Welcome back for another week of homesteading adventures with The Silly Couple. If you’re new to our homestead, welcome! And, if you’re a returning face, thanks for coming back. This week, we wanted to take a step back and consider the state of things as we close out January. After all, it’s been a busy month for us and it feels like we might make more progress on homesteading in these first couple months of 2022 than we did in all of 2021. That’s exciting!
So, rather than continue moving at 100 miles a minute, we’re going to take a beat today and talk about how everything is looking around our little homestead.
The Flooding Subsides
Last year, we posted multiple times about the flooding that occurred in the summer. And, we thought it would be fully subsided by the end of November. Well, we weren’t quite right. From a practical perspective, the flooding DID draw back in November. The side of our house dubbed as “the pit,” the front area where we had a “creek,” and the back part where it flooded more than it ought to had all dried up by Thanksgiving. But, it took until this month before the back of the property dried completely.
If you were to look at a map of our property, this makes some sense. There is a small bit of the back acreage that is shown as water on a map. But, as we said previously it flooded well beyond it. And, it took until January before even that part dried up. This is significant to us for a one big reason -when we saw the property in September 2020 and moved in at the end of October 2020, there was no water (either time). So, either 2020 was extraordinarily dry or 2021 was unusually wet. In either case, we have to plan around this and decide whether we need to bring in some heavy equipment to redirect flood waters in the future.
Fewer Deer This Year
One of the things that was really fun for us when coming to the homestead from the city was seeing the amount of deer. We not only got to regularly see deer between November 2020 and February 2021 (and some before and after), but we also had the joy of seeing a mamma deer and a couple of her doelings come through. Not just this, but there were several occasions where we saw large family groups pass through, sometimes having over half a dozen deer in a group.
This year, it seems there have been far fewer. While there may be other factors at play, we think the main reason for this is Jadzia. Sure, she is doing her job barking as possums, birds of prey, and other predators. But let us tell you…she does not want deer intruding on her property. We’ve caught her barking at them more than once. And, that leads us to believe while we haven’t seen as many they are likely coming through just as often.
Preparing for Goats on the Homestead
As we shared last week, the final thing we want to talk about when considering the state of our homestead is goats- specifically Nigerian dwarf goats. And, with a date in sight for getting these goats, we’ve been hard at work to make preparations. Among those preparations, we need to prepare the fenced in area to accommodate both Jadzia and our new goats on the homestead.
To do this, we are using u-posts and some hardware cloth to build a fence. We will use a couple of wooden posts and a pallet to make a gate for this fence. This way, we can bisect the yard so both the goats and Jadzia can get used to one another without direct interaction (which we assume will scare the goats). Additionally, we will be building the 7×7 resin shed we purchased last year as a milking shelter for the goats.
All in all, 2022 is starting out strong in January for the Silly Couple. We look forward to what February brings. Until then, we’ll see you around the homestead!