The goats are coming...

Today is a bit gloomy, it should burn off by this afternoon, so I'll take this chance to write about the past week and a half. As of April 1st I became a registered business in the state of New Jersey as well as receiving my tax ID number, so that I may join in the local craft shows. Very exciting and a little scary but nothing ever happens without taking a chance. I will be at Grace Church on the 23rd for their Spring Fling and I just got my acceptance letter from Maplewoodstock on July 10th. I'm still waiting to hear back on the Green Fair here in Madison and I'm hoping to participate in our Farmers Market as well. Enough business on to the garden.

I have the first signs of peas and swiss chard appearing outside in the garden. Yeah! I have about 65 tomato seedlings doing very well. Onions peppers, geraniums, and assorted flowers also coming along nicely. Unfortunately my friend who was willing to adopt the chickens has still not shown up, fingers crossed today will be the day. I may have to cut back on some of my garden plans for this year just because there is just too much going on. I'm considering adding 2 crepe myrtles to the yard to add interest to the goat house gate. I'll add a pic let me know what you think. The next big thing I would like to add is seckle pears, if you have ever eaten one you'll know why having them is well worth the effort. Delicious.

My dear sweet baby chickens are HUGE and need to move to their permanent residence. The other day Gracee and I were headed out when a chicken took a slowly and leisurely stroll across the driveway. The girls have figured out that if they "fly" full speed at the screen door to the greenhouse they can dislodge it just enough to escape. Park Ave and chickens are NOT a good combination. I have about 10 dozen eggs from the babies in the frig right now if anyone is interested, there's no charge for these eggs since they are still on the smaller size, just let me know. I have one beautiful Barred Rock who has discovered the joy in pecking EVERYTHING. She got my finger last night and when I turned my back to gather the eggs she promptly took a nibble of my backside. I, in turn gave her a poke, our chosen way of chicken discipline. I have to say this is a beautiful flock of birds each with a different personality and hysterical to watch. I highly recommend chicken keeping to everyone. They are entertaining pets and the bonus is fresh eggs.

Now to the goats, they arrive tomorrow morning. We are so not ready, but like everything we do we somehow pull it together. I think we just work better under pressure. My order from Hoegger Goat supply arrive, all kinds of neat goat things that I won't bore you with but that I find very exciting. We have decided to give the goats only natural medicine keeping them on that organic vibe that we are striving for. The fencing is up and the gate will be done today. The boys and I are cleaning the pen area of any pricker bushes to keep the darlings safe. The biggest thing left to do is find a way to separate the small goat house so that mother and daughters are separate but still visible to each other. Until the babies are weaned from their bottles they may try to suckle their mom, which I know is the natural way but babies that are hand fed tend to be gentler and more people friendly which is a high priority here. I can't wait to milk my first goat... the things I get myself into. lol. I did make a promise to my husband that this was it, no more big projects for a while. I think I'm pushing him over the edge. As soon as the girls arrive I will post pictures.

The bee issues have been resolved! First I made contact with a fellow beekeeper right in Chatham whom I'm very grateful to know and plan on picking her brain for beekeeping knowledge on a regular basis. On the advice of Bob Hughes, the state apiarist right hand man, I kept my current hive intact and ended up buying a 3 lb package of bees from Brian Rowe and installed them in their own hive this past week. We are back up to 2 active hives and should have honey from at least one this season. I am feeding them, but only sugar syrup I don't know if I'll ever do the granulated sugar again. Too painful. Bees are amazing workers, well at least the ladies are, the gentlemen, aka drones pretty much just hang around waiting for a virgin queen. I'll let you draw you own comparisons on that.

Back to the business. I found a potter with the help of Georgia VanRyzin that produces the most lovely lace imprinted soap dishes. I'm working with her now to add them to my shop. The hand knit washcloths will be ordered this week, God willing. I have also found a packaging that I'm very happy with. It is completely biodegradable in keeping with our Earth conscience business. I found a wonderful company call Poole and Sons who is making my display boxes, I will post those too when they arrive this Monday. They also had 1/2 bushel flat baskets that might work for gift basket, maybe something in line with Goodness from the Garden, fresh veggies, soaps, preserves, Gracee's aprons, soap dish and towels. What do you think? I'd like to get something like that as a gift. Just a thought. I'm up to over 300 bars made and the number just keeps going up. I try to make at least one batch a day giving the soap ample time to cure before the craft show season starts and the bonus is it makes the house smell great. My favorite soap this week is Milk & Honey. My skin is so soft, I'm not even using my moisturizer. Maybe the bee stung me because it smelled the honey? Food for thought. I think that about covers everything. I better get back to it, or the goats will be in my sun parlor with the seedlings and my husband will definitely leave me for someone more sane.

I almost forgot, I am going to do a Garden Party, it will be an open house sometime in late May. I have to introduce the goats to society... a deb ball for livestock, you can only find an event like that here in my garden :)

Tracee