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":)