Well, Well It's Been Awhile (Part 3)

 December 2020

This month was trying and exhausting. 

The first week of December was cold. On the first frigid Sunday morning my mom looked out to see her huge 200 pound alpine buck down. She proceeded to go see what was going on and decided to try and get him up. Bad idea. He flipped her in the air and she rolled down the frozen incline. She was hurt badly. My sister helped with her Dr appointments while I tended her animals. It turned out he had Thiamine deficiency and within 24 hours of treatment was back to normal. Mom not so much. Though nothing was broken she had hurt her back and was in horrible pain. In addition to that one of her old does had triplets and something went really wrong. Before I could get the vet out we lost her and all her babies. A heartbreaking way to start off the month. Over the next few weeks sis and I were at their house multiple times a day checking in and helping where we could. Towards the end of the month their old dog went into kidney failure. She was still alert and doing ok but needed extra fluids so for a couple of weeks I would go up and give her sub q iv fluids until they could make the difficult decision to let her go. It was such a hard time for them as well as us. Thankfully my parents live next door!

Meanwhile back on the homestead...

We had 6 baby goats born over the course of the month. All are happy and healthy.

The boys shot 3 deer. Sis and I cut them up and put them in the freezer. I canned bone broth several times over the month!

We realized early this month the old Bradford pear was blocking a huge amount to light from the tunnels so it had to go. 

 We were determined to finish the tunnels this month. Ta-Da! and we did. 

The end. Well almost :-)

We opted not to have a large party this year. It just didn't seem right. Not to mention we were mentally and physically drained. We did celebrate Christmas with our family that lives here on the "compound".

It was quieter than usual but that was ok too. We are blessed to have had this time together. It has been a long year. A strange year. A year to remember and at times one we would love to forget! Goodbye 2020.

Well, Well It's Been Awhile (Part 2)

 And so we continue..

November 2020

I spent a huge amount of time on the road  the last 8 weeks working Ludovic and trying to get him ready for our trial that was on the 21st of this month. We thought we were ready until he decided the 4 gunshots during the obedience routine were just a little much. Sigh. We did get his TR 1 title for tracking.

Maybe next year!

I had the opportunity to purchase another dairy cow that was newly freshened. In keeping with our V names I call her VaRona... Sorry couldn't help myself!

We were back in milk! 

We added 3 Large Black Hogs to the homestead. 2 barrows destined for the freezer and a gilt to cross with our Kune Kune boar. 

November was another extremely wet month. We had a couple of torrential storms that left us with a lot of water damage.

And yes we continued to work on the high tunnels! 

The sitting area was completed and the hoops were erected on the first house.

Well, Well It's Been A While! (Part 1)

 Once again I can't believe how time flies! We have had some ups and downs since my last post . Where do I start? 

Let's see...

September 2020

The day after my last post was a very sad one. Our beekeeping society was rocked by the tragic loss of a true "Queen" in the beekeeping world. Her vast knowledge and love of bees was  unparalleled.  

It is a tradition that bees should be told of important events in the lives of their keepers. So my bees were told and then I draped the hives in black and lit a candle in her memory.

We mowed our Fall cut of hay and had part of it round baled for the cows.  The rest were square baled and put in the barn loft.

Work continued on the high tunnels. I went ahead and planted seeds even though they weren't complete.

Lettuce and several varieties of greens were planted in small blocks.

Of course I had to keep it fenced off to keep the chickens from helping themselves to the salad bar!

October 2020

We continued working on the high tunnels. It was slow progress since we were only able to squeeze in a few hours each weekend!

The first tunnel is going to be on the cutesy side with a small sitting area and a walkway with stone pavers. A warm quiet place to hang out and peruse seed catalogs when it's cold and nasty outside!

We also leased a bull to get our 2 dairy cows bred. He was a very handsome black angus. I called him Romeo!

The summer garden was winding down but I still had tons of peppers to freeze and preserve.