It’s really been rainy and humid here the last couple weeks. Two at least. Hard to explain to those folks living in the west coast and experiencing a drought, but here? Oh my gosh, we have local cities with flooding, rivers cresting their high points and just muck, mud and dampness everywhere. I think we’ve had rain just about every day for the last two weeks. And it’s been overcast a lot, just rather unpleasant.
That being said, my garden has just gone nuts! I managed to grab a little time and go out and walk around. Two weeks ago it was very basic and just getting going. And we had just gotten it all mowed and weeded, it looked lovely. Now? It’s like a tropical rainforest out there! And don’t get me started on the bugs. My goodness. They swarm and nearly suck you dry in ten minutes flat. There is some sunshine and dryer weather on the forecast and I am very much looking forward to it!
The lambs are all growing big and strong! I love their color changes… most of them started out pretty much dark brown and black but they are changing. Some lighter, some different. I think we might have four brown lambs out of the deal! One slate gray and the last, a very dark, almost black brown. And two white! They are getting big… eight weeks old on Saturday. Their moms are weaning them and pushing them aside but they still manage to sneak a suckle or two in, here and there. They are all eating grass and leaves just fine, so it’s time Even Thistle, our bottle baby, he’s down to about a half bottle a day and he’s adjusting. Within the next week or so, we are going to drop it down even more until he’s just done.
This is a sort of weird time of the year. We have finished a lot of our MUST DO NOW spring projects and just have a few want to do projects left. There is maintenance, of course, always things to keep up on. But nothing super pressing. I like that and I don’t like that. Its a sort of time that you can finally relax and enjoy the changes, the warm weather. I can’t wait until we finish up our firepit redo… it’s almost done! We just have to get the new blocks and put it all back together. I miss having a fire at night, just sitting around and watching the light. Soon! Very soon!
We have started to redo the sheep and goat paddock fencing. Mostly because the naughty goats have been wrecking everything and getting out. Goats are just hard animals to farm, if you ask me. I know there are people that are very good at raising goats but I think they have learned all their wily ways and pretty much keep them under lock and key all the time. We give ours too much freedom and they take every inch and a few more for good measure. They are so hard on fences! And we have learned that Buttercup is like some world class leaping gazelle goat! She can clear a 4 foot fence now! I wonder if there is some sort of contest I can enter her in. Hmm…..
Well, we keep working on the fencing, making it taller, tighter and stronger. I have come to understand that just woven wire fencing will not a goat paddock make. They step on it, and their weight wrecks the stuff, pulls it out shape and down. They are very good at it. The only thing we have found that works with goats are cattle panels. Sixteen foot long, fifty three inch tall, rigid wire panels. They are not cheap, about twenty bucks each at the farm supply store. But they work. They just can’t jump them and they can’t climb them or destroy them. I guess we are just going to have to keep buying a few at a time, as often as we can, until we get a few areas secure and fixed. For good. These things do seem to last a long time. I’ve seen a few farms with them and I swear they look twenty years old and are still nice and rigid and strong. I think that is our new farm fencing everywhere! As we can, we’ll just keep replacing nasty sections with new panel sections!
The only nice thing about the weather is that we’ve been inside catching up on business. Client work, our own company work, things like that. Haven’t done a lot of weaving but I hope to change that up real soon. Just so happened that we ended up with all three big looms without warping on them! That is kind of rare. Guess we are going to have a warping festival and get them all back and ready to weave. We have been trying to process all the fleeces that we have at the moment. Not only did we have our 10 Shetland fleeces and 2 Angora goat to do… I went and bought two alpaca fleeces and then was gifted with a pair of Icelandic as well! The studio is over run with livestock hair! We have borrowed a carder and have been trying to get as many of the washed and cleaned fleeces carded, but I think we are running out of steam! I still have about 9 fleeces left to wash! Not quite half done. It just takes time!
I understand now why a lot of the old timers would skirt a fleece of yucky bits, wash and dry them and then bag them in breathable bags and hang them in a cool place until fall. They would work to process all that wool during the cold, winter months. Something to do when you didn’t have Netlix or the internet to keep you busy! I need to have Maggie make me an outside drying rack, something I can put out in the sun and then just go to town and wash all the rest of the fleeces! It’s a long process, but if I could get it all done, and dried, then I can worry about carding and spinning next winter! That does make a lot of sense.
Enjoy the little ramble through our lamb pasture and our garden! I’m so excited that nearly all of our fruit plantings are doing well. We had a few losses with strawberries but not too bad. Everything else is doing very well. I’m happy about that. Haven’t managed to get any fruit trees yet, and I hope to soon. Stock is going on sale here and there, so it’s just a matter of time before I find a good deal on some apple trees!
Hope everyone is having a nice late spring fling! I think I’m going to go and do a little mowing… with all this rain, it’s been nearly impossible to keep up on the mowing! Crazy!
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It’s nice to have piggies in great demand, but we’d like to raise a few ourselves as well. We are working to expand our pig pen and pig house area so that we can have perhaps get one more breeding sow, unrelated to our gang.
