Jolie, Racer and Blackie are registered Pygoras, a fleece goat related to Angoras. We hope to have purebred kids this spring! Lisa has learned to spin but not yet started on the Pygora fleece.
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From the left: Jolie, Racer (our buck), Lisa, Bluefeather the milk goat, Jay, Blackie, Diana, Brewster the Rooster, Amelia, Henrietta, Florence, Mimi, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Aleczi. Jolie, Racer and Blackie are registered Pygoras, a fleece goat related to Angoras. We hope to have purebred kids this spring! Lisa has learned to spin but not yet started on the Pygora fleece. |
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The most important news, of course, is that we are going to have a baby! It's going to be a girl and is expected right at Christmas - December 24 is the due date.
Lisa has been quite healthy although suffering the usual minor complaints. We plan to name her Rosemary, middle name is still undecided. If all goes well, she will be born right here in the straw bale house
with the help of a midwife. |
We couldn’t include a picture of the baby, but I’m pretty big now! |
At the end of September Lisa quit her job with GemStone, in order to be pregnant full time. Alas, in the same week, the startup software company Jay was working for in Ashland decided to shut down, leaving us both without income. |
 As you can see, we still need to do a lot of landscaping! |
Another important event is that we have finally been able to move into the straw bale house! There are still a lot of things to do, but at least we are snug in a solid house before the
winter rains set in. In spring Lisa decided to sell her house in Portland, rather than rent it. It was a lot of work to get ready, but it sold on the second day on the market. The proceeds came in useful in completing the straw bale house. |
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No international travel this year, though we did visit Jay's stepfather and sister in South and North Carolina. Lisa’s father came out in April and was a great help at the farm, building a raised bed, nest boxes, planting potatoes, and goatsitting. Jay had a great ski year in 2001/2002, since it was an unusually wet winter. He’s been skiing a few times this fall but still we’re waiting for more snow. |
Lindsey spent much of the summer at the farm, enjoying the
chickens and goats and farm life. |
We’ve named the farm – Fairweather Farm – and have been selling a
lot of eggs, but there’s a long way to go to become real farmers. We have a total now of 14 chickens, four goats, three ducks and two cats. We had two sheep for the summer, who are now in the deep freeze – our neighbor says this is the best tasting lamb he’s every had! We’ve also eaten (yes, us vegetarians!) several surplus roosters. About 10 fruit and nut trees and shrubs were planted in early spring, and we've got another 8 or so going into the ground this fall. We've invested in a greenhouse, but what with all the other activities it's not yet assembled. |