This is a change.

I had originally intended this blog to be devoted solely to goats. But I have discovered that there are too many other interesting things going on around the 'farm' and so I will henceforth be writing about all of those things (well not all) as well.

As you may or may not know my family recently moved houses. I specify houses because the house we moved into is right next door to the trailer that we have been renting for the past ten years and the land we are using has not changed at all. My family lives right next door to my mother's parents who own the 15 acres on which my goats live. Enough history.

The most recent (and exciting) development is the remaking of our garden. I say remaking because the garden had been taking a break for two years while my father (its main cultivator) built our house. The time has come to dig it up again with many improvements. We now have raised beds made out of cinder blocks from a wall that we tore down while turning the barn into our house. Dad used the rototiller to break up the dirt a bit and then we used a string to get all the blocks lined up beautifully.

The other improvement is to the soil. As you will probably find if you ever make a garden from scratch that when you first dig it up the soil it is hard and lumpy and full of bits of grass and roots. The problem with the roots is that they give the weeds an unfair advantage. You will have better luck if you start ahead and get all the bits and pieces out first thing. How to do it? How to get a soft, weedless bed? Sift it. Yes. My current project is indeed that of sifting two 4x20ft garden beds. Our lettuce (or more accurately beets and kale) will have a bed so soft that they will sleep for a hundred years. (Didn't you know that that was why plants don't talk? Refer to Chapter 2 of Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) 

That is what is happening right now. Apart from in the garden I'm also harvesting wild passion fruit and gathering all the chestnuts which happen to fall in my path..... The goats think they are excellent treats.
M.