Still Milking

Every evening when I go out at 6:00pm, I have four girls waiting for me on the hill.

Astra, Caroline, Joy, and Ava

Well, sometimes, I have a couple more girls who think they should get to come in too.

Haley

They are really annoying, especially in the morning before I go to work.

Dolly and Haley outside the door. They literally try to push their way in when I switch milking girls.

After we are done milking, they head back out to pasture to rejoin the rest of the herd.

Ava, Joy, Caroline, and Astra

I am currently working on filling the freezer with milk for next year’s bottle kid(s) if I need.

I only have a tiny bit of milk left from last year.  When it’s gone, Pretzel will get weaned.

Pretzel running (and yelling at me) for her bottle.

Don’t worry, she’s plenty chunky.

And a couple of evenings, when she’s come running for her bottle, she’s already had milk on her mouth.

Pretzel

I think she and Hera have an arrangement so that Hera’s udder isn’t so full and Pretzel will try sucking anything that might give her milk.

Hera

Anyhow, I’m also still making a bit of mozzarella with the milk. That is for my mom. I’m still making soaps for sale.  I’ve almost restocked everything, and I’ve added some new fragrances to replace the ones I can no longer get.

Sunflower Sandalwood is new.

I’m hoping the soap room will be fully up and ready for sales again by the first of October.

Most of the soaps curing

Of course, I have a lot of soap labels to make now.

Postponed Departure

With the week of horribly hot weather, my first full week back and work, and losing the gosling, the last thing I wanted to do was catch wild kids on Friday evening and sell them Saturday morning.  That means, selling the next batch has been delayed.  I’m pretty sure I’m not doing it Labor Day weekend either, so that means I am hoping to see the next batch on Sept. 11th.

LilyAnn and Jasmine

That leaves me wondering who to take.  I had planned on leaving Chunky Boy here because it wasn’t going to be long enough since he was wormed, but the delay means I can sell him.

Perdita and Chunky

As big as they are getting, all four remaining spring break boys are going to go.

Olaf, Swen, Perdita, Chunky and Geo

There’s only room on the truck for about ten kids, so that means one of the girls is going to have to stay here until I sell the June kids.

Pinta

Missy is already looking at me like she’s not about to let me catch her again.  Or she escaped once, and she’ll do it again.

Missy

Gemma

My preference is to leave Sylvia here.

Sylvia (What do you mean tame? I’m not sure I like the sound of this.)

I’d like to catch her and put her up with Perdita.  Then I might be able to actually start taming her day.  The reality is I’ll probably leave who I can’t catch. LOL

A Week of Weather

I went back to work physically in the high school this week starting on Monday.  That was also when our weather went into the worst possible summer weather pattern.

It’s been hot.  I mean it’s been so hot that my building without air conditioning (it’s expected to be done by the first of November now) has had early dismissals all week.  Not that I got to leave; but the kids left and that lets it feel slightly cooler.  The poor animals have also been miserable.

Maybeline’s fleece is growing thick and hot.

Along with the heat, we’ve had unsettled weather with pop-up showers off and on all week.  It really helped to pump up the humidity.  We’ve been tropical feeling.

Aurora coming up from pasture to get out of the rain (it is dripping off the roof)

The goats have been resting during the hot part of the day and staying out in pasture late in the evening because it’s a little bit cooler.

Hard to see the goats coming up the lane.

The showers would be so isolated that my mom, just a couple of miles away, would get a nice rain shower and I’d have a few drops.

Driving home one day, I even went through a couple of downpours while the sun was shining. Seriously.

One morning on the way to work, there was dense fog.

I swear that there is a dome over my farm that pushes the heavier rains away.

Just missing me again.

I am so tired of the drought.  I’m hoping this might signal a change in our weather pattern and bring more rains (although, who knows, and I seriously doubt it).  Even though we haven’t had a lot of rain, I can clearly see how much greener the pasture looks.

The goats on the bottom–so green again.

Even the hilltops look like the grass is less brown.

Sylvia (still wild)

I’m afraid it’s too late for this poor tree.  I’ve lost several of my big oaks to weather changes in the last couple of years.

Myson and Moose

I’m ready for fall.

Here’s to the sun setting on summer and cooler weather arriving.