October Counts

Anybody remember the Farm Counts?? The posts near the beginning of every month where I would record (if for only my sake) all of the previous farm counts and happenings?? Well, they sort of fell by the wayside as there were no buildings left to keep the critters in regularly this summer, therefor nowhere to collect any eggs this summer or separate goats for milking, and being there was no garden there was no harvest to tally either. Well all that has changed girlfriends! We now have an official count for the month of October and some exciting farm news to announce~ get ready~ the total egg tally for the whole month was: 1. One egg that we actually found (yesterday actually since the old girls are now officially in their new home) before the dog did. Just before I was about to have those hens pose for their pictures so I could list them on Craigslist for somebodies crock pot this winter they went and layed one whole egg for me. Now that's some exciting news! They are still on the endangered list around here, tho, as most of them are entering their 3rd year and at this point it's cheaper to just buy farm fresh eggs than keep them over the winter. Time will tell.

Onto other news~ The goats have been reunited with their long lost love Cadillac and most seem to have settled and we should be expecting new kids around the first of March. All except for my one and only prized papered doe who was to be the turning point of this whole farm operation. Santana is on round #5 (or is it #6?) with her new love. Our old farmer neighbor suggested that maybe she just likes the hanky panky??! I'm thinking something about pride coming before the fall myself, but I am trying to let today's worries be enough for today and just wait patiently until March to see what happens then. I keep reminding God how He blessed Jacob with all of those pretty spotted goats and asking Him to bless us with them too.
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And talking about goats~ Alexis helped me make some new goats milk soap for some upcoming classes this month. We had fun experimenting with new colors, scents and designs. This will be a new venture for the farm and one that might turn out to be of interest to the community as well as fun for us. Word of mouth has spread about the classes and we now have 14 people signed up to take classes throughout the month.

The projects have continued around here at a fast and furious pace to try to get ahead of the cold weather and snow that is bound to come. The chicken coop and fence are 99% completed and the chickens are in. Rob was able to get further on the siding of the barn, installed a window and started the wiring, as well as getting most of our winter wood cut besides his work making cheese at the Dairy and helping out a couple of friends with their fall projects of roofs and decks and siding. We had another rip roaring bon-fire to burn more of the scrap lumber from all of the tear down projects this summer. We were hoping it was the last scrap pile to burn but another one is quickly accumulating. We were able to get the posts in the ground for the start of the calf shed in the nice weather as well. Time is going to be made to take advantage of the predicted 40-50 degree November weather this week to finish tearing up the bent pig pen fence so we can put posts in to start the wooden fences there and around the calf pen.
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The last three of the six pigs were shipped this month. Three steers are still waiting for a cancellation at the locker plant to open up to get them shipped. There is a year long waiting list to get large animals butchered in the fall around here and somehow we forgot to schedule for them last year. The three young steers are growing nicely and the farmers wife is contemplating how many she should raise next year. Of course now that all those weeks of bottle feeding and milking have faded from my memory I think we could do a dozen, or why not two dozen, next year??!

All those pretty little horses have mostly stood around looking pretty all month. Except for Sassy that is. Grace has enjoyed riding nearly every nice day. I keep reminding myself that next year we can enjoy the nice fall weather instead of working on these projects because of course next fall there won't be so much to do~ right??

School is in progress and we are all trying to stick with the routine. We have included a bit more running this year with frequent library trips and piano lessons, besides AWANA. Football is officially over for the year. It was a great experience for everybody and one that we could be looking forward to for at least the next 14 years before all the boys would be done playing. One day at a time, and today the critters are beckoning again as well as the kids, so off I go.