Kids!

We had some new goat kids born early this week. I expected our goat Rose to kid on the 15th, but the trio came a few days early. I had hoped to catch some birthing pictures with my camera, but she had her babies without us knowing! What a fun surprise. Now we are waiting for our goat Nettle to kid in a few weeks. It is a big change having to milk twice a day again. I enjoy milking but it was nice to have a little break in the goats last months pregnancy. Hopefully we can post photos soon.

We have been busy taking care of seedlings, planting potatoes, and making new garden beds. After a month of colds, the flu and travel to see family; we are ready to have a weekend to get a lot of work done. So we will be planting, planting, planting!

Buzzz

On Tuesday we picked up four new bee colonies! They were supposed to arrive Monday but due to bad weather the truck came in late. Brian picked them up at Ruhl Bee Supply on the way home from work and hived and fed the new ladies. Hopefully on Monday we can post photos of the process (I just did). Two of the hives are a type of bee that is supposedly hardier, but also not as docile as the Italian honey bees, so of course Brian got his first sting of the year!

We spent this weekend with my parents in Southern Oregon to celebrate Easter. We came bearing dozens of eggs, a huge bag of spinach, and Easter Egg radishes. It was good to see family but always stressful to leave the farm. I worry about animals getting sick or loose, or something happening to the house... Fortunately, all was well when we got home, except it is no fun to have to rush around checking on everything after spending hours in the car!

We had a very productive Spring Break, with no computer time to update the blog. We worked hard on getting the garden ready and planted a bunch of cool season crops: radishes, kale, cabbage, etc and we continued to sow peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and other warmer weather crops inside. I have often lamented how much I like clear, over spaces in our home but often our projects take over our house. Right now every available space is covered with seedlings, unless it is nice enough to put them in the sun. I can't wait for our last frost date to pass so I will have these babies out of my way!

We mainly worked on the land this past week, with Brian clearing out a scrap wood pile that has been building since we started out house. he also started tiling the bathroom floor, which is really exciting. My big milestone is that I have finished the interior plaster. All I will need to do it the lime washes on the plastered bales and some Alis (clay paint) to the cob! On to the outdoor plastering...

I got sick early this week, which slowed down what I could do. I was determined to weed the garlic, and it took me so long. Towards the end I was so tempted just to lie down in the rows and take a nap! I did rest afterward with a book, but it drives me absolutely crazy to do nothing!

For our last months of homeschooling before summer, the kids are doing ancient Greece and Rome in history. When I told the kids what we would be doing, they were so excited, you would think I said we were having ice cream for dinner! I love how different homechool kids are; they are not self-concious about diving into things. We are reading the Odyssey before bed, and our 7 year old hopes to make himself some sort of Spartan-inspired battle suit. What fun!