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Farm Odds and Ends

I don't have any one thing to report today, but there's a number of littler things to chat about.  

Garlic Harvest

The garlic is ready to come out, we started harvesting about 2 weeks ago.  I have two varieties that are earlier than the other two, the Elephant and my house blend of Chet's Italian Red and Inchelium Red (they look the same, and the first year I grew them I accidentally combined them).  We started pulling the red first, I like to braid them in large braids (50-100 bulbs) immediately, just for storage purposes.  Later, I will take a few of these big braids apart and rebraid them into smaller, nicer braids for sale.

Well, Never Mind

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So Nature has this amazing, balanced equation with new and old life - or it just wants you to think that so it can blindside you with whatever it wants!  Friday morning, Caleb moved the animals as usual, and found Olivia and Delia already dead, and Cleo unable to walk.  Caleb remembered that Olivia had looked extremely wide one of the days before, but hadn't thought much of it (you'd think we'd have learned by now to always think something of everything!).  So apparently she was bloated - that's all the info we had on those two.  

Nature's Math

Last time, I mentioned the way nature seems to have a balanced equation between deaths and births.  If you were keeping track, you may be questioning my math skills, since we lost a calf and a goat that Friday, and only gained a cria on Sunday.  That's not exactly balanced - but that's because the second cria didn't arrive until Tuesday morning :)  It's almost eerie how accurate nature's math is!

This is More Like It!

Yesterday, a friend came over so we could catch Fern and milk her off since she was looking pretty full.  A couple years ago her older sister got mastitis when her baby died and never nursed, and we didn't want to wait until Fern was pretty sick and have to get the vet out again.  It turned out she certainly did have milk, but it really wasn't too bad.  Unlike Myra, Fern did get to nurse her calf for a week, so she wasn't nearly as swollen.  I'd much rather be too pro-active, though, than just keep waiting, hoping everything will be fine.

Good News, Bad News

I was hoping for a more uplifting post this time, and there are some good things to share, but also a couple of notably bad ones.  To set the stage - Caleb had a conference yesterday and didn't get home until 10 pm, and my interns left after lunch yesterday, so it's been just me and the boys...

Duck Tragedy

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So far this spring, the news here at Solace Farm has been pretty upbeat.  Sadly, today is a look at the darker side of farming.  We lost the little ducklings that we hatched in our hands on Thursday :( The baby ducks spent Thursday, Friday and Friday night in a box in the house, snuggled up to a hot water bottle.  Saturday morning they were quite lively - trotting and skittering around the living room and trying to swim in their  3" water dish - so I moved them out to the broody hutch with the mama game hen and her babies, and they seemed to be perfectly happy.

Babies Everywhere!

Yesterday, I was already thinking Kaitlyn and I should have a slower day - we've been working really hard, and maybe we could just make soap or have a knitting lesson or something. Well, we did make soap - and hatched baby ducks in our hands!

It's Finished!

Goat Wrangling

in

We usually spend our "holidays" doing an interesting project rather than just mundane chores, and this Memorial Day was no different - we had a goat roundup this morning, with 3 student helpers.  It wasn't as big as our usual fall one - only mamas and babies - but it was multi-purpose, which adds time to the whole process.  One goal was to nip all the little boys' bits, so we can keep running a single goat herd without unexpected pregnancies this winter.  I think that's pretty self-explanatory so I won't dwell on their loss :)