I went to the goat meadow to take care of goats and to cut down some bushes there. I have given water to the goats and changed their positions. I have cut down 3 bushes and removed them from the cherry orchard. I decided to cut down at least 2-3 bushes every time I visit the meadow. After 10 days they all should be cut down. I have added some more wire to the electric fence there. Soon it will be complete with running current all around my orchards and pastures. I have fed poultry and given them water as well. I have fed my dogs. One more goat which was hurt is still in the stable. After healing her now she is okay, so I need to make a collar for her and take her for the meadow as well. I need to pour oxygen free water to two goats which got small wounds – one has it at her adder. Probably she hurt herself with a sharp grass, because the adder is big. The other goat – the male goat – he was pulling the rope so much that he hurt his neck. Now I need to take care of his neck as well and heal it.
Other goats are okay – clean and white. They don’t smell yet, as it is not a courting time.
Now lunch, then I will need to milk the goats. I should milk them in the morning, but I was busy with the above staff and now is noon. I need also rest a bit as I woke up at 4 a.m. and now I am a sort of tired. I am 9 hours at my legs.
Well, without resting I went to milk the goats. This time they had much less milk. One of the goats didn’t let me milk her till the end, I milked her as much as I could, but she was so incredibly kicking and jumping that some milk was left in her adder. I think I will take her closer to the house, because here I can tight her to the wall and prevent against moving so much. Besides she has a wound in one adder and needs my constant attention with it.
So today is her last day with the herd. Tomorrow I will take her back closer to the house.
While going to the goat meadow, I took with me the goat which was kept for some time in the stable due to her healing. Now she is fine and gladly went with me to the goats meadow. While we were crossing some meadows, orchard and wood she eagerly was picking up tasty for her weeds and plants. Now she is happily grazing in the goat meadow with great appetite.
I have added the new milk to this one which is put aside for cheese making. Now in the pot should be around 7 litres of milk. I should be able to make from it a small cheese. Something like around 1 kilo of white fresh goat cheese. The water after cheese – whey - will be good for bread making, for drinking for dogs and hens.
The hens should start giving eggs after eating the food I bought them and drinking the whey.
I have woken up before 7 p.m. Wow... After 2 p.m. I fell down asleep like a stone :) Now I am still a kind of tired, but at least I woke up :) In the past, for example 5 years ago I was up for 18 hours daily mostly working with goats and making cheese. All day I was milking my 20 goats and two cows and at night I was making cheese, yoghurt, kefir, pudding, cakes and such. I had no help then and no time to switch on TV to watch a movie. The Internet connection was poorer than now, really poor, but at least I had some contact with the world and friends.
I wish I knew then about helpx or workaway or wwoof :) Actually I independently came up then with idea of the exchange: vacation for help at farm. I have written about it at one Polish popular forum. Some people were enthusiastic about the idea, but some were vigorously against. I think my first volunteer arrived at my farm thanks to my posting at the forum. But it was much later, after the peak of my enormous amount of work, after milking and cheese making times. The first volunteers arrived here in the end of planting fruit trees. It was just 1,5 month help together a year, not enough really considering the amount of work I had to face then. Actually I have planted most of 2500 fruit trees on my own before the volunteers arrived. These trees which were planted by my volunteers didn’t survived mostly. I had explained to people how to plant, but obviously they did it the wrong way anyway when I was not watching them. I was today to see how many cherry trees survived in the place were helpers were planting them. Not much. Really few. But most was stolen by local mother fuckers. It will be necessary to plant new fruit trees again. But this time I don’t have money for new fruit trees. I still have to pay loan for those which I bought then. I need to multiply these trees which survived. Also soil there is bad. Well, in the places where cherry trees were planted I was exchanging the soil to more fertile. It was enormous amount of hand work. Still some places need to have exchanged the soil. It will be another Hercules task this autumn.
I am frying a chicken. Smells nice :) I need some natural stream water to water my home plants and collect some dill for the potatoes. Up we go! :)
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I am watering the plants, also some in the garden, as days recently are really hot and vegetables need water now.
I can see spinach and lettuce growing, also some reddish. They are still little, but in a week or so should be ready.
Today’s heat gave way to pleasant evening. It is still very warm, but not that hot as during midday. I am walking back and forth with stream water and water numerous plants in the house, by the way collecting tools which I left outside.
I have eaten delicious dinner: baked chicken, cooked potatoes decorated with fresh dill. Hot drink – meant tea with sugar made from freshly picked up meant from the banks of my little river. It was really royal dinner after the long work day :) I know, I shouldn’t eat so late, but I deserved it – I was working today 12 hours... And still one task more in front of me – need to bake a bread, as girls are coming tomorrow.
