Almost ready for winter

Here is one of many loads of firewood we've gathered this fall.  I got the last of it cut up yesterday and stacked down by the wood splitter to be split later on, as I need it.  The woodshed is almost full, plus there are little stacks out in the woods, and there is almost two cords down in the "round pen" woodshed.  I think I just might have enough to get me through the whole winter this year.  I'm hoping it's a mild one like the forecasters are saying it will be.  I'm thinking it's going to be an icy one.  We haven't had one of those for a couple of years now, so we are due again.

  It's breeding season around here.  There will be kids born starting in late March and going all the way through May again.  I've been missing some of the does in their heat cycles, I'm not watching them close enough this year, too many other things going on.  Guess I'd better pay closer attention to them!  The way I have things set up, I can't just put the does in with the bucks and leave them there, so I have to be watching for the signs they are in heat and then hurry and grab them and put them in with the appropriate buck.  Some day I'll have a different arrangement, but for now....

   We are supposed to get snow starting on Thursday, so I think winter is about here.  I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be for it.  It's supposed to get colder, too, so it's a good thing all the animals have their winter coats grown out.

   I hope the survivors of the superstorm Sandy do okay.   I hear there is another storm heading their way this week.  Just what they need.
  People do need to quit thinking the government is going to rescue them, though.  Everyone needs to look out for themselves and each other, and not rely on outside help for anything.  Community is what gets one through something, not the government.  Community meaning different things for different people.  Neighbors helping neighbors is what gets a person through a challenging time.  Being part of a community, whatever kind that means, is key to all of us.  No One is an island, even though I think I am sometimes. :-)  Just when I think I can handle anything anywhere, something happens and I need to call on someone for help.  Luckily, I am very, very blessed to have a good network of friends and community that will help me whenever I call!  Life is so good!!!

  Okay, now I'm off my soapbox. :-)  I'm spinning and crocheting again now that it gets dark so early.  Evening hours are good for that.  The dehairing is just about done for the year.  12 more fleeces to go, (4 are someone else's) and then the machine gets put to bed for the winter.  Our batteries for the solar system are about worn out.  They don't hold a charge very long anymore, so running the machine on cloudy days is out.  This time of year there aren't very many sunny days anymore, so I'm glad I'm almost done dehairing.  We aren't going to be able to get new batteries until a year from now, (got to save up some money for them), so I have to run the generator every night for a couple of hours to charge up the batteries for the night.  That could get a bit expensive, what with gas prices like they are!  These batteries have lasted 9 years, and have been abused a bit, so I guess we are due for new ones.  When I first got the machine, I didn't do things right and ended up really deep cycling the batteries too many times that winter.  This machine takes quite a bit of electricity to run, and we didn't have a lot of sun that winter, so the batteries got overworked way too much.  Live and learn.  Last winter I didn't do that, but the damage was already done.  I'm praying for 12 more sunny days this month so I can get the fleeces done in time for Christmas sales!

  Pray for sunshine...  

 

Free range eggs

The girls are out and about, finding all kinds of goodies during the day.  It is so nice to have fresh, homegrown eggs again!  Now that they are old enough to be laying, I'm getting anywhere from 6 to 11 eggs a day.   These are Silver Laced Wyandottes, and the two golden ones are Golden Wyandottes.  A nice change from the all black chickens we had for years.  Jersey Black Giants are nice chickens, but I wanted some more color this time around.  The only problem is we don't have a rooster, so there won't be any babies out of these girls, just lots of eggs.  Maybe next year I'll get another batch that includes roosters, too.

   I'm glad the snow melted from the other day.  Waking up to two inches of snow wasn't fun. (Wednesday) I'm not ready for snow yet!!  It was very pretty in a wintery kind of way, but it can wait till the end of November before it snows again, please.
   The deer came in again last night, right through all the fencing and all that I had put up to keep her out.  Actually I think she walked in through the open gate that Nellie pushed open, but she left through the fence and tore it all up.  She is really going to have to go in the freezer!!  I heard her get tangled in the fence at 3 this morning, then got free and then had the nerve to snort at it.  Dang beast.  It is now a battle of wills between her and I.  So far, she's winning!  Not a good thing.  John got a little pellet type gun a couple of years ago, so I think I'll figure out how that works and start peppering her with that and see if that keeps her away, at least until hunting season starts in a couple of weeks.  If Nellie would do her job like she is supposed to, none of this would be happening.  Id have a freezer full of veggies, the apple trees wouldn't look half naked, and life would be great.  I am so grateful I have friends with bountiful gardens that shared their produce with me this year!

   I'm taking on some custom spinning jobs here this month.  I haven't spun wool in a long time!  It should spin up pretty fast.  I'll have to dust off the Louet and get it ready to go.  I use my Majacraft Rose for spinning the cashmere, and the Louet for everything else.  I haven't done anything else for a while, so Louie is a bit dusty. :-)

  Well, that's it for now, more as it happens...

Weather is changing finally

The weather is finally going to cool down and maybe even rain!  We've gone all month without a drop of rain, so it's getting rather dry out.  Today the wind is blowing and there are a few clouds scuttling across the sky.  I had the woodstove going last night, but let it go out today, since it's in the 60's.
  I got another fleece dehaired today.  Camilla has some really nice cashmere!  A nice white and micron count under 16.  Some soft, wonderful fiber.  The machine is making an unfamiliar noise that I can't figure out what it is, so I'm done dehairing till the guy from mini mills gets here sometime next week.  I'm so glad he's coming through here!  They don't make the "rounds" every year, at least not out this way, so I'm glad the timing is such that the noise happened just before he gets here.  I've got 9 fleeces left to go, plus there is an order coming to be dehaired this week.  So the machine can't quit now!

  The deer has eaten 99% of my garden this year.  She has done waaay more damage than the goats ever have in all the years I've had goats.  She ate all the green beans except one tiny meal, all the peas except 4 tiny meals, all the broccoli, the spinach, a lot of the carrots, pulled up the onions repeatedly so I only had about 5 of those, and now she is working on the apple trees.  I have put up more booby traps for her than I can count, and she just figures them out and gets in anyway.  She even lifted a double layer wire cage off the beans!  I had a hard time getting that off to pick my one meal, but she just pulled it off and ate the beans, just as another little meal for me was about ready.  Grrrr....  She also had pretty much eaten the whole blackberry bush that was getting some ripe berries on it finally.  At least I'm getting some of those.  One or two a day.  She just blasts through the high fence I have up, even though it is that black snow fence stuff that is highly visible.  If there weren't so many things to hit around the garden, like vehicles, etc., if I missed, I'd just shoot her and put her in the freezer.  Since she's eating my winter's food supply, she can be my food supply, at least the meat portion.  With at least 10,000 acres of national forest all around us, there really is no reason she should be in here at all.  The dogs are afraid of her, so they are worthless.  Although Nellie, I think, has figured out that this isn't "grandma" deer and that she can chase this one away and it will run from her.  She finally did that last night with great success.  A little too late, but better late than never.  When John gets home, we are putting up a real deer fence, or I'm not even going to attempt a garden next year.  I've told a couple of bow hunters about her, and one came up a couple of times.  Of course, she didn't come anywhere near the place till after dark.  So all that accomplished is two disfigured trees cause the guy had to have "room" for his tree stand so he cut a bunch of branches out.  Way more than I thought he would, or he said he would.  Now the trees look ugly.  Especially the one near the dairy barn.  I might just cut that one down now.  Then the guy filled his tag by shooting a deer from his deck at home.  A lot of good that did me!  Don't think I'll invite him up again to hunt, ever.  Yes, I'm rather annoyed with him.

  The chickens are laying quite good now!  6 to 11 eggs a day, depending on the day.  I've been waiting all year for this, and having fresh eggs is a wonderful thing. :-)  I'm getting enough to sell again, too.  I have a few customers that have been waiting for these girls to start laying.  They say these are the best eggs they've ever had.  That is a nice compliment to my chicken raising ability. :-)  Thank-you!
  
  The bears have moved away from here for now.  I think they are still visiting the people down below us, but I haven't seen any fresh sign around our perimeter for a while.  This is good.  I saw one out on the forest service road last week as I was heading out for a bale of hay around 8:30 in the morning.  Not too far down the road from here!  Must have been what the dogs were all barking fiercely at the night before,  
  Well, that's all the news from here for now.  More as it happens....

  

Helperss

Having help is a wonderful thing!  I signed up with HelpX, a help exchange network this summer, and it has been a very good thing.  There have been a few no-shows, but I've had 5 great people come and help me get things done on the farm.  Got about half the firewood in now, the garden is ready for winter, lots of little things have been done, it's great!  I've met some neat people, too.  Thanks Heidi for telling me about that organization!

   The bears have been active around here this year.  Neighbors have had visits, and I've had an almost close encounter with one while out in the woods with the goats.  I haven't taken the goats out now for over a week.  Do not want to run into a bear.  The goats would run for home, leaving me there to deal with it by myself.  No, Nellie would go after it, or at least bark at it and scare it away.  :-)  Still, I don't want to take a chance and have a close encounter.  It might just go after a goat or something.

  The deer, or I should say one deer, has decided that the gardens are her territory.  I've been chasing her off and throwing rocks at her when I see her, but now she's only coming in at night.  The apples are starting to ripen and she's going after those.  The bears aren't coming in because of the three layers of fence and the dogs barking, but this deer jumps the fences and ignores the dogs for the most part. Nellie is finally realizing that this deer will run from her if she charges towards it barking.  "Grandma" would just stand there and take her on, but she got ate by a mountain lion last winter, and her descendants aren't quite as brave as her.  The only problem is Nellie only goes after her if I yell "get outta here" at the deer.  Otherwise, the deer have the run of the place.  The trees look pretty bare in the deer eating range.  The tops still have leaves and apples, but the mid to bottom of the trees are well trimmed.  Most annoying.  Next year we are getting a real fence up that the deer won't destroy.  The black snow fence stuff they just blast through.  Now it looks horrible with big holes in it where they jumped through it, not over it.  It's archery season, but no one has shot these deer around here yet.  I keep waiting and telling all the bow hunters where they are hiding out during the day, but the deer are still around.

   The long dry spell in the cashmere sales is finally over!  Thank heavens!  I've only got 13 fleeces of mine left to dehair, then I'll be done and get can them all up on the website and other places and get them sold.  I'll make some yarn with it, too.

  Miss Astrid is the first, and hopefully only, unplanned pregnancy of the breeding season.  Midnight got out when the herd was out in the lower pasture and had a grand ol' time out there.  Thank heavens she was the only one in heat that day!  February babies are not what I want around here, it's usually too cold then.  I don't have a good barn, just a bunch of 3 sided shelters that work great in the late winter, early spring, but not so much in the dead of winter.  I guess if I have to, I can make something in the hayshed.  I just don't have heat lamps or anything.  Good thing cashmere goats are hardy!

  Well, that's the latest news from around here.  Happy Fall everyone!   

  

Out with the Goats

Here are the goats on their way home from eating out in the neighbor's places.  They are quite full and going rather slowly. ☺ There is a ton of food this year for them everywhere but on our property.  They have eaten that all down already.  Luckily all the neighbors want them to eat their weeds and tall grass to keep the fire hazard down.  In this lower picture they have found a big thistle patch and keep going back to it each day we go down there.

  It only takes them about 2 hours to eat their fill and want to go back home for water and to digest it all.  I take them out almost every day unless I have a project that really needs to get done, or I don't get home in time from town to take them out.  Saves on hay, and it's quite pleasant to take my folding lawn chair and follow them around the forest for a couple of hours.  A good way to connect with Mother Nature and contemplate life.  I started out fretting about all that I wasn't getting done in those couple of hours out with them, but then I decided that it was a good break, it saved on hay, and I felt better when I got back, so it was worth losing a couple of hours of work time to feed the goats for free.

  There sure has been an active bear in the area!  Everywhere we go, there are shredded logs, stumps and over-turned rocks.  So far I haven't seen a bear when we've gone out, but there sure has been a lot of signs that one is around.  The goats sound like a herd of elephants crashing through the brush, so that probably scares everything away long before I can see anything.  A couple of times the goats have been rather nervous and stay in the open meadow areas and stick pretty close together, so I know they sense something is there. Nellie, the LGD goes out with us, too, so she keeps an eye out for anything.

  I have come to the conclusion that trying to stick to a set schedule around here is just a lesson in futility.    Something always happens to change things.  Either a goat has an issue, someone comes or calls, or I have some kind of issue that I wasn't expecting.  So to keep stress at an acceptable level, I've decided to just do as much as I can in a day and not get too worried about what didn't get done.  There is always tomorrow....and if not, oh well. 

   Now that the weather is hot and dry, things are starting to turn a bit brown.  The yard is mostly brown, except for the gardens that I keep watered.  The deer got in the veggie garden and severely trimmed and ate my winter's food supply.  It ate every single broccoli plant, a lot of the peas, beans, carrots, and spinach.  Luckily I hadn't weeded the strawberries so the grass was thick and tall and hid the berries, or they would've been eaten too.  Dang beast!  Why she had to come in here when there is so much food out in the woods,  10,000 acres worth to eat, is beyond me.  I think a mountain lion got her two nights ago.  I heard a deer scream (which sounds an awful lot like a goat!) in the wee hours of the morning, the dogs all went ballistic, and I haven't seen her since.  I jumped up and went outside to make sure it wasn't one of the goats, but they were all just laying around not concerned at all, and the scream was a bit farther out in the neighbor's place anyway.   Hopefully it was her and then she won't be back.  She had a fawn this year, so I wonder if that got eaten, too.  I know this sounds rather mean, but she needed to get eaten so she'd stay away from here.  She was way too familiar with the place, thought she owned it.  She even has the dogs afraid of her.  Her mom, who I called Grandma, went after the dogs a couple of times, so they learned that when she stomped her foot and tipped her head, they had better look out.  She taught her kids that, too.  She got eaten last Spring by a lion, and now I think her remaining daughter got it the other night.  There are more to replace her, but they are more afraid and won't come in the yard.  It's nice to have the lions keeping everything in check out there.  As long as there are deer around, I don't have to worry about the goats getting attacked.  

  To be safe, I don't take the goats out till afternoon and then I make sure they are back in the pens a couple of hours before sunset when the predators are taking their afternoon naps and not looking for food.  It's worked good so far, knock on wood.

 Well, that's all for now.... Here we are, back on our property heading for the water troughs. 

   Here's a cow elk on the forest service road, down from our place a couple of miles.  The rest of the herd is in the woods already.  There is a small herd roaming the area around us.  Beautiful animals!

Helpers

   Boy, summer is going by fast!  It's been an interesting one so far.  The weather has been pretty good.  No real problems, all the big thunder storms have gone around us, for which I'm very grateful!  We get rain from them, but no close lightning or anything.
  I've sold all the dairy kids for this year.  Sweetpea and company went to a great home.  She is being treated like the princess she thinks she is.  The other four have it pretty good, too.  I'm happy.  Now I just need to sell 10 more and I'll be set for numbers for this year.   
  I've got my hay all lined up for the coming year, so that is a big relief!  I haven't been able to take the goats out to browse very many times this week.  There is a mountain  lion in the area and the goats are very nervous when we go out.  I'd decided to give the lion a few days to move on to the rest of it's territory.  I think it has moved on now.  I took the goats out yesterday, and they were their normal selves.  Before they would stay in the open meadows in a pretty tight bunch, but yesterday they were a little more spread out and back into the trees again.


   I've started a fund raising campaign on Indiegogo.com.  Pine Needle Farm Fiber Arts Retreat Center.  I want to build a retreat center for fiber artists to come and relax, learn some new techniques from well-known teachers, and hang out with like-minded people for a week-end or a week-long workshop.  There will be informal spin-ins and other gatherings, too.  It's going to be a great place when I'm all done building it.  There will be six guest cabins that sleep 6 people each, with each one made out of a different "green" building  material, a main classroom, dining building, and a big gazebo in the middle of the complex for evening gatherings and get togethers.  There will also be a few spots to camp at, too.  There will be walking/hiking trails all over the property, with lots of natural dye materials to search for.  It will be a good place to re-connect with Nature, relax, and have a great time with other like-minded people, enjoying all that Mother Nature has to offer.
  I did kind of goof when I was writing up the campaign.  I didn't read the fine print soon enough and put a big amount to raise, thinking I could use some of it to buy the piece of property next to us to build the Center on.  I guess you are not supposed to use money raised to buy real property, so I only need about half of what I'm asking for to get this up and going.  My goal is to have the Center open and going on June 15, 2014.  A lot has to happen between now and then, and most of it costs money, so if you or anyone you know would like to contribute, I would hugely appreciate it!  Please pass the word on to all of your "fibery" friends.  Thanks!!

   I've got quite a few helpers lined up for the month of August.  I got a camper!!!  Now they can stay in that instead of in the house, and everyone can have some privacy and their "own space"  It will be much better than having people staying in here on the couch.   I am so excited to have the camper.  That opens up a whole new world for me.  I can go to fiber festivals and stay in that instead of hotels, saving me a lot of money.  I can buy more fiber! :-)  Not that I need more, I have enough going on with the cashmere, but I can't resist all the colorful rovings and new fibers out there just waiting to be spun.   There is some pretty cool stuff out there!
  Well, I hope everyone is having a good summer, despite all the wacky weather.  It seems that you are either drowning or burning.  Not much in the "just right" category this year.  

Cool rainy day

  Today was a nice cool rainy day.  A nice break from the sun and heat.  Even though we haven't had that much sun and heat, after a few days of it, I'm ready for some clouds.
  A deer got into the garden last night and ate the broccoli that was just starting to grow well.  It also ate the tips of most of the peas, the carrot tops and even had the nerve to walk up by the front porch and eat the pansies that are in the wheelbarrow planter!  There is so much food out in the woods there is no reason at all for it to come in here.  The goats get full after an hour and a half out there.  They come in looking like they are about to pop!  Oreo was actually waddling. :-)  She's an "easy keeper" anyway, so when she gets out into the good food, she really expands.  She's as wide as she is tall.

  I sold the dairy cross kids, including Sweetpea.  That was sad selling her, but she will be going to a good home where she will be treated like a little princess, which she thinks she is anyway.  I'm delivering them this week sometime.   They've already been paid for, but the people had to build some fencing before they were ready for the goats.  I'm starting to wonder, though.  When I tried to call her tonight, I got a recording that said that number was no longer in service.  Rather strange.  Hope nothing is wrong!

   I got a couple more boomerang goats back this last week.  Out of the 4 wethers I sold two years ago, they have all now come back here.    Alex and Andy are back, and now Nicolas and Maxwell are back.  Alex and Andy have really nice cashmere, I was kind of glad to get them back.  I don't remember what Nicolas and Maxwell's cashmere is like.  If it's not really nice, they are nice big goats, so they can go in the freezer with no problem.  They are also rather wild and can't be caught too easily.  Not sure what all happened to them when they weren't here, but whatever it was didn't tame them down any.  It's funny, they won't let me touch them, but they are the first ones in when I call them all in from eating out in the woods.

   I've decided to sell Speckles, one of the milk goats.  She's the nicest of the three, doesn't have any horns, and is giving me a good amount of milk.  I'm getting way too much milk, so I came to the conclusion that I really don't need three of them.  She's only 5 years old, births out her kids easily, and takes her milking job seriously.  Jumps right up on the stand and eats her grain calmly while I milk her.

   I'm debating on whether or not to sell a bunch of the cashmere goats.   I'm not selling as much cashmere as I need to and I have bills that need paying, so I'm thinking about selling a bunch.  But, I also keep getting a strong feeling that I'm going to need every hair of cashmere I can get next year, so I'm hesitant to sell very many goats. It's a delimma!
    I do have a buckling that I'm going to sell pretty soon. Flash.   He's a beautiful shade of light brown with a stout build.  I'll put his picture on here one of these days.  I'm 99.9% sure he's going to have outstanding fleece, his parents both do, and he's looking like he is going to, too.  He has a nice square build also.

 There is a bear or two out there.  I saw one as I was coming home mid-morning one day last week.  Then when I've been taking the goats out to browse, I'm seeing shredded logs and stumps all over the place.  Overturned rocks, too.  The dogs have been barking a lot at night lately.  I'm glad we have the perimeter completely fenced.  It won't keep out a serious predator, but it keeps out the curious and lazy ones.  Between the fence and Nellie, the animals are rather safe here.

  Well, that's it for now.  Have a good summer!