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.

They're everywhere, they're everywhere

Our herd has gone from 5 to 11 in a single bound. It's the superherd. These are Nubian-Boer crosses, like Miss Priscilla. We went and picked them up this morning, and thankfully the rain held off until after we got home. Introducing....

Little Girl (still thinking of a name for her that my BFF approves of. Apparently I'm using all the names she likes for baby girls. All I can say is, she better step it up and give me an honorary niece if she's gonna be this picky.) 

 Patches, who is Little Girl's mama. Little Girl will only nurse from one teat, so she's lopsided. She jumped right up on the milkstand and let me milk her a little bit. I think it will take a day or two to get her (and me) used to doing this, but we'll get her leveled out. And did you catch that? I milked her! My first time ever. Only got a few ounces before she decided I was done, but still, I did it!

 This is Sock. It's hard to tell from the picture, but she has one white foot, hence the name. She isn't the smartest one in the bunch, as she has gotten tangled in the electric fence at least 3 times in the 2 hours we've been home with her. She may need a name change, but as dumb as she is, I would surely offend whoever has the same name. Maybe she should just be Sock, Dumb as a Rock. Yeah, that sounds good. She is really sweet though.

 This lovely mama is Mona. Very friendly and gentle. 

Here are the new ones all together. Somehow I didn't get pics of the other two kids, the two on the right in the above pic. There's a young solid white billy, and Mona's son, who is white with a brown head. I would have went back out and gotten pics, but I'm tired, ok? 

This is one of the reasons I need a nap. You can't see, but there are 6 tiny little baby guineas in there. The reason you can't see them? It took 3, count them THREE layers of wire to keep them contained. We knew the chicken wire was too big for them, so we found a wire mesh basket crate thingy to put them in. Well these little boogers can get through that too. So I found some hardware cloth to make a fence around that. So they are in the basket, surrounded by hardware cloth, surrounded by chicken wire. 

And the other reason I need a self induced coma is this (pretty proud of it actually)

My oldest daughter and I worked Friday and made 39 half pints of crabapple jelly. If you've never made jelly, it's a great one to start with, because it's soo easy. 

How to Make Crabapple Jelly in a Few Easy Steps:

What you need:

• A bunch of crabapples
• sugar
• liquid pectin, optional
• A pot to cook the apples in
• cheesecloth or jelly bag for straining
• jars, lids, and rings (sterilized and kept hot). I prefer Ball, since they are made in the U.S. and have always been very good quality jars.
• water bath canner

How to do it: (mostly according to Ball)

1. Check through the crabapples and make there are no worms, blemishes or any other yuckiness.
2. Wash them really good. I filled up the kitchen sink and let them soak. A little vinegar in the water is helpful, but not essential. 
3. Remove stems and blossom ends.
4. Dump the apples in a large pot, adding 1 cup of water for every heaping quart. Make sure your pot is plenty big enough, because the apples will expand as they cook.
5. Bring them to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for a little while. 
6. Mash them up with a large spoon or spatula as they begin to split open.
7. Strain through cheesecloth into another pot or large bowl, to remove all pulp. You only want the juice. 

Now, there are two ways to do it. You can just use sugar, or you can add pectin. I'll give you both ways.

Sugar only method:

1. Combine 4 cups of juice and 4 cups of sugar in a large pot. It will foam up, so use a pot larger than what you think you would need.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. It needs to come to the gelling point. This will vary depending on how high above sea level you are. I'm at approximately 640 feet, so I bring mine to 220 degrees on a candy thermometer. Use the boiling point and add 8 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, go here and learn how to do it without one. 
4. Once it gets to that point, take it off the heat and fill your sterilized jars, leaving 1/8" headspace. Wipe rims, screw on lids (not supertight, just fingertip snug.)
5. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. This should make 8 half pints.

Pectin method: (follow directions on the package, but here's what I did, using liquid pectin)

1. Combine 5 cups of juice with 7 1/2 cups of sugar. 
2. Bring to a good rolling boil. This is when it doesn't stop boiling when you stir it.
3. Add in your pectin.
4. Return to a boil and boil for one minute, stirring.
5. Remove from heat.
6. Skim off foam with a metal spoon. I got a lot more foam with this method than with the sugar method. I didn't try to get every single speck off, but the majority. If you are entering this jelly in a fair, get it all out so it's beautifully clear.
7. See step 4 of sugar method, continue the same way. I got 9 half pints doing it this way.

The sugar method takes longer to set up, or gell, but don't worry, it will! Apples have a lot of natural pectin, but it takes longer to set up when you don't add extra pectin. I did some both ways yesterday, and today they were all gelled.

Enjoy!