The coriander in the garden has all gone to seed. Some years I will be so busy with things, I leave it to moulder and keel back over into the earth. This year I noticed it, drying beside the calendula, and pulled some of the stalks. It was difficult to pick the seeds off the…
Category: Homesteading
A "Real" Milk Cow
Geranium waiting to charge in and be milked (note the crazy gleam in her eye) We are always talking about whether or not Geranium is a “real” milk cow. Our Jersey, Matilda, usually walks in demurely, swishing her tail in an easy-going, coy way, and starts eating. She is easy to milk and makes it…
Chameleon Butter
Almost as soon as Explorer came back to us from the farm where he was breeding more cows, the grass was ready to graze for the first time. Several cold fronts had showered us with rain, and the warm weather that came afterwards made the grass wake up, shake itself, and start to grow. We…
Clo and Belle
Car trouble marred most of yesterday – it seems like whenever we have savings, the car breaks, and the repairs always magically cost exactly how much we have. It’s more of a broken car fund than a savings account! I remember reading an article in ACRES USA magazine years and years ago about all…
Fruitful
Despite our years of neglect, the orchard seems to be having a good year so far. The early blueberries are just beginning to turn purplish. No one can wait until they are properly blue. The girls go through every day and pick every one that even thinks about turning color, and offer up a handful…
Crazy Goats, and the dangers of being too close
David has had his work cut out for him lately – three of the girls went into heat in quick succession. Little April was the first to cycle. Her dad’s African Pygmy genes came out in her, so she is very short compared to David. It would have been comic if goat foreplay didn’t look…
Alive
Yesterday we got out to the farm and all the cows came running over and shouted at us. They had hardly touched their hay, but they looked thin. We couldn’t figure out why at first. Just before I got Matilda for milking, Ethan discovered someone had tripped over the water hose and yanked it so…
Working on Dreams
We have so many plans and dreams this year. Things that will make our life so much easier, and solve so many little, nagging problems. Last year I struggled to figure out solutions. This year I know what I want, but we haven’t been able to make it happen yet – which I find almost…
News From Explorer and Milking Matilda Again
It’s been a week since Explorer left, and we got some news that he’s been some trouble. Apparently when he got off the trailer he did a lot of snorting and bucking around (the trailer really pissed him off), but he calmed down after a little while. And instead of getting down to business and…
Explorer Off
Sampson and Nutty, the two biggest bulls now, spar to see who’s the biggest Some big changes have happened recently – we lost Night Hawk, we got a new buck (he’s even stinkier than before – the girls are still not going for it), and our big bull Explorer went off to a new farm…
Biggest Billy Goat Gruff
On Thursday we went to see the buck. He’s big, beautiful, and very friendly. The family who raised him is having to move, and they are very sad to say goodbye to him. He’s also extremely smelly – just how a buck should be. When we got him to the farm, we first…
Not a Quiet Day
Friday was NOT a quiet day, after all. It turned out to be a constant-fun type of day. I’m not even sure what I was thinking writing that. I hardly got to knit very much, and it stopped raining. We had friends we hadn’t seen for awhile come over in the morning, and overlap with…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 