4/9/15

Milked our goat this morning! Neither the kids (Bill and Bob) nor the mom (Iris) were really upset this morning, even after being separated all night.

I only took about a quart of milk from her, and then let the kids in with her. She was NOT very interested in letting them drink...but I had saved half of her grain ration and gave it to her in the pen with the kids. Checked on everybody a few hours later and the two little guys seem to be getting something to drink from her.

DS is VERY excited to be back in the goat milk season. He loves goats milk... :)

Speaking of goats milk-I need to put together an order for cheese cultures... :) I will probably do some comparison shopping this evening and get an order figured out.

After a light breakfast, we cleaned out the sunning pen; 4 wagon loads up onto a new compost windrow. I am going to take some annual ryegrass down with us when we do chores this evening and lightly sprinkle it in the area, and let it be for 3 or 4 days and then on nice days Iris and the boys can go out and get some sun and have a bit more space.

We started some seeds indoors: 18 Cour De Boeuf cabbage; 16 Calabrese Broccoli; 16 Rutgers Tomato and 3 each of Jalapeno, Bullnose, Hugarian, Cayenne, Anaheim, and Purple Beauty. The potatoes are chitting and I will see if I can find some dirt to put them in next week. The seeds were all from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at: http://www.rareseeds.com/

4/8/15

Continuing to work on cleaning manure out of the horse lot.

Fixed the wagon so that manure and soil won't sift through the bottom. Speaking of a wagon-I have to tell you this wagon (pic and supplier below) has a wheel barrow beat, hands down! One of the best farm/yard hand tool investments we've made.

Separated Iris from Bill and Bob this evening. Will be milking her in the morning. :)

Oh, and because we have to...taxes are done!

4/7/15

Moved one more garden bed today. Last year we overcompensated for having lived in an area that the sun beat down mercilessly... So, we are moving the 6 garden beds, and probably adding another 6 this year. Would also like to invest in frost guard or else in walls-of-water...decisions decisions!
The compost is looking really nice.
I need to buy some more wood from Gebhardts to increase the depth of the raised beds. Last year we had 8" of depth, and we are increasing it to 12" this year.
Received the order confirmation about the mushrooms! They will ship around May 4th.

4/5/15

A joyous Easter it was! What a relief that there is hope! I love our current church (Harvest Church in the Heights, Billings, MT)!!!

I finally did it! We've been talking about growing mushrooms for years. I finally ordered some mushroom spores...Wine cap mushrooms! 

Short post today-didn't do much "extras" as it was a Holy Day.

4/4/15

Yesterday was a trip to the big city of Billings...

Attended the Good Friday stations of the cross at Harvest Church...it was very good.

We have chickens, so have colored eggs! Mostly browns, peaches, and blues and greens. However, in honor of the season, we dyed Easter eggs this evening! We used: http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Other/Easter-Eggs, didn't have to buy a kit! yay!!!

No new goat babies! Bill and Bob have been gaining weight and getting more active.

Built a bookcase for ds's room. It is so nice to have that done! Six shelves, and there is tons of room leftover...so nice instead of piles of books! :) I thought I had enough backing for the whole bookcase...but I didn't... :( I will have to buy some more and pull it out and re-back it. Also, hoping to paint it-but it was going to sprinkle tonight, so instead of painting it and having it outside in the rain...we'll have to pull the bookcase out and paint it one of these nice days.

Also made homemade baked egg rolls. Tasted very good!

Egg Rolls
1# ground pork
2 tbsp olive oil + oil for pan
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
1/2 c carrots, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 tbsp ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp everything bagel mix (garlic, onion, sesame seeds, poppy seeds)
14 egg roll wrapper
1/4 c flour
water

Brown ground pork in 2 tbsp olive oil. Add cabbage, carrots, and onion. Add ginger, garlic, black pepper, everything bagel mix.
Preheat oven to 325
Lightly oil jelly roll pan.
Mix flour with enough water to make a slightly runny paste.
Place egg roll wrapper with one point facing towards you.
Put 1/3 cup of pork mixture into egg roll wrapper.
Fold the point closest to you up over the pork mixture. Fold the left and right corners in towards the center. Lightly rub flour paste on remaining corner and along the exposed edges. Continue to roll the egg roll wrapper.
Place the egg roll, seam down, on the pan.
Lightly oil the tops of the egg rolls.
Bake for 18 minutes.

The picture isn't the greatest...learning the whole food photography thing! :)

4/2/15

Picked up hay today.
Bill and Bob are doing really well. I think Bob is going to end up with a little bit of brindle to him, but either way they are both really cute.
No new goat kids today!
When we pulled in the drive after dropping off the hay trailer, we saw turkeys!!!

Downside to turkeys in the yard? Had to wash the dog...he rolled in...well, yeah... :(
As we were filling the water trough by the hydrant, I saw deer tracks as well...

4/1/15

New baby goats! Two bucklings born today. Bill is doing really well. Bob is feeling better now that he has some of his mama's colostrum in his tummy. 

Mom Is Iris, a purebred Nubian. 66% chance dad is purebred Nubian...or else he is mostly Nubian with a splash of Toggenburg.

So, finished cleaning out the barn!!! Laid fresh straw in the goat shed as well.

Off to get hay tomorrow.