Perhaps you’ve noticed we’ve been quiet for almost 2 weeks now. Well, that would be the fact that we spent 7 days as staff members for CAMPS, a retreat for high school students. I’ll post about it later, for now I’ll post about what happened while we were away.

 Pepper somehow lost her collar. This made it difficult for our goatsitter to milk, as to do so we clip the collar to a stanchion to keep her still. Fortunately, a tour of the goat pen revealed its location. She’s never gotten it off before, and she had it on when we left, so I don’t know how she managed to do it THE ONE TIME that we were away. Murphy’s Law doesn’t play around.

We now have 15 gallons of milk. Goats don’t just shut off when you go away; hence why we had someone standing in for us. What will we do with it? I know not. Cheese, perhaps, but really we’ll have to make other uses for it.

Thomas Jefferson grew quite a bit; he’s starting to get that gangly teenage look already. The kids missed him, and they kept repeating that they wanted to see him first thing when they got home. Thomas must have also missed them, because he pranced around the house, chirruping at everyone as we got home. It’s nice to have one’s company appreciated, even if it is only a cat.

Our Thanksgiving dinners (turkeys) also grew in our absence. And just look at the the garden:

Our 9 peaches are almost ready, a sunflower somehow found its way in, and the butternut squash is amazing. Aside from picking off slugs, we’ve done nothing to care for it. And in our week’s absence it only flourished all the more. We will definitely be growing more of it next year, as it is clearly quite hardy.

The fox did not show up and pilfer from our poultry flock. I’d been worried that the lack of activity on our property might make the fox think that the buffet was open and drop on by. Rachel is trying to convince me that a guardian donkey might be a good idea. Yet she won’t let me get sheep!

And I, for one, am breathing a deep sigh of relief at being home. No one died or went missing while we were gone. Not that I don’t have confidence in our goatsitter, but y’know, you still can’t help but worry sometimes.