Ok, I have been a little overwhelmed with Goats Milk. Mostly because of a tragedy stillborn loss concerning the birth of one baby goat… which left me as the goats “kid” suddenly plunged into milking twice a day rain of shine! The first milk I gave to the Chickens… HAPPY DAY.. they love it. and the fact that no one…even though through taste tests..claim is tastes as good or better than the walmart milk.. no one will drink it.

I bought a little milking machine that greatly helps… it is air tight so nice and clean.

Then I made some goats milk soap… the cold method with scary lye. It is curing. But smells great. Lavendar Honey Oatmeal Goats Milk Soap. At Whole Foods it goes for 15.00 a lb!

Now to the cheese. My first cheese was feta… I made a mistake but it seemed forgiving and we have a 1/2 gallon jar with feta curing. Now came the cream de la cream.. Mozzarella Cheese. Well I made a really nice bowling ball. Happy Chickens again.. ( good thing I have them)

Sad week for me and felt frustrated but not defeated! I will make this work!

Next week I tried again with a new recipe… It takes me about 4-5 days to get enough milk to make cheese almost all the recipes call for 2-3 gallons~ At a little more than half gallon a day….it takes a couple of days to build up.

Well I MADE mozzarella!!!

It is a a difficult cheese to make  This guys Video inspired me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vymXC0Cnxw He made it look so easy.  I was able to make 3 bricks… of which one is left!  I had to make a few recipes that called for it! But am going to make as much as I can and freeze it!

I also made yogurt… I have made alot of yogurt with the reg. milk and I have to say this goats milk yogurt turned out fantastic!  So on to more soap ( does anyone got a clue yet as to what you may be getting for Christmas? ) cheese and more!

Chester one hour!

only about an hour old…..ain’t he cute!!!! Only about a foot tall. Still wobbly…and wet. cause his mom keeps trying to dry him off…..

I have had this book for about a bazillion years..I think it came from my mom, but every time I pick it up, it is like a new friend. Need to get her more current version. Mine is old from 1977 with a green cover!

If you don’t have a copy, get one! She covers everything… from children, to chickens,  goats, to gardens… All spiced in with her thoughts on life and spirituality.

I recently read this and it really stuck with me, It was in the hay section.

She starts of talking about trading labor and machinery….

“Concerning trades or helping neighbors <sic>…. they don’t make a big deal out what they are going to get out of it. It’s more like a giving contest. ” I can do more for you than you can do for me ” It’s  a good game that works to the benefit of everybody, but it really baffles some people. They have notions of capital and labor and how they’re supposed to be at each others throats. I’ve seen people out here <the country> and be given a job more out of charity than because they were needed, and they turn around and act vicious because they thought they got paid a few dollars less then they should have been.

Then they wonder why they couldn’t find another job. That is a terrible breach of county etiquette, and the bush telegraph is almost as inexorable as the credit companies files for carrying ratings on people’s character.

City people are used to anonymity. That does not exist in the country, You are what you are and everyone know what you are for better or for worst.

Don’t know why this stuck out in my head… but I think it is a good way to get back to… make it a game of who can do more for whom.

Link  to Carla Website http://www.carlaemery.com/

Ranch Dog and Allergic Boy!

After scheduling issues we finally got our hay cut just in time for the rainy week! Ithink it rained on it every single night!  Amazingly it is still pretty nice alfalfa /grass mix. We got a whopping 70 bales.

Note “Ranch Dog” on the job… there is nothing he misses or is in charge of.

And the sneezes… well all the men folk are really allergic to all hay products… what troopers for dealing with that toxic weed!

Ranch Dog Gaurding the Hay!

Yellow/tan Chicks.. Black hen....um

OK, I was in the grocery store and was wondering , why don’t those chicks look like that black hen… my limited understand of chicken color genetic says that black chickens make black chicks… Then it came to me… This hen NEVER lays…. just sits on eggs and that golf ball. The little RED hen faithfully lays a nice little brown egg everyday and Fabian is her Bo!  Me thinks there has been a Egg-Napping!

At least we know who the proud daddy is!

As Gomer Would say…..

Let set this up a little… We have “bittys” ( AKA Chickens) and I like have little tiny banty type rooster with the big hens…in hopes of non fertile eggs with those huge fat hens. Won’t go into that too much, but hoping he is too little. But I do have a couple of cochin ( feather footed ) banty hens.

Last winter I had seen a post for a free banty rooster… but was told he was a “Malaysian Serama” That got too large…But in the normal chicken world he is VERY tiny! Even compared to a bantum. A Serama is a breed consider the “Worlds Lightest Chicken”

More info here:

http://www.seramaclubgb.co.uk/
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sri/BRKSri.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serama
http://www.scnaonline.org/standards_and_judging.php

This rooster was what they call a  “D” ( as in battery ) size and too large. They are pretty rare and very pretty! So we got Fabian. And he settled in the farm quite well. One funny thing about this breed, they are so small that their voice sounds like a squeaky toy. Picture the scary Doberman from movie “Up”, with that squeaky voice. So funny!

He is very gentle and will sit on your hand like a parrot…about the same or smaller than one!

As you can see he is quite handsome!

It is hard to tell in this picture how small he is… but the black hen is a Full banty and he is about 2/3 her size. He sorta puff his feathers when I was trying to take this picture.

This year I have bought about 15 store bought and special order chicks. More posts on that later. And have had to hand raise them in the brooder. I don’t make a good chick mom!

Ok, now to that black hen. She is about a 1 1/2 yr old and she has spent most of that time trying to hatch a golf ball, ( put in the nesting boxes to encourage laying). She takes a month off and then goes broody again. I even attempted to graph some day old chicks on her.. But she did not got for it. So picture a hen is always almost setting on Dud eggs and one golf ball. Everyday I look and see her on that nest…and I think ( dumb chicken!)

Well yesterday was doing my daily check and letting them out to forage. And looked at her with my thought of “Dumb chicken”, and “something” told me to look under her. Why I don’t know why…this is not something I usually do, as it is known around the house..there is a golf ball and some duds.

Well I peeked under her and to my SURPRISE was the cutest little yellow fluffy chick! and another one still wet and trying to stand! How COOL!

I went to get the kids and listened to their mumbling/complaining all the way out. But they were happy too! So my little Squeaky Toy is a Daddy!!

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