The End of Fall, The Beginning of Winter

Fall was quiet here on the farm. The colors seemed to fade
just a little too fast for me this year. I can hardly believe that 2009 is nearly over. It seems this year went by faster than any I can ever remember. I love the quiet of winter, how everything is so still and beautiful when it is resting. I love to walk through the garden and see the dead sunflower stalks that the birds have picked clean, and the rosemary that makes it through most of the winter. I also love to look for birds nests in the trees, and collect the ones that are blown to the ground by the fierce winds this time of year.
The hens took a few weeks off from laying as they do every year, and now things have started to pick up again. The ducks and geese are doing well and spending most of their time in the pond. Our most exciting event since the hatching of our chicks and ducklings happened last Wednesday though, the birth of our baby goat Star (see photo).
Jackie is a good mother, but is very very stubborn when I try to milk her. We are still working on it, so I hope that it gets better over time. It's actually very easy to milk her once we can get her to stay still. We haven't tried any yet but I hope to after we have it tested by a vet. I love to watch the baby jumping and running around, it is thoroughly entertaining to watch.
I plan to spend the winter reading through seed catalogs and making plans for the spring. I haven't decided if we are going to order more chicks in the spring, but I will replace a few of our lost ducks. I will also read through a lot of my gardening books this winter. Winter is a perfect time to make a list of goals for your farm in the next year, plan your garden and decide if you want to add or subtract from your livestock. So grab a cup of hot chocolate, a notebook and lots of seed catalogs, gardening books and hatchery catalogs. Spring will be here before you know it!