This will likely be a year where there is no Spring at all. Instead Winter will move right into Summer. 19 degrees this morning, but at least the wind has dropped from the howling all day yesterday and last night. Lucked out and didn’t get any of the snow predicted. Already past the normal time of year to plant peas, but wouldn’t think of putting them in yet this year. Shearing is scheduled for tomorrow but the weather forecasts are saying rain and it won’t be a bad thing to postpone since it will be continuing to be below average temperatures for a few more weeks yet. The goats can generally handle temperatures down to about 32 degrees after a new haircut. I can put t-shirts on any that are cold for a few weeks until their hair grows out. Angora goats are hair growing machines with fiber growth of about an inch a month. They need about an inch of fiber to tolerate very cold temperatures.
Finally got the large evergreen trees in front of the house taken down. They had been on my to do list since Hurricane Sandy took one of them down, luckily falling away from the house although not as good for the fence it hit. The trees had gotten too big to be so close to the house. It made an enormous difference to the look of the farmstead and now there is room for a big garden close to the house. I’ll have to put a tall fence up to keep out the deer with chicken wire around the bottom to keep out the rabbits and woodchucks. It’s a relentless battle where the fencing seems to keep me out better than the wildlife! This year it will be a compost pile for the barn so that the soil can be built up. Right now it is too wet and low with large tree stumps to readily grow much. I will probably plant pumpkins on top though to keep the compost neatly covered while it does it’s job. A side benefit of the tree removal project is that the goats are having a feast on the branches. This will get them through until it warms up and the pastures come back to life. The sheep like the evergreen branches too, a nice change from hay I guess. Now I need to get out there and chop off the smaller branches so I can use the long branches for fence poles. Never a dull moment!
Goat Heaven