There’s this funny paradox I’ve noticed – when the weather is bad, or there’s anything to do involving a pitchfork and manure, people seem to think we’re hardcore weirdos with a fanatical agriculture hobby….but when it comes to just-ripped-from-the-ground vibrant produce and grassfed steak for dinner every night, then we’re suddenly privileged,…
Category: Homesteading
Milking By Hand
A few days ago, Matilda’s calf was born – it was a beautiful all-Jersey bull calf, leaving no doubt that the Jersey bull Sampson did his job while our Devon/Jersey bull Explorer was off visiting another farm. I have missed the rhythmic, grounding routine of milking. Each day I walk up to the pasture,…
Barley And His Wives
This year turned out to be “The Year of the Rooster”. It had nothing to do with the Chinese zodiac, mind you. It was because everyone unloaded roosters on us. One day a neighbor showed up, shortly after the incident that led to the goats being jailed indefinitely behind permanent fencing (the neighbor to the…
Piglets and Puppies
Last week we brought all the piglets to their new home at Full Circle Farm. They were able to duck under the electric fence, and had been becoming more and more of a nuisance. It was cute having them drift around like a group of little spotty sausages, but they would get into…
You’ve Got To Be Kidding….
The baby goats are two months old now – time to be weaned! On Saturday we spent hours rounding them up. We are putting them in the orchard, as it hasn’t been grazed in ages, and could use a trim. Besides, they can all slip through the weaning paddock gate this year. When…
Meet The Goats
We were reading a book that was a childhood favorite of mine – Our Animal Friends At Maple Hill Farm, and it occurred to me that I am always writing about our many animals that to us are familiar and almost like extended family, but that it must seem confusing to anyone who hasn’t followed…
Eight Little Piggies
Star had piglets! Eight little piggies! They are up and running around now, and there are the cutest little squeaks and grunts coming from that area. Occasionally there are horrible squealings when the favorite nipple is being fought over (we thought one was stuck in the fence or getting stepped on, but it was only…
Public Nuisance
David, our buck, has been such a nuisance lately. He’s waited for months until his girls were no longer pregnant, and now he is in rut again, although no one will be in heat until the fall, and they run away from him (you can’t blame them). He’s started to pee on himself and…
Three Sets Of Twins
June Bug’s twins – Oberon and Cobweb Mustardseed curled up under my hat! Firefly’s twins – Puck and Peaseblossom On Sunday we came out and found that Cricket also had kidded. We weren’t sure exactly when she was due, because we saw her bred twice, so it was a surprise….and also another…
Puddles Of Goats
There are now five baby goats! That means baby goats sleeping together and playing together in puddles all over the place. Twilight Sparkle and June Bug had their babies, and June Bug had twins again. Sparky’s baby is huge….I had thought she might have twins, but it was just one…
Beyond Words
The summer rains have begun, the regular drenching each evening that turns the pastures into emerald green swards of luscious grass. It’s been so many months since I have really been rained on, I had almost forgotten the warm-but-wet-to-the skin feeling. I was stuck in a good, drenching rain over the weekend, one of those…
Born Before A Storm
Last Friday I noticed April bleating now and then while I was milking Matilda. This isn’t unusual – often the goats will stand around and bleat piteously at me in hopes that I will realize how sad and deprived they are and move the entire container of milking ration over for them to gobble up. …
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 