One step at a time

Wake up to the sound of a rustling doeling in the house.  Roll out of bed to heat milk and bottle feed her.  Put the teapot on the propane stove and open the draft on the woodstove.  Pour some coffee and top it generously with last night's goat milk.

Mix bottles for the rapidly growing bucklings and feed them in their pen.  Look over the herd and take special note on the condition of the does due to kid next.  Water the goats and check their hay/pellets.  Fill up their free-choice supplements and head back to the cabin.   

Sip coffee while getting things ready for the morning milking.  Mix grain and sunflower seeds for feeding on the milk stand, and line up jars to bottle the milk.  Trail in one goat at a time, and get the job done.  Take the milk to the upright freezer, and water the goats again.

Now bring in the four white goats, one at a time.  Trim their feet and send em out the door.  Feed the guineas, noting that one may be missing, and sit down for a few minutes to finish that cup of coffee.

Down to the chicken house with a bucket of food that was mixed last night.  Find a dead hen in the front room.  Take her up to the house and autopsy her.  See that her ribs are broken, and remember that she's the smallest hen of the bunch that came up the mountain last Friday.  Skin her out, put her in the dog pot, and throw her liver in the chicken feed.  Back to the chicken house to scrape down all the flat surfaces and check their water.  Flip litter and add fresh straw to the nest boxes.  Haul in a bucket of water to top off their supply.

What's next?  Hang the load of laundry that ran last night.  Contemplate hanging it outdoors, but remember the snow under the clothesline is still knee deep and fairly untrampled.  Scratch that idea.

Check the goat water, but it's still full enough.  It's 10:30 am now, and starting to warm up a little.  Remember today's the day to seed tomatoes and get the greenhouse ready to heat.  Decide it's time for breakfast, and pick between fresh carrot-orange-celery juice, or raw eggs and goat milk.  Choose both.

Head outside again to find a stapler for putting up visqueen as an insulating barrier/divider in the greenhouse.  Start moving things around to get organized, and move in a bunch of cement blocks to capture heat.  Put barrels on tomorrows shopping list.

Back indoors to seed a flat of tomato starts.  Water all the trays and seedlings that are growing on the window ledges.  Mix some more chicken food for tonight's feeding, and then set up another bucket to start the sprouting process.  Make a mental note to find more buckets to increase the sprouting time.

Water the goats and then head down the mountain to pump 55 gallons of water into buckets.  Carry the buckets into the cabin two by two, and pour them into the storage barrels.  Start the generator, and pump 35 gallons into the upstairs storage tank.  Grind enough barley to cook the dog food and add it to the pot with the hen.  Move all the empty buckets back outside and shut off the power plant.

Decide to let the fire in the cabin go out, so I can clean out ashes today.  Find a scoop shovel and start digging out the south wall of the greenhouse, since the snow is piled to the eaves.

Heat milk and feed the little doeling.  Sit down to take a break and munch on some moose jerky and goat  cheese.  Now it's time to clean up a bit, do the dishes and put a dent in cleaning the floors.  Scoop water from the double boiler used to make cheddar last night, and put the boiler in the entry way.  Dissemble the camp stove that is only brought out for cheesemaking, and return it to outside storage.  Keep cleaning up.

It's approaching noon now... what should I do with the rest of my day?

Comments

[Clare]

watch TV!! just kidding of course :)