Fall Fever

Here I am. There has been no death or tragedy or anything. We just got busy with end of summer and fall and then we got lazy. But here I am to let you know about a Thanksgiving Miracle. The Miracle of Life!

As you know, we bought our ladies a handsome young man of their very own and were planning on breeding early for kids in February or March. But the goats would not go into heat! Not at all. None of them. And you can't force these things, apparently. We tried lighting candles and reading sexy stories and playing soft music. We had a talk with Millie about the does and the bucks and told her not to be afraid, those feelings, they are natural and normal (she is a young lady and this will be her first experience with a young man). We told Thor to be a bit more assertive and confident (he is a gentle spirit and perhaps a bit too timid for the more experienced mamas). Nothing worked!

We had really all but given up and were talking about buying a bred goat or a freshened goat in the spring. And then today Fanny Mavis started wagging her tail like crazy and pacing around in the area of the buck yard, and when Mike took her over to see Thor she just stood there and got right down to business! Yay! So if she took we should expect her kids around April 24th! Better late than never. She had triplets for us last year and has been our best milk producer. Otherwise we should expect her to go into heat in 21 days. Hopefully Millie and Ruth will follow her good example now. Thor was very proud.

In other news: We dried off the goats early this year. Ruth had a little skin infection on her udder and we just figured we would dry off and maybe go snowshoeing. Mike completed a new coop for the chickens, so now they have proper housing and and are closer to the house. He also finished the barn remodel as well as his shop area, cleaned all the garbage out of there and moved a bunch of crap to the "creepy shack," and is now working on weather proofing the part of the barn that floods in the winter (it's not where the animals live). We planted cover crop over the whole garden and mulched the parts that have overwintering plants. We chopped a bunch of wood so we can be extra cozy. We painted the living room finally and are getting ready to put up binds and buy some furniture. And a ton of other stuff too. Everything is snug and ready for winter. We have a few trips planned and family time. Basically we are all ready for our hibernation with books, movies, friends, video games, baking, and trips. And now that at least one of the goats has bred we can relax for real because everything is done. Winter is our lazy time. Ahhhh . . .

Jars?

Hey guys. We are running super low on jars. We used to have a ton but we are down to about 8 now.  Do you have any? Can you bring them back, please?

Thanks!!

Not Apologizing

Well, it's been two weeks. I fully realize that I am not the super-best blog keeper-upper, bit this is my blog and I will not apologize for the frequency of my posts. So there. The whole point is for friends and family to be able to look here and see what we are doing because for some reason you people are interested. Sometimes there just isn't anything to say is all. And sometimes it just feels like a list of tasks or something. Lately we have been trying not to work so hard or so frantically and to take some of the non-essential projects off the list for now. It's a hobby farm for goodness sake. That said, here are some things we have been up to.

I started planning for the fall/overwintering garden. We would like for this garden to feed us year round. I have some broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, and onions started and they can snuggle in to the garden soon along withs some direct sewn carrots and turnips and a few other veggie friends. Some other greens and things will go into the green house too. Plus we have all sorts of things to come out of the garden in the next month or two. You seriously see the size of some of my humongous winter squashes! I have Hubbard squash that khans got to be edging in on 20 pounds! The moles (and an over-excited Mike, frankly) had gotten to the potatoes, so we pulled those up and got three nice big boxes. I will plant more of those next user I think. And I found some artichokes is the garden this week too! I have always planted in containers and pots and I am astounded by what happens in real live dirt! We also  tilled up all the rows that weren't active and added some compost and are getting ready to tuck in some new seeds to overwinter and some cover crop. I love gardening! And I think next year will be even better.

We are still only getting one egg a day from one of our barred rocks. The other ladies don't seem to get it yet. At some point we will have plenty of eggs, but not today. We are also getting ready to breed the ladies and Thor is getting ready to to his duty. We moved the boys out of the barn too, because they are starting to stink. Right now they are sleeping in this little fenced in area by the house with no real shelter except a big tree. It's fine for now, but they will need real housing come the winter, so Mike one of the sheds from The Shire to what will soon be the Buck Yard. He towed it with the tractor because he is very clever. We will get the fencing done, set up hay and grain feeders, probably paint, and get some nice soft hay in there in the next week or so and then they will live like princes! This will be good for this spring too so we can wether any little boys we have and put them in with the fellas until they get meaty enough to butcher them. The ones we did this wear were still pretty little.

Grace's room is finished enough that she is sleeping in there now and all her clothes and things are in there. She still has her toys and books in the other room and we are dragging our feet a little on buying furniture until we get the door and trim up and such, but it looks really nice and bright and snug. And even more exciting Grace started 4th grade this week! Holy smokes! So we are back to earlier days and a more consistent schedule which really works out better for all of us.

I will try and post a few times this upcoming week and to get some pictures up as well, but history would suggest that it's only somewhat likely that I will do so. Really it's more fun this way because it's like a surprise!

Better Late than Never

Here is the first egg of the farm. It was one (small) bite per Cawley.

Tiny Baby Egg

Resting gently on an egg-pillow