It’s been a little while since we’ve been on here last thanks to a stomach bug that ripped through our household last week. Only Rachel made it through unscathed on that one. The boys and I got walloped pretty bad. Daniel was the toughest. Daniel doesn’t have the self awareness the older boys do to get to the bathroom in time, so wherever he happened to be was precisely where he would get sick. Consequently, we put about 2,000 miles…
Well, the time has come that I’ve been looking forward too with a mix of both relief and disappointment: drying off the goats. Drying off is steadily decreasing a doe’s milk production until the doe is dry. This is done so that the doe’s body is given a period of rest before her kids are born in the spring and to allow her body to recharge before another 10 months of milking commences. It also gives the farmer a bit…
This cold snap we’ve been having has been brutal. It was 27 degrees this morning–a full 40 degrees warmer than it was a few days ago! By comparison to the sub zero temperatures of the past week, it’s practically balmy out there. I checked the mail today without wearing a coat! I feel like we’ve moved to the tropics! The cold temperatures were especially hard on the homestead, because while the animals handle the cold fairly well, their water freezes…