Life on Fox Mountain

My brother is incredibly creative and talented!  He’s been working up at the farm here doing some carpentry work and I keep presenting him with needs and challenges and he keeps coming up with innovative solutions.  Sometimes they are just SO cool.  Take for instance the chicken coop doorway.  The chicken pasture is on the north side of their coop and the wind really whistles from the north so I wanted an exit with a baffle in it to break the winds.  I came back to find that he’d recreated the north profile of the barn in miniature to use as the hen entrance.  Check it out.  I’m sorry I don’t have a photo of the full barn profile….there are rabbit pens in the way so I couldn’t get one that would show it’s lines.  Notice how he created the little windows out of double walled polycarbonate scraps left over from the gable ends of the greenhouse.  That’s so the “tunnel” isn’t so dark.

The wire you see protruding in the second photo is the way to close the door from outside the barn after herding the flock in for the night.  I am SO lucky to have Jeff as one of my brothers.  My other brother, Glen, is just as creative.  He’s a creative leader in the lightweight backpacking movement.  They both have a lovely wry sense of humor and brains that think outside of the box to find some of the best solutions!

Sorry this has taken a couple of weeks to create but it’s been busy here.  Yes, we finally have baby goats.  In fact, we have 10 baby goats out of 4 does.  First to give birth was Sundae.  She had twins; a boy we named Star and a girl we named Onyx.  Very glossy babies!

Then on Tuesday morning I arrived at the barn to find that Zetta had given birth to 4 babies  (3 girls and a boy) all different colors and markings!  Wow was she tired.  We named the babies all 2 syllable names that end in “a” to go with their mom’s name.  The boy we named Metta, the girls are Chica, Bella and Luna.  Chica is marked like a chipmunk, Luna is the palest one, and Bella has a toffee colored base with darker shading down to her hooves and a few white markings.  Metta is a totally flashy type of guy who has markings like his mom.

Bella, Metta and Luna “on stage”.  They love to jump up on the little platform and prance around!

Chica, our little chicky, chipmunk girl.  She was the first one to learn that sitting people are like mountains to climb.  She loves to jump into our arms and then scramble up to our shoulders.

Then Tuesday evening Lucia gave birth to the most elegant babies of the barn.  We named them Stella and Umbra.  ”Lucia” means light and so to have her children named Stella and Umbra seems to make sense.  Top photo is “Stella” and photo below her is “Umbra”.

Then we waited……and waited.  We had no idea when Leoneea was due because we weren’t sure when she’d managed to get bred.  She finally gave birth last Saturday to 2 tiny twins; a girl Rasha  (Gazelle in some language) and Tao.  Leoneea looks more like a deer than a goat so it’s no surprise that her children are similar.  Her son has very soulful eyes just as his father does.  I am referring to his goat father, not Joseph, although Joseph has soulful eyes also!

So now we’re all done with kidding.  Next year we’ll have lambing photos to share.  For now I’m just feeling very pleased that everyone is born and doing well and that I have fresh goat milk in my morning tea!

I turned to Joseph as we worked in the cold rain and said, “I feel lucky that as an adult I”m still playing in the mud.  Not everyone gets to do this!”  He murmured an agreement and we kept our “his and hers” pick axes working on diverting rain water away from our greenhouse.

We put up the greenhouse in December with temperatures in the teens not including the windchill impact of high winds.  The ground in the greenhouse never thawed but we’ll be ready for next winter.  My fantasy is to be able to step into the greenhouse on the way back  from the barn to pick our dinner vegetables.  Of course I also really, really want a great root cellar  to store our root and fruit crops.

This winter has been snowy and cold with it’s last chapters full of freezing rain.  In the past 4 weeks I’ve only twice been able to do barn chores without my ice cleats on.

I LOVE doing chores even in the worst weather.  I feel so much more in current reality when I am engaged with what is right in front of me rather than out of sight.  So much of my time can get used in computer work researching, responding to emails, information requests, etc.  It’s so much more alive to be outside engaging with only what I can see in front of me.

Chores includes feeding meat rabbits, dairy goats and the livestock guardian dogs that guard them.  Grain bowls get put down for the goats and then I take food out to the Maremma dogs.  Fergey and Vera are siblings and are so engaged in their protective mode that I need to let them know that I’m on duty during meal times and that they can relax and eat.  If they hear something that’s obviously a predator it doesn’t matter what I say, they’re off and running to check it out.  Have I said how much I love these dogs??  They are so amazing!

I had clients in my downtown flower essence consultation office today so Joseph did evening barn chores.  After I arrived home and ate I went out to see the dogs and hang out with them under the starry sky.  They were less fun to pat than usual because it rained most of the day and they are still wet.  I managed to find some dry fur behind their ears and they seemed to enjoy me massaging them there.

I’m off to bed soon.  We’re expecting our first goat babies soon and I imagine I’ll have less sleep some nights in the weeks coming.  I think I’ll try to get ahead before night time bottle feedings complicate my schedule.  I’m hoping we’ll get sun tomorrow even though it’s not forecast.  I could really use some sun to melt some more of our snow!  Blessings, Kathrin

Spring kidding season is going to start this  next month and I’m scrambling!  I think we    have 4 pregnant does, all of whom can give  birth to between one and six babies.  Yup, you  read correctly, six!!!  I sure hope it doesn’t  come to that because we really don’t have  enough space for 24 baby goats along with  the adults.  We have Nigerian Dwarf goats  and we’re new at this so I’m been stressing  about what I need to have ready.  I’ve assisted  livestock births before so that’s not a concern  for me, it’s more about what I need to gather  to have on hand on the off chance we have an emergency.  We’re ages from the closest vet and there’s no telling that one would be available for an emergency event anyway so I intend to find that line between over-prepared and under-prepared.  We have healthy animals that have a good diet, sunshine and love so I’m hoping it all goes well.

There is some work to do on the barn to get it ready by creating kidding pens so that the mama can have some peace while she labors.  And then there’s the job of introducing our Maremma livestock guardian dogs to the babies.  The dogs have a keen sense of who belongs in “their” herd of goats and all these babies will be showing up unexpectedly for the dogs.  I think we’ll do careful introductions and keep the dogs separate until we’re sure the dogs get it that the babies are to protect.  I expect that the babies will end up sleeping on the dogs at times and I promise to post any photos I get of that!

I expect we’ll have baby bunnies also and then our day-old chicks arrive the third week of March.  Lots of babies around here!

I’ve been suffering from a color deficit and an    excess of creative urge.  The color deficit            happens because the woods and gardens are  pretty much snow white with shades of  beautiful grays.  I like the colors that ARE  present but I miss the rest of the color range.  The lack of color creates a rising need to have  more color in my life.  Then the excess of  creative urge strikes.  This happens every year  when the days get longer in late winter and  the quality of the light changes.

I turn to crocheting with beautiful yarns of  amazing colors.  Some times I make jewelry  with gems and glass beads.  At other times it’s ink and paint that I pull out of my cabinet.  So far this month it’s been yarn.  I’ve made 3 hats in the past 2 weeks.  I yearn to make jewelry but not enough to use up all my counter space and then have to clean it all up again to pack flower essence orders.  Here’s the favorite of my hats so far this month.

I’m thinking of the food we’ll be eating this year.  I planted about 400 cloves of garlic and each should produce a full bulb.  That might not be enough since we’re garlic hounds.  When I cook I usually use at least 1 head of garlic per meal.  We also make a lot of pesto.  I wonder if we’ll sun dry a lot of tomatoes this year, maybe enough to make sun-dried tomato pesto?

I’m also thinking of what nursery stock to order for planting this year.  It depends upon whether we get the pasture above us on the hill.  It’s 9 acres and if the owner is willing to sell it I’ll be very happy to pasture animals there and plant a few more crops.   The St. Lawrence nursery catalog has a very hardy apple tree called “Katherine’s favorite and even though the name is spelled differently than mine it’s still tempting.  I’d also love some more Russian Quince trees.  Producing some more fruit for drying and freezing is always a happy thought.  Hmmm, maybe more blueberries.  Raspberries and blackberries don’t stay where you plant them but the goats love to eat extra stems of those so cutting them back is actually a great treat.

I want to  continue to add to the plant guilds here so they are self-sustaining and work together.  I’ll be doing more underplanting around all the fruit and nut trees we put in last year.  I especially want to plant some Siberian Pea Shrub to add nitrogen to the soils and some more varieties of Sea Buckthorn.  Yummy but tart berries very high in Vitamins C and E as well as other very healthy stuff.

Time to go look through nursery catalogs and I’d better get a snack also.  My tummy is rumbling from all this thought of crops.

Well, a little bit of everything because the focus is Life on Fox Mountain.

A lot of customers and friends are intrigued by what life is like here.  I frequently have customers sigh and say wistfully that I have an amazing life.  It is an amazingly beautiful life but pretty simple also.  Not everyone would enjoy the life here but it’s perfect for me.  I hope to give those who are interested a glimpse into what it’s like to live here.

We, my partner Joseph and I, live on 108 acres of mostly wooded land on a dead end road in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts in the United States.  I grow 200-300 varieties of flowers to make the line of flower essences that has been sold internationally for 20 years.  There’s a lot of color here during the growing season and I’ll post photos of what’s happening.

We also focus on growing our food.  We raise most of our vegetables and fruit and are looking forward to our first nut harvests in a few years.  Of course we also grow culinary and medicinal herbs.  We’ve also started moving towards growing all our meat and dairy products as well.  We added some Dwarf Nigerian Goats to our place last year and are expecting our first babies this spring.  (more amazing photos to come of those bouncing babies!) We are raising meat rabbits and will be adding a laying flock of hens that will be day old chicks when they get here late March.  (more photo ops)

Our livestock and our food crops are now protected by our livestock guardian dogs.  Our two Maremma dogs (a breed from Italy) are bonded to our goat herd and live with them 24/7.  They use their bark to warn away predators and that has even kept the deer away from our fruit trees this winter.  Our crops are protected from rodents by our fine staff of 3 cats who also work as role models showing us how to relax and enjoy life.

We’ve added an unheated greenhouse with which we plan on growing our winter vegetables next year.  We only got the plastic up just before the first huge blizzard so it stayed frozen this winter.

Stop back to read about what it’s like to live here.

Here’s a slice of today for you:  Just back from the barn.  It’s mid-afternoon and sunny out.  Given that it’s warmer than it’s been for ages I couldn’t stay inside.  Spent an hour lounging in the sun with Vera and Fergey  (the livestock guardian dogs) rubbing tummies, trimming nails, ear scratching.  The goats ambled over to demand attention, chickadees chirped, the breeze blew through the trees….a slice of bliss.  Now I’m back at some computer work.  I’m only at my desk until it’s time to go to the barn for evening chores.  I’m sure I’ll be lingering with this warmth.