Where to even start…

So, yes, been very quiet here. This is my fault. A long time ago I decided I wanted this blog to be a kind of cheery happy place, and made an effort to keep posts light and fluffy. Of course, then life turns out to be the kind of thing that is not cheery and happy all the time, and when that happens I wind up going silent, because I feel like I can’t post anything, having promised myself that I would stay cheery and happy here.

Right. Probably an unreasonable expectation of myself, really. So after a lot of pondering, here is what I’ve decided to do: blog anyway. Which means that sometimes I might be sort of grumpy, and sometimes sad, and sometimes stressed, but hey! Life is life and I can’t pretend mine is flawless without just…not talking.

So let’s catch up on what’s happened since December, you want to?

I spent most of January feeling like hell, which continued into February, when all became clear.

In February I wound up in the Emergency room with a kidney stone due to a massive pocket of infection in my left kidney; since we don’t have insurance that was a huge bill. I am lucky to have parents who can help us out and grateful that the Best Parents Ever wanted to help us out and did, but at the same time it’s kind of humiliating to be 36 years old (37 this month!) and asking your parents for thousands of dollars to pay your medical bills.

In March, Daniel got a job! Huzzah! A real job, full time, with benefits including health insurance! And he so far claims that it does not suck and he is not miserable, so that is exciting and I am happy about it! We also got a good chunk of the garden in the ground, at least the cold-tolerant seeds. This spring was unseasonably cool, with threats of frost intot he first week of April.

In April, the Manor saw about 10,001 new arrivals and the garden planting finished. Ten thousand of the new residents came together in th form of a 3lb package of bees, which I’ve established in a hive in our oak grove. So far so good, they are doing their bee thing. At the moment we are at the “don’t bother them, let them build comb and forage” stage which is killing me from sheer curiosity. I’ll be able to look in on them again next weekend. The other new arrival was Chism, a 6 month old Nubian buck who wasn’t doing well in his last home. He’s here for the 4 R’s: Rehab, Rest, Relaxation, and Rehoming. The first three R’s are going pretty well, although it’s going to be a long road getting him up to snuff. Hopefully once he is a great hairy stinking honking goat buck I can find him a good place, although I may also end up having him wethered and finding him a pet home. We’ll see how he does.

And in May, Natasha arrived. She’s a red-eyed white English Angora bunny, 8 weeks old. Her fiber will be available when she gets her periodic shearing (I don’t have the hand stamina to pluck a bunny). At the end of the month, a blue male English Angora bunny, unrelated to Tasha, will arrive. More fiber!

June may be pretty quiet, and we’re hoping that Queen May is pregnant and will present us with goatlings (cross your fingers for girls) in July.

Meanwhile, today was my last final exams, and I need to get busy restocking The Holy Goats Emporium. Soap and lotion will continue to be available while I have goats in milk (which should be, with a little luck and care, continuous). Angora bunny fiber will be available later this year, and then next year when the bees are producing I’ll be introducing salves and lip balms using wax from my own hive. If the mysterious herbs I’ve planted this spring get to growing and thriving, then there may also be bath teas later. Exciting!

Hope you’re doing well, gentle readers, and that there’s still a couple of you out there!