The Goats and the Jeep

June 7, 2012: We picked up our two new Nubian goats: Peppermint Twist and Gypsy Rose.  These two goats are each one year old, and have each had twins.  We purchased them from a very wonderful breeder in Hickman, NE.  If you look on the map at Lancaster County, you will quickly realize it is a huge county.  Although Hickman is in the same county, it took 45 minutes to get there!

They are both still full of milk and must be milked twice a day.  We have not actually consumed cow's milk since our last gallon ran out shortly after bringing them home.  It has been a wild transition, but goat milk tastes just like cow's milk.  We also have made butter, cheese, and ice cream with the milk.  It is pretty wild to think about how much you use those everyday things and we are creating it right here.  When I am not a summer bum I would frequently have to stop on the way to get either 1% milk for Amy and I or 2% for Ayla.  Now that inconvenience was eliminated.

But how in the heck does this relate to the Jeep?

June 7, 2005: As a graduation from college present my Dad aided me in the purchase of a car.  In 2005 gas was not nearly as expensive as it is now, and I was enamored with owning a Jeep Liberty after having driven in one that year.  So, we purchased a used 2002 Jeep Liberty with 32,000 miles on it.  I owned it, loved it, hated it when gas got out of hand (see: 2008-present).

So, seven years later, the goats got a ride home in the Jeep.  Go back in time and tell that 21 year old fool he would own land, alpacas, donkeys, chickens, have two kids and so on, he would laugh...or cry.  And then, tell him that seven years after getting that shiny "new" car there would be goats in it, he wouldn't have known what to say!

Thus, all that is left to do is share the love affair between the goats and the Jeep.  As a postlude to the story, the Jeep was traded in on June 26, 2012 for a 2009 Ford Expedition (which is pretty HUGE).  I will now drive my wife's 2008 Ford Escape.  We are pretty happy, but it was pretty bittersweet to see her go.

Year 2: "The Garden"

In a post on June 17, 2011 I wrote the following:

"Of course, one of the main reasons we purchased this land was not to garden on a small scale, but was to eventually grow lots of organic produce. Our future plans include at least an acre of the good, organic produce, but this being Year One we are being responsible and staying small. Here are some pictures of our current endeavors."

Last year we built a silly little green fence over a really small area and pretended we were happy with the small gardening space.  One of the more difficult things about moving out here in May was that the reality of developing a garden was super unlikely.  Also, we had 2.9 acres of corn in our backyard--there wasn't any garden area, which is why the small polygon of garden was all we could manage.  As you read above, our goal was to have a large, one acre garden by now.  Well, I suppose we are close:

This isn't even the whole garden, but I'll explain...

 We have converted around .75 to "garden", but considering all the time we spend tending it, we should really call it a field :).  Here is what is going on:

Corn Field, we planted over 1000 seeds of white sweet corn.  So far, we are having a decent amount of seedlings emerge.

Rows and rows of green beans!

4 of the 6 raised beds filled with carrots, beets, potatoes, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, and spinach!

The Pumpkin Patch.  There are 61 mounds of pumpkins.  It took a long time.  And we don't really need that many pumpkins.

Pumpkin seedling!

 The garden is growing, I didn't even get to show you the 20 mounds of cantaloupe, 30+ mounds of squash (we call it the baby food garden for Bram), the raspberries or the second corn plot.  If all goes according to plan, we could be pretty happy in September!

Year One in Review: May 2011

On April 29, 2011 we moved into our new adventure.  Each day we will post a month-by-month breakdown of the last 12 months.  Some months were exciting, and others were not. 

APRIL 2011
APRIL 29: The 29th was also Ayla's birthday.  We moved in with two trucks and lots of help and love.  APRIL 30: We slept a lot and ate pizza.  Brand new appliances were delivered.

MAY 2011
MAY 1: Celebrated Ayla's birthday, she is two!
MAY 2: I returned to work.  Amy continued to unpack mountains of boxes and start our life out here.  I hid in my work and tried not to get overly involved or eager.  I was distant at best.
MAY 8: Purchased a riding mower.  This was awesome.
MAY 9-26: Blur.  School year was ending and my energy was focused there.  I am sure we unpacked a lot of boxes.  We also tilled land for an herb garden. 
MAY 27: School ended.  Time to get involved with the acreage.

See, not all months are glamorous.

Celebrating Year ONE in the Edge!

On April 29, 2011 we moved into our new adventure.  We left the comforts of city life with our 2 year old daughter and decided to make a new life on the county line.  In my very first post, it was easy to sense my dismay and caution towards living here.

This blog became my therapy during the summer months of 2011.  I needed this.  I needed to share with others our story in hopes that there were others out there.  I hoped a community would form from this, but unfortunately I have yet to find the same kind of people as us, but I will continue to search.  When I had to return to school in August the blog became spotty and days, weeks or months would go by without posts.  As summer of 2012 nears I can see this will change again.

So what was year one like?  Here is a month-by-month breakdown, (again, a continuation of my therapy) of 2011.  We have done so much to this house and land it is exciting to document the changes.