Winding up the year

November 30.  2018

Last Saturday we had a group from our local Permaculture Group for a day looking at goat keeping and how it fits in to our way of life.  We made feta and cream cheese and some goats milk soap.  We also showed everyone the wonderful job the goats have done getting rid of the blackberries in the big gully , and how well vegetables grow in the compost the herd generates. I decided not to prepare a dish of goats’ meat for lunch and this was fine as there were lots of vegetarians. ( Better not to upset any one.)

Now that  this day is over we can  concentrate on trying to work out exactly what we were in the middle of doing a couple of months ago, before the camps started.  Also, a whole new set of issues had come up that had to be dealt with.  Yesterday Edd went to Warragul and picked up the spare pump we have for the milking machines and some other bits. The machine had totally ground to a halt and there are a lot of goats for hand milking!  Once Edd had replaced things and got it all back in one piece the machine has been a dream.  It works much better than it has for ages , which is a great relief.  It had got slowly harder to use and I had forgotten  that it could ever work without continual adjustments.

The kids are now drinking enough milk to let us feed them just twice a day after milking.  This makes our lives much easier.  They are all growing well so we will have to get outdoor pens ready for them to move into.  I have advertised the last two male kids this week end.  They are really lovely kids and I hate to see them go but this is their chance to have a home where they can live as  pets.    Barak is now getting stronger on the leg he broke.  He has another kid with him for company and they are now ready to have a paddock pen.  I do not like them being outside when they are small enough to be taken by foxes or eagles.  

The good news is that there are now fresh strawberries and raspberries for breakfast each day.  We are trying hard to eat our way through  all the cauliflowers and the zucchinis are producing more and more.  The corn and the beans are flowering, and the pumpkins are well established.  Ben’s purple potatoes are producing lots of leaves, but the tomatoes have not ripened yet. It does not matter, we have plenty of different vegies to choose from for our meals.

Queensland still has terrible fires and Sydney was flooded but we just had a wet week down here. Today school children are striking to try and get our Government to act about climate change.  People are realising how devastating natural disaster can be and really do not want things to get any worse.  I am pleased that children are taking notice after all they are going to be the ones affected by what we do next.