Almost a month since our last post. In our family, we are learning the preciousness of the time we've been given. The past four weeks have been filled with working at our jobs, raising our kids, and toiling on what we have started lovingly calling our "property" or the "Land of Milk, Mud and Honey"....though only 0.6 acre, we feel like we've got quite a handful of earth to till and manage
MILK, MUD, and HONEY
Let's start with the milk...
We are getting two small goats at the end of May. One is a Nigerian Dwarf doeling who will produce milk around this time next year (the "MILK" part of our land's name). Since goats are herd animals, they need at least one other friend to keep them company. So the other goat we will adopt is called a Pygora--a cross between a Pygmy and Angora goat. It will be a "wether"-a neutered male, and we can shear its fur and spin it ourselves or sell it to be spun into yarn. We've met both goats. The first one we met provided the kids and I with a mildly traumatizing experience, mostly due to a barely-dodged attack by a Turkey upon the unsuspecting Elias. After that, Jillian kept crying "I'm REALLY scared!", but warmed up to the baby goat toward the end of our visit. The second goat we met last week at a small farm on Whidbey Island. This was a wonderful experience seeing another family's microfarm endeavor which they had started about a year ago.
Now for the MUD
The mud is the bane of my home management at the moment. While the drainage system Dustin dug throughout our yard is working well, we still have to clean up after ourselves. Not sure where all those clay/dirt clods that came from inside the trench are going to go, but Dustin has a plan.
We are busy planning and planting our "hobbyfarm" with most of our vegetable seedlings sprouted indoors, as the colder weather had prevented us from planting them outside. However, this week has been a success in getting our corn, cucumbers, beans, and some others outside. Peas and lettuces have already been sown.
We are in a routine with the ducks, who look full-grown now. Aside from a midnight encounter with five large raccoons (which spurred us on to finish (quickly) their nighttime pen), things have gone quite smoothly with them (oh, I forgot about the afternoon that Elias chased them around the yard, and into the blackberry thicket next to our property ["Mommy, I want to show you where the ducks are!" BIG smile]...with minor scratches, Dustin and I emerged from the brambles with all six ducks in tow). We think, however, that we only have two females, meaning the four drakes' days are likely numbered. If we decide to eat them, it should be before they are 4 months old, as their meat, apparently gets quite tough after this age.
And then comes the HONEY
The beehives arrived last week via UPS, and let me tell you that everything was put on hold so that they could be built and put together. On Monday, we pick up the bees and an Epi-Pen, just in case. I'm sure there will be more excitement to come with the bees.
This hobbyfarming thing has been interesting. It certainly is not easy work, and it is uncertain what types of harvest we will reap. Our goal is to make it a family affair, and thus far the kids seem to enjoy the endeavor, helping us, being outside, getting dirt under their fingernails, and adding their input ("I REALLY REALLY want a goat"). I have noticed that we rarely have time to have the TV on at all, sometimes going a few days between when we watch it. And I am learning to enjoy being outside more, even in the cold and damp Northwest. Was it this cold when I grew up here?
The hardest part of this for me, however, has been letting go of the pristine park-like manicured look of our yard. We hope to make the yard-turned-garden areas into tidy looking gardens, but they just don't have that look yet. On the other hand, God wants us to be good stewards of what he's given us and Dustin and I feel that this is a stewardship of our land (goal to grow our own, organic produce, milk, and eggs) and our time (more time together as a family, more time purposefully spent).
