Two weeks ago we were sitting in 60 (almost 70!) degree weather as we boiled off sap into maple syrup. This week, we’ve been plunged back into the single digits without our wool gloves. That little jaunt with Spring was all too fleeting, but inside we’re continuing to get glimpses of what is to come thanks to UPS!

On Wednesday, we received the first of two packages we’d been waiting on: a milk pail.

Pepper is due in three weeks, so it was definitely time to get one. We’ve got the milking stand, we’ve got the pail, we’ve got our mini fridge set up to use as a dairy fridge, we’ve got a ‘holding tank’ to let milk sit and separate for making butter; I think that we’re just about ready for milking. As for kidding? Err, sorta. There’s not much that we need for kidding, but my desire to help squirming kids into the world isn’t there. I mean, goat kids are cute and everything, but as for the birth process… y’know. Fortunately, I’m the one with the full time job. If Pepper times it right, I just might miss it entirely.

Ahem. Anyway.

Saturday rolled around, and along came a yellow envelope filled with packets of seeds:

These are from the Baker Creek Seed Catalog. It was fun to sit down and order different varieties of vegetables together. Perhaps a little too much fun judging by the number of seeds we got. The boys helped; each of them got to pick out one of their own seed packets to plant.

Daniel chose carrots:

Luke chose popcorn:

Gabe chose pumpkins:

Originally Gabe wanted to buy the biggest pumpkin variety available. We told him it had to be something practical. I think his intention was to have a pumpkin big enough to bring to the New York State Fair. This thought was bolstered when we got to the chapter in Farmer Boy where Almanzo’s pumpkin wins the blue ribbon, and Gabe couldn’t drop the subject afterwards. I know his mind, because his mind is exactly what my mind was at seven. And at seven, I would have wanted to grow pumpkins so that I could win a prize at the State Fair.

Funny enough, we bought enough seeds that we received two ‘gift packets.’ One of which was purple carrots (which brings us to five different varieties of carrots) and cabbage, which we only occasionally eat. Oh well, they’re both great food for ducks and goats. As I’ve said before, anything to cut down on the feed bill is a good thing!