September

Three weeks off after summer school went like a flash.  Lying in after the alarm was too good to be true.  I got up anyway to make coffee but took it to the sofa.  I did chores in my jammies and sewed to my hearts content.  Here we are back to school already with so much to do before winter hits.  The barn is full of round bales - over a hundred, which is more than I've ever had on this farm.  It was a tough hay year with so much rain this spring.  We have not had rain in many days but the hillside is still green.  Coco is giving me three gallons a day.  I think she could give me more but that's about all I can squeeze out before she finishes her half a bucket of grain and walks away.  Blackie and Rocky are thriving on lush green grass and Coco milk.  We'll be bringing them all in the big barn when the bad weather hits.  Once the snow starts in December it will be difficult to carry feed and water to them on the lower field by the tractor shed.  The slope turns to ice and I don't want to chance it.  It will be easier for me to milk her morning and night if she's closer.  I think her insemination took and we will be blessed with a calf in April.  The vet looked her over when he was out giving rabies shots.  He thinks she should deliver with no trouble.  Won't it be fun to find a little baby cow beside her one cool spring morning.  We sheared 34 lambs three weeks ago.  I was relieved to find all 34 lambs accounted for.  With my rough land and coyotes up on the piney ridge well, things happen.  The Wensleydale/Bluefaced Leicester wool is lovely.  The lambs are robust and growing nicely.  I have two young Nubian does who are so beautiful I can't stand to part with them.  I'll find homes for the bucklings.  Coco is so easy to milk I confess I wince at the thought of Fancy and Matilda freshening again.  They are she-bitches from hell to milk.  Coco just stands there and let's me take what I need (as long as the feed holds out).  Colorscape Chenango is happening this weekend with the Fingerlakes Fiber Festival following the next weekend.  I'm working very hard to get ready for them.  Spouse is away teaching energy efficiency at a community college in Buffalo all next week.  Don't know how I will rest from Colorscape, go to work every day, get ready for Fingerlakes, and do all the chores/milking.  If I ever really thought it through I would probably give up....but it's just so much fun.