Waiting, Chixperiment Update, and Dried Egg Rolls

Still no kids yet.  I think my goats may explode.  The temps are down in the teens now and it's getting rainy...so I figure they are going to go into labor at any moment.  For now, Faith and Daydream are in the kidding stalls in the nice new warm kidding barn.  Happily eating hay, ordering room service, and pooping up a storm.

Daydream is now 2 days late...and here's a shot of her behind after the kids dropped!

I am so thrilled with our new kidding barn....and the fixing up of the kid pen and milking parlor!  Here is the view from my milking parlor.  Check out the great gates my great hubby built!!  The gate on the right goes to the kidding pen and barn, the gate straight ahead goes into the back yard.

On the chixperiment side of things....here is my pick for the rooster that will sire the next generation of our meat birds.  He's a big boy and got a neat personality, plus some really neat spots.  He is about 3 months old and I plan to breed him back to my original 3 cornish cross hens plus a couple of keeper hens from the first breedings.  We'll see if the second generation does as well as the first!

On a final note...I am working on a new food project.  We love egg rolls, and we make them from scratch.  Well, I dry a lot of different vegetables...including cabbage.  I got an idea that I could dry cabbage, as well as the pre-made broccoli slaw, add my dried mushrooms, dried onions, and make a dry mix of vegetables for making egg rolls.  My theory is that once I package the mixture, I can simply rehydrate the mix....add some fresh bean sprouts and water chestnuts, the meat (I use my home canned chicken), seasonings and soy sauce and I will have a quick batch of eggroll filling. 

I catch the broccoli slaw mixture on sale quite often.  If I can dry it successfully, this will be great!  It takes 1 package (plus the other ingredients) to make a big batch of egg rolls.  I got cabbage on sale last week for $.19/lb and bought 10 heads of it.  As long as it stays cool I can keep it fresh...but if the weather turns warm I will be drying it.  I make sauerkraut but I am the only one in the family that likes it, so I don't make much.  Anyway, part 1 of the experiment....

The slaw filled 1 tray of the dryer.  It's a great mixture of julienned broccoli stems, sliced red cabbage, and julienned carrots.  It's a real time saver for making eggrolls, and when I catch it on sale it is a $$ saver also.

Next I slice the cabbage very thinly.  I am cutting down a small head of cabbage to dry.

Once it's all cut up I put it into the dryer...

It should be done tomorrow.  Then we'll see how the slaw mixture dries and how it rehydrates.  If it works, it may be an excellent food storage item!!