Well, I’ve been seeing a lot on the news lately about the weather back east. And with it comes this term that I have never heard before the big, evil “Polar Vortex”. Personally I think “they” have someone in a room somewhere trying to think up scarey terms so the weather people on T.V. can have something interesting to say. So to join in and in the spirit of global warming hysteria, I have decided that the sub-zero temperatures this past week here in southeast Idaho should be called a “Heat Deficit”. Maybe that will catch on, but I doubt it.
Sunday was Groundhog day according to the calendar. I have stopped even paying attention to all of the hoopla around this first of the February made up holidays. The primary reason I don’t follow these predictions is that my goats say it’s all a bunch of hooey! Seriously, JuneCarter told me just the other day “Rodent based meteorological prognostication is a flat out scam! Neither Punxsutawney Phil, nor Balzack Billy or any of their ilk can be trusted to give you the correct time of day, much less tell you what the weather will be like this afternoon!”
Now I know you may not want to take the word of a goat on this matter, but she has been a very reliable goat all of her life. To the untrained ear it may have sounded like so much bleating, but it was very clear to me what she was saying.
I have about 1 & 1/2 gallons of fresh milk for soap making now. That is in addition to the several gallons of frozen milk I was going to use. I may try to use up the fresh stuff and wait on the frozen until I know if I need it for feeding babies at the end of March. I was finally able to have milk for drinking on Tuesday after the 48 hour waiting period from vaccinating Skeeter. In the interim I did try drinking the milk Marky buys for herself at the store. All I can say is “blecchh”!
There were a couple of days this week where the temperatures plunged to zero and lower. Trying to keep the water buckets and bowels filled and thawed was a challenge for those few days. Then it snowed and I got to shovel the driveway for the first time this winter. Then it snowed more and kept warming up and we have had rain several times today. The goats who are famously hydrophobic, were not happy. The ducks found puddles to splash in EVERYWHERE they went today. The chickens didn’t even try to go outside either.
I did see some mating behavior with the ducks this week in the warmer temperatures, so possible egg laying and hatching later this spring. The pregnant goats are getting bigger. JuneCarter looks about as wide as she is tall. I hope she does not take after her mama and start having trouble giving birth. Looking forward to the end of March when that will all be done.
Well, enough chatter, here are the numbers for the first full week of February!
2/2/2014 thru 2/8/2014:
- Eggs collected 71
- Eggs sold 4 dozen
- Cartons filled 5
That’s it for this week.