Long time...

It has been an inexcusably long time since I have posted. Never-the-less, although I won't call them "excuses", I can call them "reasons".

We had eight goats have babies in early December. We kept very few of the babies, but still, raising babies takes time and energy! In January and into February we have had seven more kid. Same story.

In mid-January Tim's 86 year old father (who has been living with us) entered the hospital for what was supposed to be a simple out-patient procedure. He is still in the hospital and everything is pointing to him not returning to our home. We are his only family. The hospital is 63 miles away. This translates to more time away from the farm than we like, but you do what you have to do.

Continued child raising and homeschooling.

Milking, pasteurizing, bottling product and going to five markets weekly.

Hitting the last trimester of pregnancy, meaning less energy.

We are getting ready for our real kidding season, with as many as thirty goats due from the middle of March through the middle of April.

Mud. It has rained hard at least once weekly for the past few months, meaning we are socked in with mud, making every job much harder and longer.

Lastly is the obligation that I feel to write something other than "hey folks, this is hard work! Great work, fulfilling work, but HARD work!" How exciting would that be to read, day in and day out? I have reminded myself that part of the reason for starting the blog was to both have a record for myself as well as to allow people to share vicariously in the day to day activities of the farm. I guess this includes hard, even mundane work as well. So, now that the camera (which once was lost and now is found--again, just yesterday--is available, I will endeavor to post at least one picture and some form of update at least every few days.