Everyone knows that I am addicted to birds and gardening, and the fact is, they go quite well together.
By attracting the right birds, the insect problems shrink considerably. But that period of my life has now taken on another angle; I am now fighting the conflicting addiction of goat watching.
Here at Westwind Farms, now that the hurricane devastation is approaching final cleanup, with just a couple more huge bonfires still to go, we are taking on the challenge of putting a longtime neglected farming operation back into a positive position.
We have started that by increasing the garden acreage, by adding a bee yard with 30 hives, and by cleaning up and deepening the natural pond, with the hopes of adding appropriate fish to our larder when the new growth gets established on the newly levelled soil. Next on our agenda is landscaping around it.
We have the necessary trees growing in pots in the garden, so it is just a matter of digging approximately 400 holes and popping in the well-established two- to six-foot trees.
Our free-range pastured poultry, both meat and eggs operation, will soon be falling into place. And the meat goat population has doubled itself at the end of the current kidding season. Just watching the antics of those overactive young has increased my addiction. They just don’t stop showing off by bouncing around and playing king of the castle with one another.
The newly constructed outbuilding, built especially to house my birds, is much too close to the yard where the young goats play. I find my gaze directed too often in that direction, and too often my footsteps head in the direction of the barn, with my elbows resting on their fence. I don’t think there will ever be a cure for this goat-watching addiction.
I just managed to take a putt-putt in our lawn tractor around the perennial part of our garden, to take another look, and there has been very little winter kill or mice damage. We heavily mulched after freeze-up in the fall, discouraging the mice population from moving in. And the warm and wet winter weather has stopped any winter kill. That is nothing more than dehydration with the plants actually being freeze-dried.
There is no damage by snow breaking the raspberry canes, and the strawberries are snuggled deep in the oat straw in which they were heavily covered.
I may have to take a little of the straw off in places if the new growth of the plants can’t find their way up through. A week’s warm weather will tell me if that is needed or not.
I also have green onions ready for the table, and the fall-planted garlic is already six inches tall. The rhubarb is showing its clumped noses through, and I have just shallow-hoed the asparagus patch, removing all weeds, as it is much easier to do before the tips start to show. But right now I have the feeling that I’ll be going back to lean on the fence and watch the goats enjoying their carefree life.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
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