Friday, October 17, 2014

Goat wrangling, Farm House Finds, and Garden WOES

Daisy
Violet and Sweet Pea

The Goats are finally home! Welcome Daisy, Violet, and Sweet Pea! We  travled 2.5 hours one way to get Violet and Sweet Pea. Actually we were going to get Sweet Pea, she is 5 months old, but

Violet's markings were SO beautiful we ended up with her too :)... Sweet Pea is used to people and

loves to be loved on but Violet is already a year old and is skiddish around people.

I am hoping with a little love and patience she will let us love on her too.

Daisy was a local find. She is 10 months old and such a beautiful gray color. She is going to take A LOT of love and patience. She won't even be on the same side of the pen with a human.
Daisy and Sweet Pea are full Pygmy goats. Violet is half pygmy half Nigerian.

They have been so fun to watch just the few days we have had them. Yes we
live in a subdivision, but we live in the county not city so hoping we can get away with it til we
purchase our farm.

We are learning as we go and will be sure to post all our successes and trials right here for all to learn!. We have several books and use friends and the internet to learn. DONOT give much sweet feed a friend of ours did this and her babies got kidney stones they could not pass and died!

They sure love to climb romp and play, and Scott, my hubby, will be building a playground soon Pics to come!!



Farm House Finds

I also got two great gifts from my mom this week!!! My grandmother's sewing machine ( looks to be about 1950's or so}... and her water pump from her yard ( no pic yet) They both work and will be a nice added touch to our Farm. This is still in the works! We may be putting up an offer the first part of November for a nice small farm... SUPER EXCITED!!!







The Garden:

OH MY!!!! our sweet pepper and hot pepper plants have EXPLODED since it got chilly. We have so many I can not keep up with picking them!!! I will know next year to plant less.

We planted sweet potatoes (remember this is our first garden!) WHOOPS we planted way to many... no one told us that every place you plant one you could get 3-5!!!! We planted 8 rows!!! the first row alone gave us a huge bucket full!!! Now What do I DO WITH THEM??? We have a basement but not really any kind of cellar, although there is a part of the basement that looks like it was going to be one... no floor and dark with a  small door. I have read you can just eat them right after you dig them up. Others say NOPE gotta cover them up for several weeks to cure or something.. Maybe I will do both and let you guys know which worked better!!

This was my Fall break from school so I have been productive. Not only did we get the goats but I started another rag quilt, You can see my first one in a previous blog. I also made several soaps this week, They are curing and will be ready for Christmas gifts :) coffee mint, goats milk, lavender vanilla, sugar cookie, eggnog and various scrubs to go along with them.  I will be canning chili today.. I hope :)

I'd Love to hear about your trials and successes on your beginning farm :) lets all learn together.

Thanks for keeping up with McCormick Farms !