Farm Notes and Return Of The King.. I mean... Queen

WOW! What a day we had -- sunny and 80*. Could not have been better.

And we are so glad to have Queen Vita back with us. Actually her name is Evita somethin'-somethin' according her to registration... but we just call her Vita. Here she is with the little ones - look at Ginger goofin'!  And I love Vita smoochin' on Gilly..silly goaties.

Vita is our big ol' Sanaan -- the "Holstien's of the Goat World" - they are HUGE. Like big as a cow big... like, "Hey lets run back to the truck and get away from these monster goats", big. Big like.. well.. big. But they are usually described as big marshmallows -- really easy going personalities, easy to work with, and mostly they come in one color:  white.

A sassy showgirl, Vita is our herd "queen." Like all herds there is a hierarchy and honestly, we were getting a little sick of Debbie trying to throw her weight around. Vita sauntered into the barnyard, walked right up to Debbie...and then gave her special muzzle nuzzle I hadn't seen before.. and that was it. No fighting, no squabbles, and she didn't really care one way or another about the babies. Altho unlike with the other gals, Vita is happy to share a bucket of hay with those little ones. Now that the queen is back, order is restored and everyone is happy.

Talk about small, medium, and large! We usually think that Debbie is big but Vita has her beat by a mile!

Vita was at the breeder for the winter. She "freshened" on Friday and had an adorable little doe and a big strapping buck. The breeder, with his award winning herd, will find great homes for them and dear Vita came back with us for the summer. In the fall we'll take her back for breeding again. This unusual arrangement worked out really well for us.

We are glad she is back! 

Farm notes (and a reminder that part of this blog is my record keeping...apologies if its boring)
* Dinner chicks are really progressing - feathering out. It was too hot for them with the light on. Trying a bigger drinker for them also.
* Evita is milking like the dickens. Between her and Debbie we probably had about a half a gallon. The hens went nuts for it. We didn't keep E's milk as she still has some meds going thru her system from "freshening" (when she had her babies). We will worm her tomorrow.
* Everyone was out enjoying the sun. Little Nibbles looks like a blimp.
* Worked on organizing the lower garden workspace and setting up additional window teepee greenhouses.
* Planted a couple flats of:
- California Wonder Peppers - 75 days till harvest; may be too cool for them
- Basil - in the hottest part of the greenhouse; 10 days to germinate
- Beefsteak, Roma, & Super Sweet 100 tomatoes
- Early Bush Italian beans
- Black Beauty eggplant; 65 days til harvest
- One row of green onions in the protected part of the green house
- One row of sunflowers in the back of the greenhouse
- 10 pots of mixed sunflowers: Hallo, Lemonade Mix, & Mammoth Russian
All are under the greenhouse/protected area out of reach of birds of all types. Did mostly half packages just in case I'm rushing a bit. We should not have too many  more cold nites and I can cover the exposed parts of the planting areas.
* Bees are doing GREAT! Lots of different colors of pollen was found in the hives. Very active today.

Here are my low budget (FREE!) window teepee greenhouses so far they are working great. Probably too much air gets in, but it has kept the frost off the little seeds poppin' up. In the background you can see my other free greenhouses... water bottles. The bottom is cut out and I just put them over tender plants and seeds.

 Happy Gardening everyone!