Vanilla Maple Milk

I tried to post this the other day, but something happened. I actually think my computer froze up on me! I had fonted on about a bunch of other things, and after I lost it all, I just said forget it.

Anyway, here's a new recipe I invented:

12 ounces raw milk
1 T. Grade B Organic Maple Syrup
1/2 t. vanilla

Pour the milk into a glass, add the syrup and the vanilla. Stir. Voila! I'm trying to drink more raw milk, and I have read that it's even more healthful if you drink it as soon as possible after leaving its original container. :-) So this morning, I brought the milk in, strained it, poured myself a glass and drank it warm with the syrup and vanilla. It was pretty good. Not as DELICIOUS as when it is ICE COLD, but better than plain warm milk, which I don't care too much for. Sometime I will probably see how it tastes with a couple of egg yolks added, which should be very much like eggnog. Especially if I used rum flavoring, instead of vanilla.

This morning I ended up with ONE GALLON of milk for the house. This is after feeding the orphans their breakfast quart and holding back their afternoon quart. That is the most we've gotten in days. Dh has finally started to separate the kids when he does the afternoon feeding. He was waiting and letting me do it when I got home. He feels sorry for the kids, having to be separated from their mothers. But they have grown used to it now, as it's been routine to them for several weeks. And I do think the mother appreciate having a break from their kids banging them in the udder (sometimes they literally beat the udder as they are "bumping" it to get more milk to let down). Anyway, I pointed out to him that I think the mothers appreciate the overnight break, and the kids don't mind the separation now anyway. So I guess it made sense to him because ever since he's been separating them earlier.

It's really not too difficult to do, now that we have a routine worked out. In the beginning, we'd chase down kids one at a time and put them over the fence. But that was just too crazy, especially once it started getting hotter out. Okay, so here is the routine: Throw a flake of hay in the kid pen. All the goats will file into that area. Go into the kid pen and close the gate that blocks the does from the kid pen. Now go back out, throw two flakes of hay in the doe pen. Then go back in to the kid pen and begin filtering adults through the kid pen gate that leads to the doe pen. Block any kids that have wandered over to see about those other flakes of hay. Soon all the adults are where they should be and the babies are where they should be. It always worked out better to remove the dam from her kid, instead of removing the kid from the dam.

Until next time.