Saturday Chores

Saturday morning I do my best to sleep in. That's the day I catch up. This morning the farmer slept later than me! I woke up, went and made my cup of tea, and then started the coffee. Then I made four bottles for the sleepy kids in the playpen. As soon as I sat down with my Red Rose, they started chittering, so I fed them one by one. About that time the farmer got up and poured his coffee, and we started planning our day.

First comes farm chores. I am the milker on the weekend, and right now we are milking Pansy and Tulip. With the new gate arrangement, the milkers are already in the barn, where they've been all night. So I no longer have to fight all the goats to get the milkers in the stall. Cats follow me as a walk to the barn, meowing all the way. They know they get the milk from stripping the goats and they love it.

Check the food and water for the cats and dogs. Feed all the goats, because everyone gets grain and hay in the morning. Feed the chickens and check their water. Look at the garden - no sign of tomatoes turning, but once they start, I will be blanching, freezing, canning, etc. I have Jalepeno peppers almost ready, so this year I will be canning salsa too! Whoops, put cilantro on the shopping list!

Later on in the morning John and I went to check out an auction we'd heard about. Over in Germanton one of the big, really old houses and contents were being auctioned off. Gigantic house. Six bedrooms, two baths, two front parlors, two kitchens, dining room, numerous outbuildings. Sometimes it's fun to go to these because you can walk all through the houses. Once in a while you get lucky. I got a bow front oak dresser for John at an auction for a sweet deal, AND it was already stripped and ready for stain.

Got back about lunch time, and the kids are ready for another feeding. Around 1:00 and we are well into the heat of the day, so it's time for inside work! This afternoon we'll be adding a hayloft to the buck barn, and then I will start painting the outside. All the outbuildings on our place will be barn red with a hunter green roof.
Always something to do on the farm!

Just for fun, here are some pictures from July 4th. We had ourselves a little barbeque and lit off some sparklers.