New additions to the Packard Family Farm

Well, I think this post will really help us live up to our blog title (because isn't that what we strive to do?). Since we live on a farm, of sorts, Daddy and I had talked about the idea of adding livestock to the mix, since we have so much land to make use of. But we hadn't really decided what livestock we wanted. We didn't really want something that just "mowed" because although that is great, we already have one of these. So, we needed something that produced something that was useful to us. Cows obviously are good for meat and milk, but that milk is totally useless to me fresh, as I am Lactose Intolerant, but very good for cheese, since there is such a large quantity. But, that ties us to the farm forever and ever, morning and night, to milk the cows. Not a fun prospect right now. Steers (meat cows) also sound appetizing, but are SO expensive to start, and we don't really eat a whole lot of beef. And it's SUCH a large animal to experiment with, since we have no idea what we're doing. So, Cows are out for now. So, next was sheep. Sheep are obviously not traditional for meat, but they make a good amount of milk, and that milk has more fat per unit than cow milk, which is good for making cheese. But again, that whole purchasing thing and then being tied home every morning and night doesn't sound fun. Then there are goats. Goats are an interesting thing. 1 goat is a pain. 2 goats are LESS of a pain. They are such social animals. But again, not good for meat, good for eating brush (they don't eat grass, they eat weeds and brush, supposedly), and make milk. I can actually drink goat's milk because it doesn't have as much lactose in it. But, once again, it's that whole milking all the time thing. So after running over these pros and cons, we decided on chickens.

But, Daddy's grampa called a couple days ago and asked us if we wanted 2 female baby goats. So, of course we said yes! That takes that purchasing issue out of the equation. And they are only a week old, will be 2 weeks when we get them. This also works out well because we won't breed them (so they can be milked) until next spring, giving us a full year to work on getting used to farm life. So, this will be a fun experience and we are so excited! I'll post pictures when they get here. R has already named the goats "Cinderella" and "Belle." Are you noticing a theme here? We have "Ariel" and "Fiona" the chickens and "Cinderella" and "Belle" the goats. Our farm has a royalty theme going on (especially if you count "Arthur" the "hen"). R is so excited. We went and bought goat formula and a bottle yesterday and she was ready for those goats to be here!

Since they're coming next week, I've got to get my crops in the ground and growing, today is the first break in the rain we've had, and it's still pretty gloomy outside. Oh, well, gotta get the work done!

Hope you're having a great week!