Settling In

             It is the time of year when my heart loves to be in by the fire, knitting or quilting. The garden is done and the goats have been turned in to clean it up. The Angoras have all been sheared and I have piles of fleece that need to be washed. The pond is quiet and we've had a frost so the flowers are gone. The leaves have turned and put on a beautiful show and now most of them have fallen. The tree branches stretch black and naked against a gray sky. I've watched the geese fly overhead, honking goodbye to me as they go.  Even the crickets haved quieted down.  I put up the hammock last week and all the furniture in the back yard is in the greenhouse for the winter. There's just not much to do outside, so my heart turns to inside work. Time to catch up on the things you never have time to do in the summer.
           All the animals are doing great. Fall baby goats are growing and getting ready to start weaning. The bottle baby pigs, Squeak and Grunt are thriving. They love to race around underneath goat hooves. I'm not sure but that they think they are goats. The new hens are giving us are plenty of fresh eggs now. I had so many, the other day, I made lemon curd... oh, it is divine on whole wheat toast in the morning. We are getting a halflinger colt tomorrow, so we are very excited about that. He is just 6 months old and I can't wait to start training him. I told Tim, we need to start looking for a sleigh. Of course, I just got the eye rolling again.  I am getting plenty of milk but most of it goes to baby goats and pigs. I will be glad to wean the babies so I can start making cheese again. We have a buck in with does right now so we will be getting March babies and so it all begins again.
            I hope all of you are enjoying this time of year, when life slows down. The Lord has blessed us so much again this year and I am so thankful to Him.