End of Summer

At the height of summer, the Farmers' thoughts turn toward winter

and a barnful of hungry goats,

so off they go to Floodwood in a rented truck

and bring back 105 bales of clover hay and 8 bales of straw,

which neighbors Tom and Gretchen kindly help them pile up in the goat barn.
The goats, meanwhile, contine their summer routine, chewing on tree branches
and the birch bench.

Niblet has perfected his scary psycho-goat routine.

Barb is off to milk as the full moon sets.
She constructed a lean-to in the goat yard to provide additional shade during hot summer afternoons. The goats checked it out immediately . . .
and then proceeded to deconstruct it,
which is almost as much fun as butting heads.
The young chickens have begun to produce, and the older chickens, not to be outdone, have increased their output, so we're swimming in eggs,
including the robin-sized effort in the lower left of the carton.
To reward the girls, Barb expanded their pen to include one of the compost piles,

so that the hens could fatten up on bugs and worms.

They spent the next few days tearing the pile down

and scattering it all around,

so Barb fenced in the other compost pile

and the hens are swarming over it,

helping to turn it, and adding some extra fertilizer

before it goes on the gardens.
The grape harvest is in,
cleaned,

and turned into jam.

Barb also created two new kind of goats' milk soap, pink for Alba

and blue for Niblet.

Caroline celebrated her 89th birthday on Sept. 20. Here she's enjoying the digital picture frame that David, Brigitte, Barb & Steve provided for the occasion.

Relatives came up from Litchfield to help celebrate (from the left, clockwise: Caroline, Claudia, Evelyn, Harvie, Mark, Cindy)

and Caroline especially enjoyed visiting with her sister Evelyn and brother-in-law Harvie. Mark and Cindy kindly drove Harvie and Evelyn all the way from Litchfield and picked up Claudia in Moose Lake so that Evelyn and Caroline could be together for lunch at Diamond Willow.