Grumbling Goats

I went through the last of the good goat hay (g.g.h.) on Friday, so that means they've eaten through two round bales in five months.  The first bale lasted almost three months, this last one was gone in two.  But when the first bale was opened, I was able to tie the goats out for fresh greens and we didn't have Herman or Lily and Pickles was still a baby and mostly drinking milk.

There are four more bales of the g.g.h. still under cover, but I figured we may as well see how they'd take to the $39 bales Paul picked up last month.  I guessed they were going to pick through it as it was much more stemmy than the g.g.h. and not as green.

Well, when I put the new not so good hay (n.s.g.h.) out for them, they immediately started shoving, butting and pushing to get to it.  Nettie thrust her head in the middle of the pile, trying to find gawd knows what.....and pulled her head right back out.  Then she nosed around the hay on the outer sides. Then just stood there, staring at me.  Probably thinking, "Uhm, when do you intend on feeding us?"

The Boer goats, Herman, Lily and Pickles sniffed around a bit and then dug right in.  Annette and Chop Suey started munching, but gave me a disgruntled sideways glance.

I am not going to break open any of the other bales of g.g.h. until they have finished this bale.  The only thing that makes me worry is that Annette and Nettie are both pregnant and that they'll be needing extra protein.  Everybody still gets grain every day, although not nearly as much as when they're milking, so they are getting a good amount of protein that way.  I'll probably break down and buy a 50-pound bag of alfalfa pellets and feed the preggo goats separately.

I'm not too worried about Ms. Melman and Nugget eating the n.s.g.h.; it's plenty good for them.  I just so happen to have the frekking'ist pickiest goats this side of the Mississippi.

And they say goats will eat anything.  Ain't that right, Hoosier Girl??

Soup Sunday - Vegetable Broth

Well, since I totally screwed the pooch and forgot about Mama Pea's Soup Sunday last week, I guess I should share one this week.

This has got to be the easiest, albeit a bit boring, soup to make.  Well, except for maybe opening a can of Campbell's, but I'm thinking we're all looking for the Mmmmmm, Mmmmmm, HOMEMADE good kind'a soup.

As a few of you are aware, I'd been doing a juice fast last week.  And in order to do a juice fast, you need tons, and I mean TONS of vegetables.  And since I had veggies (veggies, veggies, veggies, veggies.....embrace it Susan) coming out of my ears, I figured I might as well make some vegetable broth.

I cut up carrots, onions and celery and put them in a pot with three cloves of crushed garlic.  Added a little glug of olive oil to the pan and sauteed the bunch for about five minutes, until the onions just started to soften.  The I dumped in about 8 cups of water, a teaspoon or two of parsley and a few bay leaves.

Bring the soup up to a boil, then reduce heat and keep on a low simmer for several hours (I think I had mine on the stove for 2 1/2).  Some of the water will evaporate during the cooking time, so make sure to add some back in every once in a while and add salt to taste.

Normally I would keep all those good vegetables in the soup, but this time I wanted to make a simple broth so when I took it off the stove I strained everything through a sieve lined with a few layers of cheesecloth.

This is also a good way to use up all your vegetable peelings.  Because you DO keep all those peelings in a zippy bag in the freezer until you've got enough to make soup, right?!

That's what I thought.

Oh, and for something totally unrelated, I give to you my first RCP (Random Cat Picture):

Evil Kitty, not entirely happy about being wrapped up in a scarf.

Homemade Toothpaste

Paul's been nagging asking me to make some more homemade toothpaste for like five months now.  And I just got around to it.  Part lazy, part lack of ingredients.  But I finally did it.  Not only because I was at the health food store in town and was able to obtain the vegetable glycerin, but because I really felt sorry for him.  He's been using plain baking soda (dumped into a plastic NyQuil dose cup, btw, making it look even more pathetic) to brush his teeth.  I know there are people who swear by just using baking soda or baking soda & peroxide, but man does it taste salty.  So much that my lips pucker just thinking about someone else using it.  Rhiannon uses a kid's non-fluoride toothpaste and I'm a whatever's on sale commercial toothpaste kind'a gal even though I prefer the homemade kind.

So, if you're ready to get off the commercially made toothpaste train, here's a easy-peasy recipe for you.  And in my usual style, I don't have an exact recipe.

Container, vegetable glycerin, baking soda, peppermint oil.  That's it!

First of all, find a container to put your toothpaste in.  Then fill the container about 2/3's full of baking soda, then dump it out into a larger bowl for mixing.  Gradually pour in the vegetable glycerin until it's the consistency of cake icing.  You could stop there, but I like mine minty flavored, so I add a few drops of peppermint extract.  I've also used cinnamon or spearmint, just make sure to add it a few drops at a time as extracts are very potent.

Happy & healthy brushing!

Wee-ner!

Well, since we were up with a bit of a cough this evening, and since it technically was time to pick the name for my Dark & Dreary Days Giveaway.......

Terri T. is the big winner!!  Ding-ding-ding!!!

Please email me your address at CarolynRenee at Centurytel dot net and I'll get your CD's out to you.

Oh yeah, and the big honking bar of chocolate!

Thanks all for participating and letting us know what your favorite seed companies are.

Now let's get our seed lists finished and orders in.  Before we know it, it'll be time for starts!!

Milk cravings

I haven't milked Nettie or Annette for three weeks now.  It's actually quite nice not to have to milk when it's freezing outside, but I'm having milk withdrawals.  This happens every year.  But this year I planned (a little) ahead.

I managed to freeze a half dozen smaller bottles and two gallon jugs of milk before I dried the does up, but I've already gone through the smaller bottles.  And I won't have any fresh milk until Annette kids, which is like two months away (actually, 53 days away.....but who's counting?).

I've been letting Rhiannon have the milk if she wants cereal or oatmeal, and I've been using it sparingly in my tea.  I had put an ad in the local paper looking for a source of fresh milk, but nobody has answered.  When I was at the store a few days ago I glanced at the price of milk; $4.65 a gallon!  I'd have no problem paying that for fresh milk, but store milk?  No way!  I'll be using powdered milk for cooking or baking and once our frozen milk is gone, we'll just go without until kidding time.  I would have frozen more, but our freezer space was at a premium and I really couldn't jam much more in there than I already had.

Oh, and speaking of milk cravings, guess who is back to crying for a cup of milk whenever I go out to the barn to feed the goats?

Outside Kitty came back!  He was only "gone" for a day, and he may have actually still been here and was just giving me the cold shoulder (or a furry middle finger).  I even got him to eat in the barn, but he's much more skittish now whenever I move, probably thinking I'm going to lock him up again.  But when I'm away from the barn, he runs right up and meows hoping for a snack.  Which I am of course, obliged to provide.

Yes, I'm a total sucker.

PS - If you haven't already, click HERE to enter to win some Mother Earth News CD's and a H.B.B.O.C. (Honk'n Big Bar of Chocolate)!  Entries close tonight at midnight!

You Shall Not Pass!

We live in the kind'a county.  Not like middle-of-freaking-nowhere country, but country enough that pick up trucks, cattle and guys spitting chaw (ick, ick, ICKY!!) are seen on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

We also just so happen to live at the end of a gravel road, a mile from the "main" road through our respective town.  And we get a lot of turn-arounds at the house.

It's not that I'm anti-social (Shit, who am I kidding.  If no one came down here in a year and a half I'd be thrilled.) or freaked out about hockey-mask-wearing and chain-saw-wielding freaks from wandering down here (give me a rifle & you can kiss you & your Huskavarna goodbye), but these constant turn-arounds are beginning to piss me off.

I understand that people get lost.  I understand that people sometimes just want to take a drive through the country and sight-see.  But when those incidents happen with this frequency, something has to be done about it before I go postal on the next person who makes a gravel-slinging U-Turn in the middle of my front yard.

So what did my wonderful husband do during his vacation last week?  He put up this:

Our first official farm gate!

I know that Mom is going to be grumbling about it under her breath and I'm sure that there will be times (like when it's pouring rain outside) that I'll be crabbing about having to get out of the car to open it, get back in the car, get out again to close it, then finally back in the car.  We're also going to have to build one of those little package delivery boxes or something for the mail/FedEx/UPS guys.  But I'm mighty happy to see that unwritten but obvious "Unwelcome" sign guarding the front of our driveway.  I'll worry less about people ripping through my front yard, wondering if they'll end up hitting a chicken, dog or cat or goodness forbid, Rhiannon playing outside.  I'll worry less about shady characters scoping out our place looking to steal our broken down lawnmower or run off with our pile of rocks (if only).  And what about our "Welcomed" guests?  Well, you know who you are and know how we are, so you should know better than to be offended by the gate.  And if you have to wonder if you're one of the "welcomed" persons.....well, then you probably aren't.

But honestly, I'm just tickled that we have a farm gate.  Because I've always wanted one.  Because it somehow makes our place seem like more of a "real" farm when you have to get out of your truck to open a big-ol' gate.  Silly, I know.

So if you're planning on paying us a visit, you'd better call ahead or plan on parking your vehicle at the gate and hoofing it down to the house.

Oh, and make sure you let me know you're coming ahead of time.  You know.  Just in case.  (Wink-wink)

Lost and Found

Outside Kitty made a break for it sometime yesterday afternoon.  One of the goats (Nettie, I suspect) managed to push in the wire to the kidding pen door where I had him trapped against his will safely contained and the cat obviously saw it's chance at freedom and left.

Nettie is beginning to be such a bugger.  She manages to open the back shed doors (latched, btw) and the chicken coop doors just because she can.  And she's also pushed in the wire on the little kidding pen so the chickens that go in there at night can get out before I open them up in the morning and end up pooping all over the barn floor.  I really need to get wooden slats up instead of just using the wire mesh.

Anyways....I went out last night to close up the chickens and do my crazy-cat-lady "meow-meow-kitty" to see if Outside Kitty was still hanging around and he didn't meow back nor show himself.  So I put the can of cat food right under the barn.  It was still there this morning.  So I'm a bit bummed about losing Outside Kitty, but I guess it just goes to show that some animals will not tolerate any infringement on their freedoms.  He had a warm, fluffy bed with two warm meals a day and still jumped at the chance to get out of there and out into the freezing wild.  Hopefully he'll come back soon and not harbor nasty feelings towards me.

Speaking of freezing, I've had to break out the big guns this morning:

Although it looks like a potential crime scene where I cracked a pooping
cat's head in with a meat tenderizer, it's just my ice chipping equipment.

My official ice chipping & skimming equipment.  It got down to nineteen degrees last night (yeah, yeah, I can see all you Northerners rolling your eyes) so I had a thick layer of ice to whack out of the water buckets.  The kitty litter scoop is for scooping out the floating ice.  For years I used my hands to skim the ice out. Duh.

But on a good note, look at what I found:

The "missing" first disk to the M.E.N. set!  Used, but still good!

Well, Paul was actually the one who found it.  So now who ever is so lucky as to win my Dark & Dreary Days Giveaway will have the complete set of Mother Earth News CD's.  If you haven't already entered, just click on the link and get your name in the hat!