Abby Comes to Visit

Grandma Becky, Grandpa Dale, and Abigail (whom our Abigail is named for) came to visit tonight for lasagna, a cool off in the wading pool, a visit with the goats and chicks, and a few games of XBOX 360. It was a great visit.

First, we served herbed goat cheese stuffed cherry tomatoes, which everyone said they enjoyed and since they all disappeared, I choose to believe them. I love our creation, but I will admit to being worried that I think our cheese is better than it is. This starter was followed by lasagna, since I had been wanting some for a while and am returning to my diet tomorrow, which will NOT include pastas or processed foods. Becky brought the most delicious orange glazed pound cake. The human kids gobbled that up and returned for more!

After dinner, Dale and Sean screwed in more 2x4's to support the plywood sheets I ordered this week and extended the barn's roofed area another 8' ft square. Every little bit helps move us towards the finish line in this project. It is tediously slow work because we will not go into debt to build it or any other part of our farm. We pay as we go and built as we can afford to do so. While Sean and his Dad were building, we women-folk enjoyed watching the goslings grazing at our feet, the girls playing in the pool and talking.



Abby loved playing with Meaghan in the wading pool, but I coaxed her out of it to feed strawberries to the goats in the pasture with me. Uncle Sean distracted the goats, who are only too willing to push their nosy little noses into any unprepared visitor's face. We climbed onto the wood spindle and fed our supply of treats. Uncle Sean captured the video for us. Then, Sean fed the goats some brush branches while we slipped out of the fencing. Ellie happily followed us out for her evening milking. Dale, Becky, and Abby watched Sean collect our nightly quart of milk.



After Abby dried off and slipped into new clothes, it was time to be rewarded by holding one of the freshly hatched chicks for just a couple of minutes. All three of the chicks that have hatched so far all have Cochin fuzzy-feathered feet. The other eggs have not made any more significant progress, but we are hopeful that in the morning, others will have hatched. For tonight, the new chicks are dry, warm, and chirping in the brooding tank. We have another 25 eggs still in the incubator. I wonder how many will hatch by morning. I feel sort of like when I was a little girl and my parents would plan to drive to Maine to visit my grandparents in the middle of the night. I would go to bed early, so the trip would come all the sooner. It makes me want to go to sleep early tonight!



Abby and Becky also braved tasting goat's milk for what I am fairly certain was the first time. Abby drank hers still warm freshly filtered from the goat pale. Check out Abby's review in the video.

All in all, it was a great visit.

Sonja ♥

Chickens are Hatching: VIDEO UPDATE (Graphic)

We came home from our Sunday meeting and found that the chicks had begun hatching. I am so excited because I was unsure of whether any in this batch were going to make it. As of now, 6 have begun peeping out of their shells.



This baby is only a few minutes old, but listen to how loud this little one's lungs are!


With some encouragement from the chick hatched a few hours before, this little one finally flexes and breaks fully out of the egg. I was worried because this chick had not progressed for over 10 hours in its egg. I was worried that I was going to need to interfere if the stale-mate continued. Thankfully, that was not necessary.

As of Monday night at 10:30 pm, we have 8 chicks hatched and thriving. Two others have made pips in their eggs and several others can be heard peeping and pecking away inside their eggs.
We'll keep you posted! Sonja ♥

Cheese Making Attempt #3= SUCCESS!

 After searching the Internet for new recipes to try for making chevre (since attempt #2 was good and edible, but didn't have the tang I was hoping for) and feta cheese, purchasing the necessary cheese cultures, and requesting some help with its making from Sean, we were ready for another attempt. I used the recipe I found at Fias Co Farm's website HERE for the chevre and followed it almost exactly. The only change I made was that I did not let it drip for the full time. I stopped when the cheese was the consistency that I was looking for. It worked perfectly and was VERY easy to do. 

It was really good tasting plain. When we added garlic and chives, it was AMAZING. Just perfectly what I had been hoping to make! This recipe is definitely a keeper. We like eating it on crackers or stuffing grape tomatoes with it as a simple snack. Another delicious way to enjoy this is to roast baby bell peppers in the broiler with a little olive oil. Steam the skins off and stuff them with the herbed goat cheese. I have made this treat for friends with store bought goat cheese. I cannot wait to try it with my own cheese! ♥

We make CHEESE!  ♪ Happy Dance to Commence! ♪

Our attempt at making Feta for the first time was a dismal FAILURE. I think the problem was that either the temperature was too high or we used too much rennet to set the curds. The recipe I used called for 1/8 tsp of vegetable rennet to 1 quart of goat's milk mixed with 3 tbsp buttermilk. At the point where we were instructed to add the rennet and mix thoroughly for a minute or two, the curds instantly formed into the gooped ball pictured. They were rubbery and nowhere near the yogurt consistency they were supposed to attain to after an hour. This mixture was thrown out. And, we searched and found another recipe to try. It calls for goat butter milk, which I will make tomorrow morning in preparation. We should be able to collect enough goat's milk to try feta again later this week. We'll keep you informed of how the next try goes. ♥

Additionally, we were successful in coaxing a teeny tiny amount of ricotta from the whey left over from making the chevre. This, too, was really yummy- slightly sweet and creamy. We are so proud that two of the three cheeses we attempted came out perfectly! With these small successes behind us, we are excited and encouraged to try more recipes!

Sean here.  Milk is an amazing substance.  You can drink it of course, but that's just so boring.  After making chevre cheese, we take the leftover whey and make ricotta cheese.  And you would think that would be the end of it but wait, there's more!  Apparantly, according to the internet, we COULD have saved the leftover whey from the ricotta to make a THIRD kind of cheese that's supposed to be even tastier!  So next time, nothing will be wasted.  Behold!  The power of Cheese.....

 

Thanks for stopping in,

Sean and Sonja 

This post also shared with: The Home Acre Hop #3

Dog Days of Summer

In their defense, it was hot outside, but with the AC pumping, the living room was just right.

Jam... Out!

I posted HERE about picking strawberries with Kristen and Meaghan. I attempted to make strawberry jam, but since I refused to add FOUR CUPS of SUGAR to a mere two cups of fruit, the pectin did not have enough sugar to bond with and my jam did not set. Not one to throw away my delicious concoction, I froze the tubs anyway and called it Strawberry Topping, figuring this would be perfect for strawberry shortcakes, as topping for home made ice cream, or mixed into oatmeal or fresh yogurt.

On our trip to South Carolina, Sean and I bought a box of fresh peaches, which were just about the most delicious, juiciest fruit I have ever eaten. I was determined to attempt to make jam with what fruit survived our eating them on the drive home. I followed the recipe on the sugar free pectin box. I could live with 2 1/2 cups of sugar in this recipe. But, the plastic tubs did not set again. Hmmm....

The girls and I went strawberry picking again on Tuesday. We picked nearly 25 pounds of fruit. Some we gifted, much I froze into more shortcake topping, but I wanted to attempt some jam again. I tried to religiously follow the directions on the box, but I could not, COULD NOT add the requisite 4 cups of sugar. Two cups of sugar made the fruit into a crystallized, grainy mass, which even when it dissolved was soooo super-sweet. I added the gelatin mixture since I had gone through the process of preparing it and filled my plastic tubs with the results. It had a better consistency than my first attempt, definitely thicker, but it still was not gelled perfectly.

So, it is at this point that I decided that jam making was not for me. I would need to stick with creating wonderfully delicious shortcake and ice cream topping and oatmeal and yogurt dressing, instead. These all carefully frozen to preserve and living in my freezer.

I did take some time yesterday to look up some non-pectin using recipes and they look promising. I think when the raspberries ripen, I will give it another try.

In other news, I bought some vegetable rennet, mesophilic culture, and lipase at the local natural food center. Tonight, with a gallon of fresh goat's milk waiting, I am planning on making either true chevre or feta and ricotta cheeses with the help of Sean. I can't wait to try. And, of course, I will let you know how it goes!

Have a great day!
Sonja ♥

No Fenn Was Harmed in This Venture

It seems to go in cycles. Both last year and the one before were fairly uneventful. I guess it was time. It has been a bad season for fleas this year. Add to the unseasonably hot temperatures, Fenn's nearly impenetrably thick fur and you begin to see the necessity for shaving him. I did not envy Sean this task and left him to it.






After about thirty minutes of work, Sean accumulated a pile of fur big enough to spin into a skein of yarn. We didn't, instead choosing to sweep it up and throw it away. Fenn was not pleased with anything about this process. He wiggled and squirmed, whined and eventually decided that he was finished with this foolishness and began growling at Sean. It was decided that a break was in order for both Sean and Fenn. This grooming should help with both flea control and assist Fenn with keeping more comfortable in the summer heat. He'll need more attention, but for now, it is a start.

Before and After:

 

Angus was not left out in today's doggie grooming activity. While Sean was coaxing Fenn's cooperation, I bathed Angus and then used scissors to clip him. He was at least as unimpressed as Fenn with this turn of events, but since he is both older and smaller in size, I was able to give him a fairly decent grooming.





Thanks for visiting!
Sonja ♥

I Am Come Home

We arrived home on Monday night before 7pm, car stuffed full of tired kids and husband, bags, souvenirs and the like, two- 9 hour days of driving having fully taken their toll. That did not discourage our need to take stock, walk our land and greet each pen of beloved critters.

Where to start? I suppose it started as we crested the hill to catch our first glimpse of the partially built barn and fields. Jasmine was still in her field. That was good. The fencing around the back of her pasture was down. That was not. Sean would need to remedy this first thing.

Jedi, Leah, Rachel, and Pepper greeted us like they hadn't eaten or seen humans in DAYS, neither of which was plainly true looking at their slightly rounded bellies and lively moods. But, they carried on a chorus of steady "Meehhhh!" until we bowed to their demand for food and attention.



My goslings and ducklings had grown. The ducklings feathered out beautifully into one with pleasing standard Mallard markings and one with lovely speckled Black Swedish markings. Still more friendly than their counterparts in the main coup, they called insistently to us. I couldn't resist releasing them from their enclosure to see would they follow me around. They didn't... quite. They quacked and peeped at me, scampering about my feet, then turned to the business of stuffing themselves with fresh green grass. I purchased some freeze dried meal works as treats for the fowl, but my babies were uninterested in these. The babies kept us in sight, as we surveyed the rest of the stock.



The main chicken coop was bustling with chickens and ducks in need of fresh water and food. They had missed their morning rations and were not silent about this deficiency. We had 100 pounds of cracked corn and layer mash with us in the trunk of the car and set to the task of filling their feed and water containers. These fowl did enjoy the meal worms I sprinkled on the ground and greedily gobbled them up.

On to the piggies. Both Ebony and Patches were safely inside their pen, resting in their house, but were easily lured to petting and loves by a half scoop of feed.

Aloysius and his Cochins, living in the chicken tractor in our back yard, were in need of moving and grain. Sean moved the tractor and I filled the food for our grateful chickens. Broody Cochin had not changed her mood in our time away and needed to be encouraged out of her coop to food. I collected the one egg in that coop with a sense of peace.



Ellie, Asher, and Abigail were all contained in their make-shift pen. The kids had grown so much in confinement, I thought that perhaps our gardens would be safe from them. I opened their pen and led them back to the main pasture area. I was wrong and Sean had to be called in from fixing the horse fencing to help with the recapture of two uncooperative kids.

Bunny was still confined in her yard, but her fencing needed moving so she could access fresh grass, too, which Sean took care of after returning the kids to their temporary home.

With all the outside critters tended, I turned my attention to inside the house. Cats all accounted for, I scooped some feed into their dish on the porch on my way in. The smell of wet, foul chicks hit me at the door. THAT needed fixing. I opened all the windows on my way through to the living room. I grabbed a trash bag, fresh shavings, and a garbage pail and holding my breath, bravely tackled this chore. It only took minutes to scrape out the several inches of messed litter and replace it with fresh. The chicks did not approve of my intrusion and chirped at me and scattered madly about their cage, but I like to think they appreciated my effort of providing clean bedding for them. I refilled their food and water containers, while I was at it.

Fenn looked like a sheep in need of shearing and couldn't be let inside until that was cared for. Sean saw to that need. Immediately released into the house, Fenn darted to the chicks and began barking at them, which scattered pine shavings and rogue tufts of hair all over the freshly vacuumed living room floor. I took one look at that, one look at the newly feathered chicks and decided that it was time to move them into a new home. The one available being the chicken tractor currently inhabited by the goslings and ducklings. Since these had grown so much, we decided that they could be introduced into the main coop for a while. I had originally been against this idea, for fear that my babies would prefer other fowl to me, but I also had no time to build a new enclosure right then. Necessity being the ruling factor, Sean helped me with this quick switch. (Night is the best time to introduce new birds to a pen. The chickens had already put themselves to roost and would be unlikely to cause any ruckus. The ducks, especially Philip, took an interest in the new additions, but he quickly realized that he was no longer the largest bird in the coop and retreated with his ladies to his nesting area.

The outside birds settled, I turned my attention to the chicken eggs in the incubator. I carefully candled each egg and found 4 that were either not fertilized or had failed to progress. I had set them to hatch for Friday, but after checking them, I am unconvinced that this is going to happen. I don't know if there had been a power fluctuation that affected them, but to my untrained eye, they don't look nearly ready for hatching. The incubator read 100 degrees, so I returned the eggs to it and decided to wait and see what would happen. Maybe they will be alright, still.

It was after I finished candling the eggs that Sean finally came in from his chores. He grabbed my hand and together we "walked the land." This evening ritual is one of my favorites and the one that lends peace to my soul. Hand in hand, we check each garden bed, survey each animal pen, and discuss what needs doing next. It is a fitting end to our day of work and a transition to our time together for what is left to our evenings.

So, we are home and back into the swing of our lives. But, I didn't completely feel so until I heard Aloysius crowing to us at 4:30am. With a smile, I snuggled back into my blankets and drifted back to dreamland.

I hope you have a great day!
Sonja ♥