Gifts

I stepped out onto the back doorstep this morning without noticing anything out of place.  After getting the baby goats some alfalfa hay and goatmilk for breakfast, I returned to the cabin and found this surprise waiting for me.

I scooped it up and brought it inside for closer examination.  I knew immediately what it was... a gift from our farmcat Taiga2.  Each bead on the string of 7 is the size of a kidney bean.  Of course, I had to open one up to satisfy my curiosity.

So here's a closeup of a tiny vole fetus... love this stuff!

I'm back!

After a one year hiatus (sorry I didn't warn you ahead of time), I've returned to log our farm adventures to the world.  Life on the mountain is very very similar to where we left off last May... except for one.remarkable.addition.  

Our family has been blessed with a sweet and happy baby girl who will be three months old on Wednesday.  Three months already!  Welcome Miekka Kluane... 

I consciously chose to reserve all my creative energy for growing this child.  And now that we are approaching the end of our fourth trimester together, I'm really pleased with that choice.  No regrets at all.

Otherwise, I can honestly say that not much has changed.  I'm still milking a zillion goats a day and the chickens are out everywhere.  Ben is gone hunting, and my Mom is here to help everyday.  Interns continue to come and go.  

Even though we had a tremendous snow year, it somehow didn't set back our growing season.  The first violets have just bloomed on the mountainside, rhubarb is up and the greenhouse is warm.  Life is good.

Now I'm looking forward to wonder what the next year will bring for our family.  Change is in the air... but which way the wind blows us remains to be seen.  Stay tuned!

Circle of life

Well, we've made it through another inbetween season.  This one was pretty rough, with more mud than I can ever remember.  Add to that the fact that I have more than twice as many goats as last spring and probably 5x the shareholders/responsibilities... and let's just say it's been fairly exhausting.

But we made it!  Yesterday I got the pump installed at the pond and sent a glorious 250 gallons up the mountain.  Today I expect to fill the 500 gallon goat tank.  Not having to haul endless loads of water frees up time and energy to do other things- like build some large new raised beds with the winters poopy bedding.  Yippee!

Honestly, I don't know how I would have gotten everything done this year without lots of volunteer help.  My Mom has come up almost everyday to fill the cracks, and I've had several visitors from across Alaska who've donated hard labor to keep me caught up.  Thank you Universe!

So far we've had 31 kids born, with just one more doe to go.  Frannie's due date is in 5 days... and then we'll be done kidding until fall time.  It's been quite the season.  I've kept most of the girls for now, and sold most of the boys- at this moment I have 20 kids in the yard.  Actually, there are 15 in the yard, and 5 in the house.  

The weaning pen is almost ready- I need to pull the biggest 5 kids off the milk bucket, move the smallest 5 kids outdoors, and remove about 7 from their mamas.  And we're headed into the large milk surplus time, so I've got to get things ready for a piglet... maybe two piglets.  Whew.

We've had some excitement and some sadness this spring.  Three sets of triplets, all from my most senior does.  Farlight had two boys and girl with no complications.  Guava had two boys and a girl, but I almost lost her to hemorrhage.  She's nursing her 2 week old kids now, with plenty of milk surplus and is doing great.  Finally, Iris had 3 girls!  But she went downhill quickly, and I was unable to save her.  She kept pushing after the birth and completely exhausted herself.  She gave me 4 beautiful doelings and a stunning buckling in the 14 months she spent here.  Maybe she'll come back as a butterfly.

And this is what it's all about.  You work hard, bring lots of babies into this world, do your best to help them live healthy and productive lives, and then you lay them to rest.  I'm not sure why as humans we live so much longer than our family of animals, but c'est la vie.

Summer is a busy time on the farm.  I guess I better wrap things up here and get back to work.  Peace.

SPRING!

You've probably guessed how busy it is around here.  We are slam in the middle of the inbetween season.  Lots of snow and ice, intercepted by runny mud in the afternoon and frozen mud in the early morning.  Snowmachines are parked because the turnarounds are melted out, and 4-wheelers are back in use.  Yippee.

I sold all the boys born up til now except for two LaManchas.  In the next week or so, I need to decide whether to wether Thaifood.  He's two and a half months old already.  I'm leaning toward using Nibs, a PB with great milking genetics, for August-September breedings.

There are 6 doelings left, of which I plan to keep at least 4... and we're about to start kidding again.  I have 7 or 8 does that will kid before May 10th.  Babies, babies everywhere, and a huge milk surplus.

I made cajeta for the first time this week... a scrumptiously delicious carmelized milk that is suitable for ice cream toppings, or maybe poured over sticky buns or somesuch.  Yum.  Looking forward to ice cream season too.

Ben is gone to the Coast for our spring bear hunts.  He'll be away until early-mid June and we miss him.  My Mom is back full time though after a few months spent visiting her siblings and her Dad down in the States.  We're so glad she has made Alaska her home, and that she's our closest neighbor.

On other fronts, I sold half of my flock and returned some of my sanity.  100 birds seems to be a pretty healthy number for me.  The amount of feed and poop is much more manageable.  Since fish meal prices have gone sky high, I've raised my eggs to $8 a dozen.  The world is getting to be a crazy place.

Well, I better get back to the cheesehouse and finish today's Gruyere.  Then it's out to the yard, to continue picking up after winter.  Cheers!

Just do it

In Alaska there is a common attitude of do it yourself.  The folks who are living their dreams have learned to do alot of different things on their own.  Jack of all trades, master of few is commonplace here.

So when the shit hits the fan, you just suck up and deal... let the cards fall where they will.  Yeah, you guessed it.  I'm home alone again, and things aren't quite working like they're designed to.  It goes with the territory for sure.

Yesterday morning the milker had poor suction.  So I struggled through the session, and then brought the machine indoors where I could thaw it out and work on it.  It turns out that the balance tank had ice in it.  But I'm afraid that in remedying that problem, some water might have gone into the motor.

When I asked it start for last night's milking, it wouldn't turn over.  Water at zero degrees turns to ice.  Bad news.  So I hand milked.  Thirteen goats on the stand last night.  It took about an hour and a half.

The lemons into lemonade theory is in effect.  When hand milking, it's very easy to measure the production of each doe into a snapshot of how the herd is doing overall.  And of course you get to see how each doe is producing... which is very exciting when you have so many first time fresheners.

Tuffy and Zoey are kicking ass.  Guava is drying off.  Pleasant is matching Farlight.  Licorice is far off the charts.  Cool stuff.  I love it.  Oh- and Fling, the wild and crazy one who has been the most difficult goat to catch ever... came into the milkhouse on her own last night.  Frosting on the cake, yeah.

So I brought the machine indoors again last night.  Hopefully it's thawed enough to start this morning.  Make a wish it does.  Please.