Tidbits

I am SO ready for Ike to leave.  I never realized how brainless bucks become during the rutting season.  My doe goats (two Saanens and a Sable) are all bred, and he will be going visiting for a few weeks, and then I hope he’s sold.  Having a buck goat around can sometimes be trying.  When he’s in his stall at night, he’s constantly jumping up on the door and the side wall to see the does, or jumping up onto the feeder and then down onto the platform that I put in there (goats like to climb).  The noise is jarring to one’s senses, at best.  I actually had to reinforce the wall by the stall door and move the pallet platform, because he was throwing himself at the wall, trying to jump over.  When one of the 2 x 8’s came down from the wall, I moved the platform so he couldn’t get a running leap.  Whew!  Breeding season is hard on bucks.  They forget to eat, drink, and are just plain crazy and unable to relax until the lights all go out at night.

One of my Silkie hens hatched two late chicks.  I thought they might not make it, but they’re fully feathered now (fast!) and seem to be doing fine.  Silkies are pretty cute once you get used to them, but I admit that I didn’t always think so.  My terrier, bless her cotton-picking little hunter heart, got two of my hens and my old rooster.  I found the hens the same day I found a Partridge colored cockerel to replace the other one.  I got him anyway, so now I have two hens and one young rooster.  Hopefully I’ll have more Silkies in the spring.

The chicks are crossbreds from the Silver Laced Wyandotte cockerel that went into the freezer lately, because I couldn’t find a home for him.  I do hope both of the chicks are hens so it’ll be easier to place them.  Since I rarely eat meat, it tends to stay in the freezer for far too long.  Thank goodness for vacuum wrapping to keep them from freezer burn.  

I planted kale and some winter greens in my little 8' x 12' greenhouse, built by my son early last spring..  With a bit of floating row covers,  the greens for cooking and salad surviving the hard frosts we've had.  I'd like to have greens for most of the winter, though I doubt they'll make it through January and February.  Still, I'm hopeful.  They’re growing slowly, but they’re definitely coming along, and I check on them daily, casting an eager eye.  

Elections are coming up on Tuesday, and I fear the state of the country and the world won’t improve, no matter who gets in.  I think we’ve been given the option to vote for the lesser of two evils for far too long now.  I’ll write in my choice, which is neither of the two major parties.  And for local elections, I’ll look for the one that will get government out of my face the fastest.   Probably on the state and local level, we still have some semblance of control, but sometimes I wonder if even that is illusion.

 

I just finished making my first real Gruyere cheese, and wouldn’t you know?  I got the culture ripening time wrong.  It was supposed to set for only 10 minutes, and I left it for an hour.  I don’t think that’ll mess up the cheese, but I’ll know in about 5 months.  In the meantime, I’ll be cutting into a Münster and a Cotswold, because they don’t take quite as long.