Update in Pictures

Meet Sunny! He's a one horned, curly headed little Toggenburg billy born in February, about the same time as Hunny & Bunny's babies. I've never seen such a curly mop on a Toggenburg but he sure is a cute little guy! I waited a while to take pictures because he was full of burrs when we got him and I clipped them out leaving him some bald spots and looking kind of scrubby. I also had to shave his beard since that was full of burrs. Shaving the beard off a billy goat, what a disgrace to him! Poor guy :( He's working on growing it back though. Here are some more pictures of the Toggs. We had a photo shoot and they all wanted to check out the camera! Bunny especially liked to pose for pictures.






We recently had a set of boer triplets born, completely by surprise! She had lost a set of triplets last spring and Mike thought she didn't get bred again and was just really fat! Well having three babies sure slimmed her down! Thankfully the weather was nice and the little ones did just fine without any help from us.


Our new little chicks are doing great, all are healthy and growing fast. I think we got a rooster in the mix though. I ordered all pullets but I guess they make mistakes sometimes. Its not for sure until we hear him start trying to crow but his comb is growing and turning pink already and he's only 5 weeks old. None of the others have combs like this yet. His name is O'Reilly. Doesn't he just look like a rooster?


The other chickens are still outside but will be moving into the warm barn soon. I've been letting them out in the other pasture since there isn't much left of their pasture.



We just got an old surge milker from a neighbor. It needs some cleaning and new hose and special goat inflations but it will be much easier than milking by hand. This neighbor is also suppose to be finding us a portable vacuum pump and hopefully we will have everything we need.


I'm all done canning for the year and I just love the looks of a full pantry. I have green beans, pickles, salsa, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, spiced apples, plums, peaches, applesauce, pears, apples, strawberry jam, apple jelly, mint jelly, and plum jelly. In dry storage I have pumpkins, spaghetti squash, pinto beans, sweet potatoes and white potatoes. The best part of all of it is that I know where it all came from and what's in it.

More New Chicks

Mike convinced me to get more little chicks again since we can't keep up with egg customers. We got black australorps, red stars, buff orpingtons, and brown leghorns. Here are some pics of the little ones and some new pics of the olders ones. I also added a new pic of Hunny and Bunny with their babies, Buttercup, Taffy and Gouda. We are going to be getting a new boyfriend for Hunny & Bunny. He is a purebred Toggenburg and his name is Sunny. He should be here by the end of the month.

First Blue & Green Egg!

Today we found our first Americana eggs. One large blue one and a smaller green one. We're sure the large blue one has a double yolk, since we've found that to be the case with large eggs from young pullets. I've been waiting weeks for them to start laying, egg production in general is down because of the August heat. We finally had it cool off a little yesterday. The chickens have been getting lots of garden scraps, especially tomatoes. It hasn't been a good tomato year, they get bad quickly this year.

I've been busy canning whatever I have plenty of. Unfortunately my pickling cucumbers didn't grow well. I only have one plant that produces one pickle every couple days. I tried to find some at a farmer's market and they want $3/lb. For that much I can just buy pickles in the store. The ones I have been getting from my garden I've just been putting in the large jar of store pickles. Technically not how your supposed to do it but I never have enough to do a batch of my own and so far this new method seems to be working. So far I have canned peaches, green beans, strawberry jam, apple jelly and mint jelly. Next on the list is salsa, apples and pears.

We're Still Here

Wow its been a long time since we've written anything! Things are going great, we've sold most of our goat kids and ewe lambs. Our little blind goat has been growing well on HunnyBunny milk. Unfortunately its almost time to say goodbye to him and I'm pretending I don't know what's going to happen to him. Milk production has been down with the hot weather. Bunny has a knee that is a little swollen and not getting better on her own so I think we will start giving her antibiotics and let her milk dry up. Another month and it will be time to breed them again and no one wants to drink the milk when they are around Bud. I'll keep milking Hunny for a while yet though. I tried making some cheese, it turned out good but I have a hard time aging it. I have cheese wax but dipping it is difficult without the proper equipment and painting it on just didn't give it a good enough coat and it got moldy. The chickens loved it though!

We found a tiny little egg 3 days ago and suspect it was one of the young buff pullets. They are 4 months old now so we're expecting eggs soon. We haven't seen another little one yet but we're pretty sure it was her. We're still waiting for that first blue/green egg!

Its green bean season. I've been canning this year and I was a little scared of my pressure canner at first but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It has a pressure gage so I'm not too worried about blowing anything up. I've canned strawberry jam, mint jelly and green beans. So far so good! I'm anxious to open a can of green beans and see how they taste but after all the hard work I did to seal up those jars I just hate to open one so soon!

Bitter Milk Mystery Solved

Well sort of. I know the culprit is Bunny. I've always combined their milk but out of curiousity to see if there was a taste difference I kept them separate. Hunny's milk is sweet and delicious without even the slightest hint of "goatyness". Bunny's milk isn't necessarily "goaty" but it has a bitter taste to it. Now I'm not sure if its because she likes to eat a certain kind of weed Hunny doesn't eat or if its her bitter attitude at milking time. Late last summer her milk tasted fine. Right now it doesn't matter because I give all of Bunny's milk to Porkers since he doesn't mind the flavor and we keep all of Hunny's milk. She is making over 1/2 gallon on a once a day milking so we are getting plenty from her. I just hate that I have to go to all the work of milking Bunny and I give it all away to Porkers. He's doing great on HunnyBunny milk though!

Hunny & Bunny are healthy

Turns out Hunny & Bunny are healthy. The milk was tested and its perfectly normal. As soon as the antibiotics are out we can start drinking it again. We still don't know exactly why their udders have started turning color but I did read that Toggenburgs do have pigment changes. I looked at the pictures that came with their registration papers, pictures of their udders when full and they do look a bit grayish/purple in the pictures too. So I guess we worried for nothing and everything is fine. I feel good being reassured the milk is fine. The little blind goat has been named Porkers because he eats like a big. He is back in the barn and drinking from a self feeding bucket. He is able to find it on his own now and he's very strong and healthy. Such a cute little guy too! He gets so excited when he hears our voices.

Blind Goat Kid

We had a little boer goat born this week and we think he's blind, both eyes are cloudy. He's very strong and healthy so far. He had a difficult time eating with his mom so he's a bottle baby now. Right now we have him in the house in a box but soon he will move back out to the barn and drink from a bucket. We are still not sure how Hunny & Bunny are doing. We have been treating them for mastitis because their udders have been turning a grayish black color but they don't have any other symptoms and the milk appears fine. There has been no improvement in color but they don't act like they are in pain or sick. We took a sample of it to the vet today and they are going to culture it over the weekend and let us know Monday what's going on. It could also be bruising or just the color Toggenburgs change. That would be weird though if they just suddenly turned this color.

Our spring chicks (Americana & Buff Orpington) moved to the coop this week. They are about 5 weeks old. We made them their own safe pen with a heat lamp. This way they can still get to know the older hens so when we are ready to let them out of their safe pen they will hopefully all get along. I've been warned about the older hens picking on them and possibly killing them but so far they don't seem to care about them at all. The hens have only been in the coop about 4 days before the chicks so maybe they hadn't fully claimed it as their territory yet. We'll see in a couple weeks if they can all get along.

We had a basket fundraiser for the preschool this week, where we all put together some kind of basket for a silent auction. I put together a basket of HunnyBunny goat milk soap and lotion. It had 2 bars old fashioned honey oatmeal lye soap, 1 bar rose, 1 lavender, 1 honey & 1 vanilla. It also had two small bottles of lotion, one peppermint and one green apple. I also included some information about goat milk soaps and the ingredients in each.

Moving Day

On Saturday the chickens moved outside. They were cautious but seemed happy immediately. Since I still don't have an actual coop, we modified an old shed. It will work for now. We have been getting more eggs and the chickens seem happier to be on the sun's schedule, not just when we turn the light on and off like when they were in the barn. I lined their pasture with chicken wire, I hope it keeps them in and they don't decide to fly over the fence. I'm counting on the fact that they are all heavy breeds and that they will be happy enough in their pasture. In other news, Hunny and Bunny have a serious case of mastitis. I'm hoping we caught it in time to save them from permanent damage. Luckily we hadn't been drinking the milk for the past few days since the flavor seemed off. Here are some pictures of the chickens enjoying the outdoors and wonderful spring weather we've been having.

Soap & Lotion Making

Today I tried the old fashioned goat milk soap using lye. I was afraid to use the lye but it wasn't so bad. I think it will turn out, I'll know tomorrow when I slice the bars. They will then need to cure for 3 weeks. I'll post pictures and the recipe tomorrow. I also made goat milk lotion today and it turned out beautiful. I've tried making a different lotion recipe before that never turned out but this time it did. Here's the recipe:
6 oz liquid oil (I used olive oil)
3 oz solid oil (I used coconut oil)
1 oz beeswax
9 oz water (I substitued goat milk)
essential oils (I used tea tree, vitamin E and grapefruit seed extract)
fragrance & color (I used rose)

Simple instructions are to melt the oils together, mix in partially frozen goat milk and then add the essential oils and fragrance. The trick is to use the slushy frozen milk so it doesn't get too hot when added to the oil. The lotion looked like yummy pudding, tempting to eat. While all ingredients are safe, I doubt it would taste good and don't recommend eating it! Here are some pictures!

Cheesemaking Update

My cheesemaking turned out well. I made regular soft goat cheese and added cinnamon and sugar for a cinnamon cream cheese. It still has the tart flavor of goat cheese but it doesn't have that "goaty" taste. I also made ricotta with the leftover whey that was SOOO good. Way better than the ricotta bought in the store. I made stuffed manicotti with it. I wish the yield was better but its still good considering your using left over whey. Since I still don't have a cheese press my next cheese will be mozzarella. Yesterday we made a HunnyBunny Easter Breakfast. Here was the menu: egg bake with sausage and hashbrowns, cinnamon bread from scratch with buttermilk, buttermilk waffles, banana bread, fruit, orange juice and goat milk. It was very good and all turned out well.

Cheese Making Day 1

Well technically its day two. Yesterday I cultured the buttermilk. They say you can use buttermilk from the store to make cheese but its not as good. So I bought a little packet of powdered buttermilk culture to make my own from scratch. That process involves heating pasturized milk to 80 degrees, stirring in the packet, putting it in a thermos to keep the temp at about 80 and letting it sit on the counter for 24 hours. 80 degrees is apparently the best temp for growing bacteria. I never realized what cheese really is until I made it for the first time. Letting milk sit on the counter overnight and get all thick and chunky goes against everything I know. But that's what cheese is, bacteria. But its the right kinds of good bacteria, a chunky glass of expired milk is not on its way to becoming cheese! After 24 hours the cultured buttermilk goes into a labeled mason jar in the fridge. The nice thing about most of these cultures is that you don't have to create the whole process from scratch every time you run out of buttermilk. You just take one part buttermilk and add 4 parts whole milk. Give it some time and the bacteria repopulate the whole jar into buttermilk again.

So today I had to pasturize 5 quarts of milk since I hadn't done that yet. I cooled it to 80 degrees, added 1/3 cup buttermilk, 2 Tbs diluted rennet and now it sits on the counter for 8-12 hours. I really didn't plan this well because now I will have to get up at 6am and start draining it in the cheesecloth before I go to work. Luckily that's an easy process too. I'm still a newbie at this cheesemaking but it doesn't seem that hard. You do a few little things one day, let it sit for a while, do a few little things the next day then let it sit. Its a slow process but not all that hard. Other cheeses are more difficult so I may have something different to say when I start trying those. I'm anxious to try cheddar. I'm still waiting for Mike to make me a cheese press. Its much cheaper than buying one and it really is a pretty simple contraption. I'm also waiting for him to build me a milk stand and a chicken coop. The honey-do list is getting long.

Yesterday I planted my tomato seeds in little pots. I've never grown tomatos from seeds so this is new also. I usually just get the plants from the greenhouse and put them right into the garden. I'm also trying to grow sweet potato slips this year. That's not going so well. I bought a sweet potato at the grocery store and put in a glass jar half full of water and suspended with toothpicks. Its been sitting in the sun for about 2 weeks now and nothing is happening. I don't think this is going to work out. Last time I ordered sweet potato slips from a catalog and they arrived in the middle of June and practically dead. I planted them and they basically did nothing for a while then started grow late August, way too late in the summer for them to produce anything. I think I may just give up on sweet potatos.

Now I'm off to make some fresh buttermilk biscuits!

HunnyBunny Udder Wipes

My adventures in milking continue. Its taking a lot of practice and patience to get back into this goat milking thing. For both me and the goats! Typically Hunny is easier to milk because her udder is larger and fits my hand easier, plus the milk comes out faster so I can get the job done before she runs out of patience with me. Bunny is younger and her udder is not as large. Her milk comes out slower and its harder for me to get a grip on. Today I could have had more milk from her but she was done with me so I let her go back to her babies. We did better than yesterday so that's progress. The last two days I have separated them from their kids for about 5 hours and I've been getting about 1/2 gallon of milk total. Its enough for now. I used to bring soapy water and wash their udder before milking but this week I made "HunnyBunny Wipes". Based on a recipe for homemade baby wipes I created a special blend for my girls. I cut a roll of paper towels in half, took out the cardboard roll and put it in the perfect size container. Then I added a mixture of water, peppermint oil (for circulation & milk letdown), tea tree oil (antibacterial) and vitamin E (skin conditioning). This is working really well and so much easier than a hauling around a bucket of soapy water. Plus they always smell minty fresh! They also make great hand wipes for me to use.

Here are pictures of Hunny and Bunny the day they had their kids. They are crossbred to our 100% Boer Billy so I call the kids "Toggenboers":)

A Brand New Blog

Instead of adding stories and text to our website logging all our new adventures I decided to just add a blog. You'll have to see our website for previous postings but here's a quick summary.

Chickens: Last fall we ordered some chicks in the mail. We've never had laying hens before so this is a new adventure. We have Rhode Island Reds, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Barred Rocks and White Rocks. We ordered from McMurray Hatchery and they give you the option of a free chick. Our free chick turned out to be an Americana rooster. Perfect, we needed a rooster. We named him Glenn Peck. Yep, that's right named after the man himself, Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck is crowing the warning for our country's freedom and Glenn Peck...well he's just making a lot of noise :) The hens started laying in mid-January when they were just over 4 months old. Now we are getting almost an egg per day from each one and the eggs are almost full size. This spring I couldn't resist those cute little chicks and ordered a few more. We now have 3 Buff Orpington chicks and 7 Americana chicks. For those that don't know Americanas lay the tinted eggs and are referred to as Easter Egg Layers. I'm expecting some colorful eggs by August.

Goats: We have been raising Boer goats for several years. Last summer we got two dairy goats, Toggenburgs named Hunny and Bunny. We got them because I have been becoming more and more interested in living a simpler life in which we provide ourselves with as much of our own home grown food as possible. A milk cow seemed like it required an awful lot of work and money. After researching dairy goats I found that goat milk has a lot of nutritional benefits over cow milk. When we brought Hunny and Bunny home they were starting to dry up and produce less milk. I still got enough to try out some recipes like ice cream, cheese, pudding, soap and lotion. Now they have had their kids and I'm back to milking them. Most people bottle feed the kids but I'm leaving the kids on them. Its made it more difficult so far but I'm gradually getting more milk. It seems the goats would rather give the milk to their babies than me and often won't let much down for me. The kids are a couple weeks old now so I just started separating them for a few hours before milking. I told Hunny and Bunny that I "kid"napped their babies and was holding them for ransome to be paid in milk. I get much more milk this way and plan on making my second ever batch of cheese this week. I'll start with a soft cream cheese since Mike still has to build me a cheese press.

Sheep: I don't have a lot to write about the sheep. We are pretty much done lambing for this year. We had a good year and hopefully they will all stay healthy. We cross our romanov/ramboiullet ewes with our black dorper ram and get what I call our "holstein" sheep. They sure are cute!

Calves: A couple times a year we'll get a batch of holstein bottle calves from a nearby dairy. They are a lot of work and I'm always glad when we wean them after 6 weeks of twice per day feedings. They are cute and sweet though, you can't help but fall in love with them.

You'll also see on our website that we have miniature horses. These are actually my mom's horses so I won't have much to say about them. They have their own stories titled "Pony Tales: The Adventures of Junebug & Jitterbug". Books are coming soon to our website.