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...

Spring Forward

So yesterday was the day our government decided to torture us by forcing the majority of the nation to wake up an hour earlier.  You know what, I don't care because it means SPRING IT ALMOST HERE!!!  

We couldn't be happier after last week's freeze.  On Saturday it was 80 degrees then the temperature dropped Sunday and Sunday night it started sleeting.  In this picture Nathan is ice skating Monday afternoon.  There is no snow on the ground, it's all ice.  The roads were so slick in the five mile radius around our house that my husband was very nervous driving to work.  All up and down the highways trees are split or fallen because Texas trees are not used to so much weight from ice.

Hopefully there won't be any more hard freezes before spring!  

Our garden is almost ready for planting.  I have many seeds sprouting indoors right now but I have refused to plant anything in the garden before the fence is complete.  It's not complete yet, but nearly.  It's the main goal for this week.

The back of it is finished but the front is not.  We haven't gotten the chicken wire around it yet either.  We use it to keep rabbits and chickens out.  But the chickens are penned this time.  The goal:  72 tomato plants, 12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 12 banana peppers, 12 kale, 12 spinach, 12 lettuce, 12 broccoli, many cucumbers, many carrots and 80+ onions.  We are also starting a fig bush, a raspberry plant and a blueberry plant.  I hope to get a few more each of those.  Possibly a little ambitious.  Oh! I almost forgot the 12 green beans!  Those are very important.

RIP Burger Boy

Hamburger Helper (aka Burger, Burgermeister, Burger Boy) December 2012-March 2014

Last night our "little wether" Burger lost his battle with an ongoing health issue.  In his short time with us he wormed his way deep into our hearts.  He will be dearly missed.

Goodbye Burger Boy

Horses and Fences

It happened a few months ago but I only recently posted about the stray horses (mules actually) that wandered into our yard.  We fed them hay and carrots and it was all sweet and innocent and silliness....until they came back today.  Actually, they were completely gentle but the goats thought they were giant goat-eating monsters.  I had to call the police for help contacting the owners for pickup before frantic goats trampled pregnant does.  Poor Doritos jumped three quarters of the way up his fence then climbed the rest to get into the chicken yard and away from the mules who were reaching over the fence to eat his hay.

Thankfully no goats were harmed in the making of this story.

We have many projects lined up for this spring season.  One has been a long time in the making.  Our buck pen expansion.  With the help of a friend we were able to buy lots of materials for this job without spending lots of bucks. ;-)  (I really am a dork.)  Today we finally accomplished the task!  They have spent the last year sleeping in a large doghouse but now they have a proper shelter.

As well as some more wiggle room

This will really help them when summer comes because it also casts more shade into their pen.  I worried for them all last summer and even made makeshift attempts at providing more shade but they never seemed to work out well.  There is a tree next to the pen but....well, if you'll just look at the left side of the pic you can see that little line near the fence...yep, that's it.  Oh, and they ate all the leaves off of it.

Babies and Bellies

Spring is around the corner! I'm so excited too!  This was a cold winter, even if there wasn't much snow.  Spring on the farm means many things...gardening, projects that have been waiting for warmer weather, and...babies.  It also mans Girl Scout cookies but that's not blogworthy.

I've been chomping at the bit waiting for the chicks to arrive at the feed stores.  I plan to send many birds to freezer camp this spring.  I also plan to order a few more ducks to replace some we lost last summer, mostly due to my own lack of knowledge and experience.  Since we have to start somewhere....

Here is our first batch of herb-roasted chickens.  They may be nuggets now but they will be cornish hens (or rooasters) later.

I'm anxious for my next adventure, kids.  Not my five kitchen raiders but goat kids.  We have some very big bellies around here.  

When I say anxious I really mean I am worried.  Ginger had her date this past fall and settled (goat raisers terminology for becoming pregnant) but had stillborn twin does.  It was our first freshening (goat raisers terminology for goats giving birth---actually refers to freshening the milk supply) and hers so not only were we heartbroken but it left us worried about future deliveries as well.  Next up....

Heidi!  Goat bellies don't get much bigger than that!  (Ignore the laundry basket.  No, I was not doing laundry in the goat pen.  It has been repurposed for holding hay.)  She's due about March 12 and I'm hoping for twins.  I'm afraid of what a single kid that large would do to her.  Every time I look at her I am reminded of when I was nine months pregnant....ugh.  Poor girl.  

Now, Moonpie was never supposed to be bred.  We woke up with the buck in the pen one morning and ever since we have wondered whether or not she settled.  There has been no blood test to confirm but.....what do y'all think?  That's an awfully big belly for someone who hasn't settled but then, sometimes goats really do look like that.  Especially does who have freshened a few times and Moonpie has freshened three times prior to this.

As soon as we have kids on the ground I will post some pictures.  It's also safe to bet that I'll be posting more pictures of adorable baby chickens, ducks, and with any luck....geese! (we have eggs in the incubator but that's something else I'm new at and it seems somewhat complicated.)