Good Days….Bad Days

What a whirlwind of good and not so good days on the farm over the last two weeks. Summer days can never be long enough and we constantly feel behind on the growing “to do” list. I wish I could say life on a farm is always a dream and the perfect life, but quite frankly that just isn’t true. We love the farm life and would never change it, just know it’s not ever going to be “perfect” and go as planned.

The Goats

Weaning time is officially here! It gets easier with time for the kids. Some adjust quickly while others take some time to adjust. This year with the mothers out on pasture in the opposite direction it made for less crying and a quicker adjustment for the kids. About half of the kids were weaned with the other half to be weaned in the coming weeks.

Today as I write this the “newly” weaned kids are happy and learning to be independent.

With weaned kids comes a full milking schedule. While the dairy kids are still with mom we milk only in the mornings but now that they are weaned we are “back” to our normal schedule of twice a day milking. Goats are routine animals and thrive with this way of life. Believe it or not, the dairy goats know which order they get milked in. Veer off from this routine and they will be sure to let you know of their disgust! The barn cats have quickly picked up on the additional milking time and are always at the stand – ready and hoping to catch a lick of milk.

Like winter, summer comes with its own challenges. There isn’t a day that goes by where we aren’t monitoring the goats for internal parasites or external pests. Raising 100+ goats it is our top priority to keep an eye on their health as things turn south rather quickly. The monthly tasks of keeping these pesks under control takes time, patience and a good tracking system on a calendar. The dairy goats have their own daily health routine; maybe I’ll make an individual post on this one day!

The bad…. one of the worst things to happen on a farm besides death is probably a burst water pipe. Yep, that’s where the bad days come in. Something you never want to experience. The barn where we house our weaned kids and bucks has a broken water line underground leading to the Ritchie. This leads to many “issues” with one of the main concerns being the goats. Right now we are working on a plan to fix the issue but like many farmers, there is never enough space for livestock. Moving the goats while we fix the pipe is a task in its self – stay tuned for an update in the future!

Bathroom Renovation

Since the outside wall problem has been fixed we have officially started on the inside! If you ever have lived through a bathroom renovation (specifically with only one bathroom!) then you know that each step towards completion is exciting!

The week of the 4th of July brought us greatly appreciated help! Austin’s uncle and dad came up to help tile the shower. Austin’s uncle has awesome experience in tiling and if it weren’t for him we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we did. Traditional subway tile is VERY time consuming…. I suppose all the built in shelves I “needed” didn’t help! The shower is tiled all but for the floor. This week we are working on grouting and will be laying the shower floor tile. Baby steps people, baby steps!

We will share pictures once we are done but here’s a sneak peak of the design 🙂

Farm life is the life we would choose over and over again. The good days ALWAYS out weigh any bad days.

-Randi

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