A Time for Rest
“To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven,” wrote the Preacher.
This is the time when things are tucking themselves up for winter. Trees and plants are going dormant, birds and beasts fly south, find places to hibernate, or slow themselves down to conserve energy for the cold time coming. On the homestead, we ourselves are following the wise example of the birds and beasts.
Like many birds, we have flitted from the homestead. As bears, squirrels, and other animals, we have found a warm, dry, solid place to hibernate, housesitting and doing some repairs for some friends who have also migrated. As much as we love living off the grid, last winter taught us that we are not yet set up to pass comfortable winters that way, especially with a newborn. This hibernating is allowing us a much appreciated reprieve.
Like deer, moose, and our own goats, we will be slowing down a lot this winter. Soon, we will move all our animals into a localized area to make it easier to care for them and put up a few temporary shelters to offer them protection from the elements. We are drying up our goats and will be putting them in with the buck in anticipation of spring babies. Our three freezer goats will soon make their final journey to the happy grazing ground, which will provide tasty meat for our family. Charlotte has been weaned, to her disgruntlement, and that of her mother. Since Jersey is a beef cross cow with strong beef genes, she doesn’t produce an overabundance of milk, just enough, actually, to keep our family in milk over the winter.
Because we are slowing down, we expect that there will be little to share with you, so we plan to take this winter to rest, learn new skills, and look forward to the return of spring and an abundance of new ideas and new things to write about.
May your winter be as warm and refreshing as our own.
Until spring,
The Hunters.
