Catching Up

Well, it's been a few weeks, and I've thought of a number of things to mention, but nothing worthy of an entire post, so this'll be a catch-all post, rounding up the random goings-on of the last few weeks, in no particular order...

We went to McMinnville for the total eclipse, we were lucky enough to live about 20 minutes from the edge of the totality zone, and only an hour from the center!  It really was amazing, and something I will certainly never see again, but maybe the boys will.  We made an afternoon of it, including a Goodwill trip beforehand (one in which I could actually try on clothes, something simply not possible without another adult), and then lunch and a trip to an amazing ice cream shop Caleb discovered (he is mostly working up there now).  

The kittens are growing, I'm still having to syringe-feed them, but most of them are mostly eating wet food and soaked dry food, with a quick milk snack afterwards.  2 of the boys are still largely milk-fed, but it shouldn't be much longer until they're all weaned.  I estimate they're 5 weeks now, and they should wean by 7 weeks.  They've just started venturing off the porch a bit, and have made acquaintances with the dogs.  

Speaking of growing well, Tanya the baby alpaca is a success story!  I was prepared (but not at all excited) to bottle-feed her for as long as possible.  Last year, we weighed her brother Kenny consistently for at least 4 months, and monitored his weight gain. We quickly realized that he simply had to be bottle-supplemented or he wouldn't get enough food.  Fortunately, we had another cria that nursed wonderfully at the same time, so we could compare his growth to hers.  He gained between 0 (before supplementing) and 4 ounces per day over the summer. Loretta gained as much as 8+ and never less than 4 ounces per day!  Based on that, this year when Tanya arrived, I immediately started both weighing and bottle-feeding her.  Or at least attempting to.  She took the bottle well the second time I tried, and never again.  Amazingly, she has been gaining 4-5 ounces a day, without the extra milk, so I haven't had to bother her.  This was such a relief - I really really wasn't looking forward to fighting milk down a reluctant baby again!  Interestingly, the change this year, we think, can be chalked up to the milking sheep.  In milking them this summer, I've found that they respond much more quickly than the goats to diminishing forage in the pasture.  This year, we put the milking girls in much smaller paddocks, and as soon as the sheep milk started dropping, we moved them, generally every 4-5 days.  Last year, we left them in larger areas for about 2 weeks at a time.  Both times, the mama and baby alpacas were in there too, so this year it makes sense that our actions to maximize the sheep milk would have boosted the alpaca milk as well!  Lesson learned, and a good one too!

This past week Caleb finally got some shelves built in the boys' room, making such a huge difference in the clutter in there.  I think that's about all the shelves in the house that I've been wanting, now I just need to get everything rearranged and organized to finally use our limited space in the best way possible.  

Caleb has been clearing and working the garden and hoop house, and I've gotten some fall crops planted with more to come.  I've started carrots and beets, radishes, more beets, and winter radishes, and spinach outside.  Inside, I still need to sow more carrots and beets, more spinach, kale, cilantro, mustard, lettuce, and who knows what else!  

The beans are done, and good riddance!  They sure are good while they last, but picking them is such a chore!  We have a few Chinese Red Noodle beans just starting, they're pretty fun and so much easier to pick, since they are deep burgundy and 18" long!  I have them trellised, so they hang down, and it's so easy to find them.  The hot peppers are also about done, thank goodness - I have made so much hot sauce this summer!  I will probably end up selling most of it, but I made sure to put up 6 pints just for us, as well as 8 pints of BBQ for us.  I was thinking that would get us a year, but at the rate Caleb is going through them it may be more like 2 months-worth...

Our fig harvest has just begun!  And this is our best year yet, with handfuls every 1-2 days!  I can definitely make some desserts, maybe even a jar or two of jam.  Mmmm! 

Well, I'm sure there's a number of things I've forgotten to mention, but at least 2 kids are crying and the other one is yelling, so I think I'm done here...