Wednesday, January 05, 2011
new year
We are lacking in current photos of ourselves, but nothing much has changed there.
Mark is ensconced in his work at a tax prep and finance office. He spends time volunteering on two fronts: the board of directors of the Concord Scout House and also the board of the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre. At the Scout House, there are large scale renovation and therefore also fundraising projects afoot. Mark has worked hard to secure funding from Concord’s Community Preservation Committee. On the Country Dance Society front, the board has been concentrating on creating a working documentation of procedures as a back up for various committees’ notes.
The llamas are obedient to Mark, and come often to their names when called. Aquila, our oldest, having weathered a big infection this past spring, is fit, and also cannot always chew her hay. She’s now getting yummy beet mash and alfalfa cubes soaked to perfection. Thanks Mark! Our sweet dwarf goats, having decided not to bear offspring, are as fat as if they would any moment.
We managed over the year to grow the flock of silkies, with the hope of many good little setters. Our white “mummy” still remains, who must be 4 or 5 by now. We have 4 or 5 other brown hens, and two beautiful roosters that are white mummy’s with the lovely tan guy that the coyote or fox got. Our silkies also fed a predator or two this year: candidates are the red-tailed hawk and a lone coyote that hung around for a while. The fox is another possibility as I saw him run away from that area about a month ago as I drove in late at night.
We have also lost a couple of hens in our “uphill” flock, a lovely almost white Golden Buff and the plucky little white Old English hen that sat on 10 eggs this spring “in the wild” away from the coop of big bully hens.
We have moved a handsome young Araucana rooster into that flock to help the bantie rooster protect our best laying hens at present.
Plans to purchase chicks are in the works for as early as March. I’ll have to order some of them ahead, so it isn’t too early to decide what to get. I am considering getting some “straight run” or unsexed chicks. No these are not neutered chickens, but whatever hatches rather than only hens or cocks. The boys’ll be soup etc, the girls layers if I do this....
The house will have to get new shingles this year and hopefully there isn’t too much weirdness under the shingles. Somethings not right up there according to some awful bumps and ripples. I may try to make it into an opportunity for a nice dormer and a cupola.
We will also build another llama/goat run-in shed this summer and a coop so animals can be housed within reach of electrical lines and perhaps with water access.
I am still working on a 300 sq. ft. addition to a friend’s house in Lexington. Currently it’s being plastered. I expect a few more months! In order to fill in or gracefully progress to the next income stream, I’m signing up to teach some classes in crafts and knitting at a new hobby & craft store in West Concord. This is a fun adventure for me and a direction I’ve meant to go for a long time. I am also finding ways to sell my art here and there and getting a better sense of where to inquire for exhibits.