November 2010 Update

Just a general update of all that is going on:

Goats - I continue to move towards a show herd.  I now own the following goats:

Tiny Town Blue Suede Shoes (Melody) - a terrific milker and a proven producer of show quality kids.
Tiny Town Treble - a solid milker with show potential in her own right.
Sweet Garden Blossom - maturing beautifully: deep, wide, and long. I expect big things from her next year.
Tiny Town BP Sweet Muzette - A flashy blue-eyed doeling with potential for excellent milk production and outstanding conformation.
Tiny Town Sweet Serenade (Sara) - A beautiful white doeling with royalty in her blood.  Hopefully this precious girl will live up to her pedigree.

I've posted a kidding schedule here:  http://www.sweetgardengoats.com/Kidding_Schedule.html.  Reservations will be accepted.  No deposit is required.

Melody and Blossom have both been bred to NC Promisedland Peeping Tom.
Treble has been bred to Tiny Town Sunny Surprise.
Muzette has been bred to NC Promisedland SIA Samuria.
Sara will be bred to NC Promisedland SIA Samuria in a couple of weeks.

Tigger is still here, but will be returned to Tiny Town Goats in a couple of weeks.  That will complete my plans for this year.  Then I will just have to wait for all of the girls to kid next year and see what the stork brings!

I have also placed a deposit on a buckling and doeling from Rosasharn Farm in Massachusetts.  Those additions should put me in good stead, along with my current does, to move forward towards a show herd with solid milk production.

Pigs -  The pigs have grown and grown and grown, and now they are ready for the slaughterhouse:

Tomorrow evening we are taking them up to Mt. Airy Locker for slaughter.  We'll bring them back down here, hopefully Wednesday, to butcher them ourselves.  I'll have to report back later on flavor and how the processing went.

Broiler Chickens - we ended up processing about 75 broilers.  They are all (except for the ones we've already eaten) in the freezer.  We've been extremely happy with the chickens.

Layer Hens - the twenty-five Rhode Island Reds that we purchased in the Summer began laying a couple of weeks ago.  I don't expect a lot of eggs until Spring, but I did collect eight eggs today.  They are still mostly small eggs, with an occasional larger one.

Garden - The greenhouse is up.  I have six squares producing lettuce, cabbage, Spring onions, Swiss Chard, and spinach.  The root cellar holds turnips, kohlrabi, beets, and carrots.  So, we're set for the winter.

And that's my November 2010 update...  Hopefully I'll have more time this winter for blogging, but Spring will come and along with that a heavy show schedule, milking, cheesemaking, gardening, and normal life responsibilities.  It's all good...