Time is passing and already there is a noticeable increase in day length. This is usually our coldest time of year but so far it has been very mild. Many days we are outside working without sweaters once the sun has dispensed the morning chill. The goats that are not pregnant are still coming into season, but we have moved the bucks back into their pens because we have enough pregnant girls for this year. Our big alpine doe, Quetta, has been sold. This time she is went to join other goats we sold earlier so she was met by friends when she arrived at her new home. It would be impossible to keep every goat, but we do try to send them to places they will be happy. They often go to smaller herds and get more attention than we give them here, which is nice.
I am trying to dry off the remaining pregnant goats, but we are still getting enough milk to make cheese twice a week. The hard cheeses turned out so well last year that I am encouraged to make more. The vac packaging system worked fantastically. I have now used all the olive oil I made, but luckily Ben and Indi are keeping us well supplied from their trees. Indi and I are planning to use some of their oil to make soap, so I am searching for recipes. I ordered a book that I thought might help but it was so useless I returned it with a killer revue. I hope I might save someone else the bad experience.
The seeds I ordered for dyeing plants have arrived, but I have not yet sorted out the area where I plan to grow them. They will be sown in pots in the spring, so this is not a problem yet. It will make a good task when the school camps start. The book I brought on plant dyes was excellent, much to my relief. This week Edd and I drove down to the Mornington Peninsular with a car full of wool that I am getting spun. The plan is to have yarn available from our own sheep to dye with our own plants. That should make a good learning experience.
Apart from projects being prepared for the school students my other task to set up is the kitchen splash back. I have had so much fun with the mosaics in the dairy and bathroom that I am inspired to have a go at the splash back. It certainly needs something. At present it has an area with waterproof paint, two stainless steel trays behind the stove and the rest is bare lime render. On our trip to Mornington we called in on Metric tiles and I finally found the colours I have been looking for. All the local stores sell is a selection of different shades of grey.
WE had a party at Bo’s house for her birthday and Al and Pip came up with Baby P and stayed the night on the farm. Baby P is growing enormous but seems a particularly good baby. Perhaps it is just that his parents are managing him well. Wayne’s daughter is also very well behaved. Maybe having older parents helps. We were in our early twenties when we had our kids.
This year we are really trying to get the last remaining rebuilding jobs sorted. I have organised someone to build the west side wall and do the paving and Al is working on plans for a car port at the east end. My car looks very ropy. It actually goes really well and has given me nine years of trouble free driving but the gaffer tape holding on the side trim is getting to the embarrassing stage. A place to put cars out of the weather would be a big help. We can put them in the shed, but rats and mice can do a lot of damage and the new cat has changed its mind about wanting to be a farm cat.
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