Stinky Goats and the End of Market Season
Holiday Season is almost here
We’re thankful for the extended warm days we’ve had this year. Seasonal Depression is a real thing, and it rents a small space in our house every year. I do much better with it now than I ever did in my 20s or 30s.
Focusing on the farm and things that need done before the cold sets in helps. Preparing for things has been a big tool I use to deal with depression and anxiety. Maybe my lists are a bit heavy, and maybe keeping 3 planners going through the year is kinda obsessive but it helps me to feel in control and keep things going in good time.
I do worry about our livestock. They’re fine, they’re always fine. I just know I would be uncomfortable in the cold. They rarely seem to notice. I find myself humanizing…well everything at times. I do believe they have emotions and feelings; I just know they are more equipped to deal with weather and discomfort than this human.
Goat Breeding Season is Here
Sage and Jasper had a little meeting. If everything goes well…and we really hope it does…we’ll have kids around April 7th.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I get my goats to make milk. If you don’t farm or have never been interested in reproduction in mammals it would make sense you wouldn’t know this. I don’t believe in “stupid questions” or “useless knowledge”. Neither of those terms make sense to me.
Goats, like all mammals, have to become pregnant to lactate. Dairy breeds are better milk producers, they’ve been bred to put more focus in milk production than becoming big meaty goats. But meat goats still produce milk. You can keep a doe in milk up to 2 years safely, with proper feeding. I dry my girls up, help them stop producing milk, before winter so they can use that energy to stay healthy and warm through the cold days. Also, they’re usually pregnant through winter so I’d rather not take that fat, protein and carbs from them that they lose through milking. We freeze our extra milk in ice cube trays so we can make goat milk products through winter. Two Nubian does produce more than enough for us to use in products and for our home use.
Bucks are disgusting during rut. They pee on themselves, all over their faces, and this seems to be extra attractive to a doe in heat. He also thinks it should be attractive to me when I bring his hay in the morning. His cologne blankets the farm right now as well. Lisa hates it, she makes me leave my clothes on the porch anytime I have to handle him. She is obviously not familiar with what is attractive in the goat world.
Goat flirting also makes me dizzy. Buck language is kinda funny though. Watch these with sound.
The End of the Garden
Lisa used some of the last tomatoes in our garden to make tomato tartlets for a customer. She asks for them every year and we love it that she enjoys them so much. With the warm weather we’ve been having, and only a couple very light frosts, we still have lots of cherry tomatoes. She harvested a huge bowl of jalapenos for her Devil’s Dust seasoning and made a batch of strawberry jalapeno jam. We’ll go over the garden once more since the weather is turning cold now, just to make sure we don’t miss anything.
For the neglect it suffered this year, our garden still produced a good number of vegetables and berries. We’ll enjoy butternut squash through winter, and we have a lot of blueberries in the freezer for value-added baked goods for the holidays.
Winter is Creeping In
The fall beauty in our holler is fading. Our walks are not near as colorful now. We just gotta remind ourselves that snow falls beautifully on these mountains, and it won’t be long before the colors of spring will be here again.
The warm weather caused a little confusion that we noticed on our walk. Goldenrod is blooming again, and we saw a few blooms popping out on this huge Mullein that we’ve been watching grow.
A little fact my wife taught me: Did you know that because this Mullein is blooming, it’s at the end of its life, but it will re-seed itself so another will grow there?
Starting over is just a thing we all have to do.
Last Market of the Year!
Don’t miss our last market, November 30th! We hate to see the market season end but we can’t wait to get started on Holiday Treat boxes. More info on those boxes will be in the next newsletter.
As always, we’ll be set up at the Community Center (Crawdad Building) in Manchester.
Kitchen house updates will be in the next email. Things are moving along, slow but steady. I love checking things off of the “Kitchen House To-Do List”.
I think my new planner says it all. Coming across this last month was no accident.
Follow Up Pics from Dumplins’ and Dancing’
I swear this will be the last of the Dumplins’ and Dancin’ pictures….Until I work through editing some videos. It really was the most fun I’ve ever had working and square dancing! I had no idea it was so strenuous.
Well in my defense, I'm not a female goat and into all that pee :p