This past week was a busy one and this current one is shaping up to be even busier. Such is life. We will strive to enjoy all the activities!
Here are some of our fun "Homesteading" activities of the past week:
Making noodles. I haven't done this for quite some time and my children were quite excited to see me making them. They love to help make them and they are a huge favorite of theirs for eating. My mom makes them more often than I so they consider them a "Grandma specialty" but were happy to have me make them too. Generally we use them to make chicken noodle soup but they are actually quite versatile.
They are simple to make just needing flour, egg, salt and water (or a little whey or milk). I don't really measure, just mix them together to make a very stiff dough and then roll it out and cut it into strips. You can use them right away or dry them and then freeze them for later.
Another activity that we did (well mostly watched my dad do) was doing some grafting and pruning on our apple trees. I had made the mistake of forgetting to put screening around my trees this past winter. Mice or something like that found three of them (I only have 4) and chewed on the bark around them. The were still alive but two of them were not doing well at all and the other one was at risk. Dad worked at fixing them up and the kids and I helped when we could.
I am very blessed to have a Dad who knows how to do all sorts of things including grafting and taking care of and growing fruit trees.
This past weekend my parents went on a little trip and wondered if we could watch their bottle fed baby goat. They have a lot of baby goats (over a dozen) but this one was not claimed by it's mother and so they have had to feed it. By younger brother was going to still be home and do the rest of the chores but they thought it would be easier if he didn't have to bottle feed a baby too. Also they figured my kids would enjoy the extra time with Daisy Flower.
We had decided that Daisy flower could stay in our garden since we have high deer proof fence around it and they brought an orange snow fence (I think about 4 feet high) along to block of the part of the garden that had growing stuff already in it.
The kids did have a wonderful time with Daisy Flower. They played tag and had tons of fun.
We soon learned however that a baby goat does not care to be alone. We also learned that 4 foot or 5 foot fences were no match for a kid that is lonely.
The brain in that head above is much smarter than you might think!
We soon began to think we were living out a nursery rhyme, except ours went like this:
"Mara had a little goat, little goat, little goat.
Mara had a little goat whose fur was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mara went, Mara went, Mara went,
Everywhere that Mara went the Goat was sure to go."
We would put Daisy Flower in the fence and then come up to the house but right behind us would be a little goat that wanted to come in. We had turned one of my compost bins into a little shed and Daisy jumped up on top of it and then over the fence (since it was right next to the side). That process only took her a couple of seconds.
So next we moved the orange snow fence so that daisy couldn't get to the compost bins and made her a new shelter smack dab in the middle of the garden. She still got up on it but she couldn't just over the fence from that location.
This did stump her for a couple of minutes and we figured we had things fixed up. Well we were wrong. She figured out how to go under the snow fence and then up on the compost bin and over the other fence. So Ken went out and made it so she couldn't go under. She worked on that a few minutes more and then she just jumped over the 4 foot snow fence and up onto the compost bin and over the garden fence and trotted right back up to the door again.
Here she figured if we didn't answer her first knock maybe she had better work to get some more attention!
She actually came straight in several times because our door doesn't latch securely and so she could just push it open. She was awfully cute but knowing her dirtier habits I just didn't care to have her in the house. Saturday it rained most of the day but the kids rotated and gave her company most of the day anyway. Since the garden was working they played tag all over the yard and had a wonderful time.
They had fun feeding her 4 times a day.
My younger brother took her home Saturday evening so she didn't have to spend another night (and during church on Sunday) all alone stuck in a little dog kennel which was the only way (other than the rabbit pen) we were able to keep her in a pen. We were sorry we weren't able to keep her the whole time but we were tired out and I am sure she was happier to be back with the other goats.
Lessons learned:
-If you get a goat don't get just one. They are very sociable and need company.
- We are happy to have an easy pet like a rabbit.
- Baby goats can act a lot like a dog.
Which was fun for a day but a good reminder to me of why we aren't ready for a dog.
-Don't underestimate the ingenuity and determination of a baby goat.
We are planning on getting some livestock soon however.
Around 1,800 of them to be exact.
I am extremely excited and nervous!
We are trying to get ready.
Here I am suited up for the great adventure!
We found out that the bees are coming on Wednesday! I got veils and gloves fixed up for Mara and I. We are using hats we already had and I made tulle veils. I used some plastic ribbing to make sure that they don't blow into our faces but rather stay firmly where they belong.
For gloves I did buy some for myself at Menards, just short leather gloves but then I sewed gauntlets onto them. For Mara I found some old ( I think actually antique) leather dress gloves that I had stored away and I attached gauntlets onto them. Mara is going to go and help me pick up the bees so I decided she had better have a suit too. Now all the kids want them and I plan on working on that after this extremely busy week is over.
What have you been working on at your place?
