2 Fewer Mouths to Feed

Today the goat kids left for their new home.  My sister, Becky, was going to buy them from me this spring, since they were buying land, but things didn't work out quite like they'd planned. They still bought land, but were delayed and decided to wait until next year to get goats.  A lady near me bought Elphie, and she's leasing Nessa for one year. That means she keeps Nessa at her place and treats her like her own goat, but I still technically own her.  She'll breed Nessa and keep the kids, and once they're weaned I'll get Nessa back.  If Becky is ready for goats next year and wants Nessa, then she'll get her.  If not, I'll either keep her or sell her. 

Now I've got 2 fewer mouths to feed, which is always nice going in to winter.  I went out and snapped some pictures of the animals this evening.  They seemed to be posing pretty well, so I got some cute shots. 

I really like Barley, below.  She's one of my Romney/Southdown cross ewes.  She's a nice, solid ewe. 

Her sister, Bean, is nice too.  She's not quite as tall as Barley, but she's more heavily muscled.

She's got a cute face too!

My sweet girl, Darla.

The ewe lamb went back in with the sheep today, since the goat kids left. I can't keep her separated by herself, she would be miserable.  She's big enough to be bred this year, so she's in with the rest of the flock.  I've never bred a ewe lamb before, but it's done pretty frequently and I'm pretty confident she'll do fine.

June, waiting patiently for hay. 

Ida, below.  She and June have been dried off and having fewer chores to do has been so nice!  Milking takes up a decent chunk of time, so it feels like it takes hardly any time at all now to do chores.

In a few weeks I'll be bringing a buck to breed the does.  The ram should be breeding the ewes soon, if he hasn't already.  Then the waiting starts.  I'm already looking forward to lambing and kidding this spring!

New Cozies in the Shop

There are two new coffee cozies in the shop!  Fall is right around the corner, and I'm so happy about it!  How better to represent fall than with pumpkins?  Celebrate fall with a new cozy for your cup!

The Hay is in the Barn

There's nothing that feels better than having a barn full of hay, safe and dry and ready to feed your animals through the winter.  I've been buying large round bales for the past couple of years, because I just couldn't afford to buy square bales.  They're much more convenient, but I could always think of better ways to spend all that money. 

I can't believe my luck though, I was given 100 square bales of hay.  I could hardly believe it, and I can still hardly believe it.  I've got some wonderful friends out there.  Thanks to help from David, his dad, and his brother, we got the barn cleaned out and all 100 bales stacked in the barn this weekend. 

What a gift!

*And just making a note for my own use in case I need it in the future, we got 62 bales on our trailer and 38 on David's dad's trailer.  We could have fit another 40 bales in the space in the barn pretty easily. 

School Time

I'm a little late posting this, since school started before Labor Day.  Devin is in 5th grade this year, and Kylee is in 3rd!  Seems like just yesterday they were in pre-k!