What? It’s almost August??

Somehow it’s the second half of July and I feel like we’ve done absolutely nothing this summer. That isn’t true, but it certainly feels like it. Here’s what’s going on:

The house project has stalled. It took National Grid eight weeks to move the gas line so that the next part of the project could keep going. In that time, our contractor’s crew started working on another job (and frankly, I don’t blame him), and we’re still another week or two out before they finish and get back to ours. So we have a foundation down and no framing or otherwise around it. We had been hoping this would be complete before Labor Day. Now we’ll just be content if it’s done before the snow arrives.

The goats are dry. Peony and Lily proved to be abysmal milkers, putting out about a quart and a half a day between the two of them. To put it into perspective, Pepper can put out almost a gallon on her own. Milking is too much work to only yield a quart and a half between two goats, so it was time to cut our losses and forgo our own milk until Pepper freshens in the spring. We’ll be breeding Black-Eyed Susan as well. As she is Pepper’s daughter, we’re hoping that she’s inherited her mother’s genes for production. Lily and her kid will be sold as pets/goats for brush. Peony is Gabe’s goat, which means she’ll likely live out her days here as our pet.

In the meantime, we found a farm not far from where we go to church that has raw milk available for sale. This milk is from cows, not goats. Funny story: goat’s milk is pure white, as it does not contain the carotene that gives cow’s milk a creamy color. Daniel, at 5, has not had anything but goat’s milk in almost 3 years. He gave the cow’s milk one horrified look and said “I’m not drinking that! It’s TAN!” In case any of you don’t believe us when we say that goat’s milk is not goaty, look no further than this example. If our finicky five-year-old prefers it to cow’s milk, rest assured it’s perfectly sweet and creamy.

Two of the three sisters are coming along well, one seems to be taking her time. The corn is doing fantastic, and the beans are doing well too. The squash (we chose pie pumpkins and butternut for our squashes) for some reason is slow going. Odd, given that in our last few years’ gardens the squash was the most prolific crop of them all.

And, lastly, we now have a litter of five kittens. Many of you remember that Tiger joined our homestead last year after Thomas Jefferson died. We brought her in for her shots and to be spayed when she was a kitten, but we were encouraged not to spay her so young because it can increase the chances of UTIs, affects how well she could grow, slows metabolism, et cetera, et cetera. Perhaps we should have explained that we have a herd of goats, four kids and a home renovation project going on, so please just take care of it now before time gets away from us. But oh well, here we are now. Meanwhile, we have to somehow keep Tiger inside the house for four to five WEEKS until she’s weaned her kittens so that this doesn’t happen again. She’s not any happier about this than we are, trust me on that.