the most part, except for when the roosters begin crowing in the morning. Then it gets a little bit loud for an hour or two. We have two small vegetable gardens, and some "bird and bee" flower garden areas around here as well.

Four of our horses are youngsters and need saddle training/breaking, which I will post about later on. My current endurance horse will get discussed later, as well as the rest of the four legged equine troop. Our sheep project is a fledgling operation that I've just begun to build upon - and it's been a lot of fun so far. Our little chicken hatchery is in a constant state of experimentation with me at the helm as well. I'm always looking to improve certain strains of exotic fowl to the best of my abilities. There are a few different breeds of birds that we have that are on the critically endangered list, and are very rare on American soil. I will post more about those later on, too.

My parents and grandparents live a short distance away in Helix, OR. I was raised there in a small town of roughly 150 inhabitants. I went through every grade in the same big long school building. My parents have a farm there too, and that is where I attained my two 4-H cows that are still alive and well today. (The cows are roughly 25 years old now, and I've pampered them shamelessly over the years).

As well as having a farm with lots of animals, I'm an avid painter and sculptor in the model horse hobby. It's a good little tight-knit community and more lucerative than what most people think it would be. Most of my mentors in the hobby are bio-mechanical whizzes who have gone onto sculpting gorgeous bronzes for art galleries and institutions nationwide. I feel very humbled and incredibly blessed to learn from such great artists. I will post more about that later too.

Well, I think that's probably about it for now. Until next time.... =:)
-Shannon.