I was out and around the place yesterday and took a couple of photos of some of the animals we keep here on the farm, and a couple of spaces that I find interesting to the eye, every time I pass them by.
The first of these spaces is a window on the house. It stands in a wall that has only one other window in it, and has a curious appearance as an opening into the lives lived inside, and a wall with an otherwise unbroken pattern in this one area. I may take a deeper interest in it because it is closest to there I stand when I am working on the firewood for the season, and I have the time to stare over at it, and allow it to intrigue me.
The next space, below, is looking back at the granary. There is a mess next to it, it’s true, and I hope that by the end of this season that will be cleaned up and the granary will look much cleaner, maybe even painted, soon. I have always been fond of that building, and how it was put together. It would still do its job well if that is what we used it for. It is fairly rodent tight, and where it isn’t, it could be fixed easily. It also stays cool, even in summer.
Here is one of our two pregnant goats, due to deliver about a week and a half after this picture was taken. The picture below is her daughter, also due about the same time. The black and white goat delivered a couple of weeks early last time, and lost the baby. Any time after this picture was taken is her taking the baby closer to term this time, and exciting! Finally, the goat below whose eye only you can see is the one we bought at a pet shop in Pocatello a few years ago, and bottle fed from then till when she was old enough to wean fully. She was promised to be a fine goat, and able to breed. She has never taken.
The picture following is of our Chucker, and one of our new Buff Orpington laying hens. The Chucker is a type of partridge. The hen is due to start laying around mid September. We have a dozen new hens in our egg flock.
Finally, this is one of the peacocks. He is the dominant of the two males, and had assumed the role of mate to both of the females. With any luck, they will one day lay an egg, sit on it, and hatch it. But I suspect we will have to let them live out, in order for them to do that. Right now they live in the egg coop with the laying flock.
Our little place is not a farm in the sense of a place that provides food for many people, but in the sense that it is where we live, and it provides some of the things which we need. It is also a place where we get to live how we want to, which includes a large craft space for Missus, and for me the ability to heat and cook and such on a wood stove. Our eggs are usually fresh as can be, and sometimes so are our vegetables. I imagine I will soon pick up a Holstein bull calf or two, and raise them for beef. I have done it before, and it was so rewarding, and provided a sense of security for the time we had the beef to eat.
I am taking the year off of gardening, and working on getting some other things done around here that require reworking. Honestly, I am hoping to pick up a small tractor later this summer. I read somewhere once that anyone who wants to make any kind of serious effort with farming absolutely has to have one. I have tried for a few years to do the work around here without one, and I can say for sure that the person who wrote that was absolutely correct. Plus, I am not getting any younger.