Where we sit just south of Atlanta, fall means cool nights and mild days. The leaves are still turning here, and the grass is still green, making for a happy herd of goats. The fall of acorns from the spreading oaks makes the goats even happier. Some people say that acorns are harmful to goats, but our animals relish acorns as a seasonal treat.
Mother Nature has more than made up for the years of drought in these parts, with one of the rainiest falls on record. Some farmers in the metro area have suffered serious flooding damage, and our prayers are with them. But good luck and good planning have spared us significant damage. Mary has been working since we became responsible for this land to slow the movement of water across the land and to control erosion in the creek, using truckloads of otherwise-unwanted woodchips and whatever stone became available.
The spiders have packed it in for another year. In the warmth of summer, the spiders own the barn, but by the first cool weeks they have placed their egg cases and slipped away. Speaking of insects, we didn't see the praying mantises this year. We only see them in the very height of August's heat, but the years of drought may have set them back. We can only hope that this year's rains will help them to recover. By contrast, the fireflies did come back. Last year there were almost none, but this year they were twinkling under the trees at night, once again making it possible to believe in faeries. It wasn't the riot of lights from former years, but it was lovely and a promise of much more to come next year.
This is a quiet time in the barn. Cooler weather naturally inclines the does toward breeding, and so we can expect a wave of kids in early spring. But until then, it's just a matter of keeping the does well-fed, healthy and safe. We've been good at that for a long time.
But in the dairy parlor, there is all kinds of action. Mary has been at this long enough that people come to expect something special from her around Christmas. For some people, Mary's fresh chevre has become a fixture in their holiday plans, whether "plain" (a word that doesn't do the product justice) or flavored (basil pesto, garlic & dill, lavender & fennel, ash-coated, and dessert favorite amaretto & mandarin orange). Mary is also still making her fresh feta and tuma (mozzarella style) cheeses. Mary's cheddar-making has really come on. The fresh cheddar is terrific and the aged cheddar is a whole new experience. Even the brie is turning out more predictably, delivering the not-quite liquid texture and natural sweetness you'd expect when you open the mold-covered rind.
Fall is also the time for festivals and competitions, which kept Mary pretty busy the last two months. But there's plenty of good news and congratulations to go around. Mary's cheese took 3 prizes at the American Dairy Goat Association cheese competition, in Buffalo. Just getting the samples to the competition was a challenge. But the efforts paid off—Mary's cheddar took a first place, while her tuma and feta each took a second. This is Mary's second year competing, and her second time bringing home an armful of prizes.
Decimal Place also had good luck at the Georgia National Fair in Perry. Most of our does are American Saanen by breed, but we have a few who are classified as "recorded grade" or mixed breed. One of our recorded grade does won best in breed for that class, and other does won their classes or placed well. Our daughter also won her class in showmanship, demonstrating her knowledge of goats and her ability to work with an animal in the show ring.
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