What a wonderful day we had today! It was a perfect Spring day: sunny, warm, blue sky. Derek and I left the house around 8:30 this morning to go to a couple garage sales, in hope to find good deals, and we did find great ones. I am just not sure everything is going to fit in the car when we leave next week! At this one moving sale, people were desperate to get rid of stuff and they were selling stuff for a quarter…can’t really pass on that. After that I went to get a cup of coffee at my new favorite coffee shop (Blue Star, if you find it please give a try to the espresso blend, a unique flavor), stopped at the farmer’s market and went to the senior center which has another Spring sale: they were giving away full bags of clothes for $1…well, not easy to pass on that one either. But i have to say that i am really good at getting stuff i need versus getting something just because it is cheap.
After that we drove around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, with 360 degrees views of snow peaked mountains and lakes; it was breathtaking. Twisp and its surroundings are amazing and if we were going to retire today, i would move here in a heart beat…but it is a bit early to retire and we have to make some money so it may not be the best location for us right now. Too bad. Plus, if we move here, i will visit the coffee shop too often for Derek’s liking : )
This week went pretty well, with the regular milking and chores duties. We also got a couple big projects done like the are and the irrigation ditch cleaned. We got the garden ready (about 1500 square feet) and spread goat poop all over it a couple days ago. Yesterday, Derek tilled, I spread fertilizers and raked it to make the surface smooth. It is looking nice but it was a lot of work just to get it ready. Too bad it wasn’t our garden that we were prepping! I guess now it is ready for planting.
Derek and i finished cleaning up the ditch on Thursday and it was physical work but i liked it: we trimmed branches, raked pine needles and made sure it was all clean. It took us about 3 hours to finish it. By the end of the day i was pretty tired and my back hurt but i was on night duty so no going to bed early for me! We are still waiting on about 5 younger goats to give birth so we still have to do the nightly rounds, unfortunately. And Ed hasn’t been in any rush of selling the 7 kids we have for sale so we still have to feed these guys at 10pm and 2 am; i think if Ed had to get up at night more often then the kids would probably be gone by now. I don’t mean to be bashing Ed but i think being a little bit more proactive on this issue would be great for everyone who has to get up at night : )
We lost a big kid this week, one of the keeper, due to constipation. It was very sad and Venus will sure be missed: she was a happy, curious goat, always running around. But glutony is what killed her (well, i better watch out because i like to eat too…). We tried many things to save her but it did not work (mainly stuff to make her poop such as drench through the mouth and enema, well you know where that goes) and she was gone in less than 24 hour. I went back to check on her and was with her for about 5 minutes when she started grasping for her and just died. I was glad i was with her but it is the second time a kid die on my watch and i don’t like that. Especially Venus looked liked she was in a lot of pain and there was nothing I could do, only watch her and pray for her. Right after she died, Annie (she does milking and cheese making) said she wanted to cut Venus open to find out if constipation was really what killed her. It was weird because i was having an internal battle with doing it or not….anyway i went with her (curiosity won over my disgust of doing it) and i said i will help holding the goat. I watched while she was doing the dirty work and we found out that she was in fact constipated and it has been a while by the way stuff looked in her stomachs (goats have 4 stomachs, i don’t remember the names but if you are dying to know i am sure you can look it up online); she had a lot of hard pieces in her stomach and she kept eating, stocking food in her stomach (if she would have stopped eating earlier we probably could have saved her but it was too late when she did stop eating). I have a picture so be aware it might not be very pleasant.
I made some good chili with spelt flour and honey cornbread-it may sound weird but it was delicious; and also a Moroccan herb and spices soup, which was delicious (i got the recipe from Marie, the french neighbor). I haven’t been cooking much lately, maybe only about once a week, i haven’t felt like it I guess. I have been on a weird diet of cheese, milk, yogurt and eggs…I guess it is time for me to leave the farm and eat more vegetables. I am not complaining though, i love it and i will miss all this good food. It is just that i have never been on such a fatty diet and I wonder how good it is for me (oh well, I have only one life right, so I might as well enjoy it….to a certain extent that is!). The weather has been warming up, with sunny and warm afternoons, and there is only a bit of snow on the mountains, not on the ground (except maybe in the shady areas).
Okay, last week on the farm; I will try to give a last update before we leave next Sunday.
Happy Easter!
CC
Poor little goat… very interesting to see the insides.
I love the black sheep! So cute!