Well most of the girls have cycled and bred. I will be so excited to get next years kids on the ground. I am using my new guy on all girls this year... Here is a photobucket link showing the dam, great-dams, sire and various goat relatives of my buck...He is a son of Cool Copy
http://s750.photobucket.com/home/Quappelle_Alpines

Preserving

This week is preserve week...harvest is at it's peak. Peaches, pears, apples, tomatoes, peppers... So far this week I've put up a bushel and half of peaches...sliced in syrup, dehydrated, peach jam, chutney; several baskets of tomatoes...salsa, frozen whole... various jellies like garlic/red pepper jelly; the pears apples and more peaches coming on Friday will be some fruit cocktail, apple butter, pie fillings more dehydrated fruit.  Herbs are being cut and dried, and soup mix will be made from these. Got to go!

Well lots of soap being made and wandering out the door quickly which hasn't left a lot of time for blogging. So I'll try to catch up quickly...We have had a fabulous summer weather wise, the garden could really have used more water. Next year I am investing in some soaker hoses and some automation. The tomatoes are ripening rapidly now and I've been making salsa and throwing extras in the freezer. I also did a great batch of blackberry jam. Yum! The basil has had 3 cuttings and lots of pesto has been made as well. My cucumbers lost the battles with cucumber beetles this year : ( so I haven't gotten many at all. Win some lose some I guess.
Summer has been busy with several markets a week...Windsor, Halifax (QE2), and Wolfville. We have also added several more retail accounts...Scotian Gold, Coldbrook;  Love Me Boutique, Birmingham St Halifax; Dempsey's Corner Market, Dempsey's Corner; My Mother's Keeper, Windsor and I won't announce it yet but there looks like a Bedford location will be stocked soon. I've doubled my batch size this year and am going to double again soon. I'm in the process of looking at some bigger equipment.
The kids are back to school now. They were excited to start again and see their friends.

Pippi's Craving

Pippi's due to kid within the next 2 weeks and exhibiting some cravings..."No I don't want the hay...I want apple tree trimmings!"

New Baby

Our new Baby has arrived and is now 5 weeks old. He is not officially named, paperwork is pending but unofficially he's known as Chester. DD2 knowing that this is our herd sire and what he will grow into...gave him the moniker of Chester the Goat Molester. Anyway he is a cutie patootie at this point.

Maybe it just feels like the garden is behind. The strawberries are blooming and I see a few small green berries. Funnily enough I planted a few in beds in the greenhouse and they do not appear to be any further along. The green beans are up in there though ; ) and no where near ready to plant in the outdoor garden. My garlic looks amazing. I am totally surprised because they were not mulched heavily enough and over the winter had become exposed and eroded from rains, then as they recovered in the spring a lone goat decided to prune them for me. That first early green is fair game she told me. My spinach seems late, it is only about 2 inches tall. I dare not even pick for baby leaves yet. The chard I tried to overwinter in the greenhouse did not make it, I think it became too dry in the raised bed. They probably would have made it left in the main garden and mulched.

Bee Adventure

Today my friend Norm asked if I wanted to go out and help re-queen some hives. I really enjoyed learning a lot about bees today. My own hive is supposed to be set up in June so this was a great trial run in working with them. Nothing like hands on experience.