Trillium Hill Farm, llc

Two weeks ago James and I embarked on a big winter construction project at the farm. With a great deal of help from my father we framed the floor and walls for a new parlor and milkhouse for the goat dairy. The lumber came from the woods I grew up in, back in Lyndonville, which my father cut and milled.

It is exciting to embark on this project that we had envisioned starting over three years ago. I am slowly learning about how things take time. I like that James and I move slowly- we think and think and rethink and while we’re never 100% sure that something is exactly right, we’re glad we spent some time with it. With most things on the farm we don’t want to be in a rush or jump into things if we can avoid it. And we want to stay as small as possible if we can manage it. I am often tempted to grow bigger- buy more goats or till more land or add another enterprise- then I sit back and ask myself  “can the land support that?,” “can we take on that extra load,” or “is that really what I want to be spending my time doing?” We feel lucky to have support from our family and neighbors to be able to ask those questions and not just jump into something because the numbers tell us to.

By the spring, and essentially by the time the goats freshen, we hope to have the rooms up and running. We will be milking seven goats this year so it will be nice to have the space to expand into. Before then, however, we’ve got floor drains, windows, walls, plumbing and electricity work to do.  Wish us luck!

While I apprehensively await signs of heat from our goats, hoping they will not come back into cycle, I have been frantically knitting baby hats for friends and family for the holidays. The only babies in my personal near future are those that I am hoping are around one-month old, in the bellies of my lady goats in the barn.

If my math is right, and all goes well, we are due for baby goats in early April. Before then, we’d like to get in some big barn improvements: a more formal (and efficient) washing area for vegetables and a new milking room and a clean-up area for the dairy. If I am to be milking seven does next year, I need a little room to expand. So far, we have reinforced a foundation wall and got water lines in place for the new rooms. After the holidays we will start our construction project.

While I was aiming for an earlier kidding date than April, so we could get the milk flowing sooner, kidding in April could be perfect timing- slipping right in behind the madness of sugaring season. Last year the two overlapped, and in one instance a friend ran the 1/2 mile up hill to the sugarhouse to tell me my first goat was giving birth. I, in turn, sprinted down to the barn in the sloppy mess of snow and mud hoping I wouldn’t sprain an ankle, to find two tiny kids wobbling around in the goat pen.

Before the Spring thaw and the imminent goat nursery, however, we will have the frozen water buckets, the below-zero weather, and the don’t-even-think-I-will-follow-you-outside attitude from the goats. And I will take that time for what it is worth: improvement projects, lots of planning, and knitting baby hats.

Happy Happy Holidays to you all!

PS. Seriously, I am knitting a lot of hats. If you are interested in a custom-made hat (I can put names, pictures, designs in them) as a gift AFTER Christmas, I am available for hire! I can send pictures of previous work if you are interested.