My New Goat Milker

My oldest grand daughter Chloe asked if she could help milk. I never turn down help! So I gave her a bucket and there she went. She had that bucket full of milk in about 3 minutes! She's milking Abby. Abby sort of picked her feet up a few times but I told Chloe to just grab on and not let go. She did great! I am very proud of her. All 3 grands love goat milk.

It took awhile to get Abby's milk to taste good. Last year it did too. She is 10 years old now. I am thinking about retirement for her. I am going to look for a nice place for old animals to live out the rest of their lives. There has to be a place like that somewhere, right? I have had Abby the longest of all my goats, 7 years. She is the best milker I have ever had. I will miss not milking her. And she has given me 2 does the last 2 years now. So she deserves a nice place to retire. I'll milk her til she dries up next year. Then I'll see what's next.

Busy Week

Have you ever been so tired you just cannot sleep? That's me right now. I have had a pretty busy 3 days here. Wednesday I was up early.  Fed animals, milked the goats, went out to the gardens and started picking, pulling, digging, cutting and then washing, weighing and bagging all that produce for market that afternoon. And I had 2 grand kids here. Do you think they helped? They did later when I had to load it all up. And unload at the market and set it all up. Then had to go back Thursday. And today I am at work all day. I help take care of an almost 95 year old lady.

Saturday, I will stay home. All day. I have a lot to mow. I wanted to leave the clover for the bees but that's all I have is clover. So it looks like no one lives here. I have to mow. And there are some green beans to pick. And squash. And I need to finish a row of running beans and do another row. Then I am done with running bean twine and all that. I don't think I will do running beans again. They are a lot of work. But they are so good.

Also need to clean out the milk room. And get the cat room where I can put all my market things, like tables and baskets. I need to get organized here.

 I sure wish I could wiggle my nose and turn my dogs into some people to help me.  Don't they look like they would be great help?

My Gardens

 My daughter came over today to help me with pictures. So here are some of my gardens. These are the tomato plants.

 A pretty squash flower.

 I am doing rows between grass this year. I think I need to make the rows a little tighter because I am having to go down each row twice. Taking too much time with the mower. So to the right are potatoes, then kale, then cabbage and Swiss chard, then more potatoes. I planted red, white, blue, yellow and pink. They are all so good.

 More squask plants. But I do believe these may be last year's.

 Cabbage. Some of the many I have that I planted way back in February and just now am getting a few with cabbage heads. I had a time with cabbage moths and worms. Now come the Japanese beetles.

 These are some Ruby cabbage. So pretty.

 Some of my flowers beds. The day lillies are so beautiful this year.

 And one of 2 volunteer sunflowers. Just gorgeous!

 Again, I think this is last year's garden. Oopps!

 One of my window boxes I am really proud of. I got the geraniums for just a few bucks each and they are amazing.

 My rock garden. When we first moved to this house they had to put in a new septic tank. Well, they put it right in the front yard. And as you can see from the next picture, our house is made of limestone rocks, probably dug right from this property. So they dug up a lot of huge rocks. They asked me where I wanted to put them and I said just put them over in the corner of the yard, I'll do something with them. Well, I have looked at this pile of rocks for 7 years, trying to think what to do with them. Last year I started putting perennials in the little crevices and cracks. This year they all came back. So I started adding other flowers and little bushes. It has turned out beautifully. I love it now. And the bottom picture is of my lettuce bed under a cedar tree in the garden. I am still picking lettuce. It is shaded but doing really good in the heat. Thank you for looking.

Iris and Iris

SO, never name a goat after your mother. Remember this. I have the sweetest most gentle mother ever. And the little devil, I mean goat kid,  she's holding was born the day after her birthday. And she was so cute and sweet. So I decided to name her after my mother, Iris. BIG MISTAKE! If I could have chosen 2 people and animals totally different, I did a great job. Most of the time, Iris the goat is driving me crazy. I want to kill her. Iris the goat, not my mom. She is the most annoying of goats I have ever had. And I will not be keeping any more of Abby's kids. EVER! Really. I mean it. Because I also have her doe kid from last year. Zarah. Another little devil goat. I should have learned from her. She was just a few months old when she broke her leg. I have never had a goat with a broken leg til her.

So, never name an animal after any family members. Especially a goat after your mother. I am here to tell you it's NOT a good idea at all. I say things to Iris the goat that I would never let my mother hear me say.

And I got Abby because that's my youngest daughter's name. And then I have named my first 3 ewes after my grandkids middle names. But the sheep are really sweet good animals. Really.

Just remember this. Even though they LOOK like they are the sweetest thing you ever did see and want to remember them always and honor your mother, DON'T do it!

Great Day To Make Soap

It is really hot outside.  The dogs are already back inside under the ceiling fan. Smart animals, they are. I did go out this morning after feeding critters and finished up the mowing in the orchard. It kind of looks like it might just rain some. Fine with me.

So I am making soap. And bread. More on that in a minute.

First batch is from the  base I made a few weeks ago. I remelted 3 lbs. with 36oz. of goat milk. Then when it was all melted really good, I added lots of Patchouli EO and Sweet Orange EO. And some grated orange rind. Put some orange rind on top in the mold. It smells SO GOOD! This is my very favorite soap ever.

Next I made a veggie base. Then added at trace about 2 1/2 T of finely ground coconut and about 2 1/2 oz. of rosewood EO. I put coconut on top in the mold.

I am now waiting on the lye to get near 100 degrees to melt the oil for some peppermint soap. I'll add about 2 oz. of peppermint EO and some crushed dried peppermint leaves from my herb garden. Then put some on top as well. So 3 batches of soap today. Not bad.

I was just thinking how comfortable I am now making soap. Maybe a little too comfortable. I usually wear gloves and do the lye on the back porch. Today I did it in the kitchen. With no gloves. I know I should be way more careful with the lye solution. But it's just way too hot outside for it to cool. So I am doing it the slow way and just letting it cool on it's own in the kitchen.  I have plenty of time. While it's cooling I get the oils in the pot and set on the stove and get my molds ready and all the oils lined up. And the blankets on the dining room table.

So now the bread. I have been making the best bread ever. I just love crunchy chewy sour dough type breads. And they are about $4-$6 at Wholefoods. So I found a recipe in a Mother Earth News magazine. I make it at least once a week now. But yesterday I added chopped crushed fresh rosemary leaves and crushed garlic cloves chopped up. It just came out of the oven and smells so good. The only bad part about this bread is I have to wait an hour to eat it after it comes out of the oven.

I have made the cranberry walnut bread too. So yummy! If anyone wants the recipe, I can post it. I am taking pictures of all this so when I learn how to get them in here again, I'll show all this good stuff.

I am waiting on my order from Brambleberry to come hopefully tomorrow. Then I will make some more soaps. This is fun! And makes my house smell really good and clean.

I Wanna Live In A Condo

In downtown Chattanooga. A highrise. No grass anywhere. Not even any plants on the balcony. Only a few chairs and a table with an umbrella. And a small fridge with ice cold drinks. That is what I am thinking right now.

I am tired. It seems like I am mowing grass somewhere on this property every day. There is always something to do somewhere. In the garden. In the house. In the goat yard. In the barn. In the sheep pasture. In the gardens. In the chicken yard. Last night I added on to the chicken run area because I got 10 more laying hens. They're just 3 months old. But I already had 29 hens and Mr. Rooney. So this makes 39 hens. Well, actually, I think 2 of the Barred Rock young chicks I got a few months ago could quite possible be roosters. They are quite alot bigger than the other one I got at the same time. They have really long white legs. I was looking at my older BR hen, Judy Moody, and she has short yellow legs. Hmmm...

So I was out there in the field behind the chicken house getting the netting on the other side of the fence. They had just mowed and baled hay so I was feeling like it would be ok to go out there. But next to the fence was still really tall. I made my dog Bubba go with me. For protection. He's a good snake killing dog, for the record. So got that all done. The chickens all thanked me this morning as they were eating the grass in the new run. They have alot more room now.

It just seems like something has to be done, or has to be fixed. Or mowed again. And it's been 93 the past few days. I finally broke down and turned the AC on yesterday morning. I might as well enjoy it.

But as I was taking my sheets and towels off the line just now, I was thinking how at least I can do all this myself. I can walk. I am still young and can do things. I am thankful I can mow. And that the grass is green. Just a few weeks ago the grass was crunchy from no rain. Now it's growing like crazy again. And flowers are blooming. And birds are drinking in the bird bath that has water in it. And we do have water. I can take a nice cool shower after sweating profusely. And jump in my bed with freshly cleaned sheets dried in the sun all day under a beautiful blue sky. Yes, I am thankful. Mighty thankful.

Sweet Rain!

It started sprinkling yesterday evening. And kept on all night. A nice gentle steady rain that was needed so badly. I had just finished planting the one row of Kentucky Wonder beans in the North garden to finsih that garden up. And tilled another row for Blue Lake beans in the South garden. And had started putting up the long branches I have been saving  for all the running beans. I thought I had alot. But only got half way down the Macasslen bean row and about 1/4 down the Kentucky Wonder row. And I have 2 more rows to go. I had cut a bunch of bamboo a few weeks ago at a friend's place so need to go get them. But I got the beans that were already trying to run right now. I had to replant most of them a few weeks ago.

And my friend came to get the only buck we had this year. He is a Nubian and full of spots. So cute. I hated to let him go but no way I could keep him. I just have his mother and sister. I'll be getting a new buck and another doe that are Nubian in about a month. I think I need to retire Abby. She is 10 and it is taking so long for her milk to get where we can drink it. Same thing last year. I would love to find a place where she could go live the rest of her life, like a goat retirement center. I'm checking this out.