Monday, October 28, 2013

Here's our little boy Egypt, with GE standing behind him.  They were out in the herb garden eating weeds.  We named him Egypt because he has such an exotic looking face.  He has the most awesome nearly white cashmere fiber.  I can't wait to comb him this spring and harvest some of it.  You can only get about four ounces of fiber from each little goat, no wonder it is so expensive.

They have had the run of the property for several weeks now.  They are loving it and so are we.  They have successfully weeded nearly two acres!  Next summer when they are bigger we will be taking them over to the pasture to do some weeding over there.

Yesterday the wind starting blowing -- hard!  We lit a fire in the wood stove, made our dinner early, got enough water ready for emergency use and were all ready when our power went out about 7pm.  Boy, it is dark!  My daughter got out our Crank-A-Watt hand cranked generator and we had one light plus the ability to charge our cell phones, iPads or whatever else we might want.  Mostly we sat and talked or read.  It so nice, quiet and peaceful.  The house was warm, all the cats and dogs were inside, and chickens were in their new coop and the little goats had been fed and were in their shed for the night.

It was sure cold outside though.  The wind blew so hard it blew the roof off the old chicken coop out in the garden where we had had the chickens all summer.  We had just moved the chickens to the larger coop a couple days ago.  Just in time!

We still have a little work left outside to do, but on a much warmer and less-windy day than today.  So glad we got most of it done last weekend.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

 I love Idaho.  Every morning and afternoon when we take my niece to or from school we pass by this beautiful herd of bison grazing on the left-over grasses from this summer.  They are raised by a large ranch at the bottom of this hill, just on the other side of where they're grazing.

They are so beautiful and majestic looking. Sometimes they are much closer to the unseen fence and we get a closer look at them.  Since this is on Hwy 41 its hard to stop and take a picture, but this is a pretty good one.

We not only see bison (or buffalo) but deer just walking along in the woods next to the hwy, and twice already this fall we've seen bull moose.  The last time he was a large moose, he ran out of the woods to my right and slowly walked to the middle of the hwy.  There he stood for several minutes, looking majestic and very uninterested in moving.  I stopped (of course!) a ways back as did the car coming the other way.  These are so large you can actually see underneath them up the hill.  After a few minutes, he slowly walked to the other side and disappeared into the woods.  Wow.  Beautiful!


Idaho has the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises.  This was taken last week in the late afternoon but through our car window unfortunately.  By the time we are in the midst of winter, we will be dark by 3:45 pm, and it doesn't get daylight until after 7 am.

With all that darkness, our chickens usually stop laying, nothing grows that needs to be tended and our temps stay between 0° and 30°.  But we love it.  A nice warm wood stove fire, homemade soup and bread ... what could be more comfy and homey.

Like I always say, C'mon up for a visit.  Any season is beautiful and unique.  Spring can be a little cold, wet and long, but fresh with rain and smells sooooo good, green from melting snow and in general a very pleasurable experience.

The picture at the top of the blog shows my kitty River in her full grown coat.  She was so miserable no matter how much I brushed her.  Last week we took her to our wonderful vet in Newport WA and had her coat shaved.  They always leave her lower legs, face and tip of her tail in the long fur.  So far she hasn't complained about being cold, but this picture shows her laying on my bed in the sun where she remains for hours and hours.

Usually I feel sorry for her and will cover her with the purple 'woobie' as we call the furry throws we all love.

She does go outside if the afternoon temps are fairly decent.  She stays very close to home, sometimes not even leaving the front porch or the back field if I'm out there working.

The last couple weeks we have been letting our goats out to roam the house property.  They are the most dedicated weed eaters.  They do eat some of my plants but so far haven't done any damage except to our newly stacked wood in the carport.  They love jumping on top and running back and forth on it.

If that's all they do I will be very happy.  About 2pm they decide its time to go home and will stand at the back door and cry.  Then I go out, get their feed bowls and they follow me back up to their little pen.  They eat, get ginger snap or unfrosted animal cookies and are ready for bed.

What a life!