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.

Fence vs Windbreak... who won?

Hubby and I had a long talk tonight and made some decisions. Some aren't appropriate for the blog, but we also talked about money and what to do about the expensive fencing situation. We could do 100-300 feet of fencing at a time, per month, and finally get it done by Sept or October. But then if we spend all of our money doing that, we wouldn't be able to plant a windbreak plus all of the fruit and nut trees and bushes that we want.

The windbreak is important. The neighbors all tell us that there is NO time period of any season that doesn't have wind. It blows year-round, and not just little puffy breezes. Real stiff winds and major gale-like-forces. If we don't get the windbreak up, then our corn and fruit bushes, etc. don't have a chance of living, let alone producing. So within the next week or so, I'm ordering 100 privet hedge plants, 10 holly-bush plants, and 2 or more weeping willow trees. A few others too but I haven't completely decided.

Thanks to the advice of Anon and Linda earlier today. You helped a lot.

Might do the back fence next month ... so we will know where to rototill, and I can go on and plant the grape vines along it.

Then... we need to reinforce the fence around our "backyard" (to hold the goat pen, chicken coop, part of the veggie garden and our "relaxing area" with the picnic table etc.) The fence is 4 foot tall with welded-wire fencing. The two corn patches, the sunflower/cuke/watermelon patch and the amaranth patch will be outside of this section, and we'll just hope and pray that the rabbits leave it alone!

When we want the goats to help us "mow the lawn" (yes, I know they are browsers and not grazers), then we'll hook them up and hope they help out by eating the cactus and burrs, and leave lots of poop behind! Perhaps we should revisit the "goat tractor" idea.

The chickens ... if we have the time and energy and supplies, we'll make a chicken tractor and let them out of the coop into the tractor. That will help us with the bugs and greens and leaving fertilizer behind too!

The upstairs bedroom that the Kid just vacated is also going to be the home of more of our veggies and herbs and fruits than what we originally planned. I spent part of this morning arranging things, checking on my baby seelings, installing two "grow-lights" and figuring out we need a few more of them. I think it will work pretty well!

And we're going to work hard to save money and make extra money selling seedlings, etc. so we can get the fence put up by Autumn this year. Gotta get cracking on writing my various book projects too. (Note: compiling a book of "my very first garden" stories ... be sure to read the info at the top of this web-page and e-mail your story as soon as possible. It will be sold on Amazon.com and other places.)

Thanks for all of the input. Really appreciate it.

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For today, I did 3 loads of laundry, a load of dishes, made a crockpot full of beans/lentils/quinoa, met with another fencing person, gathered as much of the tax info as possible (missing 2 items) and made an appointment for tax prep for Sunday. Also got the Kid caught up on schoolwork. Yippee! Yep... busy day.