I can't believe its been 6 months since I last posted. The year for us been a whirlwind. Time has flown faster than usual we feel. Maybe we are just getting older!
It was a tough year on the homestead. Severe drought was hard on the gardens and livestock as was the wildlife. We lost all of the ducks to foxes along with a lamb. Squirrels wiped out the berry crops, tomatoes and 11 rows of corn 3 times.Very little of the summer garden was preserved, most all was consumed as it came along not that we really got much. We finally threw up our hands and plowed up everything and waited for a good window for our fall garden. We waited for rain. And waited and waited. Finally we decided to go ahead and plant lest it get too late. Remarkably things did germinate but was very slow to grow. What did grow, about a third of that fell victim to our own chickens! We are just now starting to harvest turnips. The greens are producing and we have managed to save the lettuce under several layers of row cover even though the temps have dipped into the upper teens.

Our website was messed up until November we missed many emails due to that. Again if you tried to contact us I deeply apologize. I think we are back on track. However, apparently when I originally filled all of the info I somehow purchased a shopping cart for our site. Opps. So since I  have to have it for a year we will try and get that up and running in a few weeks. Ha! You will be able to purchase a sheep or goat using Pay Pal. 😊

Due to a fence break that was slow to be repaired we have had a bumper crop baby goats that started arriving on the coldest night (18*) thus far this year. Of course that would be the way. Why would any sane goat give birth the day before when it was in the 50's. 9 kids are bouncing around in the barn, 7 full blooded Nubians and a set of twin Nubian/Alpine crosses, 6 does and 3 bucks. I will post pics soon.

Yesterday was our annual company Christmas pig pickin' held here on the homestead. Lots of good food, friend and family were in attendance. Hard to believe Christmas is a week away and a new year will begin. Plenty of other news and happenings have gone on in the last 6 months. I will be catching you up over the next couple of weeks!