Winter Hibernation Leading to Spring Expansion

If you know what you're looking for, Honey is definitely pregnant! We're at the end of the second month and the way goat pregnancy progresses, she won't "show" much at all until she gets BIG at the end of the fourth month and HUGE in the fifth month.

I'm working on building a "kid corner" for the barn. The idea will be that it can be set up for kidding season and folded up for the other half of the year. It's gonna be a bit before I have anything to show you but I'm working on the blueprints.

I've also been working on curtains for the chickens. I've finished the ones separating the nest boxes (it keeps them from fighting),but I also want to sew a roll up curtain for the wall between the goats and chickens. This will provide them with a nice dark area to roost even if I need lights in the goat area at night. They're made out of old feed bags which are a kind of woven plastic fabric, so they're not going to mildew or anything but I can also take them down and wash them in the washing machine when they do get dusty/dirty.

Kelly and Isabella are laying again. I spotted Jennifer on a nest today and Marsha hiding under the nests the past few days so we might have them all laying again soon! That said, even with just the new girls laying over winter, we had lots of extra eggs to give to neighbours and this past week we dropped off 5 half-dozen at the community food pantry.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to send Hugslut some nasty weather for her birthday so we didn't get to go to Yarmouth for dinner. We planned ahead and hunkered down but those two trips out to the barn each day were not fun. The animals complained on day one when I wouldn't let them out but by that night when the wind had kicked up and howled they understood and just relaxed in the barn for the next couple days.

It's tax season of course so among all the rest we're getting our tax documents together for Hugslut's work-from-home office job and I realized that if I ever plan to sell, I really should start keeping farm records instead of just treating it as an expensive hobby. This means that I've of course given myself yet another new project, "learn what sort of expenses can be partially written off of farm income". Not that I have any farm income yet but it'll be good to get into the record keeping.

Gardening won't be an issue for a few more weeks at least. ;-)

Happy Holidays

The seeds I planted at the beginning of December are sprouted and are existing in a state of limbo waiting for the days to get longet before growing any more. This is fine and good. They can develop roots with the amounts of light they're getting and should be all the healthier for it. It's also going to give me a better idea about when the plants prefer to grow for future reference.

Honey came into heat Dec 15th which means the first time didn't take. We took her back to the buck and she was much less shy which means we were probably a day early last time. Jan 8th there was no signs of another heat which means she's likely preggers and due mid May.

There's a slight chance she didn't catch and just naturally didn't cycle again due to being done for the year, but I'm hopeful. Honey now more vocal about things these days. She used to be Star's silent partner but now is happy to tell you when she's unhappy.

 

On Dec 9th I was just eating lunch and one molar just cracked a chunk right off. Thankfully it wasn't deep and it doesn't hurt. I'm on the cancellation list at the dentist as they're booking into the summer. My intake appointment on Dec 18th went well. I like the dentist and they're pretty high tech. In addition to xrays they used a little pencil sized camera to take photos and the records are all digitized. It was pretty neat. :-)

I've had two cleaning appointments because I've not been to a dentist since getting my wisdom teeth out in 2021 but I'm still waiting on a fix for chipped tooth. The dental hygienist gets more cancellations it seems.

Hugslut quit nicotine all together in December which had a drastic withdrawal effect on her causing her to be super sleepy and brain-foggy. It's easing up now but wow that was harsh.

My arm is still giving me troubles off and on, but less so and now with the milking machine I'm not re-aggravating it every day. I ran the machine without attaching it a few times so they'd learn it wasn't a dangerous noise, and after that it only took Star just a day or two to get used to the new routine.

A big snow storm rolled in right before Christmas so we got in some extra food and did our usual on Christmas day of staying in with lots of snacks and watching movies which was nice. I also baked some cookies and bread and after a week of rest and recuperation, we rang in the new year quietly at home.

Even in winter the goats love a hike through the woods. I've been spending the last week or so doing some work planning this year's garden.