Kid update, Mud, and Mushrooms

Well our baby goats are growing by leaps and bounds....I now call Echo (the brown buckling) and Ellie (tri colored doe) the Marshmallo kids....because they feel like marshmallows...all soft and squishy!  Look at how big they are getting!

I am also helping our friends (our sister herd) sell a couple of her doe kids.  These girls are out of our buck from Latte Da Dairy, with super bloodlines and lots of flash.  Their mothers are bred on Faith's line (the white doe in the banner on my blog).  These does are Faith's grand daughter and great-grand daughter.  No they are not sisters but they sure could pass as twins!  They were born about a week apart to 2 different dams.  They should be outstanding milkers one day. By the way, the handsome gentleman on the left is my other keeper buck aka marshmallow kid...Andy.

These girls have the breeding, the flash, the style....aren't they beautiful?!?  Their names are Moon River and Moonlight Serenade.

One more shot of Serenade, she's my favorite....and then I'll move on....

I am amazed that these kids can stay clean.  We have been swimming in mud and muck with all the rain we've had.  I'm ready to dump a load of pea gravel into the goat yard.

We splurged yesterday to buy this hay feeder for the milkers who insist on wasting alfalfa hay like it's free.

If it works well, we'll be making several of them.  I'd like to have one in each of the buck's stalls, one for the kid pen, and 2 for the girls' barn.  The mangers we use for grass hay just does not work well for alfalfa hay at all; they waste as much as they eat so we have to find a better way.

And the bargain of the week was when I found washed & sliced baby bella mushrooms for .99/10 oz package.  I bought 17 packages of them and dried 10 pounds of mushrooms!!  Ever wonder what 10 pounds of dried mushrooms look like?  That's a gallon jar!

Of course that's only temporary storage until I got them all dried.  Next I will vac seal them in smaller portions and put them in long term storage with 02 absorbers.  They should keep for a long time.

10 chickens and a pig

Well our chixperiment has been a great success.  I processed the last 10 of them that were destined for the freezer.  We have kept the 3 original hens and 7 of the offspring for breeding this year.  These 10 dressed out at 37# total weight....with nice meaty breasts and large drumsticks.

A friend of ours went hunting with his boss last night.  His boss' property has been nearly destroyed by wild hogs so they are doing their best to exterminate them, but in the process was able to catch this little guy.

Obviously some domestic hogs were thrown into this herd at one time or another; but there is nothing domestic about this piggy....he's wild.

We brought him here and dusted him for lice..since he was covered with them.  Now he's got a hay filled warm cage, some fresh goat milk, and can get some rest.  If I can keep him alive long enough to grow....he'll be a whole hog BBQ.

What do we do with all that milk?

I hear this question all the time by folks.  Well, here are a few things we do.....
We feed monster kids...

We make yummy cheesecakes...

We make luscious fruit dip (goes great with canteloupe too!)

We make cheese spreads...such as French Onion...

and spicy Taco...

Can it for future use...

Give this guy a big bowl of it twice a day...

Plus we feed it to pigs, chickens, ducks.......and we drink it too!  It's no wonder we use 5 gallons of it a day!

After aging the lamb for a couple of days, here's a shot of the cuts that are going into the freezer.  Not bad for a day's work and $50.

Besides these cuts, we have a few pounds for stew meat and grinding, lots of dog bones, and I made a pot of dog food using the liver for my spoiled little princess dog, Taboo....

Maybe it will help her stay warm!

Lamb!

I love lamb, but due to the high cost of it at the grocery store I just can not justify buying it.  Yesterday I was scanning Craig's List and came across an add for a butcher lamb.  I gave them a call and it just happened to be someone that I knew!  To make a long story short, I was able to buy a grass fed lamb for $50!

Needless to say I'm exhausted since I spent 5 hours today on my feet turning him from a hopping crazy 80# lamb into a portioned and packaged 43# of meat that is now aging in the fridge.  I am SO excited...can you guess what's on the menu this weekend??

Cheese part 2.1 plus other happenings

I'd love to show my finished cheese product but unfortunately it disappeared before I got a picture.  Once the cheese has drained for a few hours I let it "settle" overnight in the fridge before mixing.  In the morning I drain off any whey that has separated and run the cheese through the mixer to soften it and make sure it's evenly blended.  Once that's done, it looks like this....

Which is when it begins to disappear.  I measure it out in 1/2 lb batches (one cup dry measuring cup works) and then season each batch.  The consistency once done is a smooth creamed cheese that's great as a cracker or sandwich spread.  One of our favorites is "Taco Cheese".  It tastes just like a taco.  To make it add 1 tsp sea salt, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp chili powder, and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper.

This soft cheese is wonderful because you can make small batches of different flavors.  I make a garlic dill combination that is great too.

Another great thing about it is that you can use it as a dessert cheese as well.  You can take 1 pound of this soft cheese, add 2 eggs and a can of evaporated milk and a splash of vanilla extract.  Pour it into a graham cracker crust and bake at 350 until set....it's a nice cheesecake.

We also have a couple of new freeloaders in the family.  I responded to an add for a cockatiel and came home with not 1 but 2 new birds to keep our male cockatiel "Edward" company.

Our does' production is still climbing and now that we have our 3 keeper kids, we have plenty of milk again so that we can get some put up.  I'm able to run a canner load of milk every 2 or 3 days....which will come in handy over next winter.

Oh yea....we had SNOW!!  Over 5 inches of the white stuff!

Cheese pt 2 and a busy day

Early this morning I heard the call of the Pileated Woodpecker that threw me off track watching him pick at a neighbor's tree. 

Anyway, I got milking done....here's a look at what we're up to now (Daydream's pitcher isn't in the pic).

And we got back to making cheese.  Because of the cold weather, our buttemilk isn't quite ready...but we have the store bought buttermilk that we used to start our own....so that's what we used today to start our cheese. 

Once the milk is filtered, we measure out 5 quarts and warm it to 80ºF.

Next add 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk and stir well.

Then I add 1/2 tablet of rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup of filtered water....

Once you stir it well, put a lid on the pot and let it sit for at least 6 hours...until you have good firm curds.  Once the curds are formed, pour into a sanitized muslin square...

Gather up the muslin and hang it until the curds stop draining (which will be in the morning).  I use a wooden pants hanger, hung from my kitchen cabinet to drain the curds....

Which is where we are tonight.

Also today I found several pounds of mushrooms on sale.  The dryer is full of them now.

Oh...and we canned a canner load of goat milk today.  Told you it was busy!

Buttermilk...the first step of our cheese!

We start our cheese with our fresh milk from our own goats.  Here is 1 gallon fresh, filtered milk waiting to be turned into cheese.

Before I get ahead of myself, I must explain that buttermilk is the medium we use to grow our cheese.  We start with a good quality Cultured Buttermilk....

It contains the live cultures you need to keep the buttermilk growing.  As long as you do not neglect it, you will have your own fresh grown buttermilk using your own goat milk for eternity.  I dry my does off and dont have the milk to make the next batch at that time so I start fresh each year.

This is my buttermilk jar.  It is old, and it does this job best.  First you scrub it really good.  Then you rinse it, spray it with a 50/50 bleach solution, rinse again...and then let dry.   After all that is done you add 2T of the cultured buttermilk to the jar.  Then fill the jar with your fresh good goat milk (fresh from the goat so that the temperature is right).  Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the top and attach it with a rubberband.

Let it sit on your counter until it has thickened.  This time of year it is so cold, I don't know how long it will take.  I've made buttermilk in 6 hours during summer months....but I suspect it will be a day or so as cold as it is.

Kiddo Recap...

We have 4 goat kids still here.  It has been a buck year, but I will confess that it has been a very NICE buck year.  I think this kind of year is more difficult than a doe year because we have had such great bucklings!

So first I will introduce Queenacres Ellie Mae....she was the little girl we were hoping for out of Happy.  Actually her name should be Ellie-Anything-Boys-Can-Do-I-Can-Do-Better-Mae.  She's a hoot, she's tough, and she's very pretty!

Next is her big brother, Echo.  He got his name this week.  Until now he's been "big brown".....and he was the biggest of the triplets at birth. 

By the way, the smallest triplet was sold.  He has moved to a new home and has been named Zach E Us.  Because he is a wee little goat.  :)

Kid # 3 is our California girls' big boy.  His sire is Manny but he looks so much like his uncle Mansion in the face it is heartbreaking.  What a great looking kid he is, and I think he will stay in the family.  He still needs a name.  Got any great E names anyone?

And finally Kid #4.  He needs a name and a home.  He is Cali's #2 boy and a beautiful red roan.  He is unique since he does not have frosted ears.  He is a pretty boy...