Armani the Goat

Would have posted sooner, but Patchwork Acres was having some internet problems, which turned out to be our phone line that plugs into the wireless Airport. Hubby took care of it, and we're back!

We welcomed a new member to the Patchwork Acres family this week...Armani the Goat! He's a beautiful little Nubian buck from registered stock that we got from our goat friend, Julie. (Hi, Julie!) Julie also took the picture that I've included in today's blog. Look at those long ears! Just what we like on the Nubians. Poor little guy cried so much the first day here that his voice was only a squeak for the next couple of days. Armani has adjusted well to his new home and now he just "talks" a lot, something else Nubians are known for. He drinks his milk as fast as our goat babies, who are 3-4 weeks older than him. And he loves attention just as much as the rest of our goats. Right now, the "big girls" don't pay much attention to Armani, but they will come this Fall/Winter because Armani will be old enough to do his part to increase the goat herd here at Patchwork Acres. :) We're hoping for spotted babies since Armani's sire is spotted.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Hubby took the family out to lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. While we were there, a young man proposed to his girlfriend. She said, "Yes." :)

It's been a while since I last posted. Busy making cheeses and soaps. Last time I wrote that I was going to make a strong feta with the lipase powder. It turned out wonderful!!! Really good on salad! It's now my favorite cheese that I make. The mozzarella and ricotta are great, too, and can be used in so many foods or just eaten by themselves. The lasagna I made with these cheeses turned out delish! Next, I want to try a cheesecake recipe and use the ricotta rather than the store-bought cream cheese.

The weather is still cold and dreary and it snowed again last week. The kids were out of school for a couple of days. It was snowing earlier today, but has stopped for now. Weatherman said we could receive an inch or two by tomorrow. But this is MO and you know what "they" say. "If you don't like the weather, just stick around 'cause it'll change again." I am so ready for Spring!!!! Saw a humongous flock of geese flying north on our drive home from church and town. I've been seeing geese heading north since the middle of January, which I thought was a bit early for them. So maybe Spring will be here before we know it.

I have still been knitting away on my daughter's red, cotton, lacy sweater. One and a half sleeves to go, sew up the seams and it will be finished! And I've already got my next couple of projects decided on. Just have to order yarn.

I have a busy week coming up. I will be substitute teaching 3 days and making soaps and cheeses the days I'm home. The Master Gardeners Seminar is a month away and the Home and Garden Show is a little over a month away. I want to make sure to have plenty of soaps for folks to choose from. Then before I know it, it will be time for the Farmers Markets to open. I encourage everyone to support their local farmers markets. And remember this bumper sticker, "No Farmers, no food!"

Cheese, Yogurt, and Kefir

Yesterday I was heating milk, cooling it, and then trying to put the container in the yogurt incubator when, I don't know what I did, but I dropped the container and spilled milk everywhere!!! AAhhh! I didn't have any more dried yogurt starter to start over, so I called hubby and asked him to pick up a box at the local health food store on his way home from work. He surprised me and also brought home a box of kefir starter. I've read about kefir and thought about making it, just never got around to buying the starter. It's supposed to be even more beneficial than yogurt and is made similar to yogurt. Heat the milk to 180 degrees F., but cool to 72-75 degrees F (a lower temperature than yogurt), let sit on the counter in a glass jar with a lid for 24 hours, then put in refrigerator for 8 hours. Then shake the jar, pour a glass, and drink. I'm curious to see what it tastes like.

Last night the kids had their monthly 4-H meeting. We went to a woman's house to hear about recycling in our county. This woman is the driving force behind this project and is working very hard to educate people and encourage recycling. Her dream is to have a recycling center in our community, which will benefit everyone. Less trash going into landfills and more jobs for folks to run the recycling center. I look forward to her dream coming true and I have no doubt it will.

And after I finish blogging, I will make more mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. I made ricotta for the first time this past Tuesday. It's even easier to make than the mozzarella and has a nice taste. I'm going to make lasagna later this week, using both the ricotta and mozz. Last night I mentioned to our County's 4-H Youth Education Coordinator that if any of the 4-H Clubs wanted to learn how to make cheese, to let me know. We have plenty of milk right now and I'd be happy to have them over. Both she and our guest speaker said they'd love to come make cheese. Told them all they had to do was give me a call and we'd pick a time. And with that, I'm off to make cheese!

Remembering Joy

I just wanted to take a few moments to remember a friend that I've never met face-to-face. Her name was Joy and she left this veil of tears on January 3, 2010. She was an elderly lady, whose younger brother and his wife have been friends with my mother since they were in school. She saw my email address in emails her brother sent to the both of us and sent me a message one day several years ago. We began corresponding back and forth. She forwarded lots of interesting emails to me, too. She was a weaver and spinner and had owned Angora rabbits when she was younger. That's how we got to visiting...because I had Angora rabbits years ago and I still spin, and do some weaving, and I love to knit. She was always interested in hearing about my doing spinning demonstrations, attending craft shows, and making cheeses and soaps. She told me just a couple of months ago how much she enjoyed reading my blog to catch up on all my "doings." Even though Joy and I never met each other in person, I'm glad our paths crossed and I know I'll met her face-to-face one day.

There's More!

It's so very, very cold here in Southeast MO! I don't like it and am so ready for late Springtime to arrive.

Hubby goes to barn yesterday morning and then calls the house. "Hey, Honey, you need to bring molasses water to the barn for Fawn." "Why, did she already have her babies?" "Yep, but she's only got a single." No wonder she didn't get as huge as the other does and made us think she wouldn't deliver for a while yet. So I fix a pan of warm molasses water for Fawn, put on my insulated overalls, hat, scarf, hooded barn coat (my daughter's), and gloves and head for the barn. The new baby is up and moving, nice and dry and Fawn almost inhales her sweet water. After we finish all the chores and eat breakfast, I call the doctor to make an appointment for our son later in the morning. He's been sick most of the week and now has a really bad cough and was still having fever off and on. Our younger daughter stayed home to feed the baby goats at lunchtime and take warm water to all the animals.

A few hours later, we are back home. I take hot water out to the animals and get bottles ready for the babies' next feeding. When I get to the barn, I can't find the oldest baby goat and the brand new baby is laying down and shivering. Bring the newest baby goat to the house and tell hubby I can't find the oldest one. So he gets dressed for the cold and goes out to the barn. He found the little goat outside, not too far from the barn, cold and shivering; so he brings him back to the house. We lay them both on towels with hot water bottles to get them warm. Both of the little goats' ear tips were frozen. Now today, the youngest goat's ears are fine, but we're not sure about the other one's. He may lose the ear tips. After another night of having baby goats in the house, they are back at the barn. Hubby shut all the new babies in one stable, so the other goats don't bother them and they can't escape under the sliding barn door.

I made a batch of mozzarella cheese last night. Yum, yum! I have yogurt incubating this morning. Next time I order milk filters, I'm also going to order some lipase powder and try my hand at making a strong feta cheese. I've made lots of the mild, but want to try a new recipe. Now it's lunchtime, but afterwards I'm going to make some more mozzarella. Too late to do cottage cheese now. Should have started it first thing this morning, as it has to sit for several hours.

First Snow Day of 2010

Today is my kids' first snow day of the year and they are glad. We have a little over 2 inches of snow here today and the weatherman says it's going to turn bitterly cold by this afternoon and will be through the weekend.

Ended up bringing another goat kid to the house to get dry and warm. He wasn't eating much, but now he is. He went back to the barn yesterday afternoon. Keep the oldest one in the house overnight, but this morning I asked hubby to take him back as well. He's not eating as much as I'd like, but he is doing fine and I'm tired of cleaning up goat pee and poop. His mama had "adopted" the other does' baby that remained at the barn. How funny for the baby goat to have 2 mamas fussing over him. Hubby rubbed the kid on his mama so he'd smell like her, but if she doesn't take care of him it's okay. We always bottle feed all the baby goats anyway.

I have sourdough rising to make a loaf of sourdough bread and sourdough pretzels. Promised hubby I'd make pretzels over the Christmas break and haven't done that yet.

Because of caring for the new baby goats, I only made 2 batches of soap this week. So much for that New Year's Resolution! I made Castile soap on Monday and coffee soap yesterday. This afternoon I will wrap the Oatmeal & Honey, after I bake the bread and pretzels.

But first, it's time to heat up goat milk for the goat babies and take warm water to the rest of the animals and gather eggs. We aren't getting many eggs right now and hopefully they haven't frozen.

Baby Goats!!!!

Lots of excitement at Patchwork Acres today! First of all, it's my eldest daughter's 23rd birthday. Next, one of the mama goats had twin babies to show my husband when he went to the barn for morning milking chores, in the COLD! The high for today was the low 20's. Anyway, by the time I went to the barn 2 hours later to do my morning chores, one baby had died. The other didn't seem to be doing very well and wasn't up and walking around yet. So I brought him up to the house and put him in the laundry room with a baby gate across the doorway to keep our Scotty dog from bothering him. I laid him on a towel and dried him off more, then covered him with another towel. I sat with him thinking about what I could do to try warm him up and a light bulb went off......hot water bottles! So I filled a 2 liter soda bottle and two 20 oz. bottles with hot water and laid them next to him under the towel. I also was trying to get him to suck on a bottle of his mama's colostrum. In the meantime, after lunch I had to go out and take hot water out to the rabbits and goats and replace the chickens' water bottles, which were all frozen. I heard a baby goat cry and I thought, oh, more babies! Another mama goat had twins babies, dry and moving around! Yeah!!! By late this afternoon, the first baby goat was wobbly, but finally on his feet!!! He's peed a few times and pooped, which is a mess I have to clean up, but good news that everything is working properly. And after supper, he finally drank 4 oz. of colostrum. I am hopeful that he will go back to the barn tomorrow. Before hubby and I go to bed tonight, we will feed all three babies another bottle and they should be good until the morning, where it's 4 times a day bottle feeding for the first week. After that it's 3 times a day until weaning time. We have three more does to kid, but I think it will be a while yet before they arrive.