Saturday, May 18, 2013

WWOOFstock! It's all about the goats, baby!

Dorian finds a new friend

so we took him home

Had a party with him

Invited all our friends

and The Gaskins and the Mathews each got 155 lbs of meat!!!

Valentine Baskets

PS the pig was so good!

Rachel and Dorian crocheting

some bacon from our wonderful pig friend:)

Ducks on Ice...Disney should cower with fear!

Lard rendered down from our piggy

Precious and OMalley's wedding day

Jonathon and Rachel wrestle the juniper monster

Cherry Pie!

A yummy dinner with the family and wwoofers

Defeating the juniper monster

a fire pit with hot dogs and smores

We learned how to make home made tortillas

Smokin the bacon

We didn't have any babies yet so we went to Liza's farm for some goat baby love.

Jonathan was very loved

Our first tiny baby, Maximus

Isaac soothing our beautiful Hera, his goat

And the second baby of the year is born, Jada

Me holding Jada at midnight

Everybody likes a good scratch, especially when you are pregnant

It took this beast to finally finish off the Juniper monster

One of 7 loads of roots, now on to planting the blueberry bushes

And Athena has Floppy

Floppy and Aphrodite

Beef stew?  Yes, please!

Nev, Dorian's bunny had two sweet little babies

There were Hunger Games in the woods behind our house

And WWOOFstock.  We had professional pictures made.  That's what I wear for professional pics, LOL!

Sweet baby girl

Isaac with Little the Indian Runner duck

Floppy quickly became our favorite, his mom rejected him for his strangely floppy ears so we had to bottle feed him.  He would sound the battle cry, "Bring me my rubber ninny!!!"  Quite a character he became.

Buddy loves his goat girls

And Floppy loved me

I love my Saanan herd, they are my girlfriends

Here is queen of her double wide barn

Loving on a little one

Goat Love, it's amazing


The daily eggs

The Floppster and me

Chickens enjoying a cucumber snack

More of moving the hog around

ducks can be most useful

I think I can!

Working the land

Pretty maids all in a row

Since the 44 year old tiller broke, we had to till the land ourselves.  The ducks pitched in to help

Steve workin it

What do you do with 80 lbs of free onions?  You chop them up of course!

and Steve made waffles

Breakfast was magical

And lunch included new friends

Floppy took over the party

The herd got bigger

Floppy had many women to feed him

Isaac and Dorian got another year older

Horseplay ensued!

And the building of the wwoofer cottage was in full swing

Lynn took time out to pose for Miss January of the Thankful Goat pin up calendar

Hold those boards on and someone get a hammer!

A hard days work

Now the wwoofers won't have to all sleep on the same couch, they can use the new cottage

But the shower is another story.  LOL!  Joking.  We have put in for a wwoof grant so we can get an outdoor bathroom built for the 2013 season.

Then it was Rosemary's turn.  That's Rhea making her appearance with a little hoof.

Dorian, age 11, birthing his goat Rosemary's baby.

And cleaning her off

Pretty baby

Coldest day of the year.  Waiting for the second baby that never came:(

Jonathon sampling product at Lady Fair

Jonathon and Marilyn selling goaty goodness

Marilyn with the girls
Well we killed a hog and that was quite a fun time.  Gave us a little taste of what it must have been like during Little House on the Prairie times.  We had some great friends that came over and helped and we split it with another family.  We each ended up putting away 155 lbs of meat for the year.  WWOOFstock was a smashing success and we can't wait to do it again next spring.  Every wwoofer that wanted to got to come back and see baby goats birthed.  A couple goats went a little soon though, and even though they spoiled our birthing experience, they didn't spoil the fun!  We had 10 people to help us put in the garden over the weekend and once again I am most humbled at the wonderful volunteers that come here.  Kudos to everyone for making WWOOFstock such a success.