Big Pink Farm

It is hard to believe that it has been one year since our website went LIVE! online.  One year ago I was welcoming you all to our little space and now here we are again:   one year older and hopefully a little wiser. 

I don't have any great words of wisdom right now.  I mean, I gave you all my heartfelt wishes for the new year a few weeks ago, so I'm fresh out of thoughts.  After all, my track record here on this blog - despite my better intentions - is to post once a month.  We're hunkered down and bracing ourselves for the worst that winter has to show us.  But I didn't want this month to go by without saying something to you, my beloved and faithful readers.

So I will share with you scenes from a winter farm.  This winter has been a real doozy so far, and there's still more to come.  The first kids of the year have started to arrive (in -20 degree Fahrenheit weather, but let's not talk about that).  More kids will arrive later in the spring, which is a much more sensible time. 

See you next month!

I should post updates more often.  I really should.  I mean, lots of interesting stuff happens here (or at least, it's interesting to ME).  I should stop playing that really addictive game on Facebook and start a new blog post.

So here you go. 

It's most definitely autumn here on our beautiful mountain.  I wish the fall colors would last all winter.  That would be a mood-brightener!

We're going to be processing the last batch of meat chickens for the year in a few days.  Maybe Friday?  I hope it will be warm and sunny by then because right now the weather forecast says SNOW tonight and tomorrow.  SNOW!  It's still October.  We're still on Daylight Savings Time, for crying out loud!

In other news, the baby is still cute.  See?  She likes to stand in the field and help us move goats around to fresh pasture. 

Soon there won't be any fresh pasture to move them to, and we will have to move them to their winter quarters and feed them hay.  We have bred a handful of goats - two dairy and four meat - for January kids.  Those goats will get to live in the barn because having kids in January is stupid.  So we'll be ready with heat lamps to keep those kids warm and dry and alive.  The rest of the goats are going to be bred for April kidding, which is much more sensible.  So now you know.

Can I go back to that addictive game now?

It has been and still is my intention to get it together enough to write one more post  - this time about the county fair -  before the month is over.  I still have one more day!

I'm nothing if not a procrastinator.

But!  While you're waiting (and you are waiting, aren't you?), please go to this blog and read as much as you can.  It's hilarious, and just the thing to waste time on after a morning of strenuous chores outside.

Finally, I leave you with a photo of the world's most adorable baby frolicking with the world's most camera-shy goat kids.  Yes, it was taken on a camera phone.  But at least I uploaded it right quick to share with you!

I'm hoping to distract you, dear reader, from noticing that I have not posted anything new, despite my promise.  So here's some photos!  The weather here has alternated between spring-like (which means lots of mud!) to arctic-like (which means single-digit temps!).  The weird weather fluctuations have been rough on the kids.  The people haven't liked it much, either.

 

This little one is very friendly.  Natalie usually is, too.

 Sunbathing kids.  If you look carefully, you will see a children's playhouse in the background that we were forced to put into active duty in the goat shed when the temperatures dipped into the single digits with winds over 30 mph.

 

See the little red tongue?  I love that.

 

Quick!  Find the duck in the snow!

So did it work?  Have you forgotten all about my empty promises?  Stay tuned for further updates, but let's just say the timetable is fairly fluid.

What a difference a day makes!  As of this writing, 25 kids have been born here at Big Pink.  Sleep?  What's that, and why do I miss it so?

We have one little doeling who lives in the house for now.  She was weak this morning, so we scooped her up and now she's our bottle baby.  We will transition her to the great outdoors, of course, but for now she's here.  And she's really cute.  Frodo the Dog really likes her, too.  Too bad he can't be the one in charge of giving her the bottle.

So this is my birthday week, as I mentioned earlier.  With all the goats being born, I haven't had a lot of sleep.  So please keep that in mind when you look at this photo of my leftover cake.  I'm sleep-deprived, and I'm pretty sure that qualifies as a mental handicap.  Right?

The last few days have been a flurry of activity.  The first kids arrived on Monday morning and they just keep coming.  Six does have kidded so far, resulting in ten doelings and 3 bucklings.  Twenty-four more does are due at any time.  When I sleep, I dream about goats, goats, and more goats.

So that explains why I have been slow about putting up new pages.  You will notice, however, that I did put up a woodworking page.  I can cross that off my to-do list.  I love crossing  things of that list; it makes me feel productive. 

Today is my birthday.  Because Natalie's birthday occurs two days before mine (she's 12 this year!), the usual celebration for Mom is leftover cake.  I don't mind.

But this year is different.  Just look what I got for my birthday!  That's right, twin doelings born in the wee hours of the morning.  The first meat goat kids have hit the ground!  The next few weeks should be a hectic flurry of more kids being born. 

Before it gets really crazy around here, I will be adding new pages this week: A soap page, a For Sale page, and a woodworking page.  I think.  At least, that's my plan, Lord willing.