It was going to be something clever….

but you know, I thought of the post while I was in the garden and now I can’t recall.

 

Am I the only one who is enjoying and working hard? I have the day job as well as a garden that’s going great guns (in spite of the storms that have been blowing everything sideways),

a greenhouse that’s also gone crazy,

 

 

creatures to care for,

 

 and

 

 

and then there’s bread to bake, fibre to spin and dye and now firewood to move. It makes it hard to be on the computer really, doesn’t it?

 

But here’s one thing I wanted to share. I did decide that I have a goal for this winter – to drop our power bill by 25% over last year. I’m not sure that it can be done but it’s what’s planned. We’ve actually had an increase lately of somewhere around 20% so this would be a significant savings. Hmmm… I’ll have to consult J, maybe 10-15% is more realistic.

 

I’d also like  drop our grocery bill by 25%. We do a lot of home growing/preserving/using but the bills still seem big. Truth be told – I want the mortgage paid off so the more we can reallocate in that direction, the better.

 

I hope summer is treating you as great as it is us.

 

 

Portable goat fencing

So, we have weeds and lots of them. And goats – two Nigerians. It seemed that the time had come to put the two together. We considered repurchasing electronet – we sold our set up when we sold the Icelandics – but money isn’t the flushest right now and it just seemed that with everything we had laying around, there had to be some way to make due. After all, if the world ended or our finances were really dire, just ordering up something isn’t exactly realistic. And adding to landfills or buying things when we have another option are the order of the day here at Flannelberry Farm so…

 

Enter Jason and the trampoline.

[I know this is a perfect place for a picture but I haven’t one 😦  ]

 

So, years ago we bought a trampoline and now, in the way of modern things, it had come to the end of its days. Fortunately for our house – the members of our house who still love to bounce – a friend of a friend was selling their trampoline cheap.
‘What has this got to do with goats?’ you ask. Yes, yes, I’m getting to the goats.

 

Here’s a pic of them grazing by the old trampoline:

 

 

We bought the new to us trampoline and now had a manky, broken down old one sitting in our yard and the new one as well (not so attractive). So J decides that perhaps this combined with the stucco wire we have left over from fencing the garden might make an ok portable goat pen.

 

Voila!

 

 

Rosebud, our older girl, isn’t so sure how she feels about being SO contained when there’s so much ADHD eating to be done but she’s doing ok. Chomping between the baaaaas. Athena (the little one) is also a little perplexed but much quiter about it. My personal fave are the full mouth gurgley baaaas where there is the combination of happy eating (as evidenced by the full mouth) and disconcerted baaaing.

Of course I just realized the time and that her udder must be so full. Time to let Athena have a wee bit of milk, I think.