This morning has been one of my favorites in weeks.
Pancakes and bacon for breakfast with a hot cup of maple syrup sweetened dark roast coffee- that is enough to make my morning. After breakfast though, I got the kiddos dressed and ready to hike through the woods. My husband mowed down some brush to make a trail for us Saturday, so until we got back to the really thick stuff, it was fairly easy going.
I picked out a spot for our goat/sheep shelter.
But most importantly, I was contacted by one of the katahdin breeders in my area and they’re taking orders for registered RR 2018 ewe lambs! YAY! Now is the tough part of waiting and praying and decided how many we want/can afford.
The idea of livestock expansion and producing our own meat is so exciting to me that I can hardly sit still when I think about it.
Our next steps are fencing- we’ve looked at 3 different types of electric fencing, the Gallagher smart fence, and Premier 1’s Goat and sheep net. We are wanting to raise them in the Salatin model of daily intensive rotational grazing. Because we have a ton of browse and not a ton of lushious pasture (yet) we are wanting really browsey sheep in addition to our desired Golden Guernsey goats. We figure that the combination of the two will help us to clear the land so that we can develop it into a better pasture for all the livestock.
After fencing comes the shelter, or the infrastructure and equipment aquisition phase. We need to build a shelter for the livestock and acquire feeding troughs in addition to developing a sustainable watering system. Long term, we plan to install water catchment on the shelter roof. We plan on doing the same for the chickens once we completely finish their roof.
Once all that is set up, we can bring in the animals!
We’re still praying and planning and dreaming and we trust that God will bring it all together in His time and to His glory.
Wholly Holy Living 