Winter Kids!

I knew I was going to need winter milk for all of the small children in our home.  So In July, I bred Amelia to Sergent Pepperbox and Milky Whey to Major Coco.  I put them in with the bucks and saw them both in standing heat the same day.  Their due date was December 23rd.  The 23rd came and went.  Finally on December 27th, early in the morning, Milky Whey delivered triplets.  Two beautiful bucklings and a very nice doeling.  Milky Whey had a very easy delivery and the babies are all very big and strong. 

This huge buckling was born first.  He looks like someone dunked his front half in black paint!

This flashy little buckling was born last.  He is very sweet and colorful.  Black, White and brown!

This little doeling was born second.  She is large and spunky.  I am partial to black and white goats.  I am retaining her.

Milky Whey is milking nicely.  This is her third kidding and she is my very best, pure bred Nigerian Dwarf goat.  She has long teats with large orifices.  She has a very nice, large, well attached, udder and her personality is as sweet as her wonderful milk.  She is already giving almost half a gallon a day.  I am going to retain her doeling this year as circumstances have prevented me in the past from retaining one of hers and this years doe is exquisite.

We knew Amelia was bred the same day as Milky Whey and have been playing the waiting game.  They both went over due.  But Amelia went days more.  All I can say is that she must not have settled the first breeding and got bred her next heat cycle.  I left them in with their bucks for a few weeks so it is very possible. 

Yesterday morning (1-2-16) when I went out to the barn, Amelia was in labor and within a half hour, had delivered two very large and flashy doelings!  I have a waiting list of people wanting goats from my herd, so these already have homes to go to.  I will de-horn (dis-bud) them all tomorrow, as I was waiting to dehorn Milky Whey's kids till Amelia's were born.

The first one born was a huge brown doe with white markings.  The second one was very flashy with frosted ears and lots of white marbling. 

This is Amelia's second freshening, she is milking very well and has a very nice udder. Her udder is very high, round and well attached.  Her teats are very easy to hand milk.  I only keep easy to hand milk animals. The very best of the best produced here.

I don't feel badly culling hard, so I can always have healthy good producers here.  I sold Jubilee after she freshened in the spring, as she was a good milker but I had so many just a bit better.  I did retain her daughter from the spring.  Carolyn named her daughter Carmel Pie.  Her dad is Sergent Pepperbox and I wanted to see what his genetics do to improve over Jubilee's.  We shall see, as Carmel Pie is in to be bred with a buck now.

Wishing everyone a happy New Year and hope you are having fun planing for the spring plantings.

Happy Farming!

susan 

Unusual Winter

We have had some very unusual weather this winter.  It has not only been unusually rainy but quite a bit colder as well.  We also have had three substantial snowfalls.  In a normal winter we might see a few snow flakes a few times or get a dusting of snow. 

The end of January we got this.

Since it had been several years since we have had snow like this, I gave the children off from home schooling and let them just play in it.  Here where we live in Georgia a snow like this will usually be gone by the next day or two.  It was a dryish snow and not packy enough for a snowman but the kids had fun out in it throwing it at each other and playing around.

Then Tuesday of this past week we got this snow fall of about four or five inches.

It was a wetter snow and the kids made this little guy.

Even though there was not a huge amount the children had a good time and had fun.

Some of it melted on Wednesday but that night we got sleet and then five or six inches of snow more, so woke up Thursday to this! 

It was breathtakingly beautiful for the Deep South to see and believe it or not was nearly all gone by the end of the day!  I never remember us having this much snow at one time since we have lived here on the farm for the last 15 years.  The ice that we got before the snow came this time made the snow stick to the trees, fences and electric wires.  Many people lost power from this storm.  We had it go out for only two hours in the morning. 

As far as farm life right now???  I gave away my two full sized milkers to a friend.  So I am actually not milking at all right now.  I don't ever remember having such a break in milking.  The children miss the fresh goats milk terribly but I have enjoyed the break from milking.  I have not had to go out twice a day in this weather to milk but must admit I am missing making cheese and foods from the cheese for my family.  Our first goats possible due date is the end of this month.

When Milky Whey came into heat last fall, I put her in with Sergent Pepper box.  If she settled her due date is around Feb 24th.  But she came back into a light heat a few weeks later.  I knew I would be needing milk and she would be my first of the year to freshen, so I put her in with an experienced buck, Joseph.  So if she did not settle the first time she will be the first to kid in March.  I also bred Amelia...this will be her first freshening and her sister Mini Bell, this will be her first freshening as well.  They are my experiment goats, the offspring of my full sized La manchas and a Nigerian Dwarf buck.  Hoping to have a happy medium in amount of feed they consume and amount of milk they give.  I am very excited.

I am getting the urge to have chicks in the barn and start my gardens.  So I guess spring is around the corner!

Blessings and Happy Farming!
susan

Antique Engine and Tractor Show

Last week was the yearly Gordon County Antique Engine and Tractor Show.  It was a pretty day and there was a lot of things there to see.  I thought I would share with you some of the neat and unusual things we saw since this is the farm blog!

Zeke was out of town with Tim when we went so these are my two oldest sons still living at home in front of a Ford.

The blue one was the Ford Feature Tractor.

This one had a cool jump seat!

Old designs are just really cool!

A pink Farmall for the girls complete with fluffy steering wheel cover!  So funny!

Cool engines.  My favorite one was the middle one.

Snapper turtle mower!  See the turtle head on the front!

Antonio loved this little tow cart.

Someone there had the back of their motor home opened up.  It distracted William for a long time looking at the motor and all the parts.  He was REALLY impressed with the size of the batteries. 

 There were a lot of tables set up with old cool engines and motors on them.

This one was really neat.

Love this old truck!

Neat engines...some of them working.

I have never seen a high tractor before like this?

 Or anything quite like this one.

It was a really pretty day to just be out and about looking at all the wonderful ways people used to farm and the equipment they invented and relied on.  Amazing really.

Blessings and Happy Farming!
susan

Herb Cheese

This herb cheese is made with the Farmhouse Cheese recipe I posted a short while ago.  This recipe is very versatile and is an excelled way to use up milk. It is not a kind of cheese that will melt on things.  But that doesn't take away from its wonderful qualities. 

You will need:

To make the farm house cheese from the recipe a few posts ago.

Cheese cloth  (plastic or cotton)(not the kind from Home Depo or the grocery store used to refinish furniture)

Large mixing bowl.

Non-iodized salt or cheese salt.  (The iodine in the salt will turn your cheese a green color if you use iodized salt) The amount most people use when salting this type of cheese is one teaspoon per cheese made from one gallon of milk. But adjust it for your taste.
Herbs - to flavor the cheese with.  I like to use Braggs most of the time.

I will start this recipe as soon as you have poured your just made cheese into your cheese cloth lined colander to drain. 

Only let it drain for the amount of time it takes you to wash up your pot, you made your cheese in, as you want it very wet to work with so you can blend in the salt and herbs easily and thourally.

I am using the farmhouse cheese made from two gallons of milk as I had so much to use up today.  ;)  That’s why my batch is so large.  Don’t worry, with my huge family it disappears very, very quickly!

Plop your wetish cheese into a very large mixing bowl.  Spread the cheese cloth back in the colander in the sink nicely for a moment.

Sprinkle one teaspoon of non-iodized salt over the cheese and using a large fork, work it in well.  Since I am doing a double batch I am going to use 2 teaspoons.  Now, once you put the salt in you can't take it back out.  So if you want to, sprinkle a little and work it in and taste it till you get it just right. William is my kitchen taster as I am allergic to so many foods (I have an auto-immune disease)  and believe it or not salt and dairy.  So he tastes everything I make to make sure it will be right for everyone else.  You know he just hates that.  :)

Once it is the right saltiness get the herbs you wish to use.  I like to use the organic herb mix from Braggs.  But you can finely chop onions or chives.  Fresh finely chopped rosemary from the garden.  Just what ever you put in chop it fine and mix it in well.  Tasting as you go along to make sure it is what you want it to taste like. (you know I have gotten lazy, and I make this so often, that using the Braggs organic herbs is quick, easy and tastes great!)

 Today since I am flavoring cheese made from two gallons of milk I will be using  about 2 tablespoons of the herbs.  If working with cheese from a gallon of milk use 1 tablespoon.  Again, sprinkle in just a little at a time.

Blend very well and taste till you get it the way you want it.  

As soon as William tasted it he went and grabbed a pack of crackers and the bowl of cheese and took off in slow motion wanting me to take a picture of him!  Silly young man that he is.  But he was serious and would have chowed down now if I would have said it was ok.  :)  And sometimes thats as far as it gets!

Scrape all the herbed cheese back into the cheese cloth lined colander and bind it up twisting gently to squeeze out a lot of the whey. 

Now we need to hang it and let it drain a bit.  You can use a clean, new cotton shoe lace for this and keep rewashing it with your cheese cloth.  I use very large rubber bands I can toss.  (See lazy)

So tie it off and hang it from a knob on your kitchen cabinet.  If you don’t have the knob kind get an “s” hook from Home depo to use for this.  Put a bowl under the dripping cheese to catch the whey.

You can let it drain now as long as you want, to get it as dry as you wish . Today I let mine drip for about 3 hours.

Ta Da!  Herbed Farmhouse Cheese!  This cheese is also incredibly versatile.  Keep in mind this cheese does not melt.  My kids like it on crackers.  They like it crumbled up on their salads.  You can cook pasta with steamed mixed veggies lightly buttered/salted or oiled and crumble this all over the top!  Or..Take a slice of italian bread, lighty butter it and lay a slice of tomato on it sprinkle a few pinches of shredded mozzarella and this cheese on it and toast it.  YUM!  See...get creative and have fun with your cheese!

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

May God bless you today and always!  

susan