Bee Tree Farm

A few weeks ago I announced to Jeremy that I was done thinking about, working on, and finishing the house.  I’ve had it.

That’s not to say that the house shall forever remain in a semi-complete state.  It’s just that I can’t sit inside sealing grout, watching the leaves turn green from the kitchen window without an urgent need to go outside and start doing something with this place.  We’ll save the rest of the inside work for the steaming summer.  There are only two months of the year in Texas that are comfortable, and you better believe I’m not gonna waste them installing door knobs.  The day I made the “I’m-frickin’-finished-thinking-about-the-house” pronouncement, I went on to declare that we were getting our goats this spring and NO one and NOthing could stop me, and if he even TRIED to stop me, God help him, there was no telling what would happen.  Obviously I was ready for a fight.  Unexpectedly, Jer only blinked a few times, opened and closed his mouth without saying anything and then finally just said “meh” with a shoulder shrug, before going back to reading his book.  I interpreted this as an enthusiastic green light to proceed and called Amelia at Pure Luck Dairy where I attended a (delicious) cheese workshop last spring and asked if there were spring babies.  Pure Luck has many new babies throughout the spring but had already sold the recent batch.  Since my call, I’ve been waiting for a call from Amelia for a new round of kids.  In the meantime, we’ve gotten all of the supplies needed to build a temporary nursery pen on the porch to make bottle feeding easier.  Because yes, it’s true, I have willingly signed up to bottle feed three goats multiple times a day for at least two months.  Of course, seeing this written down makes me break out in a cold sweat because even I am unsure of what I’ve signed up for.  But sticking my toe in the water when it comes to these things just isn’t my style.  If you’re gonna do it, then Do It.  

Not five minutes into writing this post, and I received the call from Amelia that the does have all started having their babies.  I’ve been invited to come and pick out my doelings this week and pick them up this weekend.  Wednesday afternoon I have an appointment to meet a buckling from another farm.  This weekend a mini jack donkey arrives to join the herd.  One pyrenees puppy can also come to the farm this weekend, as soon as the goats are here, and the other will come home in two weeks once she’s weaned.  I have 24 chicks in the brooder.  An unfinished house, a garden ready for vegetables and a very sick stomach.  Remember when I mentioned that things are a little busy?

Luckily, Jer and I both attended Star Creek Country’s fabulous milking class this weekend as a refresher on goat care and an introduction for Jeremy.  This is the class I attended last May, one day after we decided that we would not move forward with the hard won loan for the bigger house project with the pricier (and very wonderful) builder we wanted to work with.  I was beaten down, angry, and sure that the land was a mistake.  Kimberly’s class and visiting her farm was the shoulder-shaking I needed to snap out of it and remember that this whole thing was about the land and the animals.  It was never supposed to be about a house.  I was grateful to her then just as I’m grateful to her now for sharing what she’s learned with all of us who thumb through homesteading books and dream about this life.  But I guess it’s our life now, too.

Could I have waited for goats until next spring?  Sure.  A person can wait forever for anything they want badly.  But with the brevity of life and the beauty of the season – why?