Summer Wanes

Sunset from our front porch.

We have had a busy summer, filled with extra-hot days and visitors from out of town. We have enjoyed having distant friends come for a taste of Middle Tennessee. The porch swing and rockers have been well-utilized as we've sat to visit and catch up. A dry spell has challenged our container gardens, so we have had ample reason to visit the farmers markets in Nashville and downtown Lebanon.

Dairy does recline in an dry kiddie pool.

With the two bucklings gone, we're back in milk, which makes me extremely happy. Nothing tastes better on a hot evening than freshly-churned goat milk ice cream, and nothing can beat the taste-sensations of fresh goat milk ricotta. Ms. Leslie Lupine goat is learning to stand like a lady at milking time and every day with her milk is a treat. Her udder is more fully developed than it was at her first freshening, and I'm appreciating how udders and teats differ from doe to doe and even from side to side on a single doe. Our primary milkers are Leslie (pictured) and Marcie, neither of which is a "show goat" (with well-matched udders), and each of which have markedly different mammary structures from side to side.

Hank and Stew show off their meaty physiques.

We retained the buckling Stew and renamed him Studebaker--something I may have mentioned earlier--because he's become a meaty model of his sire and is built like a truck. We are proud of his development and while we still compete with him for his auntie Marcie's milk, we see him as a poster buckling for the old ad campaign: "Milk, it does a body good." He will make a fine little herd sire alongside Hank.

With all the hot weather and the absence of recent rains, area trees are already beginning to drop their leaves, giving the landscape a foretaste of fall. The few cool days have been most welcome; everyone here perks up when the mercury drops.