Waiting for Spring

And waiting...and waiting... It's almost here. The weather is consistently warmer and we haven't seen freezing temperatures in weeks but experience tells me it's still too soon to plant. In the meantime, we were gifted a 6'x8' greenhouse. It's sitting in a heap on the east side of my house waiting for one or two parts before it is assembled. I hope to have pictures of it up here next weekend. We also bought a tiller to make preparing the soil easier to work. It's sand which is easy enough to turn but gets too weedy and that makes it difficult.

We also bought fencing to keep the goats out of the front yard. As soon as it's up I will be able to plant strawberries and blueberries. I will also have the greenhouse on the goat-free side of the fence so there's no chance for them to spoil my peppers yet again.

Garden Plans!

Winter is irritating me a bit this year because Texas is a land of huge temperature fluctuations. We cannot plant the garden despite the 70+ degree temperatures we are currently experiencing. Why? Well, just two days ago the high was 37 and the low was 18 degrees. In fact, it was like that for three days yet tomorrow should reach nearly 80. But I want to plant! I have bought large packets of sweet corn and peas and broccoli and lettuce and I want to plant at least the broccoli, lettuce and spinach but I'm afraid of planting it too early and I always mess up the cuciferous veggies. I am planning though, not just whining about not being able to plant yet. 

In fact, we have a LOT planned for the garden this year. We are replacing all the garden fencing, buying a gas powered tiller and expanding the garden. I have a layout planned for both the front and rear garden. We also plan to fence off the front yard to prevent goats from entering it. That's why I can actually plan to plant stuff in it!

I am adding citronella grass, tansy, and wormwood to the front to hopefully discourage some of the flying insects. Also hoping to replace the fig tree that the dear, sweet pup we adopted (four years ago this month) thought was a great stick.

For the vegetable garden we are adding some new things and companion planting this year. The new crops are corn, melons, strawberries, and asparagus as well as new perimeter plants to help with bugs like nasturtium, comfrey and marigold. The old staples are sunflowers, beans, squash, peas, peppers (hot and sweet), tomatoes, garlic, onion, lettuce, broccoli, and spinach. 

(The guilty puppy AKA Smokey)

I am still fairly new at gardening so feel free to reply with tips or insider knowledge of the zone 8 region. If some of my ideas are bad or the plants won't thrive then please let me know before I spend the money on them. I am always open to suggestions!

And Life Resumes...

The holidays are over. The tree is gone. The beautiful red, and gold, and green Christmas decorations that I love so much have been put away. We spent the day working and playing as a family. Some fencing was repaired, cinnamon rolls were made, some cleanup from Saturday's get together with friends. In the evening we made meatball subs and played Uno Dare. We enjoyed it. I'm glad too because today was the last day of my huband's holiday break and tomorrow we return to school (still homeschooling) and he will return to work. There's an emptiness for me on this day every year. I love Christmas! I love everything about Christmas! People tend to be more giving, more caring, more tender toward each other. It's almost miraculous when you compare it to all the bickering and complaining dancing its way across social media networks everywhere. I don't pretend to be completely innocent of contribution either. But at Christmastime so much seems to be put on hold while we focus on giving each other the best gifts. Gingerbread house contests and cheesecake bakeoffs replace political hate and satire. Shopping for others replaces sitting at home in self pity. Friends gather together instead of hiding in their homes full of social anxiety. Families gather together and catch up on each others lives. At least mine do. We go to church and celebrate the Jesus' birth and sing the Christmas hymns that I love so much. It's my favorite time of year and that's why I always feel a void when it all seems to slip away into the mundane routines of daily living. 

Maybe this year I will meet my goals and fill that void with spiritual and healthy things. Or maybe I won't. It's a little hard to say what will happen tomorrow, but today I succeeded and that's enough for me right now. 

Hello 2017

First of all, happy new year! It would appear that I am not a very consistent blogger. I'm sorry for that. No, I really mean it. I really do wish I were more consistent but, in keeping with the theme of the blog, this is my life. However, I am trying to improve so please be patient. I am a work in progress.

Life has progressed, as it tends to, since I last signed on. The goat kids from the last post were sold. The mamas weren't. In fact, we have added another doe to our herd...

Meet Miss Beaux Jangles

...and sold off all of our boys. Since then I have been leasing bucks for breeding purposes. We had a beautiful group of 11 kids born last spring. It was fantastic! I was so proud of my girls! There were no complications and I only had to help one doe with an extra large buckling. Three out of my four does had triplets. My first freshener (that's what we call a doe who has never had kids) had twins. (Congrats Miss Beaux Jangles!) Between the four does we had six doelings and five bucklings in all. I definitely felt blessed.

We also gave up chickens in favor of ducks. The aerial predators here have a particular taste for chicken (and cats!) and took out our flock one at a time, leaving all the ducks behind. So, ducks it is. I don't mind, I always preferred the ducks anyway.

 I took a job at a day care to help make ends meet for a while until my husband got settled into his new job. Then we took on a babysitting job at home for a while. That's finished now and the only people kids I have to deal with are my own. I feel like my whole universe just sighed.

In February, just before the kidding season started, I hopped into our truck with all five of my people kids (some people call them children) and drove to Oregon to visit some family and friends. IT WAS AMAZING! Over the next few days I hope to make a post per day to relate some of the most important events of 2016, including more than one dedicated to our amazing vacation that I am still gushing over. 

Mini Pies!!!

Kidding season is over!!!  The last doe, Moonpie, kidded early this morning while we were snuggled up in our beds.  All went well and we have an 8# doe and a 9# buckling!  

The only thing left is to decide what to do with all these kids and then all that milk!!!  I am already getting two gallons a day from my other two does.  I made chevre for the first time the other day and it is wonderful!!!  We seasoned it with taco seasonings and have been eating it on crackers for three days now.  

I had planned to make cajeta today but completely forgot about it after all the excitement.  Now it's too late in the day.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow!  

Babies!!!

Yeah! Heidi freshened and all is well!  I could not have asked for a more perfect delivery.  I'm so proud of her and it's her first freshening too.  What a goat!  

Here they are!  Two bucklings.  We're calling them Rudy and Rowdy.  They were 7# 14oz and 7# 4oz and doing well.  I haven't decided what I want to do with them yet but I expect they'll be wethered and sold.  I'm still happy to have them and proud of their mama.

The chicks are two weeks old now and growing the way cornish rocks do....fast and fat!  Yesterday I went to pick up some fencing. You know I can't walk out of Tractor Supply  without some chicks these days but, since they were out of the cornish rocks, I brought home four ducks instead.  I'm trying a couple of new breeds, khaki campbell and swedish.  We'll see how I like them.  They'll have to be pretty good to trump my preference for pekins though.  Below my daughter is holding what I hope is a rouen but could possibly be a mallard.  Time will tell!  I love having all these babies at the house!

My Yogurt

Since Ginger freshened we're getting about 12 pounds of milk every day.  Moonpie still gives us about a half gallon (she's about 300 days into her lactation) and Ginger is giving us about a gallon a day.  We don't drink nearly enough milk to go through all of that so I am finding other things to do with it. 

 I was giving it to the dogs on occasion but Hershey has gotten so fat he looks like a giant tootsie roll so now they're all on a diet.  Instead we make yogurt, lots of yogurt.  The kids eat it for breakfast, for an afternoon snack and they mix it with jam and freeze it into popsicles.  It's a very popular item here so it makes sense that I should make an entry here.  So here it is!  

How To Make Your Own Yogurt:

Ingredients:

milk (whole milk from the grocery store is fine but not ultrapasteurized. I, of course, use raw, fresh goats milk)

a few tablespoons of plain yogurt (this is for the culture so make sure it's REAL yogurt)

Directions:

Pour milk into a large pot 

Heat to 180 degrees over medium heat

Set timer for 25 minutes

Stirring occasionally, keep milk at 180 by removing from heat source and replacing as necessary (usually every few minutes I take the pot off the burner and wait, then put it back on)

Place a large bowl of ice in the sink

When the timer goes off place the pot into the bowl of ice

Stir the milk often until it reaches 110 degrees

Add yogurt (3 tbsp is a good amount for a gallon of milk)

Stir

It's important to keep the mixture at 110 degrees for 8-12 hours.  I do this a few different ways but the easiest way was to put a warm blanket into a cooler, set the pot (with a lid on it of course) into the cooler and wrap tightly with the blanket being careful not to spill anything.  Close the cooler and don't touch anything for 8-12 hrs.  

When this is finished you will have a plain yogurt.  We sweeten it with honey and vanilla, jams, frozen fruit, canned fruit, etc...