My Holiday Wish List

1. A Pressure Canner

My 2012 resolution to stop freezing and start canning never got off the ground.  But the freezer is chock full of goodies! I was recently reminded of how easy it is to can, especially milk. The gallons of milk frozen and stuffed into every crevice in my freezer would be gone and I could simply fill the shelves with quarts of pasteurized, canned milk that only takes about 10 minutes to process. Goal for 2013.

2. A Giant Mudroom

Not white, for sure. A place where dripping muddy boots can leave puddles on the floor, where bucky smelling clothes can hang alone without contaminating our 'good' clothes. Where hay bits and goat berries can fall off our overalls without getting dragged into the house. Maybe in the next house. After I win the lottery.

3. An Amish boy with a pitchfork.

They work hard. We need help!

Although, substitutions can be negotiated on a case by case basis.   Good thing Rog never reads this blog.  I found these on ebay, if you select priority shipping they will get here before Christmas.

4. Hay. Alfalfa. Green, lush, non-shitty hay.

Prices are high, quality is low. I swear the goats give me the stink eye when I feed them.  Were spending 3 x normal  expenses to get poor quality hay. Next year we will load up early, drought or no drought. We did, however, just trade some cow-quality round bales for a new haywagon, so its not all bad. 

5. A maid, preferably live-in.

Someone who enjoys following us around and picking up hay bits and wiping up dog prints and nose prints.  A bonus would be if he/she enjoyed picking hay bits out of our hair and clothes as well. Also who is specially skilled to clean the drips of milk that inevitably seem to spill between the glass layers on my oven door where they would otherwise stay for all eternity. Also is passionate about cleaning milk bottles and plastic goat nipples. 

6. A milkroom

Shiny, clean and smells like bleach. No flies, climate controlled, hot water, oooh! and a window.  I'd get rid of my plastic hawk that currently hangs above our milk stands to keep the tresspassing birds off of them. Really I'd settle for a canvas sheet / wall. And maybe some concrete on the floor. Or maybe Rog will let me move his hunting blind in to the barn and I'll sit in it. 

7. A sickle bar mower

This is for Rog. The last item to make us self-sufficient at baling our own hay and not having to rely on a neighbor to cut for us. Selfishly its for me too, so I can stop hearing about it and stop finding issues of farm and dairy and farm tek littered with post-it notes and page markers. 

8. Chickens

Why on Earth would a girl who hates birds be asking for chickens?  Because I'm asking for chickens that don't peck eggs and eat them. And don't perform daily Houdini escapes to poop in our bucks' water buckets. Who roost on roosts, not Capone's back. Who lay eggs in nest boxes, not hay racks. Only a select few are misbehaving, I'm going to start picking them off soon...

9. Head Gear

For when I get brave and try to catch the chickens. And to protect me from the  little wrens that made a nest in the loft in our buck barn and scare the pants off me daily when they dive bomb my head. Also for when Hemi tries to attack my hair. 

 10. A joyful and healthy 2013 for yours and ours.