Quick Update!

I know I've been missing again, but finally I'm back. Our internet had basically went to pot, so I was very limited on what I could do. We have a new internet service, which actually works! So here's the rundown on what's been going on. Ready?

• We have a new buck, Huggy Bear! He's a LaMancha/Toggenburg cross, and he and Lucy hit it off quite nicely. He's very much a ladies' man. If all goes well, we'll have a little LaMancha in May!
• We also have two new kids! Priscilla gave birth to Presley the end of December, earlier than we expected. She is adorable, of course. Mona, who we had no idea was pregnant, gave birth to Milo in January. He's cute as a button, but since he was a male, and we already have two bucks, he's now missing a few important pieces. 
• We're getting pigs! Yes!! Hopefully we'll pick them up Monday.
• We are now making and selling goat milk soap! I started making it in November, and it is very addicting! If you've never tried soap made with goat milk, try some. Preferably mine, of course.
• To showcase our soaps, and get the word out, we now have a facebook page, Canaan Hills Farm on Facebook, as well as a website Canaan Hills Farm. Fancy, huh? So be sure and go check us out, see all the cute baby goat pics, and ahem, buy some soap!

Ok, that's it for now. I will be getting some pics up here soon of all the new critters, so check back soon!

Little Miss Muffet sat on her Tuffet, eating her curds and whey

Miss Muffet was a quitter. If she had got off her tuffet, she could have made some yummy cheese with those curds!

I made goat cheese for the first time the other day! I started with the recipe here, and had a experienced FB friend walk me through it via facebook. She was very patient to sit and answer all my stupid questions. 

Here's what I did, and what I should have done different:

My supplies: one quart of goat's milk, 1/3 cup of lemon juice, 1/8 tsp of non-iodized salt, and muslin for straining, as well as a good thermometer and stainless steel pot.

My strainer is ready over a bowl and lined with muslin. Did you know...that cheesecloth isn't the best thing to use in making cheesecloth? Muslin is. Don't look at me, I dunno either!

I slowly (as in slower than molasses, like watching paint dry kind of slow) heated the milk to 180 degrees, stirring frequently. Now here's where I messed up a little. See how looooong this thermometer is, and how much of it is NOT in the milk? That's what not to do, I later found out. The thermometer needs to be at least 3/4 covered by the milk to accurately read the temperature. So now you and I both know.

Once it gets to temperature the website said to turn off heat and add lemon juice. Wait, just turn it off. Do I remove the pot from the heat, or leave it there to stay kind of warm? Freaking out a little here since it didn't baby step it for me. Thankfully my expert on hand said, "Dummy, take it off the heat." No, she didn't call me a dummy, but she might have been thinking it. I wouldn't blame her. 

So I turned off the heat, took it off the burner, and added the lemon juice and gave it a stir. Now to let it sit for 10 minutes and start to curdle.

Doesn't look so appetizing here, but just wait...

After 10 minutes, I poured it all through the muslin-lined strainer, then pulled the corners of the muslin up around the spoon and secured it with a rubber band.  The whey (the liquid part) drains into the bowl below.

I let it drain for about an hour and a half. I squeezed some of the excess whey from the bag of curds too, and wish I hadn't. I think on my next batch I will drain it for about half that time, so it will be creamier, and not so crumbly.

 I had about 1.5 pints of whey left over, and can use it to make Grandmother Bread tonight.

Here come the curds!

 I think we can call these cheese now!

 I added in some chives...

 A sprinkle of coarse kosher salt...

 Mixed it all up...

And ate it for supper with some garlic Triscuits! 

I've made one more batch since then, and it went a lot easier, now that I know what I am doing, at least with this kind. I can't wait to make more cheeses!

Trick or Treat..smell my chicken

My ten year old is one of those kids who changes her mind daily about what to dress up for Halloween. She usually wants to make her own costume, which is fine with me. Homemade  = always cheaper. This year she started out wanting to be a cheetah. Then it was a cheetah princess. Then a cheetah princess gymnast. At least she stayed with the same basic theme this year. Until about 2 hours before we left.

I jokingly said she should dress up as a farmer and walk her goat around with her. She immediately jumped on that idea! I found her a pair of overalls and boots, grabbed her dad's hat, and she was ready.

We had to clean the SUV out to make room for a goat in the back. Limited on which goat to take, due to the space, we finally decided on Fred, since he was small. He also doesn't have horns, so he would be safe for little children to pet. See, I might be insane, but I do have some mature thoughts once in a while.

Isn't he cute? I love our little crooked face Fred. He was a triplet, so I guess his face had to find room wherever it could. 

We got Fred leashed up, and then he decided he wasn't having any part of this. Back in the pen he goes.

I told her she could take a leash and tell people she was looking for her goat. That idea went over like the proverbial lead balloon.

She was so disappointed that she couldn't take one of the goats, but settled for a chicken. We got the cage ready and caught one of our young Barred Rock pullets.

This is Dynamite. She was less than thrilled at first, but she actually seemed to like riding in the car! Really, she did.

All dressed and ready!!

First stop, as always, was Nonie's (her grandma) house. Does she know how to prepare goodies for trick or treaters or what?

Yummy pumpkin dump cake, still warm from the oven!

After a quick stop to meet up with her cousin, she was off to harass all the neighbors. She came home with a nice haul, and as she has learned over the years, immediately divided up the goodies with me and her dad. 

The post where Anna saw Jesus

Disclaimer: No goats are harmed, or even mentioned, in the making of this blog post.


Wednesday nights we have Bible study at our church, and although I'm not perfect about attending, I try to make sure we always go. There are times when I'm too lazy, or don't feel good, or have any number of excuses and don't go, I'll admit that. But tonight we had planned to go. First, we met my son for an early supper at the Japanese restaurant, (which was really an awesome surprise from him). As we left the restaurant with our full bellies and and boxes of leftovers, I drove through the parking lot. As I passed by one store in the shopping center, Anna and I noticed a man sitting on the sidewalk. He had a duffel bag by his side and a cardboard sign that said "homeless and starving, please help me". I stopped and asked Anna if she wanted to give him some money. She said yes, of course. I found a few dollars in quarters and she hopped out of the car. I let her go over by herself, to let her have the full experience of this by herself, not hiding behind Mommy. I'm not sure what she said to him, but he reached up, hugged her, and then shook her hand and told her thank you.

Yes, I know some of you are freaking out right now. I know what you are thinking.

  You let a homeless man hug her?

 What if he was a pervert?

 Or stinky and smelly?

 Or or or? 

 Yes, he was stinky and smelly, because I could smell it on her clothes when she got back in. He wasn't a pervert. He was genuinely grateful.

Guess what she saw?

SHE...SAW...JESUS.

How did she possibly see Jesus in a dirty, smelly old man with a bloodied and scratched face and torn clothing? A man who owned nothing but a few items in a duffel bag? How could I say she saw Jesus?

Matthew 25:37-40-Then the righteous will answer Him, "Lord, when we did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The KING will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

We gave him about $4, and left. As we drove,  she told me about his injured face, and we decided to take some bandaids back over to him after we did our next errand. The errand took longer than we thought (which made us miss church), and by the time we got back over there, he was gone. We looked for him around town but found no sign of him. She's talked about him ever since. What he might be going through...Will he get to a shelter tonight, or be arrested? What else we could have done  for him? Bought him some food from the grocery store nearby instead of just the money, gave him bandaids right away, gave him our leftovers?

Most importantly, we talked about how helping someone like this man is exactly how to show God's love. Like the above verses teach us, when we help someone who needs it, it is just like we are doing it for Jesus.

Now, I know exactly what some of you are thinking.

He's probably just going to spend that money on alcohol or drugs, so why bother? 

You didn't do anything that will really help him, that was just a waste of money.

It's probably his fault he is in the situation to begin with, so he doesn't need your sympathy.

He might not even be homeless, he might just be scamming people. You just got used.

Every one of those statements might well be true. But if you are a Christian, and are thinking along these lines...

SHAME ON YOU!

Show me one place in the Bible where our actions only count if the person we are doing them for has honest actions. I'm waiting... Can't find one? Didn't think so.

Yes, I am well aware of the verse that says "if a man will not work, he shall not eat". 2 Thes 3:18. But you know what? That speaks of his actions, not our own. If we think we don't have to do for others unless we can prove they will be perfect, my friends we are dead wrong. I will be be judged by God for MY actions, no one else's. 

As soon as we got home tonight, Anna began making up bags to keep in the car in case we see this man again, or any other homeless person. Our small town doesn't have a lot of visible homeless, at least not that I see. In fact, he's the first one I think I've seen in town. I'm not naive enough to think it's not a problem, but I just don't come across them. We'll be better prepared next time, and I hope there will be a next time.

She learned so much tonight and saw so many parts of the Bible in action. She understands now, in a way that no Bible class could ever teach, what 1 John 4:21 really means: And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother". 

On a goat hunt

What an adventure we had this week! It all started last Sunday when my sweet friend M bought 3 new goats. Her ten year old son bought a pygmy/Nigerian Dwarf with his own money, and they also bought 2 pygmy does, both pregnant. Yay, more goats in the neighborhood!

The does are named Gypsy and Dora, and this turned out to be unfortunately prophetic naming. Wednesday evening, all three goats, including Mufasa the buck, disappeared. They managed to escape their new fencing and took off. Early Thursday morning my dad, who lives near her farm, called and said he saw two of them right below his house, but couldn't get close enough to catch them. Well, that was a starting point for the search that morning. M and her two oldest children searched for hours on foot, in the rain, but couldn't find them. I searched the woods and down near a pond behind my dad's house, and left messages with several people on the road. We all looked again Thursday evening, with no success. I did manage to find a goat, but it belonged to someone else. I was so excited when I saw a white horned head through the bushes, but when I got out there, it was tied up in someone's yard. So much for that!

Friday morning I had a facebook message from a friend. His friend had posted that they had two goats come right up to their house late the night before. Yay! Finally, another sighting! I called Mandy and gave her the address so we could start the search there that day. She was heading there from about 30 minutes away, and then had a flat tire. If not for bad luck...

I went to the house that had spotted the does, and found out they had been seen there Wednesday night, not Thursday night. Back to square one. My dad's sighting was still the most recent one. Where to start looking? Surely they hadn't gone far! I went up and down the road, leaving my phone number and questioning everyone I could find. 

I stopped at my daughter's house, which is near M's farm and my dad's house, to strategize a new search plan. I kept thinking, they have got to be right around here somewhere. They can't be far. I had just pulled up Google Earth to get a better idea of the neighborhood (I wasn't leaving this to chance!) Then I got a phone call from Dad's neighbor...

"The goats are headed your way! They just came by my house". I flung the laptop down (sorry, Kacey!) and ran outside to see the two little does nonchalantly strolling up the middle of the road, right towards the house. YES!!!

I grabbed the leashes and food bucket and headed towards them. I managed to snag one of them and get her into the trailer, but could not catch the other one. Dad and the neighbor were helping, so we had the neighbor to keep the one inside the trailer. Dad and I herded the other one back towards the trailer, where she jumped right in to be with her buddy. 

I was so happy to be able to return two of them to M and her family, but I knew her son was so disappointed that his buck hadn't been spotted at all. Without telling him, I suspected he had either gotten caught by a coyote or someone looking for a weekend goat roast. 

Late Friday evening I was headed home from a friend's house when I got another phone call. The little buck had been spotted! My daughter and I immediately turned around and headed up to the road where he had been seen. We rode to one end, no goat, and turned around. About halfway back up the road, my daughter yelled out "there he is!" Without any feed, or leashes, armed with only a half eaten bag of Bugles, we jump  out to try and catch him. He wasn't a fan of Bugles. As it's getting dark, we're tracking and trying to corner him through several yards in the neighborhood. I knew most of the people on the road, but there was one house that had residents that are, umm, less than neighborly. They hate other people's animals, especially goats, due to a previous encounter with another neighbor. So where does Mufasa go? Yep, right to their house. We knocked on the door to ask permission to go traipsing around their yard at night, but no one comes to the door. Great. We manage to get him back into a friend's front yard (incidentally, the yard where I got married 25 years ago), but then he gets back into the previous yard and up under their back deck.

 Now, I love my friend M, and I love goats, but I had to carefully weigh the consequences of getting A. shot, B. arrested, or C. both, by heading under someone's deck without permission or knowledge. 

We go to a neighbor's house for a flashlight and goat feed and come back, to try and lure him back out. I decide to try one more time to get someone to the door. As I head up the stairs of the front porch, I spy the little stinker ON the porch. My daughter helped me grab him, so we threw him in the car with us and called M to give her the good news. 

But the story doesn't end here. Since it was so late, we agreed I would take him home with me for the night. I didn't want to put him in my goats without being able to get him used to them first, so I brought him up on the porch. We have a fenced in yard for the dog, so I thought that would be perfect for him. 

About 6:00 the next morning, my husband wakes me up and asked if I moved him out to the goat pen. No, I replied, he's in Rosie's yard. Hubby said "Nope, he's not". 

Sometime during the night, evidently he jumped the dog fence or the gate on the porch and somehow weaseled his way into my goat pen. He and Molly, my pygmy here next to him, really took a liking to each other. They may have had a love encounter during the night. I hadn't noticed any signs of her being in heat, but she sure was enjoying having him around. Rubbing up against him, sticking close to him... She's not a social goat, so this is pretty significant.  I'm marking the date on the calendar just in case. I would be tickled to death if she is pregnant, because we were planning to breed them together anyway. She's about 4, so she's plenty old enough, and he's smaller than her, so no worries there. 

After breakfast Saturday morning, we got the three stooges reunited finally and made a ten year old boy very happy. But a word of advice to my friend M: as some of your other friends suggested, please change the does' names!!! No more Gypsy or Dora (the explorer)!

Road trip with the goats!

Friday was TB check day for Lucy and Patches, so we had to take them to the vet, about an hour away. Two of my daughters, A and C, came along, and C's friend KR was there for comedic relief. She's the funniest person I have ever met. She's like my BFF, only on crack. (she's not really on crack. I don't think.)

Eat before we leave, I'm not stopping  because you get hungry in 20 minutes.

Priscilla was pouting that she couldn't go too.

Wait, we have to ride back here? 

The rest of the herd had to see them off.

We had a personal escort truck for part of the way. We felt so special. Until he turned off. 

AGHHHH! Final Destination, episode GOAT GORING! (Really people? You've seen the movie, tie those things down!)

The one part I don't mind about going to a vet so far away, we have a beautiful view!

I love old barns!

Chatham VA. One of those beautiful historic small towns. (Not sure why this pic turned out so squished. C was my trip photographer. In other words, no Mom, I was not taking pics while driving. I promise.)

What can I say? They begged to stop for lunch.

How about some service here? We're starving!

Wait, I see someone coming. Maybe. 

What is taking so long???

Patches wanted to do a selfie.

Lucy had to take the selfie shot too.

This is how you do duck lips, Lucy.

Patches had to try out duck lips too.

My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. (Music reference for those of us older than dirt.)

You look mah-velous!

Look, I'm a bunny!

Patches decided KR wasn't moving fast enough, so she gave her a little boost. 

They decided to have lunch al fresco. (That's Italian for eating weeds and leaves.)

French fries? Eww, no thanks.

We're stopping again??

Some food for us humans.

Yes, this says Mama Possum's. I'm not sure that bbq is made from pork, but their hotdogs and milkshakes are pretty tasty.

Yes, I know. I'm not mature enough to own livestock. Their tb tests came back good, by the way. Rest of their test results will be in Monday or Tuesday.

If you're ever in Danville VA, go to Mama Possum's. It's yummy, I promise!

Busy day on the farm

What a day yesterday. I mean, WHAT.A.DAY.

The day started off great, I did my morning chores, feeding the chickens, chicks, and baby guinea chicks, giving everyone water. Hung out 3 loads of laundry and then straightened up the yard so it wouldn't look too redneck for the vet. He was coming out to check over the herd and do a few tests. How does all this crud accumulate in the yard? Tools, boards, assorted project pieces, there was stuff everywhere.

The mister (my hubby) had brought home a metal crate thing to use as a hay feeder, so my daughter, C, and I loaded it onto the trailer and took it into the goat pen. As we were getting the goats corralled into the shed, the vet pulled up. Super nice guy. He answered my million stupid questions, showed me how to trim their hooves, and impressed me with his goat wrangling skills (he said he's the goat whisperer).

Lucy and Patches had blood drawn for the various diseases that goats can get: CL, CAE, TB, ADHD, oh wait, that's not one. He also tested for brucellosis. It doesn't get cool initials like the other diseases, I'm sure it feels left out. He also drew blood for a pregnancy test on Priscilla. All the goats looked good, no parasites.

He did give me some advice that I should have already known. If you are getting a goat, have it checked out for CL and CAE before you buy it. If that's not an option, when you pick up the goat, take it directly to the vet and let them draw blood. Once you get them home, keep them in a quaratine pen until you get the results back. The nasty stuff in CL can stay in the ground for 100 years, so you don't want to bring that on your property if you can help it.

It only took him about 30 minutes to do everything, and that included all the advice. I like a doctor that asks questions and listens to the answers, whether it's for animals or humans!

Once all the inside and outside chores were done for the day, I decided to try milking Patches. Dummy me waited until after Brown Sugar had her fill, about 5 pm, so there wasn't much to get. This was still practice anyway, so I wasn't worried about how much I would get from her. I don't want to use the milk until I get her results back from the TB and brucellosis, as those can be passed to humans. The idea was that if I did manage to get an acceptable amount to keep, I could freeze it until the results come back next week. Turned out to be a moot point anyway, as milking was an udder disaster.

Don't roll your eyes at me. You would have said it too.

I started off good. Set my pot on the stove to sterilize, along with a jar to put the milk in. I was still optimistic at this point.

As the water heated in the pot, I mixed up the udder wash recipe I found at Fiasco Farms. Then I heard a soft pop.

Oh no. I knew then what I had done.

 



In my excitement, I had put the jar straight in the pot, without a rack. Like a dummy. I'm a newbie at milking, but I know how to sterilize a jar. Usually.

So I got another jar out, and sterilized it the right way.

Then I grabbed the milking pail, bowl of udder wash, paper cup to dip the teats in afterwards, cloth to wash the udder with. That's more than my two hands can carry. I manage to get it all out there, and then had nowhere clean to set everything while I got Patches up on the stand. My youngest daughter brought the brush to brush her off with. See, in theory, I know what to do. In practice, though, I'm hopeless.

We finally got her up on the stand, and she went ballistic when I washed her udder. She said nope, not gonna do it. After we fought and she kicked, and I swiped, we settled down to milk. I managed to get a few ounces before she started kicking around again. Of course the milk was filthy, and then her foot went straight in the bucket.

Ugh. I'm done for the day. I know what to do next time though. Get some foot hobbles so she can't fight me so bad (thanks to a FB friend for suggesting that!)
Milk her when she's been separated from Brown Sugar for several hours, and make sure she's hungry so she will stand there and happily eat her grain.

The other goats were watching warily while all this was going on.

Molly was hiding and praying I wouldn't get her next.

 

 

Friday we'll take Lucy and Patches to the vet's office to have their TB tests checked. They are both easy going, so HOPEFULLY they will behave for me. The vet is about an hour away, so taking them there is much cheaper than a trip charge just to check their skin. Oh, and by the way, be glad you're not a goat. Humans get a TB test on their arm. Goats get them just under their tail.

 

I'll leave you with that thought.