This is our goat complex. I have it configured with two large pens and two smaller pens at the moment. One for the kids at night. And one for Galileo - he was tearing up the other boys heads with his scurs, so he had to be separated. Now Derrick has scurs too, so I will have to figure out what to do with him if they tussle too much. Eventually I want to have separate pens for each of the bucks. The goat complex is on one side of Rustee's paddock. I had to put hot wire around it because Russtee was stealing hay and using the kennels has scratching posts.

This is my milk and feed "room", under an awning on the side of the landlord's shed. Ken, best hubby in the world, made me the cool milk stand.

This is the manor castle, laundry room, banquet hall, and aviary (chicken coop). Oh yes, and part of the garden too.

This is a shot of the main garden earlier this month. Wow, I didn't realize how much had grown in the last month. The last bed is packed with flowers now. The second on the right is full of tomato plants. Two more are started with corn. And one is started with sunflowers. Just finished spraying for pests with a mixture from a master gardener. It dropped two cabbage worms, one moth, and two grasshoppers while I was spraying!! Hopefully the battle with the cabbage worms has been won!! This was a mixture of tobacco juice, mouthwash, soap, and garlic juice. Sounded pretty weird, but if it works like I think it did tonight, this is great!

I think I got the last of the supplies that I needed for soap making this weekend. Hopefully I will get a chance to try a batch of soap before the end of the month so I can let you know how that goes.

I took Russtee and the girls out to the landlord's pasture for a stroll today. Russtee was off lead even though the fence was down, but the yard gate was closed so he couldn't get too far. The girls were ducks in a row on a piece of rope - goats on a rope - I have tied them out from time to time, but watch them closely because they always get themselves in a knot. Of course, today was no exception. Since we have so many dogs around, I didn't leave them out alone today, but walked them around instead - or better stated - they walked me around. They enjoyed themselves and were contentedly chewing their cud when I went in to fix dinner.

However, when I went out after dinner - I.C. Spots had disappeared from their pen. Closer inspection found her trapped behind the shed in their pen!! She has never attempted this before, very strange. We got her out and walked her around a bit. Apparently she had gotten back there pretty soon after I went in, because she was quite wobbly when we first got her out. But she is fine now. Still have no idea what inticed her to squeeze back there, the space between the shed and the fence couldn't be more than five inches!!! And it backs to another shed, so nothing to see back there?? Anyway, put some obstacles in the way. Hopefully no one else will attempt that again.

Well, it's nearly midnight and we gotta get up for school tomorrow. Two more days of school, then the girl is out for the summer, looking forward to VBS and summer camp.

Ya'll take care.

God Bless,

DaLinda

I MADE CHEESE!!!

I finally got around to making some mozzerella cheese yesterday. It is already gone, so it must have been a success! I used Ricki's 30 minute mozzerella recipe on cheesemaking.com. It took a little longer for the curd to set than the five minutes in the recipe, but otherwise did okay. My curds never look like the cut cubes that I always see in the videos. Mine are always more stringy. Not sure why that happens. Just got to keep practicing, I guess.

I also started the custard for some goat milk ice cream. I used the vanilla ice cream III recipe from Storey Publishing's Raising Dairy Goats. I am going to add strawberries and freeze it later today.

But now I have four quarts of whey. I will probably try to make some ricotta cheese from it. I am not sure about trying any of the drinks recipes I have come across. If all else fails, I will feed it to the chickens. I know that they love any goat milk that I give them. It goes faster than their chicken feed!

Just finished planting my raised beds this week. Today I pulled up the sweet peas and planted some garlic bulbs that had gotten overlooked. Having a problem with cabbage worms though. They apparently liked my peas too. Hope they enjoy the garlic!! I know the chickens enjoyed all that I could handpick of the little buggers!

I need to do some research on apple cider vinegar as used for pest control and watering the goats. I have read that people use it, but I have never come across how much and what ratio it is used in. Also want to get the herbs for that vinegar recipe posted previously.

Well gotta run and try to catch up on things. Seems like I always have a four day long to do list!!

God Bless,

DaLinda

Happy Mother's Day to all.

Last week my husband took a surprise week of vacation, so I am a week behind on everything. Having him around like that always disrupts my schedules. We went siteseeing, shopping, and visited a Christian summer camp that our daughter will be going to this summer. He went golfing and then he and Cassandra practiced a few swings in the pasture. Now Cassandra has been out every day in the pasture knocking golf balls around. She nearly hit me in the head with one!

The garden is growing like crazy. The roosters are starting to crow, which means we will be having fried chicken for sunday dinner very soon. And, of course, the kids are growing like weeds. Desarae and Derrick are eating well. Derrick is staying with the "big boys" now. Saphire is huge! Carlisle is just slightly smaller than her.

I caught Carlisle making bucky eyes and slobbing all over himself over my pygmy doe, Polgara. She was not impressed! I nearly died laughing, he looked so comical. He really thought he was hot stuff.

I made butter yesterday. 16 oz of cream gave me about 8 oz of butter. I just whipped the cream with my mixer until the butter separated. Then I poured off the buttermilk and washed the butter in cold water. I didn't salt this batch, but sometimes I do add salt. Then stored it in the refrigerator in small jam jars.

I also made some french vanilla coffee creamer for my husband. He said it tasted better than what he had been buying before. I took one cup of goat milk, added 1/3 cup of agave syrup, 2 Tbsps goat milk cream, and 1 Tbsp of vanilla extract. Combined it all in a pint jar and shook it up. You have to shake well before using, but he said it tasted great. I don't drink coffee, so I have to take his word for it. Cassandra likes to add creamer to her milk, so she tried it and said it tasted good too.

I am hoping to try a cheese recipe in the next few days. I want to try cottage cheese and/ or mozzerella. My last attempt was not that great, so I am kinda nervous. Hate to waste all that milk for another failure. But at least I have a steady supply.

I am collecting my soap making supplies. I want to make just a basic soap with olive oil and lard/ or vegetable shortening. I have been researching recipes and I still need a few more supplies, especially a mold or molds. Ken wants me to make liquid soap too. So I will have to find a recipe or two for that as well.

Well guess that's about it for now.

God Bless,

DaLinda