Candy Kiss

This is a tribute to Candy Kiss, our oldest goat who died today. I traded for her in 2004 when she was almost 8 years old because I loved her deep red color.

Only eight days later our buck Cody escaped when she was cycling and so 5 months after she arrived she produced triplets for us: Pixy Stix, Tootsie Roll, and Zotz.

She did not kid again until 2008 when she produced twins: Mars and Snickers.

She was then retired. Here she is teasing Cody in her retirement.

Her retirement was shorter than I had hoped, but her decline was brief and appeared painless.

I believe her life here was a good one, and I am glad I knew her.

Butcher Day

Today is Butcher Day. We are butchering our Highland-Dexter cross 1.5 year old bull Jesse and our 2 year old steer Leroy. I moved them into the alley to minimize the distance they have to travel when the slaughter truck gets here.

And we have to butcher Barney too. He is our yearling ram who has ingrowing (and lethal) horns that are right to his skin. He has a beautiful fleece and a nice personality so it is a shame. But he would suffer if we let him live any longer.

So I brought Barney into the barn. And now I am taking off. I am still a wuss at heart.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our turkey is 8 1/2 years old, but he can still strut his stuff!

Bottlin'

Last evening we bottled our cider. Here's the filtering/racking station.

Here's the capping station.
Here's the labeling table.
And here's a few bottles of the cider. It will be ready in a few months.
We sampled a little, and carboy #2 is by far the best.

How I feel about all of this wind

Courtesy of The Giddy Limit by Alex Leonard and Northern Lace by Elizabeth Lovick