This is my favorite time of the year. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, warm in the day without being hot, but cool at night. It allows for dry and comfortable work outside and I truly relish the opportunity to enjoy our farm and animals during this time of year. That being said it really drives home the point that summer is almost over and I need to begin focusing in on preparing the animals and farm for the long winter ahead.
I always feel like we are either barely surviving or working to thrive for the next season. Summer is truly a season where I feel like I am just hanging on for the wild ride and just getting through each week to prepare for that weekend's event, but fall allows a much needed break and a plan for the things we want to change and improve over the next few months. For example, we need to purchase board and batton from the local Amish lumber mill to re side both our shed and chicken coop in the back yard. They were here when we purchased the house, so we have no idea how old they are, but the bottom of the sides is beginning to rot, so we want to replace those to keep our sheds draft free for the winter. Stay posted for when this project will occur. We also want to get stone for around the barn, chicken coop and run in shed for the winter to prevent the inevitable mud season that is to come.
Fall does mean breeding season, and although both our bucks and does are eager participants, we have not begun breeding them yet. Ivy and Turbo will be the first pair that we breed for two reasons. One Ivy has had two years in a row where she has either not gotten pregnant or had an issue with her pregnancy, so we want to allow extra time for her to be with the buck and several cycles to try to breed her. (we only tried to breed her once last year) Also, turbo is only five months old, so we want to give him some time to figure out the whole breeding process ;) We are thoroughly looking forward to our first time breeding with our own bucks!
I hope you all enjoy this wonderful season with your goats! Happy Goating!
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