So Much for Consistency!

 Well, time flies as the saying goes!  I hadn't realized how long it's been since last posting.  I've been doing a lot of gardening, planting all the cool weather crops, fighting a losing battle with the quack grass in the flower beds, but enjoying the flower show that is starting out there now.  We've been having a good amount of rain for the last month.  I was hoping it would dry out enough to clean out the cashmere goat pen, but just when I think it will work, it rains again. Good thing the goats have the majority of their pen on the hill so there isn't a mucky mess they have to stand in all the time.  

I've talked to a newbie cashmere goat owner recently.  Now I'm thinking I won't give up the cashmere world just yet.  I might even be getting a cashmere buck again.  We'll see on that.  I have rather enjoyed not having to deal with kidding season, except in the dairy side of things.  My dairy herd has grown to 12! Two does in milk and ten offspring, 5 yearlings and 5 of this years' kids.  Last year it was 2 boys and 3 girls, this year it is 3 boys and 2 girls.  I need to figure out what to do with all the kids!  The boys will go in the freezer, along with one of the girls, since she has 3 teats, not good on a dairy goat.  I will get the two other yearlings bred this fall and see if they are good replacement milking does.  If so, Toffee will be heading to freezer camp.  I am over dealing with her weird personality and smaller teats.  Her udder is actually a bit bigger than Sprinkles, but the orifices are smaller, so she's harder to milk.  Right now, Sprinkles is giving me more milk and she's feeding triplets.  Toffee has digestive issues, too, so between all of those, and her skittishness, it's time. I'm giving her one more year, but if the yearlings produce good milk and a decent amount, bye-bye to Toffee.  

I haven't done anything fiber related since the weather warmed up and got nice.  Summer is when outside things take over and the spinning wheel and looms gather dust. I've also been baking a lot of things.  I'll tell you, freshly milled flour is the way to go! After being mostly gluten free since my 20's, only eating wheat products when invited somewhere or eating out at a restaurant, I can now eat bread and other goodies without having a reaction.  Plus, homemade bread just tastes sooo much better than anything in the store, or even homemade with all-purpose flour. 

We've been eating organic for 30 years now, and I can really taste the difference, and my digestive system really doesn't like conventionally grown food anymore.  I always feel weird and foggy after eating regular food, even if it is home cooked.  The last time I went out with a friend for lunch, I was really affected. I made the wrong turn going out of the place and ended up on the opposite side of the valley, then where I wanted to be! That was weird!  The amount of chemicals in and on regular food is insane and is killing people.  I do hope the MAHA movement can really improve the quality of American food. Time will tell.

Well, as soon as the rain quits, I'm heading out to finish a project I started yesterday.  Cleaning out the chicken tractor, moving it, filling in the holes and planting some new grass in that spot.  I'll get it ready for the possibility of holding a guinea and new babies.  I have a guinea sitting on a nest in the hayshed that should hatch out around the 20th. Since they are terrible parents, every time I just let the babies stay with the mom out and about, they always get killed by something. Usually, the other guineas take them out.  How they survive in the wild is beyond me. So, I will put them in the chicken tractor till they are big enough to fly good, then I'll let them out and they can be free like the others are.  Silly birds.  

Well, that's enough rambling on for today.  I hope everyone is having a good day, and thanks for reading this!    

Some Pictures Finally!

Here are a couple of scarves I've crocheted since the beginning of the year.  The blue one is cotton, and the colorful one is kid mohair.  So soft! I spun it from some roving I bought from a farm over by Helena a few years ago. 

Skippy is having fun in the snow we had back on the 14th of this month. He loves playing in the snow and rolling around in it.  I call it getting a "snow bath" when he rolls in it.  

We had a dusting of snow last night.  It's all gone now.  It's supposed to get down into the low 20s tonight; I hope the plants all survive!  Everything is starting to grow, even though it's a good month early around here. 

 I figured out how to get photos on here! I downloaded the app onto my phone, put the pictures on here, then got on the computer to write the text.  I couldn't get the text to show up after I uploaded the pictures on here on my phone. So, I'll do it this way for now.  At least I can post pictures now.

I'm making progress on combing the goats.  Only have 10 (I think) left.  Tomorrow I will do at least a couple of them. I think tonight is the last cold night, so they should all let loose of their fleece now. It's good they don't all shed at the same time, or I'd be overwhelmed by the combing.  

Well, that's it for now.  Thanks for reading this and I hope you are having a great day!     

A Somewhat Rare Event

 After thinking Spring is here, we got a last gasp of winter over the weekend. 16" of snow on Saturday. That just happened to be John's birthday, and he's not a big fan of snow.  We spent a few hours digging out, and now most of it is melted, at least in the driveway and areas that didn't get extra snow thrown on them. We hadn't had any snow for most of the winter, then bam! a dump of it. That has only happened a couple of times over the years. This time was nice, we have a neighbor who does an excellent job of plowing, so he got the road all plowed, and even came up here and plowed down the hill so all I had to do was clean up the edges.  Years ago when it happened, we had to hire a guy with a skidsteer to plow a trail up the road just wide enough to drive through.  Couldn't even open the doors on the truck it was that skinny.  Luckily there were only 2 families living on the entire road back then, so no collisions or blocks or anything.  Now that wouldn't work at all, way too many people live along this road.  Ah, the good ol' days...

  60 degrees today.  A bit windy, which is helping to melt the snow. Luckily the ground wasn't frozen, so the water soaked in and didn't just run off.  I should say, it's soaking in, there is still a fair amount to melt. Watching Ryan Hall's livestream over the weekend, I was happy to have just a snow and not all the wild weather most of the rest of the country experienced. Or maybe still experiencing.  Even Hawaii has had a bad storm. 

The goats haven't been combed, well a few of them have, but the snow stopped everything.  Tomorrow I will get back to it, thankfully they aren't all shedding yet.  There are 4 out there now that really need it, so that is who gets combed tomorrow. I did Mini the other day.  Silly girl. She jumped right in the stand and started eating her treats, but the minute I grabbed the comb, she laid down and stayed down for most of the combing.  Last year when she had a kid that died, I milked her, so she thought she was just coming in for that, even though she is dry as a bone now.  She is a funny goat.  Always has a condescending look on her face, that whole line does.  They sure do have nice soft, beautiful cashmere though.  They are also pretty tame, so they are easy to handle.  Goats; the most lovable frustrating creatures on the planet. :-) 

I hope everyone is doing ok in the wild weather and your animals are all good.  Quinn, I did see your comment, but for some reason I can't reply.  I do hope your weather has straightened out and everyone is doing well and you can get the fleece before it's totally ruined.  A farmer's life is always regulated by the weather.  Whether that be farming crops or raising animals, it's all weather dependent. 

Thanks for reading this and I hope you are having a wonderful day.

 

Is it Spring?

 The weather sure is interesting this year.  There was a robin up here last night!  I heard him having a fit out in the dairy pasture.  I do believe that is the earliest we've ever had a robin up here.  They are showing up all over the Flathead Valley, too.  The mild weather has everyone confused.  I just noticed some of my Hellebores are starting to come up.  

Our forest service road has more soft spots in it this year than usual.  It's getting a bit difficult to navigate it, between the giant potholes, washouts and now all the boggy soft spots.  It really needs to be graded this year!  There is more traffic on this dead-end road than on probably all the other through roads combined. I am going to have to go down to the forest service office and once again complain.  They always tell me there is no money for grading a dead-end road.  I think they should just pave it and be done with it. When it does get graded, the washboards reappear within a month from just about everyone driving too fast up and down it.  I don't understand why people can't figure out that gravel/dirt and speed don't mix.  One little skip of a tire on a rock creates a little divot, then as everyone else goes over that, it gets bigger and bigger. Pretty soon, big stretches of the road are just a big washboard.  Especially around corners and in areas where it's slow going, people step on the gas when it gets smooth, and wa-la a washboard is formed.  Our Dodge truck is pretty rough riding anyway, and going over washboards just about breaks my back, even going very slow.  Then there are the deep potholes that are unavoidable.  I try not to leave this place more than once a week. :-) 

I am making my first top out of some of my handwoven cotton cloth. It even has sleeves!  I haven't sewn anything clothing since home-ec class way back in jr high.  That was a long time ago.  I just need to figure out the neckline and then it will be done.  Exciting times! :-) 

I hope everyone is doing okay in these times.  Observe, don't absorb.  Thanks for reading this.  One of these days I'll get the photo transfer thing down and post some pictures. One of these days...

Life is changing a bit around here.

 We've been having some changes around here lately.  I'm fully immersed in the world of milling my own grains and baking all kinds of breads and other things.  After being gluten free for almost 40 years, since starting the milling of my own grains, I can eat wheat again!  It's pretty easy to do, a bit of adjusting recipes and things, but it sure tastes a lot better than anything you can buy.  I started following a few YouTube creators on freshly milled flours and went for it.  Bread Beckers is a great one to learn from.  Sue Becker has a good podcast called "Sue's healthy minutes" that gives the science behind it all, plus lots of interviews from people who have cured all kinds of diseases with freshly milled bread.  The nutrients in the fresh flour are so much more than commercially made flour.  Plus, there's no additives or anything when you mill the grain yourself.  Electric grain mills are fairly inexpensive, and it's actually cheaper to mill your own grains and make the bread yourself.

We did a bit of remodeling in the kitchen, which added quite a bit of counter space.  It's like having a new kitchen! Next is redoing a closet into a pantry.  That will be a bit of a job, so that might be later this spring.

The two dairy does are both pregnant, due in mid to late April.  They are starting to show pretty good.  I've combed 1 cashmere goat so far.  We've had a bit of winter this last week or so, so I am waiting a few days till it warms up again to resume the combing.  The goats are all doing well.  No kids this year, I sold my cashmere buck last summer, and I reinforced the fence around the dairy buck, so he can't get to any of the does this year. I've pretty much decided to just let everyone age out and not do any breeding anymore.  I have some young ones, so it will be quite a few years before I run out of cashmere.  

Today I got an email from GoImagine that they are closing the platform in March.  So, I think I am going to more or less retire.  I'll keep my two domain names, but not have a website anymore, at least for the time being.  No online shop at all.  If I can figure out the photo transfer from phone to computer, I'll post on here the things I've been making.    Open a Venmo account to take payments and sell a thing or two here if possible.  Maybe this summer get into a local shop somewhere, we'll see.  I was going to just stop doing everything, but once the goats grew out their fleece this last year, I just can't give it up yet.  I love working with their cashmere, and I love the goats themselves.  I am going to keep on going with it, just make things to grow my inventory for now.  I like weaving with cotton, making towels, etc., so between the cashmere and that, I will stay productive and be in my happy place.

Now that my injuries from the dog have healed up and I'm feeling good again, I'm going to be getting my gardening going again this year.  The flowers are my department; the veggies are John's.  I do most of the harvesting and processing of the veggies, but he does most of the watering and weeding during the growing season.  I need to work on the flower beds; they got pretty neglected over the last two summers.

I was watching Ryan Hall Y'all's YouTube livestream today of the big blizzard that hit the east the last couple of days.  What a storm! 3 feet of snow in a few places, and some hurricane force winds.  What a mess back there.  That will take some time to dig out of that!  Smaller livestock like goats and things won't even be able to get around in that, the snow is too deep and heavy.  

The weather has been pretty wild throughout the country.  Atmospheric rivers in the west, giant fires in the south, blizzards in the mid-section and eastern parts earlier in the season, and now this.  I was noticing on the maps today, our area is in a little bubble of mostly nothing.  The storms are mostly going around us.  We did get snow over the last few days, and it's snowing now, but we are way milder than usual.  I'm pretty sure we have some more snow in store for us, but probably not much.  We are living in some very interesting times, an exciting time to be alive! 

Stay safe everyone!  Thanks for reading this.  One of these days I will figure out the phone and get some pictures on here!

Happy 2026!

 Another fast-paced year seems to be coming/happening.  We are having a mild winter, the mildest one in years.  There is just a little bit of snow and ice in the shady spots, and green grass on the hill behind the house. I have an idea we will get nailed the last week of this month and into February with some below zero temps and some snow.  I could be wrong, I hope we don't get that cold.  I am enjoying the mildness myself.  As long as it rains on a regular basis this summer, we'll be fine. The ground is frozen, so the goat pen is livable for them and easy for me to pull the wheelbarrow full of hay around to feed them. 

I've been getting some weaving done.  I'm on my second warp on my new to me Norwood 4 harness floor loom.  A run of towels, probably 4, maybe 5 towels on there.  The scrappy blanket turned out good, perfect size for covering me up in the recliner on the rare occasions I take a nap and it's chilly in here.  Usually with the woodstove going it's in the 70s and 80s in here.  I open a window or two most days.  A breath of fresh air can come in then.

One of these days I will figure out how to download my phone pictures to the computer without having to get yet another app or sync things up.  It's such a pain having to get a new phone every few years.  There are days when I wish we didn't have all the technology, life was more natural, and nature based back before all of this. Speaking of which...

I've been milling my own flour and baking quite a bit of bread the last year or so.  I've discovered that I can eat the fresh milled wheat breads without having a reaction like I do with store bought breads.  It also tastes so much better it's not even comparable to store breads.  We go through a lot of bread around here. John takes two or three sandwiches to work with him 4 days a week, plus has toast most mornings for breakfast.  I think my favorite bread is the Hawaiian rolls I make.  I used to love the ones you buy in the store, till we started label reading and went organic for 99% of our food.  Now I found a recipe for homemade ones, and they are great!  I can change up the taste a bit by using different kinds of wheat. Using the freshly milled flour is a totally different experience from the store-bought flours.  I'm getting fairly good at turning out edible loaves now.  

The goats are doing well.  It's nice to not have to worry about kidding this year.  They sure have some nice fleece this year!  Some of them are starting to let loose of it a bit.  I always think it's way too early to comb them when we still have a couple of months of possible cold stormy weather coming.  But they still have their guard hairs so at least they aren't bald like they would be if sheared.  I will wait till February to start combing, then the whole body lets loose and not just the back end, which is what is happening now.  I'm getting quite a lot of fleeces that need dehaired.  It's been about 5 years since I've sent any out to be processed.  I don't have that many goats anymore, so it's not a huge pile, but it is building up.  We shall see what happens in the coming months.  

I have 15 roosters that need to go to rooster heaven soon.  We had 26, I've already processed some but am letting these guys grow a bit bigger.  After researching, it seems the boys will reach full-size at around 18 months.  I don't want to wait that long; they are about halfway there.  They are big, just need to fill out a bit more.  The weather is perfect for doing that now.  Sunny and in the upper 30s low 40s.  No flies or yellowjackets are out now.  It takes me 20 minutes from catch to fridge, so it's not long.  

Skippy is starting to mature finally.  He likes his treats, he ceases whatever he's doing and comes running when we call out "Skippy, treats".   I also make those at home.  The batch I made last had apple and carrots in it.  The goats like them as well as the dog does.  I'll be making that kind again tomorrow.  I still can't trust him around the goats or poultry on his own.  He chases the goats and tries to catch the chickens.  He's finally leaving the guineas alone, but the others are still fair game to him.  So annoying.

Well, thanks for reading this.  I hope you are having a great day and 2026 is a good year for you!        

Wild Weather!

 Are we having fun yet?  This weather is a lot different from last year. We've been in the 40s and last night we had some gale force winds that blew over a set of solar panels and completely blew over one of the goat condos!  Thankfully we only lost two of the solar panels, so not a huge drop in production.  The goat condo we got back upright and roof back on.  I was outside last night around 10:30 making sure everyone was okay and nothing was blowing away.  The gust of wind that took everything down happened later around midnight.  It was a bit scary out there with the wind blowing so hard.  All the trees were bending pretty far over.  Thankfully none broke.  "Grandpa Doug" our biggest Douglas Fir tree on the place lost a few branches, but nothing major.  I did hear a cracking sound while I was out there, but when I walked around the place today, didn't see any trees down or anything.  The cracking must've been one of the bigger branches that came out of Grandpa Doug.  We are supposed to get some more high winds on Thursday, so hopefully everything will withstand them.  When I checked on the Guineas that roost up in a tree next to the hay shed, they were clinging on the branches for dear life.  The one guinea who lost his toes last year in the cold, spent the night on the ground in the crook of the tree roots, which is a pretty sheltered place.  

The guineas are some of the smartest, yet dumbest birds I've ever seen.  They are very good indicators of what the weather is going to do during the night.  If it's going to snow, they go up a tree that is more open without as many branches, and if it's going to be rainy or windy, they go up the thicker branched tree.  That's the smart part; the dumb part is they forget they have wings, and they will pace the fenceline up to about a foot away from the open gate, then turn around and go back and forth instead of going just a little bit farther and getting out to where they want to be. Silly birds.  They do a good job of keeping ticks and grasshoppers under control.  They are very good at bug control. Which is why we have them.  Their eggs taste good, too.

I do know for sure that we are tearing everything down in the goat pens next summer and rebuilding a more efficient setup this time around.  One thing about it after all these years, I know what doesn't work, so now it's time to build something that will work better and easier.  

The snow is completely gone for now.  I think we are supposed to get some more this week, but every time I check the forecast, the amount goes down.  I do believe we might have a brown Christmas this year.  That's ok, I am enjoying the lack of snow and warmer temps.  We will probably get nailed in January and/or February with some seriously cold temps and snow.  At least the dairy goats aren't due to kid until Mid-April, so they should be warm enough by then.

I am finally getting a warp on my new to me Norwood floor loom!  It's a short warp, and I am going to use up the collection of partial bobbins that have accumulated so I can use them again.  One of these days I will figure out how to transfer pictures from my phone to the computer so I can show you more things.  

I hope anyone who is reading this is having a good day and the weather is not too bad where you are.  Thanks for reading this!