Update

I've been really bad about updates here recently, am trying to get back on track. I've changed my work schedule so I'm only working Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Champaign and have Tuesdays and Thursday to devote to soaping and candle making (amoungst other things of course!).

We've enjoyed a wonderful spring and early summer. I don't ever recall having such moderate weather. Usually we jump from snow to smothering humidity so I'm not complaing at all. The downside is its made all the plants etc much later than usual. This spells delay for the bees as well. Generally we expect our first honey "flow" late May. This year it was mid June, almost a month later. We are expecting we'll be able to take honey off our hives this week and will possibly have it at Market this Saturday!

The goats are doing very well. Babies are growing like weeds and the does have settled into the summer routine very amiably. I'm now milking all four and we are awash with milk. Time to do some serious soaping! :)

I'm happy to have a more relaxed schedule for summer and hopefully will be able to devote lots of time this week to making candles for Market Saturday.

More Rain

I didn't end up going to Market this past Saturday either though I really missed it. I had to get the goats sorted out - the floods and constant rain have made everything so difficult. Water levels earlier in the week forced me to bring the male goats up to the doe's pens but they have quickly trashed it, reducing the pens to muck and mud. Friday night yet more rain was forcasted so I made the decision not to attend. In the end I was glad! Although we only got a couple thunderstorms for a few hours early in the morning all the water up stream hit us and water levels rose to such an extent the town was blocked off again. What an odd year! In my memory we haven't had flooding like this so late in the season. Goats are somewhat sorted out, I took the two bucks (males) out to a neighbor's farm and shut them in his barn. They're unhappy to be there but at least they're safe and dry. The does have discovered how to open their gate to my great chargrin. Its making the whole housing issue dicey. I'm sure I will work it out somehow! :-)

Rain Rain Go Away

Our farmer neighbor informed us in January that this was going to be a drought year. Um, yeah about that.... when is the drought supposed to start?

This has been one of the wettest springs in a while. Usually our crazy IL weather will have about a week of spring weather and then jump directly into smotheringly muggy summer. Not this year! Most of the plants are aproximately a month behind in growth. The farmers are still trying to plant the rest of their crops. Its unreal!

Personally I love rain. But for my animal's sakes, I hope it stops soon. We had to run out at 5:30 this morning to pull up the goat pasture fence so it wouldn't get washed away by the rising flood waters. Everything is so over saturated, even though the rains have stopped for now the water will continue to rise as we get run off from the fields and larger cities where there's concrete instead of earth. Our pond has overflowed its banks and is creeping up to the pen where the male goats live. Unless it stops I'll have to move them in with the females - NOT ideal. The bees are on a raised platform so they should be fine unless it we get a substantial storm.

In the meantime the poor goats are cooped up in their shed. The mud is unreal and I seriously hope the rain at least holds off for a while now.

Elsie's Chickies

Elsie loves chickens. She's been begging for some for the past couple years. This year she was finally allowed to get some. These are the 6 half grown pullets that arrived home yesterday. They were shipped as tiny chicks a couple weeks ago but since mum and Elsie were in Canada I didn't feel like taking care of them as its pretty intensive when they're small. So they stayed with a friend until Elsie came home.

Um, yes they are in our bath tub!

They are "Barred Plymouth Rock" chicks

Elsie very carefully taking them out to the "chicken tractor"

Happy Girl!

Update

Market started two weeks ago - yay! I didn't attend last week but plan on going this next Saturday unless it rains. It was *so* nice to be there again, looks like it will be a great Farmer's Market this year! I'm working on candles, though I don't know how many I will have ready by Saturday. Life's kinda been throwing me curve balls recently so I haven't got as much completed as I had hoped.

Goats are doing really well. Since the babies were all born within a week of eachother they all are virtually the same size. They play together constantly, forming a "goat gang" racing around the pasture, trying to butt eachother off of tree stumps and high places. The recent rains have made everything a little muddy but it will probably all dry out soon and it brings the grass along really well so I'm not complaining.

I noticed the Black Locust blossoms are almost ready to open so we should have our first honey flow soon! Yay! The hives are doing very well considering how cool it's been and they are behind where they'd normally be this time of year.

Planting Berries and More

A family friend's mother passed away last fall. She had 5 acres of fruit trees and berry brambles, most of which are over grown or died out. Since the house is to be sold soon I was told I could go find and dig starts. So guess what I did Saturday? :)

I now have 10 more thorn less blackberries planted along the east edge of the property. I hope to save up and put a fence in for them to climb later this summer. I also got 7 red rhubarb starts and planted them in a swathe by the pump. However, I'm most pleased with the red raspberry starts I dug. Tonight I need to prepare an area for them and get them in the ground, but I would say there are almost two dozen little raspberry plants - Yay! I LOVE raspberries. Hopefully all my new fruit plants and brambles survive the move!

I've finally got my four apple trees pruned! They're blooming now so maybe we'll have a couple apples this fall. I planted them two years ago as three year old seedlings, so this will be the first year they produce.... *if* they actually do. Some nasty little rodent was chewing the bark off - I almost didn't notice in time as one of the trees was nearly circled. I got them all wrapped now so unless the deer come munching they should be safe.

My camera is still being repaired, so unless I can steal my little sister's again there won't be many more pictures until I get it back.

The End of Winter Vacation!

Winter time is a bit of a lull. The market ends at Christmas, the animals require minimal involvement, life is quiet. I've really enjoyed my break, but its ending this week!

Despite the cold weather, Spring is here. How can I be so certain? I'm awaiting new arrivals! The 4-legged sort of course. "Angel" was due Monday 3/03 and has still not delivered yet. I think she's taking great delight in making me wake up two or three times a night and drudging miserably bleary eyed out to the goat shed to check on her. Its all worth it though, the sleep deprivation will be over soon and we'll have beautiful baby goats to care for. I can't wait! Oh and we'll be awash in fresh goat's milk!

On the down side, with the warm weather last weekend we were able to check the bee hives. We've had a higher winter kill this year than usual, which is really dissapointing. Two of the hives are very strong though and we will be able to split them, creating four total.

I'll post pictures as soon as I'm able. Finger's crossed for the safe arrival of Angel's babies!