Farm Livin'

Today is Saturday, when we usually can sleep in until at least, oh 7 a.m. This morning instead, we got up for the 5 a.m. milking. We got another gallon of beautiful milk from the girls that's now in the fridge waiting to become delicous cheese. After cleaning up the milking parlor, and letting the chickens out into their run for the day, we came back and enjoyed some hot coffee on what was a lovely, cool morning. It's a wonderful, peaceful kind of joy to sit sipping our coffee, looking out at the pasture with the morning mist trailing through it, listening to the goats bleating.

The first batch of cheese that Dave made yesterday, with milk from our goats, turned out awesome! He sliced off a very thin piece from the cheddar wheel, and we shared it while we had our coffee. Heaven! If it's that good now, I can't imagine how delicious it will be after aging for a few days.

After coffee it was back to "work", weeding in the garden and then hauling the old straw out to the back of the pasture, and giving the goats' stall a good, thorough cleaning. I discovered the gutter that runs the length of that end of the barn is a wonderful thing - as I sprayed the stall clean, all the "yuck" collected in a nice, neat line for me to easily remove from the barn. Bosco, Cheerio, Spice, and Rose had all followed me to the back of the pasture when I took the tractor and trailer out to dump the old straw, and they stayed out there munching on the lush pasture until I was almost done cleaning. I left the doors open so the nice breeze that's blowing today could dry out the stall, and went back to weeding in the veggie garden.

Dave modified the milk stand we bought with the goats, installing a movable arm like the one he put on the stand he built the other night, and put a fresh coat of white paint on it. Now the girls won't be able to pull their heads back through the hole in the stand while we're milking, which will make it a much easier job, and clean up will be easier with the fresh coat of paint on it.

Well, lunch break's over and it's time to get that load of laundry on the line. Mr O'Brien stopped by and said he'd seen Dave mowing in the pasture, and why didn't he come get his brush hog to do that with, instead of our little riding mower? Dave's over there now with the tractor hooking it up. Gotta love the super-friendly neighbors we have here! Speaking of which, we're hoping to meet another one later - the guy with the sheep a mile south of us is having a garage sale, so that's good enough reason to stop in and introduce ourselves.

More to come later...