Plans are proceeding for my son's 'soft-launch' into independence, living down at Home Farm for the summer with a roommate. They spent most of the weekend working together to fix things up, including retrofitting the old goat barn to be a mews. Because Roommate is a falconer, and his 'battle-chicken' is coming along with him.
It's yet another evolution for me, mentally. I grew up in that house. Left at 23 and didn't go back for about 20 years. Reconciled [sorta] with my father when I was my forties, and visited frequently. Then had to step up to daily and several-times-a-day visits in his last couple of years.
He passed away in 2022, so the past two years it has sat empty, with me going in regularly to clean up some of the endless mess and clutter he left behind.
And soon, I'll be a 'guest' in the house again. Strange.
>Side quest "WHY DID THE QUAIL CROSS THE ROAD" available.
>WHY DID THE QUAIL CROSS THE ROAD: Ask your next door neighbor about the COTURNIX QUAIL CHICK.
>NEIGHBOR: I haven't seen that before. Though I hear THE FARMER ACROSS THE WAY caught a strange bird on his property last week.
>WHY DID THE QUAIL CROSS THE ROAD: Ask THE FARMER ACROSS THE WAY about the COTURNIX QUAIL CHICK.
>THE FARMER ACROSS THE WAY: We don't keep birds. But you might want to ask THE FARMER DOWN THE ROAD. He has lots of birds.
>THE FARMER ACROSS THE WAY gave you two SWEET CORN and one CUCUMBER.
>WHY DID THE QUAIL CROSS THE ROAD: Talk to THE FARMER DOWN THE ROAD.
>THE FARMER DOWN THE ROAD: Oh! You found my COTURNIX QUAIL CHICK! He keeps escaping. Thank you so much!!
> You have cleared side quest WHY DID THE QUAIL CROSS THE ROAD. You have gained +2 to NEIGHBORLY BONDS and +3 to CHARISMA. THE FARMER DOWN THE ROAD has been added to your CONTACTS LIST.
Well Nikki decided to drop all her fiber at once this year! It took about 3 days doing one hour sessions to comb this all out but it's nice to be done! I got a nice thirteen gallon trashbag worth of fleece off of her, wich for it's size is only 10.2 ounces of fleece! So next time you look at cashmere and think damn thats expensive just remember that the average cashmere goat only produces around 5oz in a year (also localy produced fiber is always a better buy ;)) So good job Nikki! I'm excited to process this to sell this year, though I'm not sure if i should process it fully into yarn or leave it as cloud for others to spin. Lots of decisions! I have four other goats to comb out and I'm excited to see how their fleeces turn out this year since Nikki's is looking so lovely!
Meet the girls. They're ~8 weeks old now. I still can't tell if we have a rooster/s. I'm having way too much fun with these chickens. I need help
6-Aug-2023
[ID: A photo of a small girl in a sunflower-print dress kneeling by a large orange tabby cat. They are both holding daisies. A photo of the same girl standing in grasses and wildflowers up to her shoulders, looking straight at the camera. A photo of the wildflower patch with a black cat sitting peacefully. She is looking at the camera with golden eyes.]
This was supposed to be a super cute photo of baby peeking out from behind mom, but instead I ended up with a couple of the ugliest faces I’ve ever photographed. I love them so much.
Communities desperately need to return to feeding themselves locally instead of depending on mega corporations for sustenance, and nothing is more local than growing/hunting/fishing your food yourself.
Let's work together to reclaim our food sovereignty.
Some pics of the goaties! They are getting big! North American cashmere goats are not a huge breed, and does only get up to around 100-150 lbs. Goats reach full grown at four years old so my gals goat a ways to go since they are mainly one and a half except for Ophelia who is 2.5 years old.