Wow, looking back, I can’t believe the last time I posted was in May 2010. Here it is December of 2011 and so much has changed! You can tell things really got busy around here that spring and hasn’t slowed down one bit. We added six ewes to the farm and one ram in 2010. Now we have eleven ewes, two rams, many more chickens and ducks. Just yesterday we added a milk goat, a young alpine doe, and a bunny. We continue to sell eggs and have sold three lambs, two for breeding and one for meat. We currently have one ram lamb for sale, for breeding.
In May 2010, I was still working off farm full-time. I was laid off April 1, 2011 and continued to look for off-farm work and had a brief stint as a contractor, before deciding to home school. I home schooled all three kids for four weeks, but re-enrolled our daughter in our local public charter school. Homeschooling the boys has gone really well. We are on Christmas break, sticking to the school schedule that our daughter is on.
Other than homeschooling, I’ll be farming fulltime. I’m looking forward to turning out the sheep on a new pasture after lambing in May. In addition to enlarging our flock, we hope to improve our garden, raise more chickens for meat and eggs, and add fruit trees to our farm in 2012. I’ll, hopefully, be milking a goat and am thinking quite seriously about milking the sheep. The boys have taken on leadership positions in our 4H club and look to do many projects. Our daughter is fast becoming a horse lover, with riding lessons and 4H.
It seems appropriate that I’m starting to post again on the first day of winter 2011 and looking toward renewal in 2012.