Thinking summery thoughts

This is a picture of our sunflower field last summer,Just looking at it will warm you up.Managed to get a few hours off to see the grandkids and their new puppy Buster. Rescued from the animal shelter, Buster has had a few health problems, but those 2 kids love him anyway.And he is a lucky dog.Hate to tell them, but that dog is going to be a big house dog, looks to have some bulldog in him.Met some future goat farmers yesterday, nice folks, and they are wanting to get chickens,I give a free rooster with all goat purchases. Smart huh.

Relentless

The cold rain only let up for a short while but I managed to get everyone their grain and hay, moved a few goats around to give them more room.Trinket a tiny doe kid born last spring was shivering, I forgot to close the barn windows and the rain blew in, after bedding them down with fresh straw. Who knew we would get howling winds all night. Penned her up with her mom and twin, she was fine after eating breakfast.She's never had any problems, just tiny and cute.Severe weather is stressful for goats.Sheep just back up to the wind and rain. It's stressful for me too, worrying about everyone's safety.Thankfuly, no one was kidding or lambing.When we had the Great Georgia Blizzard it was a disaster, lambs and kids were being born, most of them ended up by the wood stove for a few hours, there was at least 4 kids and 2 lambs in an old handmade cabinet, they really enjoyed snuggling up to each other.The does and ewes were so shocked they didn't fuss alot when I took them away, but were glad to see their babies returned.

Persnickety Hen

This young hen hatched 12 chicks around Christmas day and will not let anything get near them.I'm sure most of them are annoying roosters.I have been trying to get a picture of them from day one and this is as close as I can get.Terrible weather today,so I am waiting for the rain and wind to slow down before I head out. I see one of the buck kids munching on wet hay, it's going to be a tough day.Made more blackberry jam last night, real jam,just blackberry pulp and sugar. I used to make real jam many years ago, then I found a product called pectin, in a box. Pectin is a success everytime,but where's the challenge? It's like knitting with store bought yarn. And here's my problem with store bought stuff, I never have that stuff when I need it. So, I'm back to making real jam with no added preservatives or 2 page long ingredients that I can't identify. Just plain and simple with a little more time involved. So there it is, I found some of that time I have been looking for.

Miracle warming up

Took a chance and sheared Miracle a couple of weeks ago. She is a young doe in extra good shape with a ton of hair. You can tell when a fleece is beginning to drag a goat down, they usually get sluggish and spend a lot of time scratching, so off it came.Miracle was a bottle baby and will always be my pet.Annoying most of the time, escaping out an unlatched gate, knocking over a bucket of feed sitting on a fence post, under my feet when I am trying to feed.If you shear in cold weather the animal must be in good condition and fed well with good rain free shelter, bedded down with a thick layer of straw.I am waiting on a warm spell to shear the sheep. Sheep can take the cold better than the goats, most sheep, including mine, have a layer of fat, fat animals can stand the cold better than skinny.

Early?

The hard freeze killed all but a small patch of lettuce, so when we had a warm day last week I cleaned out the old bed and planted it with winter radish and lettuce mix.Covered it with plastic to help warm the soil,hopefully enough to germinate the seeds.Raised beds are great for winter gardening, with all the rain we have had who knows when we will be able to get over the garden with a tractor.Did the grounghog see his shadow? We had no sun here yesterday, so if the grounhog that lives down on the creek came out, I know he did not see his shadow.I'm ready for spring.

Breaking through

The sun was trying to break through the clouds after a night of cold rain.Goats do not go out in cold rain, so these does were looking for breakfast. There is still some grass to graze and I had dropped out hay earlier in the morning, they are headed back to the barn for a bite of grain.The cold winter weather has made it hard to work outside so I have done some inside cleaning and throwing away.Have you ever known an old woman that rinses out every glass jar, saves every newspaper, milk jug, feed bag? Not to mention 3 barns full of wool and mohair fleeces. It's hard for me to let go of things.So I am taking some time off from going to so many shows and breeding so many sheep and goats, to get organized and just throw away.And to rest and enjoy the simple things like the seasons, not to just endure them and wait for them to pass.I have to make some changes so that I have that time again.

Sassparilla

Still a pretty doe at 10 years old, Sassparilla's hair makes the silkiest yarn for shawls.This will probably be her last kidding, we'll see.Yesterday was cold and sunny, real nice day.Spent the weekend cleaning  up after the plumbers,carpenters and electricians, what a mess, must have washed 20 loads of clothes and vaccumed up 20 pounds of dust and dirt. Hopefully this will be the last week of repairs and this work will last another 30 plus years.Cooked a big dinner of ribs,green beans,corn,slaw,sweet tea and chocolate cake for the kids and grand kids yesterday, then we took a 2 mile hike, I was dead and headed for my chair about 5.Dinner is at 12 noon, supper is the evening meal served shortly after dark.This is a working farm and our lives and meals revolve around the seasons, I never have a watch on but I can tell you the time of day within a few minutes.In late November my body starts getting sluggish with the shortness of daylight but a few days after Christmas I slowly start back up and when the first few warm days roll around I am ready to go day and night.