.
My Daughter has left our home,
giving us some much needed space. I
turned that room into our new food storage and winter plant storage area. I feel that this is a good change.
We have started drying off the Holstein
cow, as we cannot afford to keep her. I tried very hard to sell her as she is a
lovely cow, with great manors. Sadly I
could not find her a new home, so in a few weeks we will buy a new freezer and
take her to be processed. We are keeping
the other cow that Moo, she is a Jersey cow, and much easier to care for than
the Holstein. We were blessed earlier this
year when she gave us a sweet little red heifer. The heifer we are keeping and have named her
Ruth. Moo, looks like she is bred again
and I will get her checked soon.
Our Jacob and the Loughtan sheep are
recouping loses of the spring and year and the babies look amazing. Our family has decided to eat our Loughtan
sheep ram, Joshua rainy day, as he is getting to be a handful and we know have
a baby from Moses to replace him. All
the sweet little four horn babies that did make it are strong and healthy. We are actively looking for new ewes and rams
to add to our flock. So if anyone knows anyone
who has any please send them our way.
Goats, well…I am never happy with
my goats. I always have the wrong color,
the wrong type, honestly sometimes I think I should just quite. My adopted sister gave us a lovely buck, he
is Alpine. It is a lovely boy, right out
of the box he breed our little alpine doe, sweet heart and gave us two little bucks. We have had a rough year with the goats and
this is the sum total of our work. I do have
other goats that are due any day now. I
think he is the daddy; our little spotted nubbin buck is more interested in the
sheep than in the goats. We have a nubbin
ready to kid and maybe my hybrid Italian milk goats.
Our garden was not a total waste,
but in no way is the blessing we had hoped for.
We did gather a lot of wild food, but you can never put up enough. I am disappointed in my own efforts this year
with both the garden and canning. Working full time has taken quite a toll on
me emotionally and physically. It is
hard to get it all done and teach the children and manage any of the farm
chores. We still have winter stuff
growing and tomatoes so I hope to feel more up to dealing with that stuff as
the days pass.
The new kitchen will not be ready
before winter, unless a miracle happens between now and then. The money I was to use for it will now be
used to buy hay feed and straw for the farm.
It saddens me, but there is nothing else I can do. I will have to work a bit harder and come up
with a new dishwasher somehow as it has become clear that this is a needed
item. Earlier in the season I thought I
could have pulled it off and done the whole thing, but the cost of the plywood
alone was more than I could manage. So
we will work on it as we can and pray for a better tomorrow.
Over all the farm is hanging on,
and we continue to try to push forward in the face of it all.
