White

13 months

Tense expectancy

Big bellies; At least two of our goats. Mother Sarah (bottom left) and her daughter Tita (bottom right) have bulging tummies, with another 2 1/2 month to go (I hope so, but I didn't see Tita in heath) I am convinced that they are bearing twins.
Sandra (top left) and her daughter Tata (top right) don't look like they are carrying anything at all. Mum must be, since she didn'get in heath again after being serviced in September. However I am only expecting one kid from her. Since they are all due in February/March we have bought two infrared lamps to be able to provide some warmth to the futur kids during the first few days of their live.

Sheep's cheese

Plachtinské Zlato made of 100% sheep milk by the Baranek family in Stredne Platinske is allowed to ripe for more than a year. They use milk from our village's cooperative and from a neighboring village. Their cheese tastes even better than parmezan. We visited their farm last weekend. It is nice to meet such skilled and enthusiastic people.

Ready

Let the Winter come, we are ready! Lots of wood to keep us warm and a nice and dry stable for our animals. The weather forecast is predicting snow within the next days.

Horse's hoof

I never had the illusion to become farrier, to trim horses' hoofs is a specialist job. However with the former owner of Trol moving abroad also his friend and our horse's farrier doesn't show up anymore. Veronica has saved our horses feet! She trimmed them and explained how we should maintain them in a more natural way by rasping them every two weeks.

Smelly Business

Gardening season 20111 has started. Fresh hungarian garlic has been planted in the vegetable garden.

Inspiration

Most sheep in Slovakia are either kept in commercial large herds (400-1000 animals) or in very small numbers (2 – 10 sheep) for home consumption only. The Kováč family lives on a mountain in central Slovakia with 8 children, 1 dog, 4 goats and 25 Friesian milk sheep. The sheep bring in a substantial part of their income. We had the chance to visit them Yesterday. We spent 4 hours listening to these wonderful experts in dairy sheep. They told us everything about keeping sheep, showed their herd and gave us a warm and welcome feeling.
It was inspiring and we have decided that we will look into further opportunities to keep dairy sheep ourselves. Thank you Kováč family!

Digging or road works part II

Our friend with his digging machine showed up again. Finally digging the second track of our own road. We made use of his presence by digging two strenghted parking places at our campsite field. Never ever again we will have to pull campers out off the mud.

Family

Trees

What happened with our Christmas trees? They survived -20 degrees Celcius, failing weed management (to be improved) however some had a serious problem with being inundated for months (last picture) since we had a terrible wet summer, however the majority is doing fine.

Cheese room

With four goats bearing next year's cheese production will at least be double of this year's. So Arnold converted part of our cellar into a real cheese room and made a simple cheese press. I am busy in the vegetable garden, constructing a poultry house and planting more living fences. Yes it is still lovely weather!