It has been busy here on the farm. You know, you can never do too much research when buying a new farm animal. So many people say you can breed a dairy goat by 10 months of age. I decided on visiting a dairy farm ( we tasted the milk and it is now my favorite milk). After spending a few hours absorbing all the information then going home and digesting it all, we decided to sell the younger goats we bought and buy older already bred does. The younger goats were too small to breed this year. While I was visiting my new friend, I was astonished when I realized just how big the bucks are. After talking to her for some time, she advised that she did not like to breed her does until they were at least 1.5 years old and she thought we should wait to breed. Our purpose was to have milk this spring so we set out to find some that fit the bill. We bought Blissberry Liberty and Blissberry Billie. These girls came all the way from MN. The young lady I bought them from used them as show goats for 4H and decided to sell them because she is going to show longhorns.
I picked them up Monday morning andI didn't have time to do much of anything else. I spent so much time on the phone trying to plan everything. They are going for sonograms this week to confirm they're bred.
We also started cleaning up the garden beds so we could plant some cover crops. We spent more time doing some research to see what we could use that would serve more than one purpose. So far we have decided to use a mixed crop of elbon rye over seeded with winter rye. They are both great as goat feed. We raked up the mulch from the melon beds, pulled up the tomato plants that were finished for the year, picked almost all the veggies and made salsa with a few of those peppers and our jarred tomatoes.
We have been giving away peppers. We gave away a grocery bag full last week and we cut up another whole bag today. We froze three quart bags full, made two quarts of salsa and still gave away all the jalapenos you see there in the middle. I know I should be wearing gloves but I always forget until it is too late. My hands have been on fire for hours now!
Cleaning up the garden reminded me to pick the pomegranates. They turned out amazing!
We were able to get our well house fixed. I was wondering if we were ever going to finish. Now all that is left is weather-proofing it again. Last year some dogs tore off all the insulation. We have a 1,500 gallon tank to store water. The pipes between it and the well house have to be wrapped with heat tape then insulated. The tank allows us to have plenty of water and water pressure at any given time and is nice to have with a large family and two homes.
I wanted to give eveyone an update on the ducks. They are gowing like crazy! They are as big as my 2.5 month old chickens. It's just crazy! It's hard to get a picture of these guys. They are moving in with my older chickens very soon. They are making a big mess in my brooder. **Grin**
Have a great week everyone!
