Preggy Goat Bellies

Less than a week before kidding season begins.  I have two does due within a day of each other.  Ginny is looking rather wide, guessing 3-4 kids are cramped in there.  She is making pregnant goat sounds and would rather lay down than do anything requiring energy, besides eating of course.

Cindy Lou's hormones are kicking in and she's acting very bucky towards a few young does that are inheat.  She's flapping her tongue and making bucky noises. Her kids have dropped noticably too. Also guessing between 3-4 kids in there.

I'm guessing between next Wed & Friday I'll have some little ones jumping around.

Apple Cider

We purchased a bin of Macoun apples from Windy Ridge Orchard last week to make cider.  Usually we go around and collect free apples from people that don't want them but this year we have been unbelievably busy and just didn't have time.  It was so much easier buying them and it really wasn't that expensive.

This bin was full when we started.  Wish I had thought to snap a picture. We start by washing each apple with the hose.  It was a cold job as the temperatures were only in the high 40's.

This is our press.  There is a hopper on the back side that you put the apples in and then you turn the handle, or in our case run the drill to turn the choppers that grind up the apples. The barrel is lined with a cloth full of tiny holes to keep the chunks in & let the juice flow. Once the barrel is full of chopped apples we turn the handle on top which compacts the apples and the juice flows out the bottom tray into our dish.  If you look closely you can see the juice draining into the bowl.  The bowl is lined with cheesecloth to filter out the small pieces of apples that may get through. 

These apples were juicy and one press was making almost 3 gallons of cider. We ended up making 30 gallons of cider.  We don't fill them all the way so that we can freeze them.

We feed the remaining ground apples to our goats and horses in moderation.  Any leftovers are spread on my garden for fertilizer.

We saved some apples for canning and apple pies, plus we need a couple bushels for the kids to press at our annual Halloween party.

 Now we can enjoy sweet, unpasteurized apple cider until next fall when we start all over again. Yum!

Turkey House

The turkeys are growing really fast.  I love my remodeled hoop house.  It is longer and lighter making it easier for me to move by myself.

I had originaly constructed the frame out of wooded 2 x 4's but it was really heavy.  My husband reconstructed it with a nice new aluminum frame.  This baby will last forever. I situate it so that the turkeys get the early morning sun and then the tarp gives them shade in the afternoon.

You can make one of these really easy.  This one is made from two combination cattle panels and one hog panel in the center. The panels are attatched to a frame and then covered with chicken wire to keep the youngsters in.  Any larger and it would take more than one person to move it. The above photo is when I first put all 15 turkeys in it in June.

This is the access door made from some scrap aluminum we had at the shop.  The hose goes to the automatic water which is a huge time and back saver.

I now have 5 adult turkeys in it.  I move it to new grass every couple of days.  No need for cleaning or shavings here.  The turkey like to eat the grass and bugs too. Usually I raise 50 meat birds in the spring using the hoop house and then transfer the turkeys to it after the chickens are processed.  This year I skipped the meat birds because my freezer is still full of them from last year.  

Morning Surprise

So this summer has been really busy and I haven't found time to blog.  This am I decided to make time. Here is a good one....This am I went to do chores.  I fed the bucks & the pony & the new goats.  Then I milked my two alpines and fed that pen. I went to feed the dry does their hay, went in the stall, opened up the hay bag to put the hay in , glanced to my right and saw a "goat" lying next to the creep feeder pen and thought "why aren't you bombarding me for the hay this am?" and THEN I looked closer and the "goat" was not a "goat"!   IT WAS A FREAKIN COYOTE!!!!!!!!  I was close enough to pat it! I dropped the hay and ran franticly screaming.  My husband had already left for work so I had to call my FIL and hystericly told him to come quick with his gun.  Then I went through the kids pen jumped the fence & locked him in the stall so he couldn't get away.  I looked over every does neck and hind end and not one of them has a bite mark on them.  So did one of my does beat the bejesus out of him?  Is that why he was cowering in there?  I don't know but I'm still pretty shook up!  Too bad I didn't take pictures but I was a little out of my mind! Anywho, my FIL came & shot him and disposed of him, bye bye coyote.....You messed with the wrong farmer chic!

Chevre

I made some chevre for one of my husband's customers. He mentioned to his customer that I happened to make goat cheese and his customer is having a big birthday bash this weekend so I gave him some to enjoy.  It is so simple to make and delicious too, not to mention it uses up at least a gallon of my abundant milk supply.

Chevre Recipe:
Warm 4-5 qts of milk to 80°F
add 1/8 tsp starter (I like Flora Danica) let sit for 2 minutes before stirring
put 3 drops liquid rennet in 1/3 cup cold water
add 2 tbsp of the diluted rennet mixture to milk

Let set for 12-18 hours until curd forms. 

                               

Scoop curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth.

Hang to drain overnight.

This is what it looks like when you remove from cheesecloth.  This is when you add some salt to taste and whatever seasonings you desire.  This batch I made garlic & dill. Yum.  That's all there is to it!

Plain chevre can be substituted for cream cheese and seasoned chevre goes well with crackers.  Plain chevre freezes well, just add seasonings after you thaw it. Fresh chevre lasts for two weeks in the fridge.

You can reuse your cheesecloth.  Wash it & then boil it for 5 minutes. I use the muslin type cheesecloth.

Turkeys

Our turkeys came yesterday.  My husband called me at 7am to let me know that the post office in Hartford, VT had called to rudley let him know that "our chickens are in & that we MUST come get them." Sorry to put you our Mr. Post Man. Don't you value job security? He was rude when I picked them up too. That's another subject! I packed up a heat lamp & some turkey starter crumbles before I left the house. They hatched out on 6/21/11 and shipped via priority mail through the post office in this box.

15 Bronze Breasted Turkeys, the minimum order through Welp Hatchery, occupied one half of this box. My children were estatic. "Mommy, do we get to play with them today at work?" I set up the heat lamp and plugged it in and wouldn't you know it, the bulb blew! A 200 watt light bulb came to the rescue and warmed them up quickly. My two legged kids played with them all day, making sure they had clean water and food and were doing ok. I packed them up after a long work day and headed home. Once home I set up a temporary brooder for them for the next week.

Next week I'll transfer them to the garden shed until they are big enough to go in the turkey hoop house where they will be moved daily to fresh new grass. Last year I raised Bronze breasted, a couple of White Hollands, and a one Bourbon Red. Seeing as I don't want to let them breed naturally I opted to just go with the Bronze this year.  Last year the bronze was 31 lbs dressed. The Hollands were 7 & 9 lbs and the Bourbon Red tom was 17 lbs. The Hollands and the Bourbon Red. could fly and the Bronze could not so it will be easier to keep them in this year.  I will probably sell all but 4.  This is what I have done for the past three years and it has worked out well.

My two year old gently holding one of her new turkeys.

"I wan dat un."

  

Summer Pasture

I feel so far behind.  The weather has not cooperated very well this year. Rain, rain & more rain.  We were all done with first cut haying last year at this time.  This year we are not even half done.  I haven't got my garden 100% planted yet either. I did give all the goats their summer haircuts and I did get summer fencing put up.  I moved my bucks out behind our house.  We let our back lawn grow up so they could have a place to graze. They like the fresh green grass & I like saving hay. Not to mention it cuts down on lugging hay. I don't feed my bucks grain in the summer, they don't need it.

Here they are happily grazing.

Monty munching away.

Here are Vigilante & Aonghas happy to have some green grass.

I used the electric netting fence from Premier1.  It is portable & easy to set up, take down or move to a new location. I like the shorter fence but this year it was on back order so I purchased the 42" which I do not like as well because it sags more. For what it is I will deal with it. I now have 5 sections of fence that are 164' long, enough to make three separate grazing pastures.