What a beautiful day we had today! I spent most of it weeding and landscaping the gardens and yard. Tomorrow it's back to dehairing my cashmere. It's looking like I won't be able to get all of mine done before the outside cashmere starts coming in. I've got 36 fleeces to do. But, I'll get enough done to fill the CSA orders and a little more, then do others, then go back to mine.
I have 69 total goats now. 11 dairy and crosses, and 58 cashmeres. The kids are all doing great. I'm only keeping two of the boys bucks, the rest are getting "wetherized". One of them is white with a silver dollar sized spot on his neck, and the other is a pretty shade of brown with some neat looking facial markings. Both are nice square bodied kids. The white one is really stout. He's a chunk. He'll make good meat babies, along with the fiber. His parents both have outstanding fleece, so he should, too. The brown one isn't quite as stocky, but he has nice conformation and is just cute. :-) He comes from parents with great fiber, too. When I get decent pictures of them, I'll put them on here.
The baby chickens had their first day out in the big world today. They weren't quite sure what to do at first, but by the end of the day, they were having a grand old time out there. They are big enough now that I don't have to worry too much about a raven or hawk picking them off anymore. I'm so used to the Jersey Black Giant chickens we used to have, that these are looking a bit strange. They are Silver Laced Wyandottes, with two Golden Wyandottes in there as well. The golden ones are really pretty! I might have to get a couple more of them. It's nice to have something besides black in the poultry department around here. I'll be ordering turkeys again here pretty soon. I have a few people that want me to raise them a turkey or two, plus we want some for ourselves, too. I'm going to get some Naragansett ones this time. They are a heritage breed that gets to a medium size from what I've read about them. Somewhere around the 18 to 25 lb range. I might keep a breeding pair and let them raise a hatch or two.
My daffodils are blooming nicely, and the tulips are about to start. There are over 100 buds in the tulip garden again. It's going to be pretty! I'm going to start planting the vegetable garden this coming week. We had a couple of really good frosts this last week, so I'm glad I hadn't planted anything yet. I got the beds all ready to go. One nice thing about raised beds is they don't take long to get ready for the new season. The Square Foot Gardening method really works good, too. It's surprising how much food you can grow in a small space using that method.
Well, Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Have a great day!
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