The clouds gather for Winter

Things on the farm have gone fairly well.

We have taken another delivery of pure british Soay ewe gimmers (two lambs and a hogget) to keep Bolivar company.

On the other end of the scale, we had to take the decision to put Teed's Tlingit down.  Brokenmouthed, she could not chew hay well.  While she could eat alfalfa pellets, she was nonetheless losing condition progressively.  While she might have survived the Winter, it was very doubtful.  A swift death was definitely preferable to slow starvation.

At least she gave us a couple of beautiful lambs, and we hope that her sweet temperament and good mothering will breed true.

We have released the bantams among the full size chickens.  We feared for the bantams at first, since we suspected that the full size chickens might bully them mercilessly, but in fact the bantams more than hold their own and the copper maran cock is no longer on top of the pecking order.  The last couple of bantams on the porch are raising three little chicks, so at least the bantams make more successful parents than the full size chickens. 

The winery has been fairly successful in production.  We have two beautiful meads in barrels right now, and a very promising cyser.  We have crushed another thousand pounds and more of jonagold and granny smith apples, which now sit fermenting in two more barrels.  We shall obtain honey with which to enrich them soon.

We have submitted another copy of our label application to the federal government, since the first was rejected - not on the grounds that there was anything incorrect or incomplete, but on the grounds that it had been printed on letter size, rather than legal size paper.  This stipulation was nowhere to be found in the instructions as given.  Shackled by red tape, we have no choice but to comply.