Goats Milk...What to do with it all!!??

Life has really changed around here and I couldn't be happier! George is 3 weeks old now and finally getting himself on a good little schedule. He is sleeping and eating great and hanging out with mommy as much as possible :)

In other baby news: The baby goats are sold! Its been about a week now since we sold all 3 of the baby goats. We posted them on Craigslist and had them sold within a few hours. I was very excited because I thought it was going to be several months before we would get rid of them all. Now bring on the MILK!!

We only have 2 miniature dairy goats and are getting almost 1 gallon of milk per day total from both girls. At first I didn't think a gallon of milk a day would be too awfully much...but wow am I sure looking for goat milk recipes now! Ive made yogurt, keifer, mozzarella, cream cheese, herb cheeses, honey pecan cheese, and fried mozzarella (yum!)...all in a few days. I cant wait to see the experiments I will get to have as we get overflowed with milk! We just switched them from eating brome to eating alfalfa to boost their milk supply and butterfat...we will see if it works or not!

Yogurt and Keifer: I tried the Yogourmet Freeze Dried Starter Packets from Iherb.com (don't forget to use coupon code NAF075 for $5 off your first order). Im pretty happy with the turnout!

Mozzarella: I used the same method Ive been using with cow milk Mozzerella Cheese Ball and it turned out just as great! I'm always hesitant to add too much salt (because you sure cant take it out once you put it in) so usually I end up with slightly bland cheese...someday I hope to find the exact balance of how much salt to add...but it varies each and every time!

Cream Cheese: Super Easy!! Using the whey from the mozzarella you will get at least 1/2 cup of delicious cream cheese! (I'll post more details with pictures later) 

So many blessings

Its been quite a busy few weeks around here! We had our precious little baby boy punctually on his due date. His name is George and he was born Thursday May 12th. 

 Both of Bryan's bee hives are doing fabulously and we are excited to see their daily progress. I have so much to post about Bees, but for now here are some fun photos of their progress.

And of course the baby goats!! They love to sit up on top of the picnic table and snuggle. They are growing up so fast!

 The garden is in full swing with daily harvests of lettuce, arugula, and spinach for delightful salads. This first picture is of the tomatoes. We still have yet to put up the T-posts and twine to hold up our wall of tomatoes.

Bed of sweet sugar snap peas :) YUM!!

Bush beans are creeping up and will soon be in full swing!

I dont have any new photo updates of the baby chicks...which really are not babies anymore! Ill get some good photos and post those later.

Covering Plants for Frost

Last week we had a frost warning for 2 nights in a row. FROST...IN MAY!!! But sure enough it got down into the 30s for 2 nights in a row. We had 90+ tomato plants in the ground that were at risk. 

I didnt want to go out and buy a ton of special row covers for frost risk...but I heard that just covering them with any pot, milk jug, bucket, etc would protect them just fine. So we dug out as many containers as we could find. Thankfully last year someone had given me about 100 large potting buckets last year!! I had no idea at the time what I was going to do with them so they just got tucked into the back of the garage. They sure did save the day!!!

Addie LOVED covering all the plants, which was a major bonus for me because I was about 38 weeks pregnant and really didn't want to squat down on the ground to bend and cover that many plants :) Addie covered all the plants and then in the morning we uncovered them all once the sun was out. We did this for 2 days and all the tomatoes survived without any problems. 

All our peppers, eggplant, basil, and legumes were not in the ground yet so I just took all the pots inside for those nights. I left the lettuce, spearmint, garlic, onions and chives to fend for themselves with the frost...and they did just fine without being covered. 

A few days later, with the risk of frost gone, I planted a bed of bush beans and a bed of bush peas. I also got all the peppers, eggplant and basil in the ground. The only thing left is more onions and a few flowers...which at this point will probably not get planted until after I have the baby! 

Meet the baby goats!!!

Poppy had 3 babies - 2 bucks and 1 doe. They all 3 are polled, meaning that they were born hornless and will not ever grow horns. We are very happy with this because we did not want to have to mess with disbudding (burning off the horn buds). They also all 3 have blue eyes which is a sought after feature in Nigerian Dwarfs! All these pictures are from their first week of life. They have already grown so much!! I wish we could keep all of them, but they are all for sale. They can be sold as early as 4 days old as bottle babies...needing to be fed milk from a bottle (which some people say is the best way to get a good friendly goat). Or they can be fully weaned by 8 weeks old and ready to leave their mom without any bottle feeding necessary. 

Poppy had this adorable white buckling first. He is the smallest, but definitely not the typical "runt" behavior. He will push his way through his brother and sister and always be the first to eat! Henry and Addie love him the most because they say his is the softest. They are all 3 extremely soft and fluffy, but for some reason Henry and Addie are convinced he is the softest :)

Born second was this rowdy little buckling!!! Extremely energetic but also very snuggly! He is the first one to go try out a new toy and definitely the bravest of the three babies. Bryan set up a little "play area" for them to run up ramps and jump off platforms...they sure do love it and this little guy is by far the most hilarious to watch! He isn't scared to run full steam off the top ramp and do a kick in the air!

Here are a few pictures of our precious little doe! Seriously just one of the cutest balls of fluff Ive ever held!!! Very stylish with her black boots as well :) She has one of the most gentle and laid back personalities.