Growing Goats, Growing Farmers

Yesterday Becky and I vaccinated the mama goats and their babies.

We wormed them and trimmed their hooves in preparation for moving them to a new enclosure.

Very soon O'Malley's twins will be leaving for their new homes...

leaving us just with "Dot" (one of Sissy's triplets).

It' hard to believe another kidding season has come and gone.

It's comforting to remember as each of the kids leaves for their new home,

that next year will bring a whole new group of baby goats.

While I was up helping Becky,

I snapped this picture of happy ole Pete.

You may remember that just a few short months ago, Pete was sadder than sad...

and skinny as a rail.

He has put on a lot of weight and is doing great.

As you can see, he is quite comfortable in his surroundings!

Becky plans to float his teeth one more time and then try a bit in his mouth

and get him under saddle.

It will be fun to see what kind of ride he turns out to be.

He is very kind and tries hard to please,

but he is also very skittish and fearful (due to his previous life.)

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First harvest of broccoli this year

I have been spending some of my free time writing a course syllabus for a "farm school."

We are kicking around the idea of offering a course on basic farming skills...

gardening, beekeeping, animal care, composting, etc.

Our Amanda pointed out that so many of her friends would like to be self sufficient,

but don't have the skills or knowledge of gardening, home canning, or even cooking.

Blanching broccoli

We are going to give this a trial run with a basic overview course...

with the intent of offering more in-depth courses if there is interest.

At this point, we are in the planning stages...

Broccoli, drying...in preparation for vacuum sealing and freezing.

but I think it is going to be a lot of fun!