I like to think that even though we live in the middle of nowhere where barnyard animals roam freely and Walmart and Rural King are upscale shopping experiences, that we're still classy people. I mean, we may be farmers but we clean up pretty good, we're not hicks right?
At least that's what I tell myself.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Adventures in Dairy Goat Farming: Part 2
When G and I were dating and eventually planning our life together many, many years ago we discussed everything from where we would live, how many kids we would have, where we would vacation, when we would retire, and how we would decorate our house. One thing that never ever came up though was any mention of livestock.
I think maybe once I asked if G liked the name Jamboree for a baby girl, to which he said if we ever got a goat I could name it Jamboree (he has a history of rejecting my off-the-wall baby girl names, and by the way we have three goats and not one of them is named Jamboree). And I think the idea of having a chicken or two crossed my mind after all my parakeets died.
But now we have 12 chickens and 3 goats with daily mentions of what farm animals we're going to accumulate next.
Starting with baby goats.
When the whole thing started, it was one baby goat we were going to have. But G has learned to gradually warm me up the idea of more livestock and, somehow, now, we are somehow planning on up to EIGHT baby goats next spring.
So, how does one go about going from two female goats and a "fixed" male goat to anywhere from five to eleven goats and a couple gallons of milk a day?
Well, I have learned, you simply put an ad on Craigslist looking for a goat "companion."
Goat dating ads were never part of the plan I had for my life. But now almost daily I find myself humming, "Match-maker, match-maker, make me a match..."
Evidently, at least around where we live, goat "companions" and fellow goat farmers willing to let you borrow their daddy goats or board your female goats are not hard to come by. Within hours, G had a couple potential suitors for our lady goats and the next evening the three boys went down the road to interview one of them. (Typical boys though, they didn't even ask the goat what his name was, so for now we just have to call him Mr. Goat). Well, the neighbor Mr. Goat was accepted for the position and now the boys are making plans to bring him to our house for a couple-week-long playdate.
The best part of all this though was one evening at supper, GD asked, "When will I be old enough to understand why our girl goats need to visit a boy goat in order to get baby goats? Will I understand when I'm five?" To which we just replied, "You'll understand when you're older." And changed the subject by telling him he could name the goats. Forget about the birds and the bees. At my house we'll have the goats and the chickens discussion.
I think maybe once I asked if G liked the name Jamboree for a baby girl, to which he said if we ever got a goat I could name it Jamboree (he has a history of rejecting my off-the-wall baby girl names, and by the way we have three goats and not one of them is named Jamboree). And I think the idea of having a chicken or two crossed my mind after all my parakeets died.
But now we have 12 chickens and 3 goats with daily mentions of what farm animals we're going to accumulate next.
Starting with baby goats.
When the whole thing started, it was one baby goat we were going to have. But G has learned to gradually warm me up the idea of more livestock and, somehow, now, we are somehow planning on up to EIGHT baby goats next spring.
So, how does one go about going from two female goats and a "fixed" male goat to anywhere from five to eleven goats and a couple gallons of milk a day?
Well, I have learned, you simply put an ad on Craigslist looking for a goat "companion."
Goat dating ads were never part of the plan I had for my life. But now almost daily I find myself humming, "Match-maker, match-maker, make me a match..."
Evidently, at least around where we live, goat "companions" and fellow goat farmers willing to let you borrow their daddy goats or board your female goats are not hard to come by. Within hours, G had a couple potential suitors for our lady goats and the next evening the three boys went down the road to interview one of them. (Typical boys though, they didn't even ask the goat what his name was, so for now we just have to call him Mr. Goat). Well, the neighbor Mr. Goat was accepted for the position and now the boys are making plans to bring him to our house for a couple-week-long playdate.
The best part of all this though was one evening at supper, GD asked, "When will I be old enough to understand why our girl goats need to visit a boy goat in order to get baby goats? Will I understand when I'm five?" To which we just replied, "You'll understand when you're older." And changed the subject by telling him he could name the goats. Forget about the birds and the bees. At my house we'll have the goats and the chickens discussion.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Well, We Did Say We Wanted to Raise Bees
A few weeks ago I noticed some yellow jackets buzzing into the small opening between our siding and door frame. I mentioned it to G but it was only a few bees so we didn't think anything of it. Over the next weeks I noticed more and more bees buzzing around, but they were leaving us alone and we were busy so we still didn't do anything. And then one afternoon there was a bee in our house. And the next day a few more. So we decided we finally should investigate.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Adventures in Dairy Goat Farming: Part 1
G brought the goats home last April with the intention of turning them into dairy goats, and making them productive, worthwhile farm animals. For the past six months they have really been nothing more than glorified pets, providing bare-back goat-riding sessions while we hemmed and hawed about keeping them, building them a goat barn, and taking the necessary steps to goat lactation. During the first couple weeks I threatened to get rid of them while G insisted the boys would be heartbroken. Then for the next couple weeks G threatened to get rid of them while I insisted the boys would be heartbroken. And then for most of the summer, getting rid of the goats was the ultimate consequence of any bad behavior. All the while I keep asking, why do we have these goats? To which the answer is usually something along the lines of, "Because we're farmers!" or some excuse that they're making manure to fertilize my garden.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Halloween
It seems really odd to me that I have a child who's most absolute favorite day of the whole year is Halloween. I never really thought Halloween was that exciting. I liked dressing up, but then my costumes always started to "bother" me, and trick-or-treating was cold and dark. But GD has been looking forward to Halloween since April and is already talking about next Halloween (and pretending that everyday since October 31 was Halloween again). His excitement for the holiday is solely based on his loves of the Curious George Halloween BOOFest Special and stabbing pumpkins with a carving tool. He was beyond excited to be dressing up as No Noggin, even though we only came across two people that had even heard of No Noggin. His costume was pretty simple to put together (especially because Curious George shows you how to make it in the show), and he helped with all of it.
Of course, GE gets excited about anything his brother is excited about, so he was overjoyed to be dressing up too. Even though I had a cute cowboy costume and a banana costume leftover from GD that would have fit GE, I wanted to make him his own. GE is pretty obsessed with cows right now, and farm animals in general, so I made him a comfy cow costume that I'm sure he will wear again and again. He was especially enamored with his tail.
The weather the night of trick-or-treating was perfect, about 70 degrees, and since the time change is different than it was 20+ years ago when I last went trick-or-treating, it wasn't even dark. We went into town to a friendly neighborhood where people sat on the front porch waiting for trick-or-treaters or just sat a bowl of candy out for kids to take from; I didn't even have to have my kids knock on strangers' doors which I really appreciated. They really had a lot of fun.
Trick-or-treating was two days before Halloween and GD was still highly anticipating the actual holiday. I was concerned he would be disappointed that there wouldn't be an avalanche of pumpkins, a Haunted House of Very Scary Fish, or - for the nervous types - a Regular House of Perfectly Normal Fish (really, if you haven't seen the Curious George Halloween BOOFest special, take 54 minutes and watch it on Netflix). I couldn't really even think of anything Halloween-y, but the day did end up being what GD declared was "the best Halloween ever!"
They had a friend come in the morning to see their goats and chickens, so of course they had fun showing off their farm animals. Then we painted pumpkins and did a Halloween craft.
That afternoon GD asked when we were going to rake leaves (we would have to rake them because we don't have the Hertzburg Leaf Suck-a-Pator 2000). We don't have any leaves, and G was going to be really late from work, so I decided to take the boys up to our church to rake some leaves.
They had the time of their lives raking leaves. Really, it was probably more fun than Christmas morning will ever be for them. GD's Halloween was complete.
They had so much fun raking leaves that we had to go back the next day and do it again.
Of course, GE gets excited about anything his brother is excited about, so he was overjoyed to be dressing up too. Even though I had a cute cowboy costume and a banana costume leftover from GD that would have fit GE, I wanted to make him his own. GE is pretty obsessed with cows right now, and farm animals in general, so I made him a comfy cow costume that I'm sure he will wear again and again. He was especially enamored with his tail.
The weather the night of trick-or-treating was perfect, about 70 degrees, and since the time change is different than it was 20+ years ago when I last went trick-or-treating, it wasn't even dark. We went into town to a friendly neighborhood where people sat on the front porch waiting for trick-or-treaters or just sat a bowl of candy out for kids to take from; I didn't even have to have my kids knock on strangers' doors which I really appreciated. They really had a lot of fun.
Trick-or-treating was two days before Halloween and GD was still highly anticipating the actual holiday. I was concerned he would be disappointed that there wouldn't be an avalanche of pumpkins, a Haunted House of Very Scary Fish, or - for the nervous types - a Regular House of Perfectly Normal Fish (really, if you haven't seen the Curious George Halloween BOOFest special, take 54 minutes and watch it on Netflix). I couldn't really even think of anything Halloween-y, but the day did end up being what GD declared was "the best Halloween ever!"
They had a friend come in the morning to see their goats and chickens, so of course they had fun showing off their farm animals. Then we painted pumpkins and did a Halloween craft.
That afternoon GD asked when we were going to rake leaves (we would have to rake them because we don't have the Hertzburg Leaf Suck-a-Pator 2000). We don't have any leaves, and G was going to be really late from work, so I decided to take the boys up to our church to rake some leaves.
They had the time of their lives raking leaves. Really, it was probably more fun than Christmas morning will ever be for them. GD's Halloween was complete.
They had so much fun raking leaves that we had to go back the next day and do it again.
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