Submitted by Derby Sale, UF/IFAS Extension Suwannee County

At just 8 years old, Macie Carnahan is helping her family with raising rabbits, chickens, and dogs; growing cucumbers, squash, and lettuce; and breeding and butchering show pigs. In this past year, she has shown two pigs through Suwannee County 4-H. Her most recent show pig was special due to when she was born, in Macie’s words:

“My pig’s name is Irma. I raised her from a baby. Her mom’s name is Kelly. Kelly was due to have babies during the hurricane. That’s why her name is Irma. Irma is a nice pig. She likes to go on walks with me. We weigh her every Saturday. We give her Pop Tarts as a treat for getting on the scale. She loves the brown sugar ones. I love Irma a lot. I will be sad when I sell her.”

Farming and agriculture is definitely a strong component to Macie’s life. For her birthday this past year, she made sure to have BLT sandwiches with lettuce right out of her family’s garden.

The craziest thing that has happened to Macie while on the farm was one time when she went to feed her chickens. When she entered the chicken coop, she did not think there were chickens around. Then she opened up the feed container and a chicken popped out right in her face!

Macie’s most prominent farm chore is to feed all the animals each day. The hardest thing about working with all these animals is lifting up the feedbags to pour into the feeders. She cannot wait until she is strong enough to do it all on her own, but for now she gets help from her parents and siblings. When asked about her favorite thing about life on a farm, Macie said that she loves getting to take care of the baby animals.

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