Around The Homestead

Last month focused almost solely on baby goats and Dan’s hand, with the exception of my last post which showed you our recent progress on the goat barn. What else is happening around the homestead? Actually not much. Even though February finally brought us mild temperatures, it also brought a lot of rain which means it’s been very wet and muddy. Still, here’s a look around at what’s going on.

Spring Color

Spring flowers are blooming everywhere!

Canning

Soggy weather isn’t good for working outside, but it is a good time to catch up on some canning. I grabbed a cushaw from the pantry and made seven pints of pumpkin butter and one pumpkin pie.
 

I made jam from my frozen figs and a bag of fresh cranberries I bought on clearance after Thanksgiving (happily, cranberries store well). The combo could pass for strawberry jam!

Color, texture, and flavor are very similar.

Garden

It’s too wet to work in the garden and there isn’t much left to harvest. I lost most of my winter garden because of the severe cold, except for the cabbage-collards.

The temperatures have been so warm, however, that now it’s starting to bolt! It’s still very tasty though.

Foraging

Chickweed is everywhere. We eat it in salads and I feed it to the chickens and goats.

Also I dry it for the goats’ vitamin and mineral mix and for chickweed oil for salve.

Winter Wheat

I have to say eating our own homegrown whole wheat this past year has been a real treat. We plant it in the fall and growth slows during the cold. With warm weather again it’s growing.

It should be ready to harvest in June.

Pasture

We had such a cold winter that we didn’t have much in the way of winter grazing for the goats. Everything remained dormant until the tail end of February, and then started to grow. I’ve been taking advantage of mild days to do some spot seeding with my modified Fukuoka planting method. When the days are warm, it starts to grow in a hurry!

In order for the pasture to grow I have to keep the chickens away or they will devour the seed. So we’ve been keeping them in the chicken yard and experimenting with grazing beds.

The chickens love it so we think it’s a great idea. Hoping to add one new bed per week for awhile.

Big Duck

Big Duck was our Muscovy drake. One day I shooed him out of a newly planted area of the pasture and went into the barn. A few minutes later I came out and saw him lying on the ground. I went over to see what was going on and he was dead! I couldn’t believe it. Gone. I went to find Dan and we decided on another three-handed project, harvesting at least the breast meat and legs. So even though we are now without a drake, at least his death wasn’t a waste.

Baby Goats

Getting photos of nine baby goats is no simple task! Here are four out of the nine.

Parting Shots

And Riley? Riley is too dignified to take a turn at anything the other cats do. He’s on equal terms with the humans, after all, and far too superior to stoop to ordinary cat level.