Wild Moon Cottage is a small working homestead in the pristine Ozark Mountains. We have dairy goats, poultry, organic herb and vegetable gardens, a start of a tiny fruit orchard, several black walnut trees, wild berries and fields of wildcrafting goodness. We raise our own milk, our own eggs, much of our own medicine and food. I do laundry by hand, make my own vinegar, candles, soap, bread, cheese ........ For a living I am an artist and herbalist. My goal for myself and our homestead is to be as self sufficient and self sustaining as possible.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

7.15.08 Yesterday

We got a lot done :) Among them was to go pick up some freecycle storm doors from a nice woman down the road a bit. They're for the greenhouse but I may end up using at least one on the henhouse.

We got to see some LaMancha sp? goats as well. I've seen all kinds of goats but I had never seen LaManchas in person before. They're big like Nubians but their heads and faces look just like sheep. They ear hole but no ears at all. Very strange and seems like it wouldn't be healthy not to have earflaps but the goats were quite healthy and happy and I guess they come that way naturally. I mean, I know their ears aren't cropped (savagely mutilated) and they looked like an older breed and like maybe they have just developed that way over time and not by human will.

They also had some big tom turkeys. They had two kinds, regular (brown like wild turks) and bluish grey which I think are a heritage breed. I was wanting to see one because it's been a while since I had seen one close and I had forgotten how big they are. I was thinking about getting one each year and raising it to be meat for our fall feast but they're pretty big and we're very small on space.

Speaking of space ... I was offered two horses the other day for 300.00 a piece. One is 3 and one is 5 and neither have been gentled to ride (gentling older horses is actually one of my specialties). But we have no room at all :(

I calculated once how long it would take with a horse and cart to get to the market, then feed store and back (about 15 miles round trip). I estimated it would take about 3 hours (not counting shopping/resting). Our back roads are often shaded but do have a few steep hills. A horse in good health pulling a cart averages between 3 and 8 miles per hour (that's mainly walking briskly and trotting occasionally on flat ground.

Did I mention I don't get out much ?

1 comment:

Phill said...

Glad to be back and to be able to check in on my friends blogs directly ... and even comment, LOL!

That really sounds like a long, but awesome day. Interesting about the goats. I'm sure someone far more goat-knowledgeable than I has some additional info. I'm curious how much space turkeys actually need.

Happy thought for the horses!