It's another winter of rolling with the punches to get by. So many things are not following my well laid plans! A few times I've just wanted to throw in the towel and I might have done so if I could have found one that wasn't being used for something else. I know there are homesteaders that have ho-hum winters, living off their well stocked pantries, carrying in their chopped wood from neatly stacked stores, lighting their lovely homemade candles and tossing hay to their critters from their beautiful barns. Aren't there? Out there somewhere? Hello, is this thing on?
Over here in "let's be honest" land- the surprise kids that were conceived through a fence came during one of the coldest spells we've had in years. Unfortunately, by the time I discovered their wet little bodies, they had frostbite. It wasn't something I could detect until after I'd brought them in and got them started on the bottle. The buckling's case was so bad that the vet recommended I put him down- which I did with a heavy heart. The doeling will lose part of her ears but is thriving otherwise. I put her back on her dam and they are happy together. She hops and hollers like any other kid, cute as can be with her spotted coat and blue eyes. But I won't be selling her for the profit I thought I would be with her ears messed up. Heavy sigh.
We did finally get a solid wall up between the two pens this week. It's the beginning of the barn I will get eventually. I've lost count of how many years in a row the bucks have destroyed the fence to get into the girl's pen. Every time DH had declared it "buck proof" the challenge was accepted. This year was the last straw, I was ready to ship my guys off. So the wall was started! Now that the bucks are back in their own territory, I can begin milk stand training. It's about 3 months later than I would have liked but I'm going to give it my best shot. If the rest of the does minded their manners and were bred on the planned date, they will be kidding in March. Their kids will all be sold as bottle babies and the milkers will (hopefully) be sold as trained does to other homesteaders. Fingers crossed!
Meanwhile in the chicken run... I have 8 roosters. Yes, I said 8. Somehow our fall butchering date came and went without any trips to freezer camp. I have been buying chicken at the grocery store and feeding 8 free loading roosters. That makes sense, doesn't it? Yeah, no. I don't know how these things happen!
If you were to peek inside my home right now, you'd find things all out of order in there as well. Part of my kitchen is upstairs in the spare bedroom. There are boxes of Christmas decorations sitting around. I've discovered that it takes more than 4 throw rugs between the mudroom and the kitchen to catch all the mud on a dog's paws.
Is there such a thing as a Homesteader's Badge? Sometimes I feel like mine should be revoked! Other times I look at all this chaos and think I deserve 2 of them! So everything isn't falling into place right now. But the world hasn't ended. I still get up every morning to the sound of a rooster crow (or 8.) Every day I scratch a goat's neck (even the stinky buck's.) Maybe chaos isn't so bad.
