Farm Economy
When one mighty Maddie does the work of ten wet-hay-waste bin tampers.
The Flavored Milk Comes But Once a Year
We’re getting punchy in the milking parlor.
Mother Goose, Diversity Advocate
Chook, chook, chook, chook,
“Good morning Mrs Hen,
How many chickens have you got?”
“Madam I’ve got ten,
Four of them are yellow
And four of them are brown
And two of them are speckled red,
The finest in the town.”
Every Day They Save Us; Sometimes We Save Them.
Making More Milk = Making More [Goat] Babies
Biscuit on the way to an off-site Saanen buck. She tried to call shotgun.
Help Us Help You
The New York Times, "Why Doing Good Is Good for the Do-Gooder," October 2017. Emphasis ours. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/well/mind/why-doing-good-is-good-for-the-do-gooder.html
"Volunteering is linked to health benefits like lower blood pressure and decreased mortality rates."
Read morethe Creativity of Bees
Our bees made this sculpture from bits of comb floating in honey placed in the hive to feed them over the winter.
"Untitled," beeswax, Capering Goat Dairy Bees, 2017.
A particularly beautiful specimen from 2014. WHIT DESCHNER/GREAT SALT LICK AWARDS // From the article "Perhaps You’d Like to Purchase Art Sculpted by a Cow" COPYRIGHT 2017 | ATLAS OBSCURA | 61 GREENPOINT AVE, BROOKLYN, NY 11222
Then we learned of a fundraiser for Parkinson's research held in Baker City, Oregon where curated salt licks are entered into an art contest with the winners auctioned off to the highest bidders. “Goats and deer are more realist,” [contest founder Whit Deschner] says. “Cows are more impressionist. The horses aren’t artistic at all.”
While the adjacent photo isn't attributed to a particular ungulate (guess it's not a horse, though), notice the striking similarity to our bees' work?
A nice reminder of how creative living creatures are when given space, time, and sound materials.
Our Fearless Leader
Time to spruce up Elbert for breeding season.
Good thing we don't let him do any actual decision making.
What Mammals Need
Character Building
This courtesy of The Female Farmer Project: From our friend Blair of Madstone Farm... "The tender absurdity of farmy mama [and grand-mama] multitasking. Can't say it is easy but I imagine it builds character on all our parts --bovine included."
To motherhood -- in its many farmy forms.
Picking Up The [Rake]
This happens sometimes.
Read moreThrough a [Chicken Wire] Darkly
Holding back the Burgeoning Spring: all the young ones behind their protective barriers until they're big enough to venture out.
Did he who made the [vole] make thee?
[Farm] Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the [safe inside the house] forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake's version can be found here.
Our early spring is off to an auspicious start.
Cocoa Puff delivering, and us gals caring for, goat babies on International Women's Day.
A baby girl no less! (Standing first).
Easing The Bees Along
This is the winter hive insulation set-up a few years back. This winter they've got tarps wrapped round instead of hay bales. With a few supplemental dishes of honey (with crushed up comb to stand on), so far, so good!
We don't harvest the honey unless a hive doesn't make it, in which case there's a sweet side to the otherwise sad loss of hard-working lady friends.
Being bee guardians lets Capering Goat Dairy's organic garden (and every other pollinator-dependent plant everywhere), flourish.
Hoofprints to Heartbeats
Farming takes a lot of love.
The Ice Bucket View
Even the cold mornings of winter provide their entertainments, their beauties, their little windows on the world.
A Further Sequence of Events
Here we are, pregnant and cuddly.
Soon we'll be here, milky and chaotic.
No, wait! Here! Full of sighs and squees.
And you could be here! (as bottle-feeder, not goat)
Use the Milk Share/Farm Volunteer form on the home page if you'd like to help with the baby goats for the March 2017 kidding season.
A Few of Our Fellow Non-Fellow Farmers
"Many of my fellow famers are women. You look around in the field, barn, or greenhouse and you're bound to find women breaking down and building up our understanding of gender roles."
Stella Natura, 2017, "Balance Through Agriculture in the Hudson Valley," Jesse Ezekiel Tolz.
