My current home doesn't have a verandah or even a porch but I dream of owning a little farmette again, with a verandah overlooking chickens, goats and gardens. Absolute heaven!

Our Milking Goat Kidded

We've been waiting for the milking goat we "bought" (ok, put half-down) to have her babies. She did! Patricia, the owner, called yesterday morning and said CM2 had her first kids. Not just 2. Not 3. But 4 kids! Three girls and 1 boy. Said CM2 took to being a mamma right away and dropped a beautiful udder.

So exciting! Our milking goat (dwarf nigerian) is producing plenty of milk and loves being a mom. That's great news.

Also, Patricia said that our goat babies, Honey and Hawk, are ready to come home. Six weeks old, I think. Uh oh. That means we need to get our barn and goat pen constructed this weekend no matter what. Hopefully on Saturday so we can get the babies on Sunday.

We might have come up with a plan for the 10-foot oak pallets that we got last weekend - they are strong enough to be the sides of the goat pen. We could use a tarp and plywood (painted for weathering) for the roof. Our neighbors in the back with goats and chickens, etc, are coming over today to help us figure out how to change these free pallets and wood planks and wire-fencing into a home for the goats. If we can't come up with something, they have offered to put up the goats with theirs while we work on it. That's really sweet. They have baby goats too!

Patricia the goat breeder also said that our goat babies are little escape artists! They are, after all, miniatures! We had already planned to scrape away lots of the sandy-soil, place chicken wire (or a heavy oak pallet) down, put the sandy-soil back, and build the pen on top of that. That way, no foxes will be able to dig in, and the goats can't get out that way. We'll also reinforce the bottom edges of the fence, and make sure there are no holes. Hmmm.. need to pick up a gate this week.

Doghouse is gonna have to wait another weekend.

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As a sidenote, we can't find the box with the next books the Kid needs to read for literature assignments. So he found some for next year, which meant I needed to move assignments around. Now he's going to read "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" (from the Lord of the Rings series, J.R.R. Tolkien). I need to find the study-guide I created... the Kid writes a summary of each chapter as he finishes it, setting and plot notes, characterizations, etc. so that when I test him on the book, he can study first from his notes.

He got an "80" on his test for "Animal Farm". Considering he freezes during tests, it's really good!

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A storm is expected today, and ahead of it came the wind. Seriously. A LOT of wind. We barely slept last night because the house was shaking. The attic above our bedroom was creaking. The gusts so loud we practically had to shout as we spoke of our anniversary plans for today. And as for the trash barrel the Kid took to the "curb" last night ... this morning when Hubby and I walked down the recycling barrel that the Kid forgot, it was gone. We looked around but since it was still dark, didn't see it. So when Hubby drove down the driveway and on to the street to go to work, he went slowly to see if he could locate it. Found the missing barrel 5 houses down but most of the trash bags were gone and so was the lid.

When the Kid gets up around 6:45, we'll get on our warm jackets and see if we can find the missing trash bags and lid.

Meanwhile, other damage we saw right off... the big workshop's little door had broken free and was smashing into the side of the workshop with every gust of wind. The doorknob had fallen off but we only found part in the dark. We propped a wooden pallet against the door for now.

Guess we're lucky there wasn't more damage. (She said, hoping that daylight won't reveal more.)

Yep. Gotta order those trees for the windbreak. And probably should build a trash barrell holder/lean-to for our curb so this doesn't happen again.

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