Our Micro-farm is growing.........

Okay, so maybe it is not technically a micro-farm, but Milk Mud and Honey Farms is developing.

We decreased our number of ducks from six to two females. Four of the original heard were drakes (boys). Three are living happily with a new family with a pond and five acres. Ping, the fourth drake became an attempted dinner dish for our family. However, neither Dustin nor I could stomach the idea of actually eating poor Ping. I won't go into the butchering, cleaning, and dressing details. However, I will say that it really wasn't that bad or gruesome and Ping died very quickly, though in vain. I actually cooked the bird up, but it smelled kind of funny and he was so skinny. After the experience, we thought a lot about how most people, including us, are so disconnected from how our meats are grown, killed, and prepared for the table, yet it doesn't bother us one bit to savor each bite of medium rare T-bone or a juicy chicken breast. Perhaps in the future we will try to grow our own birds again, but for now, we await the gals, Pogo and Lola, to start laying eggs.

In addition to ducks, we now have three "pullet" (female) Rhode Island Red chicks. We got them when they were just a couple of days old. Sadly, one had an accident involving being squished by a small boy's hand. It was a little traumatic and Elias used the money he has earned doing chores around our home to buy another chick. He can tell you all the details about the incident and watch out, he may volunteer the information to you without prompting.

We also have our goats now! Tobias and Lillian joined us last week. Tobias is a "wether", a neutered male, and Lillian is a "doe" - a female. Toby, as I like to call him is half pygmy, half angora and his fur is SO soft. He loves to be scratched and petted by all of us, including the kids. The day after we got him, I peaked outside into the goat yard (we have fenced in a portion of our backyard/woods for the goats) and there were Tobias and Elias laying in the grass together, Elias with his arm around Toby's neck just looking at each other. It was too cute. I think that it is going to be good for the kiddos to have a pet that they can actually pet. Lillian is a bit skittish, but is starting to let us pet her when she is eating grain in the "barn" (our old garden tool storage shed). Hopefully by the time she is ready to have babies and start milking, she will be just as friendly as Toby.

Our wheat "field" is growing and our other garden areas are growing too, though it seems quite slowly (due to the cooler weather??).

I am now almost 37 weeks pregnant and ready to meet this baby girl! Now really comes the waiting and wondering "is this contraction the real thing?" part.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Larrabee State Park to experience the lowest tide of the summer at 12:37 pm. We are all very excited, especially since Dustin has the day off and gets to join us! Yay!

all for now,
Susan