A Knight's Tale - Movie Review

First a little update on my ten day staycation. I tackled my room on Monday, and thanks to all the help from Kev who really made the job a lot easier for me. I clean, he empties the can and puts in another bag for me. One of the items that gets put into my bedroom with regularity are bags of clothing that no one wears. So I went through all those. I did three loads of laundry day after day before the 9am "cut off" that we agree to with Arizona Public Service (the electricity is cheapest from 9pm to 9am). I took cobwebs down in the living room, and also took down the living room curtains and washed them. And I removed the lime and calcium from which both toilets were in desperate need of rescue. Now to keep them clean and not let them get built up again.

I found myself dreading my return to work after ten days, but I had to, so I did. But I only had to work for three days, and then Wednesday night began the conference I had to attend for my job. It was a training conference for the electronic bookkeeping system we have been using for the last three years. Last year, the conference was spectacular. I have never been to a conference in all my life, so I had nothing with which to compare, but I am sure they really spoiled us. They chose a different hotel this year, and didn't quite spoil us like they did last year. I didn't learn much until after the conference was over, from another user who showed me what I'd been missing in the program that hooks up with Excel. Wow!! I can't wait to get back to work and check it out. I'd be checking it out RIGHT NOW instead of blogging, but the work server isn't allowing anyone to connect and IT won't be back in until Tuesday. So I'll just have to forget about it for a couple of weeks, since I have to get caught up when I get back on Tuesday.

From the same kind lady, I also got to hold an Amazon Kindle in my hands and check it out. I have been so curious about the Kindle and how they work. I don't really have enough time for reading to justify buying a Kindle, and I probably would be reluctant to buy the books for the current cost when I can buy most any book I wish to read from half.com or amazon.com for much less. Still, it was neat to see on in person. The lady I talked to said the best thing about it for her is she can easily increase the font, which obviously you can't do with a book in real life. You can also search the book for keywords, that is awesome. The book also will translate text to voice, and read the book to you! Pretty cool. Too bad it costs $300.

On to the movie review. As indicated in my profile on Blogger, A Knight's Tale (Heath Ledger) is one of my favorite movies. I first watched A Knight's Tale probably about five years ago. I really enjoyed the movie, and Kev and I watched it together numerous times. Even dh watched it at least once. I am certain I watched the movie a minimum of twenty times (had a lot more time five years ago)!!

At last year's conference, on Thursday night they treated us to a huge banquet dinner but this year we were on our own. Kev was staying with me at the hotel and we decided on Chinese for dinner. Only we couldn't find a place to deliver so we went out to pick up. Kev needed some buns to go with the wonderful sausage The Sausage Man delivered to him on Wednesday night at Bible study (thanks, Sausage Man!) and so we stopped at Safeway. Kev wished he'd brought along his current favorite movie, Fireproof. We stopped by the display of DVDs just to see if Fireproof was there and we saw A Knight's Tale. Kev said we should get it and watch it for old time's sake.

I love that movie. What amazed me most; however, is I forgot the most important thing that happens to William! I won't mention it in case you haven't seen the movie.

Kev turned me on to Plugged In Online, a site owned by Focus on the Family proclaiming to "Shining a Light on the World of Popular Entertainment" and the review for A Knight's Tale is positive.

My understanding of the Bible is since we are living in the dispensation of Grace, we are no longer under the law. We don't have to jump through hoops to win our salvation. Jesus Christ did the work on the cross at Calvary, and all we have to do to be saved is believe he died for our sins, was buried and rose again. That's all. We don't have to get baptized, go door to door witnessing, go to church every time the building is open, speak in tongues, pay tithes, ask for forgiveness, say prayers every night, get down on our knees, pray over our food before we eat, go to confession or anything else that most religions tell you must be done in order to be saved or to be a good Christian. In essence, what they all promote is that you must work your way into heaven, or you can't be saved. This twisting of God's Word is nothing more than the enemy's way of confusing the truth.

While it's perfectly okay for a believer to attend popular movies, I appreciate the Plugged In Online site because it gives some insight to the movie from a "Christian" perspective. For example, a secular review would never think to include profanity occurrences in a movie. If you are a person trying to bring every thought under control, attempting to remain pure in a world which thinks nothing of filling even children's movies with sexual innuendo, you might find Plugged In Online to be of help in making a decision to support Hollywood in a current movie.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

I, myself have found the site to be helpful because the secular synopsis of the movie seemed innocent enough, but whoa, when I read more about it from the opposite mindset on Plugged In Online, what a difference. Do I really want to go to a PG-13 movie with my husband to find that the main female character (who is married) dresses scantily and kisses half the men in the movie? Why fill our minds with these images when all they do is linger there for us to fight against?

While there are two instances when we see Chaucer's naked backside, the context is not sexual. He's a bad gambler who loses. Everything. Including his clothing.

The movie has romance, chivalry, it's funny (Wat: "Pain, lots of pain."), it's triumphant, there are happy reunions, it's an all around great movie.

We're going to watch it again tonight as a family.

Until next time.

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Growing Watermelon Upright Using Hay Twine

FINALLY, I have FINALLY found a use for hay twine!!! Lo, all these seven years of owning goats and wishing there was a use for the hay twine which builds up in piles around the goat yard... I looked through dh's pile of "stuff" and found some rails which were just the right size to put into the garden, insert up into the chicken wire at the top to keep the rails in position, and then push into the ground just a few inches.


Next I tied the hay twine horizontally from one rail to the next. There were six holes in the rails, so I fed the hay twine into the holes and pulled taut at the rail on the other side and tied a knot.

Then I tied twine just around the rail itself, in between those ones actually within a hole.

After I finished all the horizontal pieces, I started at the bottom and going vertically tied a knot into each horizontal piece of twine. All the way up, I tied a knot onto each horizontal piece. I am so excited about this! My great idea to put the watermelon right next to the garden "wall" so it could grow up the chicken wire wasn't working out too good because the watermelon's growing tips kept insisting on feeding itself right out of the garden. If it hadn't been for the sunflower bed in front that is still protected with chicken wire, the growing tips would surely have been eaten by birds or other critters.

After I finished tying everything, I fed the watermelon vines up through the hay twine.

The tallest one was about 2 feet long!

I am so excited about this idea. It took 22 pieces of hay twine to build this one, and that's 7 bales of hay worth of hay twine. Now if I just put together about 10,000 more of these I'll have used up all the hay twine that's lying all over the yard. ;-)

Until next time.

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September Gardening!

First off, the list of vegetables we can plant right now:

September 1st to September 14th

• Beans, Snap
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts TS
• Cabbage
• Cabbage, Chinese
• Carrots
• Cauliflower TS
• Celery
• Collard Greens
• Cucumbers
• Endive
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce, Head
• Lettuce, Leaf
• Leek
• Mustard
• Onions, Green
• Radishes
• Turnips

I am so proud of myself! I had planned to get my seeds planted yesterday, and as I was milking I started thinking about what needed to be done in order to succeed. I have a lot of seeds to plant but I didn't want to get myself overwhelmed with too much. I know I have a tendency to try to do too much and end up quitting because I get discouraged. So I told myself I could pick four types of seeds to plant. I decided on leaf lettuce, radishes, kale and Swiss Chard.

Then I realized I have to plant beets, too. Especially since they take a long time to mature into nice sized beets. Okay, even though they aren't on the list to plant NOW, they will be starting September 15th. So I'm just a few days early (I'm early on the spinach and chard, too). After I sat down and looked at my seeds, I realized I want to also plant bunching onions, and spinach.

My favorite place to buy seeds is from Pinetree Seeds. I just went to visit their site today and they have a brand new shopping cart, which is awesome and actually shows pictures of the vegetables! It used to be text only. I have been ordering from them for over a dozen years. They have good prices and the shipping is reasonable. Of course when I first started ordering from them, their seeds were fifty cents or sixty cents. They've gone up, like everything else.

You should go right now to Pinetree's site and request a catalog. I love when mine arrive and I can just spend hours looking at all the different vegetables and flowers they offer. Oh, and about ordering with them - they put the planting seasons on the packets for their area, which is Maine. So we have to plant our seeds when it's time for us. For example, we start planting things like lettuce now, but in Maine their gardens could be under snow by the time their lettuce was ready to harvest.

Here are the seeds I'm planting. Click on the link to see the information at Pinetree.

#332 Space Spinach
# W468 Bunching Forest Onion
#203 Pinetree Lettuce Mix (A collection of sweet leaf lettuces for continuous harvest)
#94 Bright Lights Swiss Chard
#W239 Chioggia Beets (Bright red exterior w/rings of pink & white inside)
#301 Cherry Belle Radish
#19101 Konserva Kale

After I made breakfast for myself, Kev and dh, I set out to get my garden ready. I showed you what it looked like a few days ago, so unfortunately it wasn't just a matter of going out and planting seeds.

I headed out just after 9am. I took the wheelbarrow over to the goat's pen and began shoveling from the outside of the fence. Hay and berries get kicked out of the yard onto the outside, and then that outside debris matures over time. It bakes in the sun, gets rained on and turns it into great composted material perfect for gardening. The goats of course had to have a look and see what I was doing, and make sure I didn't bring any yummy treats for them.

Here's the area where I was shoveling from.

And here's my beautiful compost.



I dumped it into the garden bed. Dh dug the ground up in the garden in one section about 6 feet square last weekend so I could at least get one bed started this weekend.

In a perfect world, I'd plant new seeds every two weeks. Some of the vegetables I'm planting will grow until next summer when it is too hot and they will die off, but other things have to be planted again and again to have a constant supply throughout the season.

For example, with Swiss Chard and leaf lettuce, you never harvest the entire plant. Instead you pick the outer leaves. You can pick all the leaves right down to leaving only the very center of the plant, and one or two small outer leaves. I've never planted kale before, but it's Kev's favorite green leafy vegetable, and I'm assuming it will be the same. Spinach can be harvested the same way.

In spite of the seed packet directions for planting the Swiss Chard, lettuce, kale and spinach, we planted each seed 2 to 4 inches apart (usually they tell you to plant 6 inches or a foot apart). This will be great for mature plants, but in the meantime we can be using that space to grow more plants. In a few weeks, we will "space" the seedlings to the correct distance. We can then have an awesome salad made of baby greens. Have you ever checked to see how much "baby greens" cost in the store? Upwards of six dollars a pound the times I've checked!

Radishes, being a root crop, need to be planted frequently in order to keep your supply constant. Radishes grow fast, so we'll probably be able to harvest our first crop within 30 days. Pinetree says they have harvested seeds by 21 days.

The beets, although the packages says 55 days, will probably not be ready for harvesting for at least three months.

BTW, in case you ever wondered, the number of days on the package means from the time the seed germinates. We planted the seeds on the 6th, and it will take 3-5 days for the beet cotyledons to emerge. So let's say the cotyledon emerges by the 11th. The 30th of October will be 56 days, and according to Pinetree they harvested beets starting on the 55th day. Well, I've never been able to get my beets to produce that early. I wonder if I'm missing something in my soil.

But my goodness, I digress! On with preparing the bed!

Here you might be able to see the color difference between the fresher compost, which is close to the goat pen, and compost from the "north forty" which has been aging out there for a few years. A nice hill of it, and it smells just like compost you buy from the store. Only it's free, all mine for the taking! I could never use all of it if I tried! :-)

After I got three wheelbarrow's full of compost mixed into the soil and got the bed somewhat level, I had to go inside for a while. I was burning up, I had to lay on the bed and let the fan blow on me. My feet were steaming hot inside my shoes, and they were killing me.

I think I was close to having heat exhaustion. Whew.

I stayed inside for about an hour, getting cooled off. Then Kev came out of his room and said he was able to come help me in the garden, so we went back out around 11:30.

Kev helped by repairing the garden in areas where the dogs had torn their way in a couple of years ago. It is hopefully safe now, since Hannah, the one that went the most psycho over birds in the garden passed away a couple of months ago.

I also hope the gophers have forgotten about my garden for a little while. They invaded two years ago, I hope they have moved on to greener pastures.

While Kev did the repairs to the outer fencing, I started getting the watering system in place. I had to check each soaker hose to make sure water was actually coming through the pinholes. I had to replace one. It is a tedious process, and sure I could have just popped them all off, thrown them away and used the new roll of soaker hose I have inside the house, (which I actually know where it's located!) but that's not how I roll. If the old Dig Laser Drilled Soaker Hose is still in working condition, then I'll use it.

The tedious process consisted of connecting each section of hose to the water source and examine carefully to see if water was dripping from each pinhole.

Kev helped me by putting the pieces together and taking them apart. You have to press the hose onto the connectors and it is sometimes hard to do.

Then it was time to plant! If you click on the photo you can see a larger image and you can see where we planted the different seeds.

Here's Kev for a garden photo after we were all finished.



So the first thing we can expect to harvest, barring any catastrophes (birds finding a way in and eating all the cotyledons as soon as they emerge, gophers digging under the fence and eating all the new baby plants, the dogs breaking in because a bird got in and is flying around) will be baby leaf lettuce, baby beets, baby Swiss Chard and radishes.

I have a lot more seeds to plant, and I hope I can get another bed prepared by the 20th. I would like to get my crucifers planted within the month. Falstaff Brussels Sprouts, Bubbles Brussels Sprouts, Cheddar Cauliflower, Gonzales Mini Cabbage, Silver Cup 40 Cauliflower, Graffiti Cauliflower, Cabbage Krautman.

I like to try to plant some heirlooms along with the hybrids. If I were ambitious enough, and could find the time and energy, I would save my own seeds for the next year's crop. I still find it a very good price to pay $0.80 for a packet of 300 seeds. Imagine that. A small bunch of radishes in the store sell for $0.89 a bunch. But with a packet of seeds that cost than a dollar, I could grow 30 bunches. That is some kind of savings! I sure hope I can stay up with my garden this time, and keep it growing throughout the season.

Until next time.

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For Labor Day - Fresh Meat

If you are squeamish about normal homesteading activities, like butchering, you might want to close your browser now and avoid today's post. I understand it can be a difficult topic to read about, especially when you aren't expecting it, hence my disclaimer.

People are so disconnected from their food in today's society. If we couldn't buy our meat in neat little packages from the store, I dare say a huge majority of us would become vegetarians. Not to mention many people wouldn't know the first thing about growing their own vegetables!

A long time ago, I decided if I am going to eat meat, then it's hypocritical of me to not learn to process our own homegrown meat. I'm not fond of butchering, but I am glad that we learned this important self-sufficiency task. It's not fun, but once the kill is done, it's not much different from cutting up a fresh chicken from the store.

There are no pictures in this post, and the content is not really very graphic, I just know that most folks don't want to read or know about butchering, so here's your warning.

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You've been warned. Proceed at your own risk.

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You lost your chance. Continue on, you brave soul.

We decided to butcher one of our goats to barbecue on Labor Day. We decided to get the processing done on Saturday as it's kind of stressful.

I was amazed at how much fat this young goat contained. We have never processed one this young. He was three months old, and was still living with his dam (and trying to breed her as they become sexually active as young as 8 weeks of age)! We have heard that milk fed animals taste different (think veal). Except I've heard that veal is produced under inhumane conditions (small cages where they can barely move around and kept in the dark).

The amount of fat contained in this buckling intrigued me, and I decided to try rendering fat.

Kev did the kill this time. I don't like that part. We learned that the goats "choke out" easily, just by accident. The first time scared me really badly. I was doing hoof trims, this was before we got our nice metal milking stand. I had the doe tied up to the fence and was working on her back feet and she started leaning against me very heavily. I looked over at her, annoyed, and saw that she was leaning against me, because she had fainted. The reason why is because she'd been leaning really hard against her collar and she cut off the flow of blood to her brain which caused her to pass out. I was so scared that she was dead and freaked out pretty good. But once I unhooked her collar from the fence and she fell to the ground and blood began flowing into her brain, she was okay, just a little disoriented.

A few times I've had the goats pulling on their collars so hard when I'm trying to put them back into the pen after milking that they have almost choked themselves out. They almost fall down but then they shudder like they are having a seizure. It's scary, because I'm afraid to hang onto them, and then they figure that out, and won't go where I want them to go.

Anyway, Kev got the idea to try putting a goat down in this way, as it seems to be humane since the animal faints due the loss of blood to the brain. He says it was much easier than trying to use the gun.

I'm usually present at the kill, but this time I told dh and Kev that I wanted them to call me when they had the kid hung. They got the young goat bled and hung; and I skinned, gutted and quartered it. Once the kill is done, I'm okay.

I harvested the liver, the heart, the kidneys, and by special request from one of our church brethren, the Rocky Mountain Oysters. Usually we castrate our young males, but we had a special request, so I was asked to not band this youngster.

I attempted to render the fat. I will link to the before photo so it won't be right there IN YOUR FACE. It's not really that bad, think liposuction. Oooooohhhh, no better? Sorry, sorry.

Here's the after photo:
Until next time.

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A Few Things That Happened Today

Something's up with Blogger and Firefox today. I stopped using Internet Explorer some time ago, and much prefer Firefox. But when I logged in and tried to make a post, this is what I was met with:Quite a mess. I tried shutting Firefox down and reopening, but got the same gibberish. I could have made a post and published it, but there was no way to upload photos. And that's why I'm here today. To share what we got today. Dh was reading one of the local newspapers which mentioned a vegetable and fruit coop was coming to a nearby city. I contacted the group through the website and discovered that they actually have two drop off locations in our area. So we signed up for one box. This is what we got: 5 pickling cucumbers
10 limes
1 honeydew melon
1 butterleaf lettuce
6 medium russet potatoes
9 red plums
8 nectarines
11 large carrots
7 red onions
4 bosc pears
5 mangoes
7 bananas
5 tomatoes

Our basket cost under $20. It is supposed to $50 worth of fruits and vegetables, and they say it will last a family of four for two weeks.

On the way to pick up our basket - which by the way we spent $6.89 for the round trip into town and back home for gas - a lady was putting out yard sale signs. Dh had to go to a job today and was leaving as soon as he dropped me off. I asked him if he thought that lady might have anything good for sale. I guess I ask the question that way because I don't really care one way or the other if we go and see? He said it wouldn't take that long to look, so we followed the signs. She had bullhead sticker plants all over her yard. I am SO glad we don't have them on our property. I have pulled up several of them and keep my eyes peeled for them and remove them if I see any of them. Dh's sister's property is practically a farm of the horrible things.

At the yard sale, I saw a pile of towels. Lots of nice, thick, mostly purple towels. I asked how much she wanted for the towels - she only wanted fifty cents each! They aren't brand new, and have some strings hanging on some of them, but they are better than most of the towels we are currently using! The three on the left are large beach towels, one is yellow striped and the other is a hot pink striped, then a purple one on top of that. In the next pile there is a thick, soft maroon towel at the bottom, and three matching lavendar towels on top. The next pile there are three purple towels with four hand towels, and the pile on the right there are four thick, soft deep purple towels. In the front row there are six washclothes. She was asking for ten cents each for the hand towels and washclothes!

I also saw this Singer Tiny Serger and asked how much she wanted for it... four dollars! The only problem is we didn't have any cash left as we'd used the last $8 in dollars and change buying the towels and washclothes. So I asked dh if he wouldn't mind running back by her place on his way out. He was happy to do that, so she held it for me. Now I have read some good reviews about this little machine, and some terrible reviews. It didn't come with the manual, which could be a problem. I hope I can get it to work! If you know how I can get a manual for it, or if you happen to own one, and have a manual for it, I'd sure be grateful for a scanned copy! Here is a beautiful photo of the sunrise I was able to capture the other morning.
My doctor's appointment was on June 20th, and yesterday I received a call from the office that schedules referrals. This was to schedule a mammogram. I wish I could be like many people seem to be, happy that their doctor wants them to radiate their breasts just in case. I hate having all these stupid tests and frankly it just stresses me out to know that my doctor wants me to have them done. She acted like I'm the stupid one, and indeed many people would probably think that way about me, because I haven't been getting tests done all these past few years.

How do you find a doctor that is there for you when YOU want them for something, and leaves you alone the rest of the time? And doesn't put your files into the archive area?

I asked if my blood test results had been returned and I was routed to an answering machine to leave my name and number. The only reason I even went to the doctor was to get the referral to my asthma/allergy specialist. I wonder what he would charge if I just went straight to him without a referral and paid out of my own pocket? If I didn't have asthma I wouldn't be seeing him either. Really, I'm just fine without all these doctors.

I know I have the right to ask for my test results so I can examine them myself, but it is difficult to work up the energy to do something as stressful as that. You're probably asking, what's so stressful? Well, I have to go in and ask. Working up the nerve to do that in itself is stressful.

I've been putting together a brochure for our church in the past few weeks, and I made a really glaring mistake on the front. I was mortified and called our pastor immediately and he had JUST come from the printers, having printed up 200 brochures. I told him I'd pay for the mistake and I've printed them myself, and have also merged addresses for mailing, and have been folding them.

Kev and I are going to church camp this summer. I hope that will be relaxing, and not one more stressful thing. Today as we were going to pick up our vegetable and fruit basket, I found myself wishing I could get my garden going again. I have had so much trouble with the critters out here it is a lot of work to keep them from eating everything up. The entire garden is fenced with chicken wire, the top and the sides, and the last time I gardened the gophers dug their way under and were pulling vegetables into the ground by their roots.

We're getting quite a bit of milk now. Almost one gallon is coming into the house every day, I freeze half a gallon every day from the previous day. We are getting another gallon or so which we divide up between the dogs and the chickens. We had flies for a time and so we were milking at 3am every single morning, even on the days we didn't have to go to work. I think that is what just about did me in. I would sometimes come in and go back to bed by 5am, but it is very hard for me to get up that early every single day without a break.

Dh started another sideline to his business and we're trying to get that off the ground. I've ordered business cards, and created websites for the two businesses. Dh's been doing some cold calls for the second business, hoping to drum up some business. He's got one contact that seems like it will turn into a good opportunity.

Okay, Kev fixed Firefox for me. He hit F5 and did a refresh and now it's working okay. Thanks, Kev!

Also, he edited a short movie I took while outside in the afternoon. Enjoy.

Until next time.

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Surprise!! It's a Boy!

On Friday I spent the day with one of my good friends. I got over to her house around 10am and we both had errands to run so we hung out for the day going from one place to the next. We finally got to the restaurant to eat lunch around 2pm. We went to see Indiana Jones after that. Within minutes of getting out of the movie my dh called me and said he wanted to let me know that our doe Miss L had been showing signs of labor during the day and she had pushed for the first time. I asked if by any chance he had put her in the nursery pen. We still had the last two does that kidded in there, with their four kids. He hadn't, but after I mentioned it he and Kev moved those does and their kids into the big pen, and moved Miss L into the nursery pen.

With goats, labor progresses fairly steadily. Once the dam begins to push, she should kid within half an hour. If not there are one or two things to consider. First of all, she is possibly having a calcium deficiency and that is causing her pushes to be less than effective. Secondly, the kid could be positioned wrong, or is tangled with its littermate(s).

By the time I got home she'd been pushing leisurely for about 90 minutes. I gave her another half hour and then gave her a dose of the calcium we keep on hand. I gave her a bit longer and decided I'd better have a check inside to see what was going on. I gave her a birthing trim (shaved the long hairs on her tail which were already covered with dried birth goop), washed her bottom very well and then washed my own hand carefully. I checked and the baby was positioned correctly, but she didn't seem to be pushing very hard -- unless I was massaging her perineum. Finally she got the head out and then stopped there. I got hold of the baby's head and carefully pulled. The baby was born and was very limp. I cleaned his face and he was making gurgling sounds so I decided to swing him to clear his lungs. I got hold of his hind legs using a t-shirt because he was still wet and slimy from being born and went around and around in circles about five times. Then I laid him down and wiped him again, and called Miss L over to start licking and bonding with him.

She had been nanny talking and licking us before her kid was born and she managed to rebond with us, and thought we were her kids the first couple days. She kept calling to dh and I, only happy when we were out near her pen.

After she kidded she was doing well, eating hay, drinking her "power punch" for goats (quick energy), and ate some grain. Her kid was very weak after he was born and attempted to stand up but he just couldn't do it. I went to bed around 11pm after I felt like Miss L was doing okay. I got up at 4am and went out to check on them, and he was still laying down, but seemed to be doing okay. I slept in and I finally got out to milk around 6:30am. When I got out there, the kid was up and walking around, and Miss L seemed to be doing okay, too.

Kev's rendition of Miss L's kidding

But that's not the end of my story.

I suspected that Miss Z, the doe who kidded last October 19th, the day before the wedding, was also pregnant. Usually I breed our does every other year but it has been crazy busy around here with both my dh and I working. For several years, I worked and he stayed home to run our little mini-farm, but he had to start working a couple of years ago so he hasn't had much time to do repairs. Our bucks broke out of the pen, jumping not only their fence, but the doe fence. Miss Z's milk supply had been decreasing but she gave me a pound on Friday morning so I thought she still had two to four weeks to go until she was due. I wrote down the day that the bucks broke into the pen but I hadn't checked my barn records yet.

I was busy with Miss L on Saturday morning, and when Miss Z wasn't hanging around waiting her turn to be milked I decided to just not milk her. After all she's only giving one pound of milk so she can go for a day in between milkings.

On Sunday morning she came in to be milked at her normal turn and as she jumped on the stand I noticed she had some goop on her back end, plus her bottom looked kind of red and a little swollen. I thought she must be starting in labor. I milked her, and noticed that one side of her udder was emptier than the other side. I mentioned to my dh that her kids were STILL NURSING and we needed to get them separated from her because I she was pregnant. He says, "Z's pregnant?! How did I miss that? I didn't know that!"

The bucklings that were in the nursery pen with their dams were chasing all the females in the doe pen. Our goats are Nubians and do not appear to cycle during the summer, so I wasn't letting myself get too freaked out. Some people claim that they have silent heats and there is still a chance they can conceive, but I've never tested the theory either way. That's all I need is a yard full of does pregnant by 4 month old bucklings... they are fertile as early as 3 months of age!

Since Miss Z was obviously in labor, we put her in the nursery pen along with Miss L (who gave birth on Friday, who also happens to be Miss Z's dam).

Kev and I went to church and dh kept an eye on everyone outside. He noticed the little bucklings were ganging up on our herd queen and she was whirling and twirling and headbutting them so he took her out of the big pen and put her into the nursery pen to protect her from the bucklings. Miss L was headbutting her daughter, Miss Z and really didn't want her in the nursery pen. Miss Z really wanted back into the big pen and stood near the fence line looking anxious. Dh decided to go ahead and put her back into the big pen since her mother was headbutting her and she seemed so eager to get back to the big pen. She also didn't seem too close to kidding, so he figured we could move her later on.

After Kev and I got home from church, the three of us went out and caught the four bucklings, got them banded and moved them to the buck pen to prevent them from harrassing the does. We were all over the yard, in the barn and all over the place catching those little bucklings.

Moving the bucklings into the buck's pen meant they were also getting weaned. I usually like to band the boys, then let them stay with their dam for a couple more days, then wean them. But they were really being brats so we just decided to get it over and done with.

That means I had to milk SIX does this morning. I've been milking three, now suddenly six. So I got up right at 3:00am and we went out to milk.

The two does that were in the nursery pen are still learning to come when called for milking, so we had to go into the pen and get them.

Finally it was Miss Z's turn. Dh was using his flashlight and looking around the pen and finally he spotted her on the other side all alone. He thought maybe she was going to have her babies - then - he realized she had a baby with her!!! I went over with the flashlight to have a look and the baby was all dried off and didn't act like a newborn at all. That is when I realized all of a sudden that she must have had him sometime on Saturday, and she was hiding him in the back of the barn. Now it made sense! The goop on her backside, the one side of her udder being empty. LOL! I grabbed her baby and brought him and his dam out and they are now in the nursery pen. I need easy access to them so I can do the buckling's disbudding when it's time. I keep chuckling to myself at the thought of how Miss Z got one over on me. And, I'm very grateful, because Miss L's kidding was pretty stressful and it would have been too much to have to be worried about Miss Z, too.

When I told Kev about Miss Z's surprise baby, he said when we were chasing the bucklings around, he saw Miss Z on the backside of the barn and she must have already had her baby by that time.

A public thanks to Kev for doing hoof trims on half of the goats today. Now we just have to get to the other half... thanks, Kev.


Until next time.

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Muenster Cheese Day 2

I took the Muenster from its cheesecloth wrapping this morning and here it is.

Kev suggested that using 40 pounds worth of weights was not correct for such a small block of cheese.

Anyway, here it is as I'm unwrapping the cheesecloth.

On the plate, ready for salting.

We only have coarse ground sea salt so I crushed a tablespoon or so with a rolling pin and here's what it looks like. I think I might have put too much salt on it.

I'm off to milk.

Related Posts:
Muenster Cheese (Day 1)

10AM: I'm adding this picture a few hours after my post this morning - we've sampled some of the cheese. It is so delicious, I don't know if it is going to get a chance to age unless I hide it!!

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Muenster Cheese

I'm trying my hand at making a hard cheese. Muenster. One of my friends who raises goats has tried making it twice. It is incredibly simple to make! There are only three ingredients. Milk, rennet and salt. I usually get flustered about making cheese because they want you to use certain cultures, which I do have some on hand, but I am not sure how to use them correctly. It's like when the recipe calls for 1/2 tablet of rennet, but we have liquid rennet. Then I have to go see how much liquid rennet to use in place of the tablet.

I brought the milk in and strained it and found I had 3 quarts. When I brought the milk in it was almost at the required temperature of 88°F. I added a quart from yesterday and heated the milk back up.

After it reaches 88°F you let it set for 5 minutes. Then you take your 1/4 teaspoon of liquid rennet, mixed with 1/4 cup of water, and pour it into the milk. Use a whisk to make sure you get the rennet mixed in well. I also used bottled water, to make sure I wasn't adding any funky bacteria from our well water. Not that our water is bad, but sometimes it's best to use "clean" water so as to not add to the mix.

Cover and let set for one hour.

After one hour, test for a clean break in your curds. Cut with a sharp knife into 1 inch cubes. Heat the curds while mixing carefully.

Remove the curds and let the whey drain for 20 minutes. Then put the curds into a cheese press.

Cheese press?

Oops. I don't have a cheese press. So I set about looking on the Internet for how to make one of my own.

I found one by Mr. Fankhauser (quite a famous cheese maker on the Internet) and one by Ms. Molly from Fias Co Farms.

Between the two of those sites, I got the gist of what needed to be done to press the whey out of my cheese, so I went for a walk out on our property to see what I could come up with.

First I found two of these - 3" Black PVC Couplers, commonly used for septic lines. I was actually looking for 6" diameter, which is what Mr. Fankhauser recommends, but we didn't have any, at least not that I could locate.

Next, I found these 10# weights.

And finally, I found this old racquetball racquet.


After I drained my curds for 20 minutes, I molded them into a shape which would fit into the PVC coupler. First I put in a layer of cheesecloth.


Next I used a can of green chiles as the follower. I peeled the label off after I took this photograph.

Next, I placed a can of tuna on top. Now these couplers have an inner lip inside and the tuna can is too wide to go past that point, so you can only use the tuna can for pushing on the top half.

After an hour or so had passed, I discovered that my can of green chiles was too narrow and was allowing the cheese to squish up around the sides. So I found a lid that fit perfectly, and would still move down past the inner lip of the coupler.

The inner lip is shown here, and pointed out with arrows.

This lid is a much better follower than the can of green chiles.

Lionel gives his seal of approval. I realized my set up was too precarious just sitting on the counter, so I put it in a milk crate on the floor.


My forty pound "weight" at top, which is sitting on the can inside the PVC couplers, and the couplers are sitting on the racquetball racquet. The whole thing sits on a cake pan. For the sake of taking this photo, I placed the weights flush onto the PVC couplers. But after I put my setup back into the milk crate I put a tuna can inside so the weights are actually pressing on the can.

As the cheese presses down, I've had to use different size cans to make sure the weights are not sitting flush on top of the PVC couplers.

After the cheese has been pressed for 12 hours, I have to turn it upside down and press it in the other direction for another 12 hours. Then I am supposed to give it a fine coating of cheese salt, and cover with a plate so it doesn't dry out, and let it just set for at least one week before trying it.

I'll try to post more photos when I flip the curd for the second pressing.

Until next time.

Related Posts:
Muenster Cheese Day Two

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Cottage Cheese

Today I'm making cottage cheese.

It's a very simple recipe. My recipe says to heat the milk to 86°F. It's a bit warmer than that straight from the goat, so I brought the milk into the house, strained it and let it cool down a bit.

I've added four drops of rennet, and now I'm letting it set for one hour at room temperature.

When an hour has passed, the milk should be formed into a curd. I will then cut the curd with a knife, into 1/2 inch cubes. I will stir very gently and cut big pieces into smaller ones.

Next I'll warm the curds to 110°F, very slowly and gently. According to my recipe, the longer it takes to get to this temperature, the firmer the curds will be.

Once the temperature rises to 110°F, I'll pour the curds and whey into a colander lined with cheesecloth and drain for a few minutes.

I'll then run cold water over the curds to rinse off the whey.

The whey is very nutritious, but I am not quite sure how to use it, so I usually give it to the chickens. They love it.

And that's how you make cottage cheese.

Here is a page with some cheesemaking recipes from Mary Jane Toth.



Until next time.

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Mocha's Surprise

I hand breed my does - well, that's what it's called, okay? What that means is I watch to see when each doe goes into heat and then I take the doe over to visit with the buck. I wait while he covers her, then I take her back to the doe pen.

I took Mocha over to visit with our Nubian buck on the 15th of October. Just a few days prior to our wedding.

I wrote down on my barn records that I'd bred her to the Nubian buck and when I counted 150 days I knew her due date was Wednesday the 12th.

I came home from work last Monday the 11th and having received some particularly disturbing mail, went straight inside.

I stayed inside for a while, then went out to look for Kev, who I thought had gone out the back door. As it turns out, he had gone out the front door. But I went out the back door and glanced over at the maternity ward. I could see Starburst and her kids, but I couldn't see Mocha. I thought she'd looked like she was in early labor when I left for work - basically what happened was I was driving past the maternity ward in the dark and in the headlights I could see that her tail was held high and her rump was curved. Classic positioning for impending birth, but it could also have been that she had just stood up and was stretching. I mentioned to dh that she looked "interesting" that morning.

So while I was standing there on the porch, I heard kids crying. Newborn baby kids. I walked over to the maternity ward barn to see what was going on, and there was Mocha with her two newborn kids, all dried off and nursing. She hadn't passed her placenta yet, so they probably hadn't been born too much earlier.

I checked them immediately to see if they were bucklings or doelings, and was pleased that they were both bucklings. We don't need any more girl goats to have to figure out what to do with. "Can't keep them all" - as you know is my motto.

I also noticed, while checking bottoms, that the one looked a bit odd, and had *waddles*.

Hmmm... that was weird. I thought to myself, I certainly would have *remembered* if I'd chosen to breed Mocha to our Nigerian Dwarf buck. But our Nubian buck is new, so I thought maybe, just maybe he had waddles in his background.

I brought some molasses water out for Mocha and dipped the baby's navels with iodine.

I kept thinking, her kids sure were *tiny* for being full term Nubians. And that one sure did have funny airplane-looking, puppy dog ears.

Finally I tracked down my barn records for October and discovered that the day after I bred Mocha to the Nubian buck, both bucks had managed to break into the doe pen. We've used our Nigerian Dwarf buck in the past, but he is so short he has an extremely difficult time "reaching" if you know what I mean. We actually bred him to Mocha's mother several years ago, and she got pregnant, but was head butted in the side about three weeks prior to delivery and miscarried all three of the kids she was carrying. It was very difficult for him to reach the full sized Nubian doe, he ended up having to stand on the 4x4 leg of a table that was turned on its side, balancing himself on one back foot and hopping up and down trying to reach.



Until next time.

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It's Time To Nurse, Children...

I've mused before about how the momma goat trains her babies to only nurse when she gives them the signal, whatever that signal might be. Tonight I managed to catch them running over to nurse in photos. In the first photo you see the babies wandering around, and momma looking to the side. I've put the time into each photo, including the seconds.

Kids still wandering around, momma still looking to the side.

Momma looking the other direction, but notice how both kids have turned their attention to her.

She said or did something to attract their attention, and see how fast they dive underneath to latch on.

Momma sniffs each bottom to make sure the babies nursing are her own.

You can't see it very well in this next photo, but she's hawked up a cud and is chewing it. They usually hawk up a cud and chew while the kids nurse.

Starburst and Mocha still see something very interesting to the side of their pen.



They've been nursing about 22 seconds. I wish I'd though to take a photo when they stopped nursing so we could see exactly how many seconds she let them nurse. I seriously doubt it's ever over one minute.

Until next time.

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