What's Happening

Hello Everybody, Frank here.

Last week we had an exceptional amount of snow and ice for this area. This week we’ve had rain just about every day. But the good news is, next week, we have a day and a half that is forecast to be partly sunny. Then the weather forecast shows us going back into another rainy period for the foreseeable future. 

Needless to say the garden has not been worked, and it will probably will not be worked for at least two weeks. We had planned on having seedlings in the ground a week or so back. Things like cabbage, broccoli, cole type crops. But that’s just not going to happen any time in the immediate future. Where I’m going with this line of thought, is that outside of planning and getting a varied assortment of seeds up to the sprout and seedling stage, there’s just not much happening in the garden.

Our baby goats are doing good, they’re out grazing with the big girls now. They’re eating grain and seem to enjoy it greatly. For the most part we don’t have to chase them down to go into the pen at night any more. I think the grain has a lot to do with that. 
 

We’re getting about three quarts of milk a day, from only milking once a day right now. With the babies penned up overnight, we take all of the available milk before they get their breakfast. 

Our three first fresheners are coming along well. We’re expecting their babies around April 2nd. That will also be about the same time that we wean the current batch of babies. So, that’s the update for the goats.

Our chickens are doing good for the most part. We need to get rid of a couple of roosters. There is a good chance one of them may grace us at our dinner table tomorrow night. We’re still not getting the egg production we want. We have 19 hens, and we’re probably getting on average about 12 eggs a day. That’s just not quite enough for our needs. But we are giving thought to what we’re going to hatch around June 1st, so we can start that 6, 12, 18 month cycle. This will provide us with friers and replacement hens for the flock. So, that cycle continues also. I just wish we were getting more eggs. You see we feed the eggs to not only us, but to the dog and the cats.

The kittens are healthy and it’s about time to get them spayed and neutered. And it’s also time to ban the little boy goats. You probably remember them as Breakfast and Lunch.

We’ve been working on getting our garage cleaned out and organized. It just seems like every time you clear out an empty space, there is always something to take it’s place.

We tried some fermented cabbage the other day, and we’ve been having a couple of bites of it each day for the last two or three days. For us it is definitely, let me say that again, definitely, an acquired taste. So, we’ll have to wait and see how the fermented cabbage works out.

There’s not much going on around the farm except everyday business as usual stuff. Our taxes are completed for the year. We have plans to butcher a couple of our older wethers, and tomorrow we’re going to make some fresh pressed herb cheese. Or, we could go out in the garden and make mud angels. Now wouldn’t that be fun? I’ve only put to or three loads of goat and chicken manure on the garden this year. Nah, we’re not going to be making any mud angels. That’s a tad bit immature. How about if we make mud pies and give them to our neighbors? Nah, because then they would expect pies every year. Well, as you can tell, things are a little slow around here right now. Hope you’re having a good day. Take care. Bye-bye.

We’ll talk more later, Frank
  Visit Thoughts From Frank and Fern at http://thoughtsfromfrankandfern.blogspot.com/