Snow

It began sometime around 4 a.m. By 4:30 the ground was covered with a couple of inches. At 9 , we had 4. It has been snowing ever since. I watched the birds feed, they emptied the better part of two feeders today. We counted 38 doves feeding on the ground. I watched a lone coyote wandering the fence line and disappear in the pines. I almost felt sorry for it- but only for a second. It looks like our total will be about 6 inches. I put a large pot of beefy cabbage soup on for lunch and had to go to the garden and rummage under the snow for the cabbage. I located two small heads and though frozen worked just fine in the soup.

The early morning hay feeding revealed no baby goats. Mid day all was still well. I did most of the feeding and let the puppies out to play. They had a wonderful time racing in the snow. The goats were not as happy to have to leave the barn to eat, but decided grain was worth it. In between checking on critters, keeping the fire going and cooking, I worked on a few knitting projects that needed to be finished up. One is a felted beret that was started long ago. The other is a black and red felted hat. Earlier this week I finished a pair of mittens for a sweet little girl, just in time for a fun day in the snow. I also got most of my seed orders completed. My hope is to finish that tomorrow and get them ordered. With the highs this week not getting above freezing until Friday, it looks like I will get lots of unfinished projects completed! I certainly won't be going anywhere.

At last check, still no baby goats but the freezing rain has arrived and already the gates had a glaze. Fingers crossed there will be no damage from the ice and heavy snow coating tree branches. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Preparing For The Storm

Tomorrow's forecast is snow and I was mentally making notes on what needed to be done today to get prepared. As I sat at the kitchen table sipping my second cup of coffee, I glanced out the window to see the livestock guardian pups sitting on the pond. Yes, they were sitting on the pond! I scrambled into my barn boots and sprinted towards the barn all the while calling to them. The pond's edge was frozen enough to hold those 30 lb puppies and thankfully they did not go through. And so the day began....

The next few hours were spent filling hay feeders and water buckets. I also had to do some major rearranging to get the puppies out of the pasture with the pond. They were moved to a safer pasture until the weather warms or until they go to their new homes. The lights had been hung in stalls earlier this week and all the goats that look close will be housed in these stalls for the week. The Nigerian dwarf does are especially close and will be having several day and night checks until delivery. I expect they will both triple this year. The hoses were drained and several loads of firewood hauled to the house. Lastly, since the forecast is calling for snow to change ice later tomorrow, we made a trip to the gas station and filled the cans, just in case we might need the generator. Now all we have to do is wait.

A New Year

And so begins a new year. This is the time I start planning the garden and dream about all the things I would like to accomplish on the farm this year. I don't make resolutions, as such, (Not that I don't need to, I certainly could loose those 10 pounds I have managed to find the last couple of years and who doesn't need to be more organized?) but I do plot and plan the month of January away!
On the list of things to do are order seeds and gather seed starting supplies. It looks like we will have early goat babies this year, so the barn must be cleaned out and lights hung very soon. I STILL haven't finished skirting all the fleeces, grrrr, so that needs to be pushed up the list.We have several inside projects that really need to be done before the spring months call us outside again, like replacing the upstairs toilet that has unceremoniously dumped more than one person on the floor. My studio looks like a bomb went off in it..... and on it goes.
One thing I do plan to do is to chart what we produce here on the farm. I think it would be really cool to see on paper exactly what we produce in a year. I started today, with the harvest of 5 pounds of collards, 1 pound of spinach and 8 eggs ;o)) I am going to post the monthly totals at the side of my blog, so check back and see how we are doing.
Here is to a happy, healthy new year!

A Cow For Christmas

After gifts were exchanged this morning I was handed one more gift in the form of an envelope. Inside several pictures of Jersey cows fell into my lap. I just looked at my husband and he proceeded to tell me that the card was good for "1 cow" and these were 5 he had managed to find. All are bred and due to calve the end of January. Of course I started to sob! Jeez Dad, was the comment from my youngest son, you made her cry!
Soon afterwards the family started arriving and the rest of the day was spent with loved ones. I cooked a breakfast bread for the early arrivals and then we had a large dinner around 4 for the others. Just as we closed the door on the last to leave and collapsed on the couch, it started to snow. It was absolutely lovely and the ground was covered in no time at all. We went for a late night walk. It did not go in the record books as a true white Christmas, because it did not measure an inch at the airport by midnight, but we got 4 inches and it was truly magical. How incredibly blessed can a girl be? A cow for Christmas and a white one at that!

Turkey Cookin' Day

The morning started early~ 4 a.m. It was a cold day and the winds were blowing, making it hard to keep the heat up in the cookers. Finally, we stretched tarps to help block the wind and were able to get things rolling. People started wandering in around 1 and continued throughout the day. The smokers were full of yummy things to eat including the 16 turkeys that were for Doug's employees and some of our close friends. In addition we cooked ribs, chicken, beef roast, deer chili and squirrel. Beans and slaw too. That was just outside! Inside were platters of cookies and a huge array of appetizers. By days' end we had fed somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or so guests. It was so much fun and a good time was had by all!

Winter Has Arrived

Oh yes, it is here. Our temps have been in the low teens and low 30's for the last few days. That means a lot of extra time is needed to be spent taking care of the animals and the garden.
The first thing on our agenda was to try and save the lettuce. I was not willing to let go just yet. We built small hoop houses out of 3 mil plastic and wooden stakes and crossed our fingers. I did not hold out much hope when it dipped to 13*, but to my great surprise this morning it seemed to be fine. We have two more nights before it levels off for a bit and rains. The temps are expected to drop again next week. I picked about a bushel and a half of spinach and lettuce to hold us for the next few days. I have found if I wash and spin the greens really well and place them in a heavy bread bag they will keep at least 2 weeks.
Next was to get the water pipes ready. Heat tapes were plugged up and all buckets were filled. The hoses have to be drained every night.
Every hay trough is filled daily to over flowing, the rabbit cages are stuffed with hay and shallow water dishes put in the cages for ease of dumping ice daily. None of the gravity fed water buckets work in weather like this. Through it all the critters are doing well~ just eating a lot.
The only bright spot in all of this is that I can now draw an easy breath and put parasite patrol on the back burner for the next few months.

Making Soap

It was cold again today. Heavy rains came during the night, so it was wet as well. After early chores were done and a quick farm tour completed. I scurried indoors to find something constructive to do that did not require me to be outside!

Soap supplies are getting a bit low and with the holidays coming up it seemed to be a good day to make soap. So, I turned on some Christmas music and got to work; 3 hours later, I had turned out 7 batches of goat milk soap. Some were old favorites~ rosemary/tea tree and a cucumber/ melon. I did a trial run on a sweet orange/ lavender combo and a special order for a young girl with skin issues. That one contained patchouli, myrrh and tea tree oils along with dead sea salts. Fingers crossed it will turn out well for her.

Once done, I cleaned up the mess and headed out to finish afternoon chores. I discovered one of the lambs had a run in with something that peeled his side open. It looked like a tear from wire, though I could not find where it happened. A very nasty gash that could probably use some stitches but being that he is most likely freezer bound I decided to do the vetting myself. He is in a stall with dry hay and his wound dressed.( It really seemed to bother me more than him.) I also had to free a goat that decided the grass was greener, and had her head stuck in the fence. My last chore on the list was to get a stinky goat smelling rag. Okay, let me explain. I had a sweet little girl bring her Nigerian goat over to be bred. Not sure if the little goat is pregnant, having keep her through 2 cycles and being that the little girl was distraught about leaving her goat any longer, I told her I would supply a stinky goat rag in a jar for her to let her little goat sniff when she is due to cycle again. Now I am not sure how this will work, though I have been told it does. I'll let you know...