Great Day!

We had a very nice day today. Well, first we started with raking and cleaning out all of the pens, not so much fun, but productive. Then we went to Fran's. She taught me and the boys how to do fecals on the goats to see whether or not they need to be wormed. (Gma and Gpa, I'm finally using that microscope from Drake!) Fran showed us all around her property and we got to see all of her animals. It was really nice. Fran also took a puppy; we are trading her for an Alpine goat.

After Fran's we went into Elgin and picked up 22 chickens. I saw an ad in Craigslist and couldn't pass it up. 14 of the chickens were 2 or 3 months old and 8 of the chicks were 3 weeks old. We got them for $1 each! What a bargain. Oh, and Gpa, they are Barred Rocks.

So we had a great day. Learned to do fecals, found a puppy a new home, got a new goat, and 22 new chickens. Pretty good for a days work.

The Duck Goosed the Chicken

I actually said these words today. Too funny!

Tortillas

This was my first homemade tortilla. My first batch was hard,thick, and non-pliable; we are using these for pizza crust. For the second batch I almost doubled the shortening and milk in the recipe and came up with beautiful tortillas. They are whole grain, of course, and very yummy. Tortillas are easier to make than bread, so instead of sandwiches, we might be eating a lot of roll-ups!

Pups

We sold another female pup today. One male, one female left. Fran, my local goat mentor, may be interested in the female. I picked her out the best one and only let these last people pick from one female and the male. Lala has an appointment to get spayed July 30th. I would get the puppies done too but they have to be 3 months old. I would also get JD fixed, but he freaks out when I try to get him to go anywhere with me. I think Stef would have to carry him.

Stef's dog is named DD. It stands for Dad's Dog or as Niko says,"Dum Dum".

Property layout

This is obviously not to scale, but GGpa asked awhile back for a rendering of some sort of the layout of the land and buildings and such.

The dotted lines are fenced areas.

1. house
2. pool
3. dojo
4. storage shed
5. barn (2 kidding pens, milk and food storage room, loafing area)
6. storage shed/ young buck pen
7. chicken coop
8. rabbit colony
9. buck pen
10. barnyard
11. young buck outer yard
12. garden (by next spring, after we clear out the million and five rocks, this area will be a complete square)
13. future compost site

Humanure!!!

Yes, we are converting our household to a no flush zone. I got a couple of toilet seats and 5 gallon buckets today and Stef is going to built a little cabinet to set the bucket in and put the seats on. You can check out http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html for more info on human waste composting. In two years we will have the best compost around, not to mention the greenest garden! As you can imagine the boys were less than thrilled upon hearing this news. Niko was especially disgusted, not by the idea of carrying excrement around in 5 gallon buckets, but because his friends will think we are crazy. I told him when he is older he will be impressed with his childhood in this family.

We are also going to divert our greywater from the septic tank. Not sure where it is going though. I'll update you all as this progresses.

Puppies

One more down, 3 to go!! Tell your friends! BTW, Niko is not keeping Covert. He changed to a different puppy and named him Taco. It is actually some my fault. I liked Taco and asked if either if them would be willing to switch.

Chicken and Kid

Just a couple random pics. We are keeping a rooster with the chickens to fertilize the eggs we will be getting soon. We are going to build an incubator to make new chicks! This is our favorite Roo. His name is Mr. Tibbles.
He is the prettiest chicken I've ever seen. You can't really see all of his colors in the picture, but his tail is green and purple, he is just so pretty.

Speaking of pretty here is another pic of the baby girl.

Hoof Trimming

Well thats one way to get it done. Poor Trouble didn't think this was very funny but I sure did. We trimmed hooves today. It is a tedious job and we hate doing it so it doesn't get done as often as it should. We have decided though, it will be easier if we do it once a month.

Holy S*#%!

As inappropriate as these words may be, they were nevertheless the first words out of my mouth today as I walked up to the rabbit colony. I saw a baby bunny. We have Bunnies! I only saw one and I ran to tell Stef. We walked back and saw one again. It went into the rabbit hole and we haven't seen anything else from the rabbits today so I haven't got a picture yet. I hope there is more than one. I'm so excited!! Yea!!

New Additions

Well, we didn't have to keep wondering for long...



The little girl looks like a typical Boer, just like her daddy. The boy is pure white. He is dirty in the picture. I was really hoping we would get some spotted kids because their mom has some, but no, we are sticking with the basics.


When we went out for morning chores Big Momma wasn't anywhere to be found. You didn't hear Frosty and Lil Bit complaining! This was the first quiet meal they have had since Big Momma came here. She is VERY bossy. So we noticed right away things were way to calm to be normal. We got everyone fed and went to look for Big Momma. Niko found her in the woods on the paintball course. The twins were fairly new, they were still a little wet and Big Momma was still delivering the placenta. The twins were up and walking and I was able to help them nurse for the first time. After she delivered most of the placenta I decided we should try to move her and the babies to the barn. Oh Boy. We picked the babies up and started carrying them to the barn. It's funny about goats, when you pick the kids up it is like they turn invisible to their mothers. Big Momma freaked out. I've never seen something with that big of an udder run so fast. I was afraid she was going to rupture her udder it was swinging around so wildly. She ran past us into the barnyard where she was ambushed by every animal we have wanting to know what the excitement was about. We put the babies in a kidding pen hoping Big Momma would follow, but I think she got confused by the other million or so animals following us and she ran off into the woods again. Great. By now Lala has figured out we have new babies, her favorite. She makes her rounds making sure everyone knows she is in control now and barks to let everyone else know they better behave. Now Big Momma is back in the barnyard hollering for her babies and we are trying to get the babies to holler too, but now they are quiet, so we have to make baby noises. Momma didn't buy it, but finally one of them hollers, she finds them and we get them all in the pen. After physically removing Lala everyone is taken care of.


After I snipped belly buttons and put iodine on feet (and spilled half the iodine bottle down the front of myself) and all that good stuff, I locked the new family in for some quiet time. Lala gave me the most pitiful look. Poor baby wants in with them so bad. It's funny how proud I can be of a dog doing what she is supposed to do without any intervention from me. She is such a good girl. (Her kids will be good guards too. Tell your friends!)

Big Momma

So since we first got Big Momma we have been going back and forth back and forth on whether she was pregnant or not. Well I think we all agree now she IS. She has developed quite an udder and is waddling around pitifully. For several weeks we have been waiting for her to pop these kids out. Today she started making silly goat noises that are very unbecoming of a goat queen and pawing at the ground. It shouldn't be much longer until we have another kid or two or three around here.

Fresh, Homemade Bread

I made fresh wheat bread today. It is really yummy! I just used a recipe from my favorite Betty Crocker Cookbook, except I used whey from my cheese making in place of the water in the recipe. The whey adds protein to the bread. The only problem (you knew there would be a problem) is it didn't seem to rise enough while in the oven. I'm not sure what to do to correct this, but will try again. I need another bread pan, I only have one.

Pups

One more puppy down, 2 females and 2 males to go. Tell your friends!!

Air Conditioning

I don't think I've mentioned this on here before, but we have not turned the air conditioner on at all this summer yet! It is shocking how easy it is to get used to. At first, Stef and I were eating every meal IN the pool and hanging out in it a lot also. Then one day I found myself in the kitchen cooking at the hottest time of the day and realized it wasn't so bad. Now, the last few days it has been over 100 degrees and, yes, it did get uncomfortably warm in the house, but that was nothing a quick dip in the pool couldn't cure! It can be tough at night trying to sleep, but we all have our own personal fan which helps a lot. Just thought I'd share!

Pup Update

We have sold 2 puppies. We still have 3 females and 2 males to get gone now. Tell your friends!!!

MMM... Ice Cream

Misty and I went garage saling Saturday and found some really great stuff. I am trying to downsize, but somehow it was all MY stuff packed into Misty's car. Some of the items I can't tell you about because they are a surprise for one of my most avid readers. (you didn't think I forgot your birthday present did you Gma? You know me, no matter what the occasion you get to celebrate extra long because my gifts never make it on time).

One item I can tell you about is the $2.00 ice cream maker with rock salt! Misty talked me into it, it's her fault. It is a huge model, but I have enough milk to make large quantities at one time and I would hate to have to make ice cream two times because the maker was too small. That is my story and I'm sticking to it. Those of you who know me, know I do not have room in this house for an extra large ice cream machine, but I'm so glad I got it.

We made ice cream Saturday and it was fantastic! This batch was just vanilla. Next will be a peach ice cream with Aunt Anne's recipe then I want to try chocolate.

Also, I found a cheese I am in love with! It is just the chevre with herbs d provence. Tastes like France to me! I still don't have the creamy texture I want, but the crumbly cheeses are awesome on salads. The cranberry cinnamon sugar cheese turned out great too. WOOHOO!

Goat Cheese

I made my fifth and sixth batch of cheese today. They turned out better than the others. My first batch was okay but very dry (I squeezed out the whey, when I should have just let it drip). The second and third were rubbery and weird looking. The fourth batch was pretty good at first but got real crumbly and a bit dry. All of the above tasted good, it is just the texture I can't seem to get right. So after asking some questions on different forums I tried making sure the rennet was equally distributed in the milk and I did not let them drain very long. The fifth batch was a little better, but I think it is going to end up a bit dry even though I only let it drain 2 hours. I put french onion soup mix in it for Stef. The sixth batch turned out super soupy before I drained it. I didn't think it would turn out at all, but after 6 hours of draining it kind of looked like creamy cheese. I added some cinnamon and sugar and cranberries to this one for me. I'm letting it firm up some in the fridge then I will give it a try. I think this was my best one yet. I will try more later this week.

Bad Ama

We had a rabbit escape from one of the cages and unfortunately she did not survive this time. Niko went out to do chores early this morning and Ama went out with him and caught the rabbit. Just like with Little Bit, Ama didn't break the skin at all. Niko grabbed the rabbit right away and brought her inside to us. She was alive and moving some, but obviously injured. I gave her some Benamine I have on hand for the goats. It is a pain killer and muscle relaxer. She died almost immediately after the injection. I thought I might have given her an overdose or maybe rabbits aren't suppose to get Benamine. I still have to check that out.

Stef butchered the rabbit and we were surprised at how much meat was on it. I was very impressed. Stef discovered that the rabbit had many broken ribs and a punctured lung, so I probably helped her die a little more peacefully with the Benamine, not overdosed her.

After stef cleaned the rabbit he set it on the kitchen counter for me to cut into smaller chunks to feed the dogs later. Niko was disappointed to learn the dogs were going to get to eat the rabbit and not us. I was pretty impressed with that. It did look yummy.

Garden trouble

Or should I say chicken trouble. The chickens have been decimating my garden. They just figured out they can get under the electric fence around it and are eating everything in it. Stef is getting some 5 foot fence to put around it today. I hope this helps. I am very discouraged.

Mystery solved!

The last few days Holly has presented us with a mystery. Over 2 milkings her milk had increased about 25 %. That was great. Then all of the sudden her milk was WAY down. Her teats were all uneven and she just didn't have any milk. I took her temp and everything was normal and her teats weren't hard and everything else seemed fine. Nothing in her environment had changed. I just couldn't figure it out, but was getting worried because since Frosty is dried up Holly is our only source of milk. Well I walked out back yesterday and Mystery Solved! Holly is nursing Rocky through the fence! It took her long enough to figure that out. So now we have to put up a better barrier between them. Ranch work is never done.

Puppies

Yesterday I gave 10 puppies 10 baths. It took me 5 hours! They are officially for sale now. We will see how it goes. We are apparently keeping 3. Deklan picked out a girl and named her Suzy. Niko picked a boy and named him Covert. Stef's pick isn't named yet but she's a girl.