...since I last wrote. The truth is, it has been nearly half a year. Why have I not written? Well, some extended family issues that were immensely painful took away not only my desire to write, but also my desire to put my life on display. Sort of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" meets "none of your business."
So there it is, or was, as the case may be. While there hasn't been repentence or reconciliation with some parties, God has been good in healing my heart, and granting me the ability to move on. Not hobbling, weeping, moving on; but joyful, relieved, freeing moving on, and for that I'm immensely grateful!
In looking at my pre-hiatus posts, I find that my life isn't all that different then than it is now, though lots of interesting tidbits filled in the gaps. We are still homeschooling, still doing music lessons, still taking martial arts, still wondering when Shiloh will finally get potty trained, and focused on a myriad of farm projects, goats included.
Since this blog is named after our farm, I'll elaborate there more first. We sold the last of our Alpine dairy goats over the summer. It worked out well because we had extended family living with us for 7 months and I'm not sure our dishwasher could have kept up with all the dishes and milking equipment too. I'm certain that our clothes washer couldn't have kept up with all the regular laundry let alone additional soiled barn clothing. We were able to get our milk through a herdshare with someone we sold goats to, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to visit with this family on a regular basis. However, that source has been dry (pre-kidding) since around Thanksgiving and we've been buying Myenberg at Walmart. Nobody does this. Seriously. I singlehandedly changed my local Walmart's Myenberg policies--from keeping 2 cartons in inventory at all times, to keeping 12 cartons AND it has been moved from the bottom shelf to the middle shelf. Walmart will not like me when I have access to fresh raw milk again. My family, however, will love me! We are spending a ridiculous amount on it now (it's $4.18 a QUART!) and it tastes like crap. Well, not literally like crap--if it did, crap would certainly be a cheaper alternative. Only Shiloh drinks it now and I have a little in my coffee. David, Samuel, and Shiphrah reminisce about having yummy milk to drink. I miss my kefir. It's just not the same with cow milk.
In addition to missing the milk, we also miss the fact that goats kept the goat pen looking neat. David spent a good bit of time weed eating in the pen this winter. I'm certain I'd have spent more time cleaning out the barn if we had goats, but David's time is more valuable than mine. Just kidding. I wondered if you were still reading. :)
We had considered just buying a couple of wethers to keep the pen cleaned up, that wouldn't require a lot of hay and mess up the barn... and then I thought, "What if we just got 2 goats for milk, like we had planned on in the beginning?" I had originally only planned on having 2 or 3 goats, milking just for us, letting the moms raise their kids so I would only have to milk once a day, and getting my children when they were able to learn to help. Since we had milk, it seemed like people wanting or needing goat milk were everywhere and we wanted to provide. We grew our dairy operation beyond what was managable for us with all of our other obligations. While our intentions were good, they weren't realistic. While getting rid of all the goats was good for us at the time, we are nearly ready to give it a go again.
I said nearly ready. There are a few things (in addition to the number of animals kept) that we could do smarter this time around. Moving the chickens far far away would be a priority for me, but that's not going to happen yet. (Though it would make it so we could feed hay with a lot less waste, and water buckets and troughs could be kept ever so much cleaner!) We hope to put automatic waterers in the barn as well as get electric service to the barn. I would love to be done with garden hoses, water buckets, and extension cords! We will dig a trough for water drainage behind the barn. (I anticipate that that will be a yearly chore, given the terrain.) We also plan to put a concrete floor in the barn. While not good for drainage, it will hopefully stop all the tunneling mice, keep the chickens and dogs from digging holes, and allow for easier cleanup.
There seem to be a bazillion other things I want to write about but they'll have to wait. It's 1:30 on a Monday and we've finished school for the day. This requires a celebretory something or other!
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