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Friday, February 28, 2014

Goats & Seeds & Demolition

It's been a busy week. I'm behind on getting my seeds planted, the baby goats are doing good, and Frank is working on tearing down the old shed. This morning the temperature was 17 degrees, yuck. We would rather be finished with these kinds of temperatures. But it is still winter, after all.


We told you about the shed we are demolishing a few days ago. Frank has been working on that this week.

 









A few evenings ago, I carved out a little bit of time to finally get the carrots and beets seedlings started. I am about 10 days to 2 weeks behind my planned schedule for starting seedlings, but sometimes life has other things planned. Out of the list of things I had planned to start by February 15th, the carrots and beets are all that are in the pots so far. I finished off the last of the beets by the glow of the porch light, but they are in.

 













We let Velvet and her kids out of the birthing pen on Tuesday evening. The boys are doing great and jumping around like nuts. They are so fun to watch. Velvet is a very good mom this time around and appears to have calmed down. We are very pleased with her progress. I tried to take more pictures of the babies, but they are not very interested in standing still for very long.

 








Spring is a very busy time. Baby goats coming, by the way, Ivory is due this Sunday and Copper next Friday. Eggs in the incubator which will start hatching the same day Copper is due. Babies everywhere! Then the time is quickly coming when we will start planting the garden. Once Frank has the building down, we will have the new building brought out and set up. That will allow us to till the garden again and start setting up the trellises we will be using for some of the garden plants. There is much to do after our slower, winter lull. 

Keep your ear to the ground and your senses keen. Hold your family close and thank God every day for your many blessings.


Until next time - Fern


6 comments:

  1. Cute babies!!
    I need to start some seeds, just hard to think about gardening in below zero temps.

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    1. Thanks, Sandra. I'm so glad it's not that cold here. But we are supposed have 16 degrees Monday and and more babies on the way. I hope the forecast is wrong and it will be warmer!

      Fern

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  2. I didn't know that a person could start carrots and beets ahead of time! Is it done just like a person does cabbages and tomatoes?

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    1. I don't know anyone else that does and I haven't read about it anywhere. We started using the Pot Maker pots a few years ago and last spring we thought the carrots and beets would get a better start that way. It was the first time I ever had a beet or carrot harvest. I like to start just about everything in them. I will be planting snap peas in them this weekend.

      Thanks for the question.

      Fern

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  3. The kids look All ears...is that a breed trait? They also look very healthy and vigorous!
    The carrot/beet idea is new to us but makes sense! Thanks!

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    1. Fiona, the ears are a Nubian trait, and I just love them, especially when they're white. I also like the temperament most, not all, Nubian goats have. They are great mothers and give a good amount of milk. Most of my does average 3 quarts per day. It's not summer and time to make cheese, so we're wondering what we're going to be doing with a bunch of milk here soon. Luckily the babies will be consuming a fair share of it until about the beginning of May when they are weaned and school is out, then I will have more time to make cheese.

      There are things we do with the garden that are not very traditional. We experiment a lot. Starting the beets and carrots in the pots worked well last year even though the carrots were short and knarled, but that was because of the depth of our tilling. It's kind of like your experiments with container gardening, try it, if it works, improve on it.

      Thanks for the comment. Take care.

      Fern

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