I've Reached the End.........

Well I've reached the end of my month as guest blogger here at Kinder Communique.  I've enjoyed sharing my life here at Goodwife Farm and my recipes.  I love my Kinder goats and hope that more people will see what wonderful homestead animals they are.  I'd like to say thanks to the KGBA and especially Mrs. Joseph Wood and Mrs. Sue Huston for asking me to do this. 

May all your kiddings be healthy, easy, and full of doelings and may your milk pail always be full.  And for the final time..........

GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Recipe Tuesday..........

I had to think really hard to come up with a recipe for my final Recipe Tuesday blog post and have decided to share my favorite pancake recipe with you.  I hope you enjoy it. 

Goodwife Farm's Apple Pancakes

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups goat milk
• 1 egg
• 1 TBSP canola oil
• 1/2 apple, cored and chopped but NOT peeled

Add dry ingredients to medium sized bowl.  Mix wet ingredients except apples in measuring cup.  Add wet to dry, stirring just till combined.  Gently fold in apples.

Heat cast iron griddle til so hot that water drops sizzle merrily.  Drop batter on skillet by 1/4 cupfuls.  Cook, flip, and serve!  Makes about 12 pancakes.

I eat these topped with banana butter and they are delicious!  Very good, healthy, and filling!  Because I'm on Weight Watchers I put 3/4 cup of whole milk in my measuring cup, then add water to make 1 1/2 cup total.  If prepared this way they are 2.5 Weight Watchers points for 2 pancakes.

Till next time..............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Kidding Season...........

In a few short weeks, this little girl will be checking in to Chateau de Maternity Ward ala Goodwife Farm. Her name is Star and she is an unregistered Kinder goat. She is the first kid born here at Goodwife Farm and I love her dearly. She is so sweet and shy and beautiful and I can’t wait for the kids she is going to give me! She already has her room reserved here.

Housekeeping doesn’t have it all bedded and totally ready for her yet, but the week before her confinement arrives it will be deeply bedded and and sparkling clean!

She has a heated kid box, that the babies very quickly figure out is the happenin’ place to be. It usually only takes a couple hours for them to figure out that it’s nice and toasty in there. They are generally found snuggled in a pile in the corner and will pop out for refreshment once in awhile and then go back inside. They also have the home away from home in the Igloo dog house, but it is mostly reserved for jumping up onto and knocking each other off!

The maternity suite offers it’s own hay rack (can you see the chicken peeking out of it? They like to lay eggs in there during the off season!), and it’s own heated water bucket.

After a few days Star and her child/children will check out so that this little lady can check in.

This is Naomi and she is a registered Kinder bred to a registered buck. Star and family will be moved to this less fancy but equally nice suite here at Chateau de Goodwife Farm.

Then about 3 weeks after the arrival of the children, Star will be introduced to this lovely contraption…….THE MILK STAND.

This will be Star’s first freshening so I’ll be training her to the stand and pail. I always train my doe kids to the stand from a very early age, that way it isn’t such a shock when the time comes. I give them a little grain and let them put their heads in the stanchion to eat. I lock them in, brush them, and rub their udders. That way they know what it’s about before the time comes.

Well that's about how things go here at Goodwife Farm.  Hope your kidding season goes fabulous and you have mostly doelings! 

Till next time............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Recipe Tuesday.........

Blueberry Nutty Yogurt

• 1/2 cup goat milk yogurt
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/4 cup grapenuts
• 1 TBSP banana butter (or you can use 2 tsp sugar)

Heat blueberries till gently warm, top with yogurt, then add grape nuts and top with banana butter. Stir gently and enjoy.

This is soooo yummy! A sweet decadent treat and very good for you. For anybody else that's on Weight Watchers it is 5.5 points per serving.

Halfway through........

Well I'm halfway through my month of blogging here on Kinder Communique. I've got to say that I'm runnin' out of things to say. It's hard having a one sided conversation with people who already own Kinder goats and already know that they are fabulous! I am enjoying myself though. I was once put in the corner at school by my teacher. I was being punished for talking of course, and she put me in the corner with instructions to talk to that corner for the rest of the class. No problem! She was a bit chagrined to discover that I could do it. I'm a talker and my parents learned to tune me out at a very early age. I've felt like I was talking to myself for most of my life!

Today I'm thinking about babies and how I can't wait until my kids start getting here. My first doe is due in late February, then the other two are due within a couple days of each other in early March. I will be drowning in kids and I just can't wait. I just don't think you can feel sad when you are looking at a baby goat, bouncing around and making a general nuisance of themself! Here is a video of my triplet bucklings from last January.

As usual................till next time............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM

Recipe Tuesday........

Today's recipe is Chocolate Pudding. This recipe is from Goats Produce Too (Volume II) by Mary Jane Toth

Chocolate Pudding

• 2 cups goat milk
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 TBSP baking cocoa
• 3 TBSP corn starch
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and cocoa in saucepan. Gradually add goat milk and beaten egg. Cook, stirring constantly over medium heat, til thick and bubbly. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Chill or serve warm.

This is so very very yummy! Since I'm on Weight Watchers, I leave the butter out. You really can't tell the difference and it make it 4 points for 1/2 cup of pudding. It's well worth the points for an occasional treat!

Till next time...................GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Why EVERYBODY needs a Kinder goat............

The reason I think everybody needs a Kinder goat is simple.........rich, creamy, delicious milk! I can't talk enough about the quality of milk that a Kinder goat gives. My doe Tulip has been dry since November, and nobody is due to kid until March. That means we've been "good milk" less since November and it's sorely missed around my house. We've had to buy whole milk from the store and *eeek, gasp, swoon* we had to buy ice cream on our last trip to Aldi. My husband remarked that it actually tasted like it was "bad" or something! You sure do get spoiled with the good stuff! I haven't eaten yogurt since I dried Tulip off! I tried eating the plain Dannon yogurt that I use for my starter culture to get my homemade yogurt going. I couldn't even choke it down! It tasted so.........gelatinous, for lack of a better word! Yuck, and double yuck! I wanted a glass of milk so bad last evening, so I poured myself an itty bitty glass of "store" milk. Ugh.........it just didn't even seem to have any flavor. I'm so spoiled on my rich creamy milk! I very much enjoy knowing where my food comes from and nothing brings a smile to my face faster than enjoying a cold glass of milk that was still inside a goat 2 hours ago!

Now I won't go into all the other reasons that people need to have Kinders............they are so lovable, smart, sassy, cute, sweet.........................oops, there I go again! ;)

Till next time.................GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Fabulous Foto Friday!

Till next time...............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Recipe Tuesday!!

Today's recipe is Homemade Ice Cream and it's a recipe I got from Rhonda Daniels. It's the very best homemade ice cream I've ever had and we make 5 quarts of it about every two weeks while my girls are fresh. When they are dry (like they are right now) it's a very sad time around Goodwife Farm because we have to buy ice cream and drown it in toppings to hide the taste!

Homemade Ice Cream

• 1 qt plus 3 cups of whole goat's milk
• 12 egg yolks (fresh from your own chickens are best)
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 qt heavy cream (again from your goats if you've got a separator)
• 4 TBSP vanilla

Scald milk. Mix egg yolks and salt and beat with fork until thick. Add about 3 cups of scalded milk to egg mixture, beating with fork all the while. Add back into milk in pot. Add sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it coats a spoon. Strain (if you don't strain it will be chunky, I strain mine through my milk strainer). Chill. Add cream and vanilla and freeze in ice cream freezer.

One of our first purchases after getting the goats was a hand crank White Mountain ice cream freezer. You just can't get the rich, smooth, creamy, deliciousness with an electric one. It's pretty nice to sit out on the porch, the husband and I, talking, eating salty ice and taking turns cranking! This ice cream freezes wonderfully well and doesn't get hard as a rock either. You can scoop it out for a yummy bowl anytime. As I said above, a 5 qt bucket usually lasts us about two weeks. You can add pretty much anything you want to it as well. We've made peanut butter malt and strawberry among others. Our top three favorites though are Cookies and Cream, Peanut Butter Cup, and Cookie Dough! Have fun and make your own favorite variety! If you do add stuff in, freeze it until it's almost done before adding it. Otherwise all your "goodie" will settle to the bottom!

Till next time................GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

It's a Challenge..........

Raising any type of livestock in Illinois in winter can be challenging. This winter is no exception. With high temperatures in the single digits, keeping everything warm and cozy is a never ending battle.



I'm very blessed though. I've got a few things that I wouldn't want raise critters without!







First and foremost..............a nice warm barn!





This barn was a blessing to me and I'm very very thankful for it every single day! It isn't finished yet. We still have to trim it out and get it stained. Hopefully that will happen this summer. It is 24x32 and has a 12' lean to across the back. It also has two 12x12 stalls and one 12x8 stall. They are perfect maternity wards, and yet still big enough to bring the horse in if we need to. This summer I plan on converting one of the 12x12 stalls into 2 kidding stalls. That will give me three permanent kidding stalls. The 12x8 stall is already a permanent kidding stall.

Secondly..........heated water buckets!

Oh my how wonderfully fabulous these little things are. They are a bit pricey, but well worth the cost. Back when I had two horses, I just used a stock tank with a heater in it, but it is too tall for the goats to drink out of. Now that I have only the one horse, I just use two heated buckets and refill them twice a day. That way all my critters are assured fresh clean water!

Third..............a fluffy kitty to keep the mice, moles, and voles down!

This is our cat Willow, and she is a wonderful kitty! She's about 6 years old and a wonderful mouser. I feed her a handful of food once a day and she stays sleek and fit on that in addition to the steady diet of rodents that she catches. My barn is pest free thanks to her!

And last.............a herd of fluffy goats with a horse tossed in for good measure!

Please excuse the quality of this photo. I'm not sure what was going on with my camera! Could it have been that the temperature was hovering around 8*? I guess we'll never know! Anyway, this is the family all out for supper together. The three girls are bred right now and Luke is still young so since I'm not milking I've been letting them stay together all the time. Once the kids start arriving in March, Luke will have to go back to solitary confinement, but for now he and our wether Icing Ears are enjoying being part of the herd.

Thanks for reading about what makes my winter chores easier!

Till next time.................GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!