Welcome Home

Our Nigerian Dwarf goats are in!

They love fallen leaves and running around after us !

They are registered 

and we soon hope to breed them 

for milk!

Canning tomato sauce

21 pounds of tomatoes from our backyard have turned into tomato sauce after several hours!

Preparing the garlic bed

Last weekend, we picked the suckers of a bed of strawberries and moved them to the old garlic bed.  It is recommended that the strawberry bed is moved to a different location every 3 years.  After removing the old strawberry plants from their original bed, we sowed rye seeds and plan to till them in the soil prior to planting the garlic there. I suggest that when you sow rye seeds you cover them with straw.

Canning beets

Last weekend we harvested 8 pounds of beets

 we took the tops off and left the roots tips and washed them

 then we boiled them until the beets were soft 

 the recipe that we were following required onions and we had our own !
After taking the beets out of the boiling water, then we took the skins off and quartered them.  We then poured vinegar and spices over the beets and brought to a boil.  Finally, we canned the beets and ...
we canned a total of 4 quarts + 1 pint

Asa and Cheche

Our newest family members- Nigerian Dwarf goats
Nigerian Dwarf goats were introduced to the US in the early 1980s
They can average a quart of milk a day and have a long lactation period of 305 days 
Three Nigerian goats can occupy the same space of one standard goat
Does can be 17-19 inches tall and bucks can be 19-20 inches tall 

We are now building a goat house and clearing land for their arrival

Edamame

Today I picked the soybeans we planted this summer

I pulled the whole plant and removed the pods 

I think we are going to steam these and eat them with sea salt 

Also, from the garden we have 

acorn squash

cherry tomatoes

fingerling potatoes

Long weekend ahead

Projects for this weekend include :
1. dispersing the wood chips on the paths of the garden 
2. building a shed for the goats 
3. prepare the bed for garlic 
4. do something with all the tomatoes !

So far, we have been busy doing all sorts of makeovers to the garden/yard of our cabin.  We have been clearing the yard with a weed waker and chain saw, since we have a lot of raspberries and young trees and overall we would like it to be more of an open area.  It will help with the circulation of air, since we are in the middle of the forest. 
Now we can see the paths in the garden! the wood chips will help with the unwanted weeds in the garden. You can also use straw hay and newspaper block to prevent the light from getting to the paths and therefore the growing weeds.