Life

Sometimes what we have to do gets in the way of what we want to do, and sometimes that's a good thing.  Sometimes we're waiting for the perfect set of circumstances to start this or do that, when we realize that the circumstances will never be perfect and we need to make the most of the moments we're given.

This is very easy to type, but putting it into practice is challenging for me.  I've long held this notion that if everyone would just stop for a couple of days, I could get my act together and then things would run more smoothly and we'd enjoy life more.  Of course we all know that we can't snap our fingers and cease time while we do this, so what's a wife and mom to do?

I'm still working on it.  I do notice that we go through seasons, not just the 4 on our yearly calendar, but phases in which some activities are easier to accomplish than others.  As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, there is a time for just about everything.  As I seem to get one set of circumstances or a situation under control, a new series appears.

That would explain my long absence from writing here.  Nearly a year and a half!  It would take me that long to write it all out, so I will simply summarize.

1. Finalization of the adoption of our two youngest children.
2. Crazy summers in which we try to continue lessons in our homeschool AND enjoy all the activities offered in our community (summer reading programs with awesome field trips, vacation Bible schools, Jr ranger camp and an assortment of other fun things).
3. A brief period in which I felt we were settling into a new normal.
4. A good upheaval when we welcomed another foster child into our family, and the adjustment period that goes along with that (such as figuring out how 6 people were going to fit into the space that a couple of years ago was seemingly inadequate for just 3 of us).
5. The holiday season-rehearsals for the church Christmas program, preparing for Thanksgiving and Tony's birthday, days away cutting firewood for the winter, furniture rearranging so that a Christmas tree can be put up and decorated, and the celebration of TWO birthdays right after the new year starts.
6. Another new normal that includes 4 children and Tony working out of town (and sometimes even out of state!) for days at a time.
7. A not so good upheaval when said foster child was relocated.
8. Spring on the farm and the anticipation of new baby farm animals!  We missed the births of all of them, lost a couple during labor & delivery, and had to bottle feed one.
9. With spring comes little league baseball, which rolls right into summer vacation and another crazy fun summer similar to number 2.
10. Which brings us to the period we're in now-a new first for all of us-youth football and cheer leading, with practice 3 nights a week and games on Saturdays.

In my attempts to bring order from chaos, I've decided I need several things, and one is a creative outlet, so here I am again.  The ideas swirling in my head may now have a chance at making their way out, and that, I believe, enriches the brain, exercises it, making it stronger for those things that need to be done.  When those things get done, there is more time for intentional, authentic living, and that has been my aim for quite some time.  Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope to 'see' you again.

Spring

10 of these

Plus 19 of these

Plus 10 of these

Plus 28 of these

3 of these

and 3 of these

Plus 5 of these

1 of these

1 of these

Plus 3 of these

And this guy

Equals ONE happy farm!

Farm TV

Does anyone know how to take control over time?  We all get the same number of hours in a day, yet some accomplish much and those like me wonder how they do it!  I was cleaning my Inbox and found this picture of the goats.  I took it with my phone (it's rare that I actually take the camera outside) so the quality might not be that good.  I was aiming at the goats on the beam, but when I got inside and looked at it on the computer screen I realized I had all of the goats we owned on that particular day in the shot.

On the beam are the triplets-Popcorn, Firecracker and Mushroom (Goober Gus named them).  At the bottom of the beam is Annie's daughter.  In front is Bambi-a rescued goat.  In the lower right corner (really hard to see) is Molly's rear end and her daughter.  Behind the beam is Annie and behind the post, barely visible is Sugar.  Since taking this picture we have sold Bambi, Sugar and Firecracker.  However, we also gained Trixie, Lilly and Josephine.  Trixie was also sold.  You'd think we were running a farm store here!

Tony took this picture a couple of weeks ago-it overlooks the river valley we live in.  Clouds are rare around here, but not too much this time of year.  Neat picture, isn't it?

 

This is the tarantula that Goober Gus found outside but was too scared to capture.  Mom wasn't afraid though.  Yeah, I'm bad!  When Tony got home he tried to let it crawl up his arm, but it just jumped to the ground on the Forest Service side of the fence.

This was taken back in May.  In an effort to keep the peach tree alive, get grass growing and let the ducks have a little fun, we'd turn the sprinkler on.  I forgot and created a little lake for them, but they didn't care!

 

Farm TV

I don't imagine we're the only ones that consider watching the antics of our animals more interesting than what's offered on cable or satellite TV.  Lately though it's been so hot that just sitting outside to enjoy watching isn't something we do.  We go out to tend to their needs and get a brief glimpse of their games before we get back inside to "cool off" in our 80° house.  Since we've had highs in the 110's lately, 80° isn't so bad!

I haven't written much lately.  Too busy/too much brain fog/not enough creative thought process.  I'd like to share more frequently, even if it's just a brief story about what we saw that day.

Our "TV" has 12 "channels".  We are currently the proud owners of:

• 1 cantankerous cow who gives false pregnancies
• 2 young pigs
• 1 emu
• 3 turkeys (hoping to have a tom for breeding,  but so far we can't tell)
• 8 ducks
• 40 chickens
• 2 rabbits
• 1 Australian Shepherd puppy
• 1 cat
• 2 Barbados lambs
• 2 Alpine dairy goats
• 2 young Alpine does
• 1 Nubian dairy goat
• 3 young Nubian bucklings
• 2 other goats-rescued, not sure of their breed, mom and buckling

Not on the property is our Alpine buck.  He lives with friends and has a young Nubian buckling to "train".  I don't know if you're counting but I think that's 71 animals here and 2 more elsewhere!  I'm sure glad we have 2 pastures to feed the big animals so we don't have to buy hay anymore.  Next on my "feed" list is to have a garden for all of the poultry birds and the rabbits.  Oh, and to grow winter squash and beets to have around in the colder months for all of the animals.

We discovered yesterday that the goats like the mesquite beans that fall from the trees that line the forest service property behind us.  Many fall into the yard...more free food!

I'll close with the description of what we saw yesterday evening while milking/tending animals.  The little bucklings-that are just now 3 weeks old-walk up a beam that used to be a cross beam for a shade structure, but it fell down on one end, so it's a perfect ladder for walking up to the roof of the shade structure.  They go up and then jump down onto a big wooden spool.  The young does get in on the action too and it's funny to see them all clambering for position on the beam.

Hopefully this will be the first of many farm tv reports-and more frequently too.  If I think of it in the morning I may go out and take pictures of as many critters as I can.  Pictures are always nice.

More Goat Babies

These are the kids of one of the goats born on our farm last January.  We gave her and a half sister to the neighbors at our pasture last fall.  They don't want to add to the flock, so we'll get them or be able to sell them.  We think there's a boy and a girl, but the boy won't hold still or stand up long enough to get a good look.

I think this is the boy.

And the girl...

Girl again.

She held still more than him...

Mom checking out son.

Eggs

In the last two days we've found or gathered 30 of them!  33 if you count the duck eggs.

I found these early this afternoon.  I had just returned home from a false alarm-I can now add goat midwife to my resume-when one of our hens cackled at me from behind the minivan.  If you own hens, you know the cackle that says, "look at me, I just laid and egg!"  I went to investigate and that's what I found.

Yesterday our son found 10 in the old feed box that was used when we were trying to milk our cow.  The hens also laid 12 in the hen house-double what we've been getting!

I found 1 duck egg on the lawn yesterday and 2 in their pen today.  What a blessing!

Elsie vs Tony, Round One

So much happened today that I wanted to share here, but the topics don't mix, so you'll have to come back to hear about the other things.  I've written numerous times about how cantankerous our cow is.  Read more here, here, here, here, well-you get the idea!  Most of the time she's at a pasture we used to own, but there's no grass growing anywhere and she'll be calving in April, so we brought her to the house again.  I was thinking I'd start working with her to give her a second chance at being a good milker.

Today was the first attempt at that, and as the title might suggest, it was a battle!  Given that the price of hay is close to $21/bale with tax, we're trying to find some less expensive alternatives and still give her and the 2 pregnant does good quality feed.  Alfalfa pellets are somewhat less expensive, so I bring the goats to their milk stands and give them some along with cheap produce.  Today I also soaked a batch for Elsie using apple cider vinegar.  A friend had read that it helps to calm cantankerous cows.  I found the wording ironic, as that's what I've been calling her for a long time.  Elsie the cow-not the friend.

While I worked with the goats, Tony took the container of ACV alfalfa pellets into the pen for Elsie.  She was loving them and ate almost the whole batch.  Toward the end she lost interest.  He offered it to the goat buck who is also usually on pasture instead of here with is.  I went in to check on dinner and upon my return I hear Tony yelling at one of the animals.  As I got closer I could see it was Elsie and that he was giving her "what for".  I asked what happened because he was also holding his head.  Apparently, she decided to jump on him while his back was turned, but he turned just as her front legs were coming down on his shoulders!  It knocked him to the ground and he thinks she stepped on him, but you know how those things can be-it happens so fast that it's hard to recall just what did happen!

He has a bump on his forehead and a few scrapes (likely obtained from giving her "what for") and is feeling better now.  We put ice on the bump and he took a hot bath with Epsom salts, eucalyptus essential oil and lavender essential oil.  I'll be keeping an eye on him thru the night though, just in case.  His pupils are normal and he seems fine, but we want to be sure.  Oh-his left thumb was hurting when it first happened-and an injury there would sure make it hard to play fiddle for a living!

Shortly after this happened I was back outside to take something to the pig and I noticed that Elsie had Boots (the buck) cornered.  That was odd because he rules the pen-even to the point of keeping her from getting the food she needs.  By the time I walked back up the hill to the top of the pen, she had him by her horns, pushing into his side.  We think the ACV might have made her "drunk" because she looked wild!  So much so that I wasn't going to risk the lives of the does by putting them back into the pen.  Tony tied Elsie to a post and reconnected the fence that divides the pen so that we could put the does in the lower portion.  Elsie was then untied.  However, I don't think I'll be trying to tame her and turn her into a good milker!

Rescued Produce

Last week we learned of a program that rescues produce from being thrown away.  For $10 a person can get a box of produce that weighs up to 60 pounds!  Even better-for a $100 annual membership you're entitled to go each week for one of those boxes!  We bought the annual membership and even though distribution points are a bit over an hour away for us, we go to that area enough to make it worthwhile.  We'll use some for our own eating and feed the rest to our animals.  Hay is getting so expensive that we've got to find a better solution.  Hay was about $8 a bale 3 years ago when we got our first goats.  The last 6 bales Tony bought were over $20 each!  With a cow that eats 4 flakes a day, and 3 goats that eat 1 each per day, that's about $10 a day just to feed them!!  Moving to our new house will help-we have 2 pastures there that we can use for grazing, and they can rotate so that one doesn't get overly grazed, but even if we can start on that this week, it'll be 6 weeks minimum before either field is ready for animals.

Do you have any special programs in your area that make use of food that would otherwise be taken to the dump?  If you have farm animals, how do you keep feed costs manageable?

The Testimony of Our Pig

She loves milk.  Real, whole, raw milk.  The timing wasn't right for her though, as the goats are dry prior to her reaching butcher weight, so she hasn't had milk for a while.  Until my husband noticed 1/2 gallons on sale at the grocery store for .88¢.  I saw it too and never thought about actually buying any for her.  He did and started giving it to her.  Guess what?  She doesn't like pasteurized, homogenized, high pressure treated, possibly hormone and antibiotic containing, artificially fortified white liquid.

With real milk, she slurps it up first, no matter what else is in her feed bin.  With the other stuff, she ignored it at first, but has started drinking it after everything else is gone.  I'm thinking I don't want her to have any of this for a few weeks prior to butchering.

Interesting, huh?

This post is shared at the Homestead Barn Hop at Homestead Revival and Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.
 

Baby Chicks!

This is the first time we've ordered by mail and they arrived this morning.  Tony left for the post office about 645, after getting the call that they were here.  We have 6 black australorps, 7 gold sex links, and 7 Rhode Island reds.  All happily chirping away in their "crib".

I was holding one of the black ones and she crawled into the sleeve of my shirt (not before pooping on my hand though) and went to sleep!  I guess for her it was like being tucked under mama's wing.

Anyone ever put a baby bunny in with little chicks to help keep them warm?  After thinking it'd be good for the chicks I had to question if it'd be good for the bunny!

Our First Steer

WARNING!  If you're sensitive to what happens to animals raised for dinner, you probably shouldn't read this.





Jasper was born January 24th, 2010 to the first heifer we've ever owned.

Wasn't he cute?  And look at that gorgeous rusty coat! 

Here he is at about 6 months.

This one is middle of summer 2011.  I think this is the last picture I have of him.  He's the one on the left.  His coat isn't as rusty as when he was born, but more so than what this picture shows.  He's been rapidly growing on a mix of grasses on our pasture, free to roam and do as he pleases.  We thought he'd get to about 1050 pounds and were surprised yesterday at butcher time when the 1300 pound rated wench could barely lift him.  Our guesstimate is he was about 1275.

My husband is gallant enough to do the hard work and not require my presence.  Goober Gus and I arrived in time to see this:

We're very grateful to these friends from church for helping out!  None of us have ever done this and I'm happy to report that despite it taking longer than they thought, no one got hurt and things went quite well.  I was there to gather parts that won't be aged and start prepping the hide.

As much as I felt I had researched and learned what to do when this day came, I was still woefully unprepared.  I knew which organs I wanted for human consumption and the parts I wanted for the pig and chickens.  I thought we had enough buckets.  If you've never done this-take more than you think you need!  Take plenty of everything.  I saved the tongue, liver and heart for us.  I kept the brain because one of the tanning methods I read about uses the brain.  We needed a bucket for the scraps of meat that were being trimmed during hide removal and quartering.  I was going to take my rubber gloves and don't know why I chose not to at the last moment.  I wanted to keep the kidneys, but to our untrained eyes, we couldn't find them.  There was a bucket for the fat that I plan to render into tallow.

I had it in my brain that there wasn't much for me to do on butcher day, that all the work I'd be doing would be on processing day after the meat ages.  Wrong.  All those decisions to make about what to keep and how to package/store it were up to me. 

The guys told me the wench pulling him up is rated for 1300 pounds and it struggled to get him off the ground.  When the hide was removed, it took 2 of them to carry it outside for me to clean.  When they gutted it, again they were amazed at the weight of all the internal organs.  Once the quartering was done it was a little easier to estimate weight.  Even the smaller sections were at least 150 pounds.  Tony can usually lift that alone, but it took 2 to get each hindquarter to the truck to transport to the meat locker.  The front sections required a 2 wheeled cart.  When there was just one left hanging on the hook, Timothy (the one in the red shirt) tried to counter balance it by hanging on the other arm.  He couldn't do it-he was raised off the ground!  Even the guy that owns the meat locker said the pieces looked big.  Our conservative estimate is 800 pounds dressed.  Using national averages, we'll get 500 pounds of meat.  Since we plan to use the bones for stock and the fat for tallow, our total yield will probably be greater.  So you really can raise a hefty steer on nothing but grass!

My goal yesterday was to get the hide skinned and salted.  That part didn't even start until about 530PM!  Tony worked with me and at 8 there was still about half the hide needing to be skinned.  5 hours of manpower and we were only halfway done!  We stopped at that point (Goober Gus was getting hungry and we still needed to get parts for the hot water handle in the shower that broke the night before-good timing huh?) and decided to go ahead and salt it down and see what happens.  We're hoping the salt will dry the remaining fat well enough to make it easier to remove.  My hands were so cramped from gripping slippery fat in one and trying to trim it with the other!  My back was stiff and for some reason so was the rest of me.  Prior to the skinning tasks, it doesn't seem that I did that much, so being so sore afterwards was confusing.  I understand now why professional tanners get $500 per hide!

The irony of the whole day was eating at McDonald's at 9PM on the day we'd been working toward for 2 years-the processing of our own homegrown, grass fed steer, so that we didn't have to eat industrially raised beef anymore.  Another reason to be better prepared with a meal plan!  I think the plan from now on will include yummy, healthy beef several times a week-at a fraction of the cost!  My best estimate (if we yield 500 pounds) is about $1.70/pound.  The inexpensive cuts from the local ranchers are over $4 per pound.  The savings are worth the crazy day we had yesterday.  Even if I am still sore and tired!

Blustery Day

Defined at http://www.dictionary.com/:
blus·ter   /ˈblʌstər/  1.to roar and be tumultuous, as wind.

After reading the definition, I'm not so sure it fits, but since Winnie the Pooh likes it, I'll keep it.  It's been cloudy and a bit windy, with rain two different times.  The cloudy sky makes the various colors of the leaves seem more vibrant.

We were outside unloading pine branches from the truck to the goat pen when it finally occurred to me why Molly and Annie have been crying, despite having food and water, and it not being milking time.  They're both in heat!  We just got back from delivering them to the pasture to hang out with Boots, and they all seem very happy about the situation.

Boots, summer 2010

 Molly, winter 2009

 Annie, spring 2010

As I was milking, I thought once again about the fact that I haven't kept very good records this year in regards to who was taken to see Boots and when.  I've got my milk/egg record calendar here with me and as I go thru it for clues, I'm going to give a report!
 

• Cream gave birth to Sugar and Spice on Jan 24th.  She never did become the milker I thought she'd be.
• We bought 6 Cinnamon Queen chicks on April 7th, and 2 turkeys.  See this post about disappearing poultry.
• Yodelady went to Boots on April 16th.  Hmm, she must not have gotten pregnant right away, as gestation is 155 days and that would have been September 18th.  Better tell the neighbors to keep an eye on her.  Or bring her back from their house!
• Our first chicks hatched on May 4th.
• Peaches had twin bucklings on May 16th.
• Annie had a buckling and doeling on May 18th.
• Molly had a single doeling on May 24th.
• Belle went to see Boots on June 10th.  She's due as early as November 11th.  Better tell the people we gave her to in trade for the pig.
• A bull was brought to Elsie on July 1st.  She'll be due April 11th.
• On September 12th we got the pig and gave Patches and Belle away.  Peaches went to Boots that day.
• I have no notes about Sugar and Spice and when they went to meet Boots, but it seems like it was before we got the pig.  Some time in July, I think.  Actually it probably wasn't until after August 1st, since that's when the bull was moved back to his pasture.  Although since the goats also use the neighbors pasture, it could have been before.  Eek!

I feel better knowing the dates of most breeding "appointments", at least!

Now to go calculate costs associated with keeping the steer thru winter vs butchering next month.

Bad Year for Poultry

This year has been hard on the poultry on our farm.  Our first year we lost 11 birds over a 1 year span and then went a very long time with no losses.  This year we're seeing a rise again.  These are the ones I can recall, we may have lost 1 or 2 prior to the loss of the first juveniles in the spring.

1. 1 young turkey due to exposure
2. 1 young chick due to 5 year old boy's curiosity
3. 1 young turkey cause unknown
4. 1 adult hen from accidental poisoning
5. 1 juvenile hen due to illness
6. 1 rooster due to hawk attack (assumed hawk)
7. 1 adult hen simply disappeared
8. 1 juvenile hen eaten by pig

It's sad to lose one, but this year, fencing the property wouldn't have saved any of them except maybe the 2nd turkey and the hen that disappeared earlier this week.  It's still cheaper to replace a bird than to fence everything, but if we choose to make this our long term home, we'll likely fence it for various reasons.  The first year when we lost 11, most were probably coyote attacks, but even then it's still more expensive to put up fencing.

The one lost to the pig happened today.  Probably when we were at the park late afternoon.  I don't know how she got in there, but there are feathers all over and the backbone and wings.  It's not the loss that bothers me as much as which one-it'd be nice if it were one of the older hens on the downside of their laying career rather than one that just entered that stage, but it's in God's hands, right?  I hope the other hens were watching so they'll not try to go in the pig pen!

EDIT!  That darn pig got another of the juvenile hens!!  Guess whose life will be cut short, despite making good growth gains since coming to us?!  I'm off to research roasting whole pigs, as she's not big enough to take the time to butcher.  We can't figure out how or why the chickens are getting into her pen, but suspect it's to scrounge after food she hasn't eaten.  They could be flying over, as the fencing isn't very high, but more so than the hens usually go.

Also, I forgot that we lost 2 ducks shortly after they came to our home, so with today's attack, the total is now 11 poultry birds lost this year, making it worse than the first year.

Do you know...

what a screaming raccoon sounds like?  We just found out!  Tony was playing chess with our son on the new Nook Color I got for my birthday (yeah, it's supposed to be mine, hehe) while I was searching for new apps for the Nook when we heard this horrendous screeching outside.  I ran out as fast as I could but didn't grab the flashlight.  My first thought was something was attacking chickens, but when I got outside the few that sleep under the stars seems unruffled so I thought maybe something jumped into the pig pen and was attacking her.  Tony grabbed the light and came out, but went toward the creek from the other side of the goat pen, so I still couldn't see the pig.  He said it was raccoons and could see them up in the giant cottonwood tree by the creek.  We heard splashes from the beaver but it wasn't adding up for me.

Once we confirmed the pig and goats were OK, he tried to scare the 'coons off.  They did run away, but we don't know where.  All I can say is that's an AWFUL sound and if the raccoons are going to fight, they need to do it somewhere else!

A Crazy Mixed-Up Day

It started off sanely enough.  No plans outside of the ordinary daily tasks.  Kinda felt a bit of freedom as a result.  Did I say it started off sanely?  Shows how crazy it's been-Tony slept in and I got up to let the chickens out.  I noticed that Sugar was out of the goat pen with Spice.  Spice gets out all the time, but it was odd to see Sugar out too.  Then I saw the rest of the goats were out and the gate was open.  That explains the noises that sounded similar to Goober Gus getting out of bed and stomping around in his room.  The hay bales are outside our bedroom, so we could hear them stealing food.  I grabbed Annie and Molly by the collar and Peaches tagged along and went back voluntarily.  Sugar and Spice did too.  That just left Cream and she eventually jumped in on her own.

Last night was the first time we took all the baby goats out-they're old enough to be weaned now, so they're in their own pen full time.  At milking time I got 158 ounces total from Annie and Molly.  That's a gallon and bit over a pint.  I left 2 quarts out for a new batch of yogurt that I'd decided I'd culture for 4 hours instead of 8 and see how that came out.  Some time during all this I decided I could bake crackers-oh, but we're trying to do all those things with sourdough and it should ferment overnight.  I figured I'd go ahead and start it and bake them after several hours instead of overnight.

Then I remembered that a friend of ours has a neighbor with overloaded peach trees and neither the friend nor the neighbor do any food preserving, so the trees were made available to us for picking.  Goober Gus and I got about 5 pounds the other day and I told the owner we'd be back when more ripened.  All 3 of us went today and returned with roughly 80 pounds, and you can hardly tell we took any!  Both days we picked up the bug eaten ones to bring to the chickens, so they're getting a treat too.  This is one branch and there are several trees, all loaded like this.

Sorry about the sideways shot...
On the way home we stopped at a farm stand to get more cherry tomatoes.  I bought half a pound the other day and GG ate them all before I could tell him to save some for dad.  We also got giant green bell peppers for .75¢ and this farmer doesn't use chemical herbicides or pesticides.  Organic peppers sell for $6 EACH at the grocery store.  These are so flavorful that you can smell them a yard away.  We also bought some very spicy salsa to snack on for lunch.  So spicy that I had to add tomatoes, green chilies and onions to thin it out some.  We made 2 trays of nachos and polished off another bag of our new favorite tortilla chips.

It was during lunch that I decided we could make lasagna for dinner, so I took out a package of ground pork sausage and tomato sauce from the freezer.  We've got 2 gallons of whey to make ricotta, so it was all set.  I also decided I better learn the process of lacto fermentation and be ready to start preserving these peaches.  Tony spent close to an hour placing them in apple boxes that this same friend had brought us when we thought we'd found a place to move to.  The inserts to separate fruit were still there, so they came in very handy.  We have 3 and a half boxes of peaches!

OK, so now I have cracker dough souring, 80+ pounds of peaches picked, plans for a fairly involved dinner and I'm looking thru my GNOWFGLINS courses for the one on lacto-fermented fruit.  Tony needed to go to the shop and work on a couple of cellos.  GG asked if he could go with because his bike tires are both flat and the air compressor is at the shop.  I reminded Tony that today was the last day of a pretty good sale at OfficeMax and asked if it was worth it for me to drive to Cottonwood to take advantage of it.  He suggested I drop them off at the shop, go to Cottonwood and pick them up on the way back.  I hate dislike it when he makes a logical suggestion that doesn't line up with what I was thinking. 

Alright, so instead of working on peaches and spending some time planning out the upcoming week-GG wants to study volcanoes-I drove to Cottonwood.  Did I mention that driving makes me drowsy?  Yeah, so when we got home a nap was definitely needed.  GG watched Prince of Egypt and we dozed.  Until I remembered I wanted to put the yogurt in the fridge at 130 and it was now after 4.  So much for a nap.

I went out to check all the animals and poor patches had his head stuck in the fence.  Reason enough to dehorn any horned animal, IMO.  We tried cauterizing the horn buds when all the babies were a few days old, but the boys' horns grew anyway.  Now they're banded, but haven't fallen off yet.  It was at this point that I remembered that I needed to check the mamas and see if they needed to be milked again.  We (I) normally only milk once a day, but with this being the first day of weaning, I figured they'd need a second go around.  Got all the feed and supplies ready and came out to find that Spice had jumped out and eaten the milking time treats, so had to start a new batch soaking.  "When am I going to be able to start dinner?"  I thought to myself.  GG and Tony were playing "bollyball" (that'd be volleyball for anyone over the age of 10) and it was a nice late afternoon outside.

The girls gave nearly another 3 quarts of milk, though we only got to keep about half that.  Molly promptly stepped into the bucket today and then kicked it about 15 feet behind her.  I retrieved the bucket and milked her anyway, giving it to the chickens, who probably suggested she kick the bucket in the first place.  I'm not sure what the chickens do to repay the goats for this, though.

OK, on to dinner.  Tony started cooking the sausage-I asked why he was slicing it instead of just crumbling it and he said it was venison.  What?  We don't have any venison.  He told me to look at the wrapper in the trash.  Sure enough, the inside packaging says venison.  I looked more closely at the butcher paper on the outside and the word I couldn't make out this morning was now obviously antelope.  I vaguely recall neighbors giving us this when they gave us some pork sausage to try.  OK, so the lasagna is going to be made with cubed antelope sausage.  I also decided to try a recipe I had seen for lasagna "cupcakes".  In the original recipe won-ton wraps are used to line muffin tins and hold all the filling.  I had 6 lasagna noodles left from the last time we made it and didn't want to buy another box, so we tried this method.  Oh, but first I have to tell you about the ricotta.  For something that's supposed to be easy, I've had more failure than success.

The method is simply bringing the whey to roughly 180° and then pouring it through a butter muslin lined colander.  The one success I can recall, I brought the whey to nearly boiling, so that was my aim tonight.  Didn't work.  No ricotta.  Zero, zilch, nada.  {Hmm, that rhymed, maybe I should write children's silly stories?}  OK, I'm not going to the store for ricotta when I've managed to find a suitable alternative for everything else.  We decided to use chevre and just added Italian seasoning, garlic and salt. 

Cutting the partially cooked noodles into the right size circles seemed easy enough until we realized the size that fits the top is too big for the bottom, so Tony used scissors and custom cut them.  I topped with tomato sauce, antelope sausage, chevre, more sauce, another noodle and mozzarella.  Did I mention it's about 7PM already?  Or that the sweet elderly man that brings yard and garden trimmings for the goats and books or toys for Goober Gus stopped by just before we started cutting noodles.  As the oven is warming up and we're about done filling muffin cups with lasagna goodness, I start smelling something close to burning.  We just put a new (freecycle find) oven in yesterday, but it was clean inside.  Oh no!!  I put the cracker dough in there to keep flies off it!  Fortunately it was in a large Pyrex bowl, so no breakage, and I don't think the heat was a problem for the fermenting process, but it actually could be now that I think about it.  So we get these things into the oven finally and I start washing dishes so the kitchen won't be a total disaster tomorrow.  Tony and GG clean off the table and empty the dishwasher-oh wait, they did that while we waited for the whey to boil.  I finish the bulk of the dishes and check the lasagna.  Why aren't they cooked more than that already?  In my rush to stop the burning smell, I turned the oven off.  Goodness!  Will the craziness never end today? 

Here's the steps to filling the tins:

I turned it back on and we waited about 10 minutes.  Tony read a chapter from Charlotte's Web to Gus.  We started it last night and it's our aim to read a few chapters each evening.  Dinner was a hit, despite the many obstacles.  The flavor was outstanding!  Tony ate 6, I had 5 and GG had 4!  I thought he'd be too full to eat because he ate all the partially cooked noodle pieces.  Fooled me!

By now it's nearly 830 and we are at least half an hour behind in our evening routine.  We went out to lock up the chickens and check the goats, then got teeth brushed, read one more book, took fish oil and put him to bed!  That was at 9, it's now 10 and all I've done since then is write this very long description of a crazy weird day!  If you've read this far, pat yourself on the back and grab a gold star, you deserve it!!

What is she doing?

I don't know if this is the first time she's hung out here, but it's the first time I've seen it.  This is a metal cart on the back patio where I keep milking and feeding supplies.  She's been back in there a few times today.

I looked after she left and there's no food there to attract her, nor any type of "nesting" material.

Before and After

I read a guest post today from Kitchen Stewardship that reminded me a lot of my own food journey so I thought I'd share my story.

If we look at life about two and a half years ago, meal planning consisted of thinking it'd be good to have fish once a week and trying not to have the same type of meat twice in a row-in other words beef, pork, chicken, lather, rinse, repeat.  We ate out several nights a week, as well as every Sunday after church.  Fast food was a regular part of our diet.  I tried to make sure we got a variety of foods but that was about the extent of making healthy choices.

Had you told me then that just about everything we eat would be made from scratch-by me-I would have laughed literally out loud.  Yeah, I enjoyed cooking and baking, but not to the point of making bread on a regular basis or homemade crackers.  I baked cookies when we were in the mood, not because it was a better choice health wise.  Probably the biggest reason for my disbelief would have been that I just don't have the energy to do all that cooking and baking.

In January of 2009 my chiropractor suggested that I have adrenal fatigue.  I'd never heard of it, but a bit of research lined everything up.  A bit more research and we started applying a few changes:

1. Bought baby chicks so we could have farm fresh eggs (then added two adults because we didn't want to wait!)
2. Discovered how expensive raw milk is and decided to buy a couple of goats to have our own fresh, raw, milk.
3. Learned to make yogurt and chevre with the raw milk.
4. Eliminated HFCS and hydrogenated fats.
5. Added coconut oil.
6. Reduced sugar intake (refined white).
7. Cut back on fast food consumption.
8. Started trying to buy non factory farmed meat.
9. Learned to milk a cow that didn't want to be milked.
10. Began following the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 system for buying produce.
11. Began trying to avoid GMO's.
12. Discovered son was sensitive to food chemicals and started avoiding them.
13. Learned that I'd have to make a lot of things from scratch to keep from eating foods with chemicals.
1. Cookies
2. Ice cream
3. Crackers (wheat thin style)
4. Bread
5. Sour Cream
6. Buttermilk
7. Graham Crackers
8. Granola type bars
9. Marshmallows (who can give up s'mores??)
10. Meatballs
11. Bread crumbs
12. Mayo
13. Ketchup
14. Tomato sauce
15. Granola
16. Toothpaste
17. Mouthwash
18. Laundry soap
19. Deodorant
20. Dishwashing soap
21. Insect repellent
22. Household cleaners
14. Stopped enjoying eating out-the flavor just isn't there when you no longer eat processed foods all the time.
15. Realized that I've come a long way when I cringe at nearly everything available away from home and when others point out how much I do.

No wonder I'm still tired all the time!

Busy Week

Last week started off with more than usual going on for a Monday.  First, I needed to attend a meeting that started at 8AM.  For some of you that may not seem like such a big deal, but around here, my son isn't even usually out of bed until about 8 or 830.  I don't usually make plans to leave the house before 10.  Knowing it was coming I didn't separate the twins from Cream, so I wouldn't have to milk that morning, that helped!

Next, it was my first day as a drop coordinator for the monthly Azure Standard order.  There's no set time for delivery, just whenever the truck driver calls to say he's almost here.

Did I mention I was watching 3 goats for signs of labor?  Yes, one that I thought would be about 10 days later filled her udder Sunday night.  No other signs though, so thought there might still be another day or two.  Nope.  Got home from picking up co-op order and Goober Gus went out to see animals and informed me we had a new baby goat.  I stopped what I was doing in the kitchen to go check and this one was still wet and being cleaned. 

Azure boxes opened and waiting to be put away.  Dishwasher needing to be emptied.  Counter tops to clear.

We stayed out to see if she'd have more and she did.  Two boys.

Once the after birth was delivered we moved on to a few other tasks, but then Baby Boy 1 started crying and couldn't get up.  Turns out he was having convulsions and died the next day.  Baby Boy 2 was originally named Blackjack, but we changed that a couple of days later.

The night that the buckling died, Gus and I were enjoying pizza and a movie.  Did I mention Tony was on a business trip during this time?  Leave it to the goats!  We heard a squealing sound and turned to see that one of the cats had brought in its recent catch, still alive and struggling to get away.  It was a baby wild rabbit and we thought it hadn't been mortally wounded, so tried to keep it.  Turns out there was a puncture wound near the heart and he died in my hand.  Two deaths in one day was almost too much for me!

Wednesday, I felt like I had sufficiently recovered from the events of the week so far to tackle the kitchen.  Of course I made it into a bigger task, simply because to do it right, I needed to change some things.  Like the shelf that hangs on the wall, collecting odds and ends.  I've been wanting to change it into something visually appealing and functional, so I took everything off, asked Tony to reinforce the hangers, and put labeled quart jars of bulk herbs on the shelves.  The small shelves on the sides need attention-perhaps a pretty wooden box to hold recipe cards and small flower arrangement?

By the time I had accomplished this, it was mid afternoon (I did get the counters cleared and dishes done too) and I was ready for a treat.  I was planning to take Gus to get an ice cream sandwich (organic of course) and something to drink.  Before we could leave I heard a goat moaning.  Again?  Already?  The next one wasn't due until the 23rd and it was just the 18th.  Sure enough, Annie, who is so huge we thought she was having triplets at least, if not quadruplets, was pushing out her first kid.  We grabbed the camera and sat down to watch.  I couldn't get close enough to tell if it was a girl or boy, but within 30 minutes another one was born.  Guess what happened then?  It started drizzling on us!  This is the desert, we don't usually get spring rains.  It was even cool enough that we went in to put long pants and jackets on!  Back out we went, waiting for #3.  Waiting and waiting.  For the afterbirth.  Yep, she only had 2, but they were big kids.  Turns out we had a boy and girl, so we decided to name them Jack and Jill (and that's why Blackjack needed a new name).  They are so closely marked that until the next day, I couldn't tell them apart!  Jack has longer white spots on his hindquarters, and Jill just has a little white dot.  Now she has a collar on so we can tell more easily.

The picture doesn't adequately show how huge she was.  She looked like a barrel on twigs.  The morning she gave birth it took all she had to get up on the milk stand.  No, I wasn't milking, but giving her treats and checking for signs of labor.

Do you see how similarly they are marked?  They were both still damp with birth fluid and in the excitement I didn't see the longer white stripe on Jack.

We need to take more pictures of them-ideally be out when they are playing and get video.  Tony missed the Wednesday births too because he's got a nightly music job 90 minutes away.

We've been working in the yard, garden and searching for duck eggs.  They're hiding them from us.  Did I ever mention a friend gave us her 3 Indian Runner ducks and 7 hens?

I've been working on this post for a few days now.  It's Thursday and these events all took place last week.  Something kept me busy Thursday & Friday, but I can't remember.  Oh yes.  I finished working on house cleaning and then my step daughters came for a visit on Friday.  Saturday morning we hit up the yard sales and continued looking for property to buy.  Saturday night we had tickets to a Styx concert and finally got to relax a bit.  I think I needed it!

Twin Boys!

I sat down to start this post and upload photos about 3PM yesterday.  The bucklings were born about 1215 and 1245, and we had spent a couple of hours watching them.  A mom I know from the park was coming by to bring her kids to see the babies and she pulled up right after I typed the title of this post.  The boys were more interested in running around playing than looking at the goats, so they were off having fun while she and I talked.  Then I noticed that Baby Boy 1 was making a strange cry and laying on the ground.  I went into the pen to help him stand up, but he couldn't.  I felt around for injuries, but nothing specific seemed to be wrong.  She left so I could tend to the baby and I warmed some milk and tried feeding him.  He couldn't suckle, though I had watched him do so earlier, knowing he was getting milk because Peaches' udder was noticably smaller on the side he was drinking from.  Called the vet, just to see if I was overlooking something obvious.  He suggested Karo syrup and maybe a B complex injection.  I have honey and kombucha.  Tony said the kombucha would have a high rate of B vitamins.  I had to use a straw like a dropper to even get liquid into him, and them smeared a bit of honey on the roof of his mouth.  He would complain with a cry, and try to roll over, but couldn't get up.

We had small group last night and I really didn't expect him to be alive when we got home.  He was.  I gave him more milk, kombucha and honey and prayed again.  Goober Gus and I went to bed after that (Tony is out of town).  I told God that if the goat's survival was dependant on me getting up to feed him thru the night, He'd need to wake me with enough energy to do it.  I didn't wake up until 4AM and went to check, he was still alive.  Peaches had moved him to a warmer part of the shelter and surrounded him with straw.  I didn't give any more milk until I got up at 7 though.  He was losing muscle tone, I could tell that.

I called the woman that cares for our animals when we go away and she came over to see him.  While waiting for her arrival I continued to hold the little guy (his mouth and ears were cool, knew that wasn't good) and squeeze a few drops of milk in his mouth on a regular basis.  Don't think I've ever been happier to have an animal pee on me!  I had already realized earlier that the whole time we were in the pen after birth I never saw either do their "dooty".  My friend arrived shorty after and I showed her the video I took of his attempts to get up and she recognized it as convulsions.  Suddenly it made more sense.  I kept wracking my brain to figure out what happened to cause this first born, healthy, suckling goat that had been walking around, trying to run just moments before to not even be able to stand.  Now I knew.  Then I cried.  One baby goat, not even 24 hours old.  Not much monetary value in the world, but still a marvelous creation of God with life that always has value beyond any dollar measure.

Tuesday mornings are our park date, so we went ahead to play.  Goober Gus needed to know that he was more important to me than the goat, and that I'd make the time to take him to play even with the sadness at home.  We got home shortly after noon and Baby Boy 1 had passed.  We wrapped him in an old pecan bag and took him out of the pen.  Gus wanted to say goodbye and give him flowers.  He decided the marigold he had picked out on Mother's Day (that he's very attached to and has been watering on his own) should be part of the goodbye process.  Sweet boy.  I did manage to get some good pictures during the couple of hours he was healthy.

Mama Peaches with Baby Boy 1 looking for a teat while Baby Boy 2 is waiting to be licked some more.

Baby Boy 2.  No matter where I put clean straw for birthing, they choose another spot.

Baby Boy 1

Aw ma, don't do that here!

Baby Boy 2 finding a teat.

Mama and the twins.

Baby Boy 2.  We think he'll be called Blackjack.