New Year, New Month, New Hopes

It's been a month and here I am sitting by the wood stove staying warm after a ten degree low temp this morning, and a high in the mid 20s.  Being winter, there isn't much change in the day to day events, but the dreams of spring become more frequent when the weather gets so cold your fingers freeze after only 5 minutes of chores: with insulated gloves on.

I finally got those rogue chickens caught and put in a cage.  It is pretty redneck with three colored tarps, but I am sure they appreciate the wind break and a slightly warmer temp than outside. 

Our sheep processing day was postponed and will now be on the 31st.  In addition to the sheep, it was decided that our goat who has not been able to get pregnant for over two years, will be processed as well.  Nine times out of ten, these cases can not be changed, and it is time to cut our losses and move on.  

I was able to sell my two bottle babies to a lovely family an hour away, and I know they will do well there.  S'mores has been renamed, Lilli, and Kiwi was renamed Luna.  Beautiful names, for such beautiful little doelings.  

With our does being first fresheners, it was decided the milk we were getting just wasn't worth milking.  It was a huge disappointment for me since I look forward to that fresh milk each time.  Meanwhile, I was left with a lot of grain and alfalfa that had to go somewhere, so all the goats were partaking.  And when you give a goat some grain; they'll want it every single day. It gets pretty loud out there in the morning.  

It's hard to believe that most of those goat kids are six weeks old already.  Two more weeks and Prince Doodlebug will be castrated, unless I can find a new home for him.  

We have been making plans to take a trip out to Tennessee for our Passover celebration in April.  With our second tithes, we have been able to set aside enough to stay a few days.  However, we should be able to set aside enough between now and then to set aside enough for the whole week of Sukkot come fall.  These plans got me to thinking about making some better choices around the homestead regarding when animals are bred and when they kid.  

So, after doing calculations on my handy-dandy gestation calendar, it was determined that we need to breed goats after May 27 in order to have kids after sukkot.  And we need to breed after November 20th in order to have goats kid after Passover next year.  From this point on, I will make sure I look at the calendar and plan each breeding and kidding season according to this calendar to eliminate extra work for any farm sitters we may have.  

We decided that we would be starting new with pure breed Buff Orpington hens and roosters.  They will be shipped in March.  So we have a boat load of "mutt'' chickens, and old meat birds to get rid of.  Having these pure-breed, dual-purpose birds will leave us the ability to breed for our own hens in the future when it is time to replace our older hens.  

I harvested all the carrots, cabbage, and broccoli from the garden, and while it wasn't much, the meals made with it were delicious.  There is something about eating food you grew; it tastes so much better. With that in mind, it seems so hard to believe that it is already ten weeks until our last frost date.  This means I will start putting seeds under a grow light to give me a head start on the growing season.  I don't normally do this, but last year I told myself that it certainly doesn't hurt to put a seed in a pot and plant a small plant when I would normally plant a seed.  

Several months ago, I purchased four more raised beds.  Those will need to be assembled and ready for more compost come spring.  I plan to grow potatoes in buckets rather than the ground this year.  It is my hope that will help out with all those rogue "baby" potatoes we miss and end up with a whole mess of potato plants growing in a bed of weeds. 

And how can I forget to share pictures of the zebu and our little zebu calf?