Truck stuck

This afternoon I was supposed to go vacuum at the church but we're stuck here until the grader makes it through. We shoveled the truck out and loaded the back with a stack of heavy firewood and tried to make it but even a four wheel drive pickup won't go through an 20" snowdrift very well. We shoveled some but that didn't work for the whole driveway. If the plow makes it in tomorrow I will go then.

Andrew started up the snow blower and cut through the snowbanks by the house for a walkway. The temperature is not too far below zero but the wind makes it seem worse.

Dad went down the driveway to check the road to see if the county plowed that but they hadn't so far.

The animals in the barn are doing well. I've been milking Sandy at 7:00 and we've been getting a little over two gallons each time. There has been a little blood in the milk but it is clearing up now. We are looking forward to making cheese, butter, ice cream and more, all things that don't taste the same if you use goat's milk.

Yesterday we sent in a few orders for some stainless steel milking equipment to keep the milking process clean and sanitized. If you're planning on getting anything stainless steel be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for it! As soon as we feel sure about the milking procedure and system for cooling we will start to advertise locally for selling cow shares. We have most everything figured out for how to handle the contract and bottling and pickup of the milk.

Calliope stays outside even through the snowstorms so this morning she came up to me and asked me to help her scrape the ice off her coat. :-) She is the boss of the barnyard. Second in command is the billy goat John. The the cow and the other 15 goats pretty much stay out of their way.

This is a logo I drew on the computer to go on the post cards we plan on sending out for advertising. We may even have nice labels on the milk bottles later on. We will start with regular one gallon jars to trade back and forth each week when people come here to pick up their cow's milk.

That's all for right now- Peter