Well, I suppose this blog post is more of a round-up of everything that happened this past year on the farm! After the Holidays seems to be the only time when there are enough quiet moments to catch up on paperwork, letters, taxes, etc. and therein am I able to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, what we hope to achieve in the coming year, and dreams for the future.

We had some new critters join the farm this year! The first being a few baby goslings. They are Sebastopol geese, which are unusual in that their feathers are curly, therefor taking away any ability to fly. They are gentle and docile, and look as if they are wearing wedding dresses as adults! As babies, they pretty much just slept all the time :)

Coco was a young duckling hatched out in our incubator. The only one, as a matter of fact, out of about 50 eggs we tried. I have no doubt that our inexperience coupled with a possibly faulty humidity gauge were the culprits, but…Coco made it! As a baby, she lived in the house with us, and would peep loudly when she heard our voices. Eventually, she moved to an outside pen, and followed us around when we did chores. She is now happily settled in with our other ducks as an adult!

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Lots of lambs, or course!

This handsome guy, Goliath, is our newest Angora Buck. He hails from champion bloodlines and will increase the quality of our mohair by leaps and bounds! He came with a lovely doe as well, who we expect to see great things from!

And, along the lines of mohair, we recently crossed many states to pick up five incredible new angora goat babies that will be bred in the fall of 2021. While I haven’t yet taken any photos of them, the trip out to Montana was beautiful (and long!) We made a stop or two along the way, and I fell a little in love with North Dakota.

A new kitten, Merlin!

Two milking goats from our friends at Coppertail Farm, Nibblet and Fern. Our daughter had asked for milking goats for her birthday, and promised to do all the milking, so we figured we’d try it out. She has more than proven her capabilities with other animals, and has since done a beautiful job with these girls. She milks faithfully twice per day, and hands the milk to me to do with it whatever I like! Cheese and yogurt has been very popular!

And last, but most certainly the best, according to my daughter, is Duncan.

Duncan has fulfilled not only Cora’s desire to have a horse of her own, but also my own long-lost little girl dreams of an equine companion. He is a perfect gentleman, sweet, but also has lots of spunk. We are all very much in love with him!

The New Year is upon us, and I daresay that for the majority of the world, it is welcome. We will be settling in as a family to do some deep cleaning, baking, and enjoying of the relative quiet for a little while. There is yarn to be skeined and dyed, pregnant mamas to keep an eye on, seeds to be ordered, and dreams to tend to. This is the season of rest, and I forget sometimes that that applies to me as well. See you next year, friends!