Farm and Garden Update

We ended with three baby goats this season. I was thinking we had one more mama - but she doesn't seem to be doing anything - so maybe she wasn't bred afterall, or maybe she lost the pregnancy. The three little ones are doing amazing though. They are running around the pasture - chasing after each other, driving the grown ups crazy. At first, it seemed like some of the grown ups weren't fans of the little ones - but it seems they have accepted them as part of the flock. I'm not sure if we are keeping all or all of these - it seems it would make sense to keep the girl - but the boys are so damn cute. We'll see...there's only so much room at the inn....and frankly, I'd love to get a donkey. Mark's not going to let me get a donkey AND keep all the goats.
We've been gardening a lot these days...building our raised garden beds, with trellises (we still need to add another bed to that area and four of the trellises - but we are getting there. We also need to build a permanent bed for asparagus - our seedlings are doing amazing and we'll need to get them transplanted soon. We decided to grow the asparagus from seed because we aren't in a rush to get them (it takes 2-3 years to get the plants producing) and from what I've read, if you can get them to establish from seed, you have a stronger plant and bigger yield etc. We also need to build another bed for Cora's bee garden. Last year at Mother Earth News Fair, we bought Cora a bunch of seeds to create a garden all her own - the seeds were selected to encourage pollinators to visit - so she should be seeing all types of butterflies and honey bees etc. We also got a bird bath to put into the bed - we will put colorful rocks in there so the bees have space to land and get a drink, without drowning. I'm really excited about that garden...Cora and I sat down and planned it all out, what to plant where etc. I'm hoping it is beautiful (I'm sure it will be). Yesterday, we transplanted 32 of each of the following: broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage to the raised beds in front. We also transplanted 36 brussels sprout plants and planted a row of carrots and a row of beets in the back garden. Finally, we planted 10 pounds of potato "seeds". I love that we've been able to most everything in the beds using our own compost. OH! We also have three large pots for lettuce and spinach mix. Whew! YAY food.
I mentioned in a previous post that we ordered additional trees etc. Shortly before those items shipped, we decided to cut back a bit. Mainly because of money. We had a lot of money going out for our crazy goat deliveries and rough winter, so we decided to not get the asparagus crowns (and our seedlings are doing amazing...so WIN!), we ordered 1/2 the grape vines - we originally were going to get two sets, but figured that one set would be good enough, we decided against that tangerine - because that is an indoor, wouldn't it be cool type of tree, more of a novelty, than a necessity so it went on the back burner. I think that was a smart decision. We've got time to do all of this stuff - I get the "I wants" and I want it all to happen at once...but this is our home, for a long time.