I was hopeful back in March. The goats were about to kid, the chicks were going to arrive, and green grass had to be right around the corner. I thought I was past the worst when Nellie kidded in mid-March when it was only 17 degrees outside. (The quads were fine thanks to the quick […]
It’s the muddiest time of the year–of course, this is exacerbated by ducks who must play in any melting snow, flinging dirty water far and wide. They noisily waddle about, stopping only to splash and preen. On the upside, they have finally started laying–soon I should have more eggs than I can handle! Nellie is […]
We had our first measurable snowfall last night, and I got a real kick out of seeing duck tracks in the snow…but I’m already waiting for spring! We successfully winterized my bees two weeks ago. We made them a candy board since their honey stores were low, and got them wrapped and mouse-protected. Now I […]
With the pigs safely to the butcher, I’m now left with a pretty small animal population–a flock of laying hens, a flock of ducks, a pair of goats, and a few cats (including two adorable kittens looking for a new home). Now that things are quiet, I’ve been trying to get on top of my […]
All of the meat birds are now safely tucked away in the freezer. Throughout the month of July we worked on perfecting our technique and process, and eventually got the whole gig smoothed out. We are quite happy with the way they turned out; we butchered between 9 and 12 weeks (with the last straggling […]
The kids are successfully moved to their new home, and I’ve taken up milking twice a day. I now have enough milk to make cheese, and have discovered that I can have some pretty tasty mozzarella and ricotta out of this deal. The neufchatel turned out to tangy…or maybe goaty…to be good, but the others […]
It’s been a very busy month as I’ve wrapped up the school year. Now that summer vacation is finally here, I have a chance to recount the highlights of our progress (or lack of it): 1. I’m getting better at milking the goats. They are getting better at tolerating it. I finally gave them a […]
With all of the critters here, it’s definitely busy–but also fun. Morning chores are taking longer than I expected, and I can’t say that Nellie and Casey are fond of the milking process (neither am I!), but we’re getting the swing of things. Nellie likes to kick, and as soon as Casey runs out of […]
Casey kidded just two days after Nellie, and had one monster buckling. He is outgrowing Nellie’s kids by leaps and bounds. Speaking of which, all the babies are starting to practice their leaps and bounds, and are pretty darn cute. They’ve finally decided to start sneaking through the fence, so we’ll have to make adjustments […]
Two weeks ago I picked up my package of bees. As we were heading out of town the following day, I had to install them before I had a chance to observe how it was “properly” done–I missed my beekeeping field day. After waiting one week to check them (this is standard), I could see […]