born at home as planned, but he is healthy (and absolutely precious). I, on the other hand, will finish recuperating someday. ;-) My water broke early and labor didn't progress fast enough. Low dose pitocin was needed to augment labor. I gave birth to Raine, without the use of pain meds, at 11am, after 33 hours of labor. Jeff, Terra, and my mom were present as well as my 2 midwives, who delivered me: my "dream team." :-) I also appreciate all of the wonderful women who participated in my blessing way ceremony and everyone who has been so supportive during the pregnancy and following the birth, including those who brought us yummy meals and gave us generous baby gifts. 
So much has happened since the last post...Katie and Maegan each had a kid. They each had only one male kid, but Maegan's kid died a few weeks after birth and we don't know the cause. Both Katie and Maegan are good producers of milk, especially Maegan, for whom this is her second freshening. We were also given a couple of Lamancha baby girls by a local dairy, because they were sickly and they didn't have the time to manage them. One died but we were able to nurse the other back to health. Hopefully, we will be able to sell her as well as Zella's two girls and Katie's boy. Romulus, our buck whom we bottle fed as a baby last year, has gone into rut recently, and we think he has already bred Katie. It would be nice to space out the breeding of our four does, but we don't have the capability of doing that yet, so we're crossing our fingers that the does go into heat at different times. Fencing out more pasture is on the to-do list, among many many other things.
I think we started work on a retaining wall on the west side of the house sometime in March in order to take care of the erosion issues there. We are building it with dirt packed used tires. In May we began constructing a porch on the house. The floor and a ramp have been completed so far. The plan is to cover it and screen it in. We can't wait to grill on it and spend time there during the cooler hours of the day. It will also help shade that side of the house and provide extra space for all of our activities and things such as the baby stroller.
I think we started work on a retaining wall on the west side of the house sometime in March in order to take care of the erosion issues there. We are building it with dirt packed used tires. In May we began constructing a porch on the house. The floor and a ramp have been completed so far. The plan is to cover it and screen it in. We can't wait to grill on it and spend time there during the cooler hours of the day. It will also help shade that side of the house and provide extra space for all of our activities and things such as the baby stroller.
The gardens this year are coming along fairly well - even mine, although I have been rather neglectful lately with the baby to take care of. I planted around 25 tomato plants of 5 different vareties, and Paul planted many many more than that. We have canned at least 40 quarts of tomatoes and put many quarts of salsa in the freezer so far this year (thanks to the help of the Kunzlers, a family of five currently wwoofing with us). Lately, We've been enjoying tomato sandwiches with homemade mayo, pesto, and goat cheese. YUM! My favorite tomato varieties right now are Brandywine, Moonglow, and Tommy Toes. I'm also growing peppers, beans, and eggplant currently. I'm having much better luck with eggplant than I have in the past. I was also able to grow dill for the first time this year. However, the gourd and luffa vines aren't producing at all this year. I should ammend the soil well next year. Paul's feed corn and okra patches are doing well in the front garden currently.I continue to make soap with the help of our wwoofers. I sell them at the farmers' market, when I am able to go, but they are also being sold in two local stores and on the internet.
We used an incubator to hatch out some new chicks, and now we have about 30 young chickens in the first pasture. All of the other Haven chickens are in the pasture with the new coop. Among the new chickens are a good number of Australorps, our best laying breed. Also, a neighbor gave us a Dominicker hen, who is often broody and makes a good mother. None of The Haven hens seem to be very broody, so we hope to use the Dominicker hen for hatching out new chicks in the future.
The newest additions at The Haven, though, are a couple of kittens that the wwoofing family found along the road between The Haven and Full Life Farm. We decided to keep them and make them barn cats in the hopes that they will help control our mouse population. We are currently calling them Thing One and Thing Two.
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