This week at the farm...

We disbudded the baby boy goat. That is always traumatic. More for me, it seems, than the goat kid. We changed his name to Coco, in keeping with the sweet/cookie theme. His mother is Oreo. His sister is Cookie. We haven't decided if we are going to castrate him. He's a nice looking buckling. His father is supposed to have good lines. I have him listed on Craigslis, but no interest yet. We may keep him to mate back to the other two female goats that aren't related. I'm still looking for another buckling that is not related to breed to all of girls. I'd even do a trade.

Fairy dust still has not kidded, and I was sure she was about to. Any day now....

Richard started a couple more avocado seeds, hoping to get some more trees going. We have one pretty good sized avocado tree, but no others to pollinate with. These trees will have to live in a greenhouse.

Avocado seed starts

We have moved building materials up to our Alamosa land, have moved some boxes into our storage unit, and keep on packing. We are testing the water system in the camper, and waiting for a 1600 gallon cistern to arrive. We bought batteries for our power system and are waiting for an invertor, which should come today. We are trying to get a well driller out to the land to blow out the well we found to see if it's any good.

I have decided against getting the mini horse. Horses are just too much maintenance, and it is not recommended to keep them in sandy areas, which our new land is--completely. There are so many toxic plants to avoid, plus teeth issues, digestion issues, and hoof maintenance and issues. Too bad. They are really cute. For now, we will stick to camelids and goats. The pigs are doing well. Richard has been trying to whittle down Choe's toenails a little at a time.

Harley and Chloe

The Hemp project is underway. We have our Indiegogo campaign up and running with a couple of donations already! Thank you! We have some seeds (don't ask, don't tell) and are getting them ready to start. We need more funding to really get this thing going, but we will continue on anyway and do what we can. At the very least, we can grow some plants for seed for next year. And make compost out of the mature plants. It's supposed to be great stuff.

We are trying to decide if there is enough time to move our compost and manure piles. There is so much to do still to get ourselves and animals relocated to an off grid situation.

I am proud to say, our Turkey feathers are on their way to the Hopi people to be used in ceremony. I can't think of a better use for them. I am honored. I respect the Hopi a great deal, and have studied and learned much from the Hopi prophecies.

My shamanic studies continue, but I am having a lot of trouble with the journeying aspect of it. I did acquire a lovely rattle from Wumaniti in trade for milk, cheese, eggs and yogurt, that I have begun to use in my own personal ceremonies.

There have been a couple of snakes hanging out around our kitchen door. One day, they allowed me to see them mating, which was interesting and odd. Snake medicine is strong right now. Healing and transformation. I thought they were baby Bull snakes, but now, I think they are Garter snakes.

Little Bull snake, I think male

Adopting pigs and finding a well

Harley (black) and Chloe (white)

We adopted a couple of Pot Bellied pigs this week. One male and one female, and because we have them in the same pen, most likely we will be seeing baby pigs in about four months.  It was traumatic picking them up. They were scared, we were unknown, their nails are way too long and the female, Chloe, got her toe stuck in the trailer ramp. She screamed and screamed, but we got her out. It took three of us maneuvering her around to do it, but she got free. The two of them together were the hardest things to catch I have ever dealt with. Worse than llamas. We ended up putting cardboard and a rubber mat down on the trailer ramp, and eventually got them in.

At home, it was much easier to deal with them. We just put an old rug down on the ramp and opened into their new pen. We are all getting used to each other now. They are calmed down and let us pet them behind the ears. In a week or so we have to start working on their toes, which are just in horrendous shape.

poor Chloe's toes

Those two pigs have rooted up almost all of the soil in their small pen and turned hardpacked rocky dirt into pretty brown plantable soil, minus the rocks of course. We plan on using them in the garden, like Joel Salatin's pigerators, to turn the soil and mix the compost. But we won't eat them in the end...just keep them around to mix the soil. They are ugly cute, I have to say. We have big plans to teach them to walk on harnesses. Won't that be entertaining? Then we can walk our pigs and llamas. But, maybe not together. And not here, with the crazy running dogs, but up on our new land where there are no dogs to be seen anywhere.

As if that wasn't adventure enough, before we picked up the pigs, we went to our land near Alamosa to put up some fence posts and mark the northern boundary before the driveway goes in. It was supposed to go in on Saturday, but there was a mix-up with the culvert, so maybe on Tuesday. We put tall posts with pink flags in the four corners of our lot and used binoculars to stake a line. We got a few fence posts in, but most all of our fence posts are being used here, at the rented farm. Oh, this is a process! Taking fence down, putting fence up...so much to do now.

While we were stumbling through salt bush and chamisa, we happened upon a well pipe, just ten feet or so on our property, but it is ours! It appears there is a well there and we may not have to drill at all. So now, we have to research that and talk to the well guys and figure out what to do next. Is it a usable well? Is the water any good? There is standing water in the pipe, about three or four feet down, so there is water there. How deep is the well, I wonder? So many questions, but I'm not complaining. I am so grateful to have stumbled upon that pipe sticking up out of the ground!

Also, I have cleaned turkey feathers this week, using a couple of methods, and now have some for sale. Check it out at our farm store page (tab at top of page). Some of them are really long...nearly 16 inches!

I washed some llama wool this past week too, and hope to try felting again. Always busy. The kids and I are working on a clay project again and I hope to get the kiln dug out of the garage and get this stuff fired before we move into the RV.  I'm working on a incense burner for sage and what not for my shaman stuff. Exciting! The motif is all about snakes who represent healing and transformation. I'm looking for a rattle snake rattle too, just because it seems to be filling my ears lately (in song, and thankfully not in a reality full of live rattlesnakes).

We may also be adding a miniature horse to the farm in the near future. Why not? Horse medicine is running strong these days.