I love our Christmas and New Year's break because it gives us time to celebrate, time to relax, and time to take inventory of life - the past, the present, and the future, or at least hopes and direction on what we want our future to be. I feel like this past year was a deep breath to prepare for our future home...we had our share of projects, but there is so much to do to make our home what we want it to be. Things that did happen in 2014: We bought our pellet stove and had it installed! This old house is drafty and cold, but our stove keeps our parlor and living room the warmest, and gives us a toasty place to warm up in when winter is its coldest. This is now our primary heat source and, so far this year, our only heat source. We've had some animals give birth and some animals pass. We lost Steve our sheep and Josie our alpaca, and Ollie the fall prior. We sold some of our non-producing goats to a land owner for clearing brush, a life I'm sure they will enjoy. S...

We finally planted more, nearly most, of the garden today, just before the rain came through in a downpour! If you look at the photo below, the top left portion of our garden is occupied by tomato plants, the only survivors of our seedling planting event earlier this year. Today we planted seeds. Cucumber, summer squash, winter squash, northern beans, kidney beans, pole beans, peas, watermelon, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage! The areas are marked by flags, and we plan to rope off the garden with twine before our helpful neighbor decides to till our garden again (thanks, but no thanks, sir). We still have room for a couple rows of something near the bottom portion of the garden, which will hopefully happen this week. Kind of a late start, but here's hoping the harvest  will be bountiful! Stay tuned...  We have a couple of garden additions this year! First, we built a strawberry bed (below) that contains ever bearing strawberries and June bearing strawberries. ...

Wow...so, I guess it's been awhile since my last blog...Of course, it has been a busy year at home and at work, and it seems like writing gets set on the back burner, well, usually. So let me take this chance to update everyone on this year so far!   First of all, our farm is growing and progressing - moving forward every day. Even though it may not be as big, as fast as we would like, it is still moving along quite nicely and keeping us busy every day. Our dairy goats, Mabel and Flora each had two goats each this spring. Mabel had two girls, Ethel and Blanche, and Flora had a girl, Fauna, and a boy, Herb. The angoras each had a baby: Frankie's baby girl, Sweet Pea, and Itty Bitty's baby boy, Coffee. So far, we are keeping all of our goats while we figure out whether the angora/oberhasli mix will produce good fiber and, well, while we figure out what we're willing to feed! We still have our sheep, Steve and Jester, and our alpacas, Josie and Blossom, all of whom ne...

Some people have asked about the process of milking and the reasons why we switched to goat milk. The why is easy. We want to know where our food comes from. It's easier (and cheaper) to raise a goat than a cow and you need far less space. Fresh milk, properly handled tasted just like whole cow milk and it's easier to digest. I was worried about the milk tasting too "goaty" - but it really isn't. Again, IF IT IS HANDLED PROPERLY! We did notice that if we didn't get the milk cooled quickly enough, or weren't using the milk as quickly as we should...it did take on a "goaty-like" flavor...so we take actions to counteract that. We put ice in the milk bucket, while we are milking. We clean the udders/teats both before and after milking. We strain the milk several times. We put the milk in the freezer, in an ice bucket for an hour to get it nice and cold before putting it in the fridge. I know that people have different processes - but this is what w...

My cousin and her family  were in town this weekend for our aunt's 75th birthday party (Happy Birthday, Aunt Rose Marie!), and we were lucky enough to have them, along with her brother/my cousin, visit us before they left the area. It is times like these that I think we get our perspective back for our life here...we have definitely had our ups and downs, but there's nothing like giving the tour to help remind ourselves of our accomplishes this year. In one year we've gone from apartment living to raising 2 alpacas, 2 dairy goats, 2 fiber goats, and 2 sheep. And a garden. And home ownership. There's so much to do that it will take years, but the look back on our achievements lets us see how far down the road we've traveled! One of the fun activities we can offer guests is the opportunity to milk Mabel, and, of course, the reward of drinking our goat's milk (usually the milking before, fresh and cold). My cousin's whole family (her, her husband, and their t...

Here is a look at most of our animals :) Mabel (front left) with Flora, our baby Alpine, behind her and Ollie beside her. One of our Angoras, Frankie, is behind Ollie and Jester, one of our CVM sheep, is behind Flora. The alpacas in the rear are Josie (left) and Blossom (right). IttyBitty (the other Angora) and Steve, our other CVM, are in their pens resting. Itty broke her leg and must stay in with her cast, and Steve is just not feeling well.