Well, it’s a blustery, cold day here on the farm . . .a great day to stay in, snuggled by the fire reading. Alas, the animals need warm water, hay and grain to produce that health-giving, moisturizing goat milk. So we will bundle, feed/water/milk and install the winter water heaters . . . goats like warm, clean water.
We have a lot less pastured eggs these days . . . I don’t think the ladies are liking this less-than-warm weather. Where we were getting 4 dozen eggs a day – we’re now down to about 9 eggs. We have put a light in the sleeping area for the temporary housing. The hurricane in KY/OH destroyed the tunnel greenhouse where the hens were to over-winter on 2-3 foot of bedding material. We have a lot of work to do in a short time to put up a wooden wall/doorway and seal it from predators – all for those wonderful brown eggs to come.
We got our new chicks from Mount Healthy Hatchery last week and they are in their black rubber 110 gallon fish tanks – converted to brooding areas. We have two set up in the “barn”. Our garage makes a very temperate barn for us until the new one is done in the front area. (We can’t wait to sit in our living room or front porch and watch the goats frolic on the front hill).
We also started the breeding cycle. We had one milking doe sold pending breeding. Well, she decided to change our busy Sunday morning schedule to her own advantage. We will now be getting Daisy to her new home in Grant County soon. . .
We are waiting to breed the rest of the ladies until November. We usually breed closer to October – but our grandkids are coming in April and want to be a part of the miracle of new life. So we’ll breed a little later than usual. We have one lady named Hope that is already bred and will be giving lots of milk by the time the rest of the ladies have their new kids.
We have a new hay storage area and are working on putting another 100 bales in it – thanks Pat! Without his hard, never-ending honey-do list, we couldn’t have the many animals we have.
We also have been attending local craft fairs for the season. We will be introducing whole new areas to the wonder of goat milk products and honey/beeswax products. We try to educate and not just sell products when we go – it’s working. We have a lot of repeat business! Fresh, homemade, local, healthy – we stress all of this when we go.
Have to get to school and making some homemade goat cheeses – we have some requests for some special “presents”. My mom cannot have any cow’s milk products so we ship lots of cheeses to Arizona when it’s cool enough to do so.
Have a blessed day, the Goat Woman
aka Marilyn