Thursday, October 16, 2014

Fall is certainly apparent in north Idaho this week.  We've had such warm dry weather so far I hadn't really noticed Fall too much yet until yesterday. 

I got a box and went over to the orchard after I finished feeding our goats and chickens.  It had rained pretty hard in the night and continued all day yesterday but it was only misting lightly when I went into the orchard.  The trees were dripping  from the rain and the smell of wet earth, wet forest and sweet fruit was nearly overwhelming.  It was quiet as usual except for the clucking of the chickens and occasional drop of a ripe apple. 

These are Red Delicious apples.  We love fresh apples, but mostly they are sliced and dried at our house so we can still enjoy the taste long into winter and next spring.  We even had a house guest one time that loved them so much she ate an entire gallon bag in just a few days.  We have so many already on the ground that are ready to eat and hope to get the rest off the tree this weekend.

There is one little apple on the top right with a yellow spot that is from a different tree.  Usually they are not as good as the red delicious, but this year they are wonderful.  Sweet and juicy.  Since we don't use any pesticides here you get an occasional little tiny bug spot, but for the most part they are perfect and beautiful.

Speaking of goats, here is our cute little Smoky begging for a dried yellow
plum yesterday.  Egypt is in the background and just knows he will not be able to snag one.  Smoky is the big pig of the goat pen and fights for 'his' food.  Egypt and GE don't have a chance.

The picture on the right is that beautiful full moon we had last week.  We were on our way to a volleyball game and this picture was taken from the car.

I love the way the clouds look like long fingers reaching for the moon.


Sunday, October 5, 2014

Finally!  We finished putting our little goat shed together this week.  After getting it unloaded, which was a huge effort because of the weight,
and reading the directions over several times my niece and I got it mostly put up in two days.  First day was a killer.  Second day we didn't work as hard and quit earlier than the first day.

Getting the roof on was the last thing we did and probably the heaviest part of our construction job.







My niece is such a huge help, a very sharp eye for detail and also a bit of an artist so she knows what is aesthetically pleasing.  I usually follow the directions or do it my own way, then have to change it later because I don't like the way it looks.

The only really hard part was the lifting and my shoulders and arms were feeling it the next day.  She is very strong and active in sports so I don't think it bothered her as much as me.

So here is our new shed for the baby goats.  They seem to like it but I can't say I've seen them sleeping inside yet.  The day before we finished it the temperature that night was 28°.  Even our heater came on before time to get up.  Usually our house stays fairly warm when the days are warm.  If the days and nights are both cold then our house is freezing.

We placed straw in the bottom and locked one door shut while the other one will stand open until the weather turns rainy or snowy.  So far its been just beautiful.  An Indian Summer.  Days warm and sunny, nights cool sometimes frosty.  The water in the animal's buckets was frozen on top this week a few times.



And the new residents are curious about everything.  50/50 says What's Up?  And Comfey is (for once!) not the first one to get her picture taken.  She is so much bigger than he is I wonder if he will ever be a big boy, or maybe he will always just be my little boy.