Sheep!

Yesterday, we got out the door a little late to the sheep shearing. Actually, the sheep weren't sheared completely; they were just "Skirted," which just means that the dirty/wet wool from around their eyes and bums were sheared off. The shearer was cool too, and it was fun that the whole shearing family came. The oldest of the three girls was a whiz at herding the sheep into their holding pen. The sheep looked funny in their smocks, protecting the bulk of their wool from dirt. Once we got through the first 12 sheep, taking their jackets off their hind legs, skirting, and everyone bundled up again, we broke for lunch. Jean, our hostess, and owner of the two dozen sheep, had prepared quite a spread. She's an amazingly productive person for 99 years old. And she makes some award winning fiber out of those precious puffs of wool on her sheep.

For lunch we had good company, too. Matt, the shearer, Rebeccah, his partner, and their three girls, Jean, Jean's son and his wife, and three Salt Hollow WWOOFers. Matt and I talked sourdough and njira, a sourdough flatbread from Ethiopia made from Teff flour. I'm curious if the sourdough culture will work in Teff flour, too. Whatever the case, yesterday had two different loaves of GF sourdough, with positive results.

Somewhere in the middle of shearing the second dozen sheep, I got a call from a new friend, Jonah. Through my own miscommunication, he was at Salt Hollow, petting the goats, and waiting until we got done. When we got back, we all worked on Jini's stage effects for her Raging Grannies Singing Group performance coming up next week (more on this to follow).

Today, I've got another loaf of sourdough rising, and one on deck. I'm increasing the amount of Amaranth flour in the mix with each loaf.

Already today, too, we had our goats "debudded," a process when their horns are cauterized before they begin to grow through the skin. The process is painful to watch, but apparently it is necessary to avoid all sorts of mishaps with rowdy goats and pointy horns.

It's a rainy one here at Salt Hollow, so we'll see what we can get done this afternoon.

Oh, and a rainbow.

Much ado

Long day getting some work done. My day surrounded this baby goat, Blackjack, from beginning to end. I'm really bonding with this little guy. When he was newborn, we called him pranamayama because he didn't eat a lot and still seemed perky. Well, now he can't get enough milk. One more night indoors and he may be ready to live with mom again, though we will have to bottle feed him...

Infermery

Found BlackJack cold and waning this morning. Milked Licorice for the first time to relieve some pressure, and Blackjack took it all by bottle. Interesting process, the milking: brushing, cleaning the teats, fending off unwieldy kicks at you and your milking bowl... Worth it, though to see blackjack bounce back like he has. I'm watching him tonight on account of I have the kid-friendliest room. I expect that there will be some midnight requests for food from this little tyke, so I had better hit the hay.

Baby goats!

Woke yesterday morning to Michaela's exclamation: "Baby goats!" Licorice had four kids during the night and stood dumb, wondering what all the fuss was about. One little one, who we named BlackJack Pranayama, didn't look like he was gonna make it. He was pretty chilly, but when he got a good cuddle, he bloomed. Two other kids, girls, are growing strong. We named them Daphne Pangaea and Anise Loba. They both have their dad's brown patches. The fourth one flew under the radar until this afternoon when we found her in a sorry state. Couldn't figure out for sure, but it looked like she either had been stepped on or was seizing. We stopped the suffering she was in, and remembered the exchange that birth and death are part of. We will take Luna's black and white coat before we bury her tomorrow, to continue to honor her.

Long time, no post.

Lots going on lately! Our other intern, Brian showed up, and we promptly got to work on some projects. He's cleaning out the barn, and making it into sort of an artists workshop. And adjacent to the barn, we're constructing a new goat enclosure around the legs of the solar array. I like working with Peter, and I'm learning a lot. We've also had help from a "friend of the family," Chris, who is as knowledgeable about natural building as he is about South American struggles.  The goats are excited to be in the new enclosure, as they had been allowed over there before the solar construction; they are rather curious about what's been going on in their old turf. We're also excited that this is getting done so the goats have their own, familiar shelter for kidding. We think maybe Licorice, the black and white beauty pictured here, has 4ish kids in her, so she wants a cozy place to rest. All this rain has everyone antsy out there, including the chickens. They want to roam about, but I don't trust them in the rain. Plus, I don't want to have to go herd them out of the garden and back into the coop in the rain either.

Also learned how to brew Jun and Kombucha from Jini as she prepared some of the best meals yet. 

Seafood is definitely on the menu this month, because we're expecting that maybe there will be a lot of radioactivity hitting this coast from the Fukushima disaster three years ago. Lots of rumblings about that issue here in NorCal, but I must admit that I hadn't heard a lot about that until arriving here. Past couple nights we have had snapper, and then crab and we're savoring every last morsel.

Last night, we went to the Mendocino Environmental Council's radio station/headquarters for one of the DJ's birthday party/potluck. We brought a vegetable tray that included Yuccan root and a chipotle hummus, and plenty of chicken wings with Salt Hollow Fig Barbeque sauce. I made some new friends there, too. It was nice to branch out a bit, seeing as I already feel so at home here on Road B.

That's all for now; those goats don't feed themselves!