In the Veg Patch on a Dark Winter’s Day

calendula plant

The clouds have been promising rain, but so far we haven’t had a drop. I am enjoying this dark, cozy day though. It’s wonderfully quiet.

The last couple of days have been full on as Bear and I tackled the next phase of building our chook palace. We moved an entire shed from one side of the farm to the other via tractor and trolley and ropes and brute strength, complete with much hilarity and almost dropping and almost tripping and shouts of STOP and OK, GO and getting stuck on a tree and in a gate and beside a dog house, but we made it!! Soon we’ll fill it with feed bins, incubator, worming kits, and gardening tools for the orchard we’ve planted and the garden we will plant.

calendula plant

We also hauled trimmed tree branches into wood piles to be either burned for campfires or cut into usable shapes for my wood-burning projects.

This morning was a bit of Spring Cleaning in the middle of Winter, and it feels so good to look around the house and see bare surfaces and organized desks where once there were stacks and tottering piles.

After all that work it is good to rest this afternoon, to wrap up in a sweater and wander the gardens to see how they’re doing.

The artichoke bed has recovered from transplanting and is thriving under its thick bed of mulch.

artichoke plant

The red cabbages and red Brussels sprouts are coming along beautifully, and I can’t wait to see the heads begin to form.

red cabbage plants

The new fennel bed is also doing well, tiny seedlings growing into sturdy stalks with fragrant, delicate fronds.

fennel plants

The root veggies are coming along as well: beet roots, radishes, turnips, and hopefully carrots soon.

beetroot seedlings

Now it’s definitely time for a cuppa and a piece of shortbread, and perhaps an episode of Rosemary and Thyme before I start designing another set of cutting boards for my Etsy shoppe.

What is your garden up to in your part of the world? XO

An Autumn Ramble with Kalahari Goats

goats in a stormy field

I adore this time of year on our Kalahari goat farm. The fields are burnished gold with cheery little flowers hidden among the tall grasses.

potato flowers

It’s the time of year when our usual paddocks have been eaten down to the ground and we need to take the goats foraging for better pasture.

Thankfully we have acres of delicious grasses for them, they’re just not fenced in yet.

So each day I take the goats for a walk, keeping an eye on them like goat girls of old to make sure they don’t wander into the neighbor’s horse paddocks.

field grass

It is a wonderful job and although sometimes I moan and groan about it, I never regret my time spent wandering the fields soaking up sunshine and finding all sorts of beauties hidden among the waves of grass.

purple wild flower

This week we had an adventure when our big daddy goat, William, couldn’t handle the proximity of the girl goats on heat and launched himself out of his pen for a bit of naughtiness.

There is no way on this earth that I’m strong enough to haul off a full grown amorous male goat, so I hollered for Bear and he came trucking out of his workshop, through the fields, and helped me round up and separate the miscreants.

man in a field

He laughed at me later when he discovered that I’d stopped mid-chase to capture these photos, but I couldn’t help myself. The dramatic sky and bronzed fields and amazing light just had to be captured.

goats in a stormy field

Chores aren’t always easy, but in surroundings like this, I can always find something to inspire me.

What is one of your regular chores that you enjoy?