Goats as lawn mowers

These are the two little Nigerian Dwarf goats that I got last fall.  They have been doing really well this spring and have grown quite a bit.  They are still much smaller then my other NDGs though.  In fact they are still small enough to squeeze through the hole in the fence cut for the poultry to come and go.  They routinely come out of the pasture to eat the grass on our lawn.

Farm Happenings

Day two of goat milking went well.  Pepper, one of my oldest does, stood nicely and milked out over a quart today.  Her daughter, Mary Jane, was a bit more jumpy on the milking stand.  Mary Jane also has smaller teats so it takes a bit longer to milk her out fully.  Two of our three goat kids will be picked up tomorrow afternoon.  I love the baby goats and it is so hard for me to let them go when they are still in that uber playful age.  These two will be going to great family with lots of human kids so they will be happy there.

I made a batch of vanilla yogurt today.  It has been a while since I have made yogurt so I had to start from powdered yogurt culture again.  Future batches I will just use some of this batch to culture it.

We got this postcard in the mail today from a Chicago family.  Traded through Postcardkids Yahoo Group.

Lego Smart Creativitiy Contest

I found out today that I was selected to compete in the 2010 LEGO^® Smart^TM Creativity Contest, challenging teachers and home educators across the United States to become LEGO Smart!  The contest doesn't begin until August but they will be mailing Lego kits out in 4-6 weeks so I can start working on my contest entry.

We also received SIX postcards in the mail today!

One from Quebec showing Autumn colors.

One from Texas with a Yucca plant and Bluebonnets.

And three Ohio State Map cards all from the same family.

And finally, the same family from Ohio sent a recipe card too.

The goat kids are fine today. I always worry about them for the first 24 hours. It is possible to cause some brain damage to the kids if the hot iron is left on too long. I have never seen it but I fret none the less.

Farm Happenings

We had a guy stop by the farm this morning looking for a turkey tom to buy for his hens. In luck I still had two toms that I haven't gotten around to butchering yet. So, Neil and I caught him up and off he went to his new home to be with his new girls. I love a happy ending!

What was not so happy is that today was the day that we needed to dis-bud our kid goats. It is our least favorite farm chore but one that needs to get done. The kids (of the human kind) helped us round up the three goat kids. Then Neil and I got them all dis-budded. It went really well and we got good copper burns on all the kids.

Kids and Chicks

Went down to the feed store this morning to pick up new day old chicks.  They get thier chicks straight run (which means they are unsexed) and all the breeds in one big pen.  I picked up 16 chicks in hopes that at least 50% will be hens for future egg layers.  I think I have 2 Barred Rocks, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 10 Americana (Easter Eggers) and one unkown (could be an odd colored RIR or maybe a plain looking Americana).

McKayla just loves babies and must hold them!

Had a great family stop by tonight to see our Nigerian Dwarf goat kids. They visited with the kids and decided to take our doeling and one of the bucklings as a whether.

I will be disbudding them this weekend and will then get them started on bottle feeding. The new owners will be picking them up next weekend.

McKayla with Pepper's new kid

How cute is that?

Pepper had her kid.

Pepper had a single buckling kid this morning. He is black with white spots. Very similar to the buckling kid she had last year.

Baby goats!

Discovered two new baby goats in the barn this morning. A little golden buckling (looks just like his daddy, Jeepster) and a tri colored doeling. It turns out they were born to our Nigerian Dwarf goat Mary Jane. Mary Jane is a good mom and the kid's were dry and nursing well.

Evan holding the new kids.

I am excited to see more kids soon (although Gabby and Belva haven't begun to bag up their udders yet... hmmm...).

This is Chamomile with one of her 5 kits... now old enough to leave the nest box.

Time for a weigh in...

It has been a few weeks since I weighed the little doelings to see how they are growing. They are now 7 1/2 months old.

Cheddar (on the left above) is now 19.25 lbs.
Olive (on the right above) is now 20.75 lbs.

I also weighed our little buckling Jeepster. Jeepster is 8 weeks younger then the doelings.

Jeepster came in at 26.5 lbs.

When I sold our doeling Emily a few weeks ago I weighed her before she left. Emily is only four weeks older then Cheddar and Olive.

Emily weighed in at 52 lbs.

New home for Emily

Our last spring 2009 Nigerian Dwarf Goat doeling found herself a new home today.

I wonderful family called about her last week and today they stopped by the farm to meet her. Emily will be one of four young doelings that this family will be purchasing to begin their goat adventures with. Interestingly, when I inquired about the other doelings we discovered that they were also purchasing Emily's twin sister Elizabeth. I sold Elizabeth several months ago to the farm I got our doe Belva from. I was thrilled to know that the sisters would be reunited.

Emily will be staying here for a few more weeks while the family finish preparing their farm. Emily will also be exposed to our young buck Jeepster before she goes.

Happenings on the farm...

The day started out chilly and raining but it turned into a pleasant Fall day.

Neil took the chainsaw out behind the garage and cut up some deadfall trees for the woodstove. I will bring it up, split it and stack it over the next few days.

Neil and I then started work on the framing for the base of the new rabbit hutches. I am so excited to get started on them. What I am currently using for rabbit hutches where built by the previous owners as poultry breeding pens and were not designed with chewing rabbits in mind. The interior framing is almost gone in some places. Plus, the new location I am moving them too should stay drier. Which means I won't be standing and slipping in 8 inches of mud this winter and spring! Yeah! I still need to get more wire for the hutches and build the wooden nest boxes but I was thrilled to get that project started.

Today I also weighed our two Nigerian Dwarf doelings, Miss Olive and Miss Cheddar, that we got four weeks ago. Miss Olive is up to 19.5 lbs and Miss Cheddar is at 18.75 lbs.

Made a couple of pizzas for lunch; a cheese and a onion and pepperoni. Yummy! Then this evening my mom (who is visiting from Maine) made chocolate chip cookies for the kids.

Days update.

Well, first off, our rabbit made it through the night! She is tucked in the far corner of the hutch but her ears are up and she seems alert. I will not consider her out of the woods until another day or two and I see her eating and drinking again. But, she looks good for what she went through yesterday!

Neil's Dad came by early this morning so he and Neil could get the last of the four concrete stabilizer footings poured on the garage. Yeah! Now that that is done they can continue work on the end walls and doors to button it up for the winter.

We have two alpacas that are due with crias at the end of this month. One of those is Eloise. While feeding the girls this morning I noticed a large lump by the tail head of Eloise, so large that it actually pushed her tail to one side. I went up and felt the lump and it was firm. I pressed on it and it retracted back! A few minutes later it reappeared... I pushed on it again and it retracted once more. This was the nose of the cria! So, Eloise is now on cria watch.

My birthing stall has had a gate broken on it for some time (the cows share one side and rubbed on it until the wall broke) and since my need for that stall my come sooner than I had thought... Neil removed the half wall that the gate is attached to, rebuilt the framing, covered it with pressboard for strength, reinstalled the wall and then hung the gate again. Now I am all set if I see any signs of impending birth. I will put the two girls in there in another week regardless so that they don't give birth without being separated from our LGDs who are so protective of babies that they keep the dams away too!

Sold the three little ducklings to a neighbor I sold some turkeys to this summer. She called yesterday to see if I had any ducks for sale and was pleased that I had little ones available. Funny how things work out sometimes.

I weighed our two new Nigerian Dwarf goat doelings again today to see if they are growing. They have been here two weeks now. Miss Olive, who weighed in at only 16.75lbs two weeks ago, was up 1.5lbs to 18.25lbs. Miss Cheddar on the other hand remained the same at 17.75lbs. I am sure this is due to the week long bought of diarrhea she went through when she first arrived. She has recovered fully and is doing well now. I will continue to weigh them over the next few weeks to keep my eye on their growth.

Finally, Neil set up the volleyball net for the kids in the side yard so they could play badminton with it. Evan played for a bit but then went off to set "snares" around the farm. McKayla and I played badminton for almost an hour. What a sight we were... playing badminton with a volleyball net and racket ball rackets... but we had a blast!

Last milking of the year.

Today will be the last day that I milk our Dexter cow, Cherry Blossom. She has been giving less and less milk the last few weeks and this morning I only got about 2 cups. I expect her next calf to come in December sometime so I want to dry her off for a few months anyway.

I will miss the fresh milk but it will only be for a few months. After the calf is born I will start up again.

Was surprised this morning to discover three ducklings in the chicken run with one of my dark rippled ducks. I knew she was sitting on eggs in the barn but I thought she had a few more weeks to go. All three are brown frosted over yellow. Not sure what color they will turn out to be. Evan helped me herd them up and put them and mom into one of the brooder pens in the coop. It is getting too cool this time of year for the little ones with no heat lamp.

I moved Fiore, one of our female alpacas, out to the far pasture to keep our stud male Novio company. She wasn't too happy about leaving her pasture mates behind but the lush grass in Novio's pasture seemed to make up for the lose.

Since our neighbors moved away last month we have been meaning to go over and move the two electrical spools and dog house they left behind (we got permission, plus they are actually on our property anyway). The dog house we moved out to the far pasture too. I hope to get that pasture goat proof soon to put our bucks into. The dog house will be shelter for the bucks. The smaller spool will also be used as a goat play structure.

Weight check.

I weighed the two little doelings this morning. Miss Olive weighed in at 16 3/4lbs and Miss Cheddar at 17 3/4lbs.

Cheddar is still having diarrhea issues. Otherwise she seems fine. Both doelings are eating some goat pellets, grazing grass, nibbling on hay and drinking water. I think it is just stress induced and I as long as she acts fine and continues to eat and drink I am going to let it run its course.

New goats.

A local and fellow blogger, M., is going through a major life change that is moving her family to my home state of Maine. M. has three Nigerian Dwarf goats that she will not be able to take with her. She emailed me this week to see if I was interested in taking them in.

So, this morning Taylor and I drove the hour south to their home to meet up with her husband and pick up the goats. There was a mature buck, Milky Way, who is a chocolate with white...


And two six month old doelings, Miss Olive, who is a buckskin with blue eyes...


and Miss Cheddar, who is gold with white...


The little doelings are tiny. They are only about half the size of our doeling, Emily, that is only a month older. They are also smaller then our buckling Jeepster that is two months younger then them.

Miss Cheddar in front of Emily.

Cheddar had some diarrhea in the crate on the way home, most likely due to stress but I will be keeping my eye on her.

Honey Cream Goat's Milk Soap

I found some time to mix up a new batch of goat's milk soap while the baby was sleeping today. It used up the last of the frozen goat's milk plus a bit a fresh as well. This batch is a honey cream. It was the most pretty bright yellow when I poured it into the soap mold. But after a few hours of curing the heat generated during the soponification process darkened the milk some. It think it will end up being the lightest in color of the soaps I have made but still not that pretty yellow color when done.

It will be ready to cut into bars after 24-48 hours.

Rose and milk soap

The gentleman that purchased our red Irish Dexter heifer, Rose, out of our cow Cherry Blossom came to pick her up today. We didn't have too much trouble getting her loaded in the trailer but both her and her mom were quite upset by the separation. Even still this evening Cherry Blossom was calling for her.

I am looking forward to starting to milk Cherry Blossom now that the calf is gone. We will see how is goes in the morning.

Oh, and the first two batches of my Goat's Milk Soap has finished curing. A local farm produce market has agreed to sell them on consignment for me so tonight I packaged some bars up to take to town with us tomorrow when we go to do errands.



I will also be listing these soaps on our esty site if you are interested in purchasing them!

Feta Cheese

So, an update on my Feta Cheese.

After the curds hung over night and drained the resulting firm ball of cheese was cut into large chunks (about 2-3 on each side) and placed into a container and salted heavily with kosher salt. I then covered it with a tea towel and let it set at room temp for two days. Several times each day I drained off the excess whey that formed from the salting and resalted the cheese if it looked as if it needed more to keep the sides covered.

After the two days at room temp I moved the cheese to the refrigerator to finish draining and to dry the surface of the cheese. By this point the cheese was very firm to the touch.

After the cheese "felt" right (firm and crumbly) I taste tested a small piece and it was the perfect saltiness. I cut the large chunks into smaller one inch pieces and packed them into mason jars with a bay leaf, dried chili pepper, chopped garlic, oregano, thyme and basil and topped off the jars with olive oil. These can be left at room temp if desired but I chose to refrigerate mine.

The biggest difference with this batch then the failed batch I made last year was that I dry salt cured it this time instead of salt brining. Last years cheese just got soft and dissolved in the brine... the dry salting worked much better for me and I love the result!

Looking forward to using it on pizza, salad and just for snacking!

Dairy Day

The goat's milk has been accumulating in the fridge again so this afternoon was spent in the kitchen. The first thing I did was to pasteurize all the milk and then cool it down to 86F so I could start working with it in several recipes.

I have been hearing lots of good things about goat's milk ice cream and up till now have not made any. I took a liter of milk added a cup of sugar and a tablespoon of real vanilla. The mix then went into the fridge to cool completely and be used later on.

I then needed to decide what to make with the remaining 4 liters of milk. I have been enjoying the Chevre cheese I have been making but I have a small hoard of it in the freezer now so I wanted to make something different. I opted for a Feta cheese.

I have made Feta once in the past and it wasn't really a success. I have been doing some reading and I think I might know were my problems came from so I am game to try again. Into the milk went the culture and then it had to sit for an hour. Then in went the rennet and then sat for another hour. It was now time to cut the curds into 1/2" blocks and let set for 10 minutes. All this time a temp of 86F has been maintained. The curds are then "cooked" at this low temp and gently stirred every ten minutes for 40-50 minutes. Finally, the curds got strained through butter muslin and hung to drain for 3 hours. After the 3 hours I removed the forming cheese and turned it over and hung it back up for the night.

During my three hour wait for the cheese to drain I made the goat's milk ice cream. I happen to have a Krups electric ice cream maker (haven't used it in years though). I got the machine setup and poured in the cold mix I made earlier and the kids and I watched it go round. After about 45 minutes it didn't seem to be getting any thicker so I stopped the machine and scooped the soft ice cream into a bowl and popped it into the freezer. The kids quickly consumed the remnants from the beater, the bowl and the spoon. Evan declared, "This is the best ice cream I have ever eaten!"

Farm Photos from Today

This is one of four roosters from our Southern States chick purchase this spring. He tried his hand at crowing for the first time this morning. He was supposed to be a Americana hen but instead he is a Single Comb Light Brown Leghorn as are the other three roosters and four matching hens. I may keep one Roo to go with the hens... maybe.

These two hens are also from the spring chick purchase. They are supposed to be two of four Barred Rocks. But two look like the closer hen with bright orange legs, larger comb and more white to the bars. They other two look like the far hen with dull yellow legs with grey on the front and toes, smaller comb and less white on the bars.

Here is our new cria born yesterday. Looking much drier and cleaner today. He is also much more steady on his legs and his knees are pointing in the right direction now!

Gabby is one of my original two Nigerian Dwarf Goat does (along with her sister Pepper). Gabby has turned into a beautiful goat and everyone comments on her when they come to the farm.

She is also very sweet and loves to give kisses. (A rare photo of me. Taken with the camera held at arms length.)