And the Times...Well, They Are A Changin'

Hey there, folks.

I know, I know. It's waaaay to early for another post from me. And yet...


So we are in the full swing of autumn at the farm. And that means shearing goats. Which also means a lot of bodily pain for me, stretching those muscles that only get used twice a year.

But! I'm almost done. I only have one medium sized goat and two little goats to go. Although, we are going to try to sell the little goats so, hopefully, that will be someone else's problem. I mean, gain. Did I say problem? No. I didn't. Someone else's gain, what with that silky kid fleece and all.

Anyway...

I sheared our buck and the two bigger does, one of those being the new one that came home with us when we went to a wedding in West Virginia. Usually you just win the center piece as a door prize but, I'll tell ya, those West Virginia folks really know how to do a wedding door prize right!

Ok, it wasn't a door prize. Picking up the goat just happened to coincide with the event.

So, this is our new gal, Milan. She came with that name.



Note all the hair. I cut that off. With scissors. Because the electric shearing thing? Still apparently costs money.

In other exciting farm news...

We have peeps! Again!

Just a few days ago another one of our chickens showed up with three peeps. I thought it would be a bit late in the year for that sort of thing but that just goes to show I don't know diddly squat about the having and raising of peeps.



The hen, however, does.

Here's hubby introducing the peeps to Fen.



Fen wasn't quite sure what to make of the peeps at first and would just kind of look at them and then look at us all worried like. But now he has kind of decided the peeps are his and chases the other chickens away if they start gettin' up in the peeps' bidness.

Word.

And what discussion on the cycle of life would be complete without the mention of breeding goats. Yes, it's that time of year again. The time when the boy goats pee on their bad selves, stinkin' it up for the ladies. And the gals are all "Ooooooo, you smell soooo baaaaaaa-aaaa-aaad."

Actually, they don't stink all that bad. Just a little more goaty then normal.

Since we don't have enough actual pens to separate everyone into their assigned harems, I take the two little boys out of their pens on days when I am home and put the lucky boys and girls together in there for conjugal visits. Then at night, they all exchange numbers and the buck promises to call the does - but it never happens - and they all go back to their respective pens. I'm hoping within the next week to finish one of the new pens so I can just stick them in together and leave them there.

Autumn also brings with it harvest time. Not that I have a whole lot to harvest. I planted some tomato plants in a very poor attempt at a garden this year but... Well, it was sort of neglected. I mean, I got tomatoes and everything, but I didn't have enough cages for all the plants and a lot of them just flopped over from sheer exhaustion. I did get an awesome pot of sauce out of them though.

Also, through no effort on my part, our grape vine had a boom crop this year. So I just picked all the grapes yesterday and promptly forgot about them until 9 o'clock tonight, when I set about extracting the juice. It's sooooooooooo good. I am going to attempt jelly. I'll let you know how that goes.

Other that that, I don't really have a whole lot to harvest. Some little gourds that, God only knows why, volunteer to grow every year. One even grew in the dog kennel. Every once in a while I'll find the remains of some poor, unfortunate gourd that one of the dogs picked off their vine and brought into the house to chew up.

So that's it for our farm harvest: mohair, some tomatoes, grapes and gourds. Not a whole lot, is it? And I have no idea what the gourd commodities are like these days.

Add our pitiful harvest to the housing slump, stir in two college tuitions, and you will have the Perfect Financial Storm that has emboldened me to seek Real Employment. Which, oddly enough, wasn't too hard to find. Mainly because I wasn't being picky. I went to one interview. When the interviewer asked me, "What are you looking for in a job?" I said, "A paycheck." And so now I will be training employees at a grand new warehouse nearby. I start October 26th. This should be interesting.

So, that's the new news on the farm front.

Signing off for now. Going to list three of the kids goats on Teh Internets for sale. Cross your fingers, folks.