Of Sealing Wax, Cabbages, and Kings

O'Malley and 'is Mum!
Lewis Carroll may have been on to something. He could throw things together that made no sense at all and come out with a story. Life feels like that right now. There are all these things we are doing or waiting to do and the list looks like a Chinese food recipe for disaster. Nothing seems to go together. Every ingredient looks unfathomable and overwhelming. It's nothing we've not dealt with before, but man does it make ya crazy.

Next week our agricultural extention agent will be paying us a visit. He's coming for moral support and to help tweek our farm. He's big agriculture, and we are... well you know, trying to do everything on less than a half acre;) He's talking planting the whole yard in soybeans (yes, Monsanto) and I'm talking getting rid of the bermuda grass organically so we can actually grow something worth eating all year. The goats need a new barn and larger pen. Permaculture, duck house, cob oven, new deck, bees, and on and on and on. For those of you who are into farming, you know there is always something to work on, even in the winter.

In five short weeks we will be blessed with the presence of new baby goat kids. I just love birthing goat babies and holding their sweet newborn selves in my arms. I want there to be a groovy new goat enclosure by then, but time has a way of marching on. We have 12 new pullet girls arriving on Feb. 25th, the Jersey girls will have something to say about that. Our old chickens are the gossips of the farm and I'm sure they won't be looking forward to competition;)

I also have a new hobby. Everyone in my family had a rabbit, except me, so I did something about that. I bought an English Lop baby doe for raising and breeding. She was with us for two months and we realized she was a biter. The breeder I bought her from offered me to trade her out for a buck that she was selling who was a grand champion. His name is O'Malley and he is charming. A big boy with a big personality to go with it. I will get a doe this next go round and hope she will be just as charming.

Spring is just around the corner and right now the yard looks like a dead swamp. Too much rain, too much winter. I long for the morning when the temperature of the soil is just right and we can till and plant our first seedlings: Collards, broccoili, onions, swiss chard, garlic, cabbages, lettuce. It's going to be a great year. Bring on the beautiful days of summer, I'm ready.