Redbud Apple Jelly

Spring has certainly sprung here.  Flowers are in full bloom...including the beautiful Redbud trees.

I have a friend that has a whole hedgerow of Redbud trees and was invited to pick all the flowers I needed.

Redbuds contain antioxidants, are easy to pick, and make beautiful jelly.  Their flavor is kindof like a mild grape with a little "green" flavor.  To add a bit more punch to the flavor I decided to add a bit of apple juice.  It worked out very well!

I will mention to you, you want to pick the flowers at the peak of bloom.  Even if you won't have time to make jelly for a few days, that's fine...but pick them at their peak.

We picked these on Tuesday, and I just kept them in a twist-tie bag in the fridge until I could get to them today.  There's about 1/2 gallon of flowers...

Rinse them and strain them well to remove any dirt or hitchhikers....

In a large stainless steel pot with 4 cups of water, and I added lemon juice.

I would have preferred to add fresh-squeezed lemon juice...a lemon's worth....but I didn't have any and wasn't making a special trip to the store for it.

So I added 2 capfuls of bottled lemon juice...

Bring the water and lemon juice just to a boil....and add the flowers.  Put a lid on the pot and turn the heat down to a low simmer.  Steep for 20 minutes, then drain.  I'll feed the steeped flowers to the pigs...

Strain the juice through a cheesecloth, then return the juice to the pan.  Bring to a boil and reduce it by about a third...

This left me with about 2 1/2 cups of the redbud infusion, I added enough unsweetened apple juice to make 4 cups.  Add 1 package of powdered pectin and bring to a boil.  Add 5 1/2 cups of sugar, stirring it in slowly.....and bring it to a rapid boil that can not be stirred down.

Boil for 2 minutes, then ladle into jars.

I processed the jars for 5 minutes in a BWB.

The flavor is wonderful....like lightly perfumed apples.

And the color is pretty too!

Knowing When

We try to use solid nutrition, herbs, and homeopathic remedies whenever possible.  We don't do routine wormings or vaccinations; and I think our animals are healthier as a result.

Of course there are exceptions to this rule.  We use a chemical wormer on each doe when they kid, our dogs get an annual rabies shot....and new pigs get cleaned out.

These pigs looked wormy...and perhaps even a big mangy when we brought them home.  The stress of moving, being castrated, and being weaned...all at the same time could turn them into a parasite smorgasbord. 

So they each got a shot of Ivermectin when they got here.  And this morning, they passed this...

*CAUTION*  If you are eating....don't look at this!

That's not an earthworm in that pig poo....that's a roundworm.  These guys were full of them.  One more worming and they should be all cleaned out.  It will be another week before they get moved to their big pen, so they can be on clean ground.  Once moved to the big pen, they will only need a good diet and they shouldn't need to be wormed again.

No medicated feed, no chemical wormers, no shots.  They will eat fresh eggs, goat milk, and kitchen & garden scraps.  And Lord willin' in November we will put some yummy clean pork in the freezer.

Biscuits and Gravy

The 2013 model pigs are here.  The man was supposed to castrate them on Monday but forgot...so we got to do it before we put them on the truck to come home.

My son went with me to pick them up and said "man, and I thought I was having a bad day!"

Anyway, we did their brain surgery, brought them home, gave each one a shot of ivermectin (they look a little wormy plus I want to kill any mites...and now is the time to do all that so it's out of their system before they go to freezer camp).....and a big ol bowl of biscuits, eggs, and goat milk top dressed with some Red Cell to help them recover.

We named them Biscuit and Gravy.

They will have to stay in this little pen until they are healed and on their hooves; besides, we've got some work to do on the pig pen before these little guys can go in there.

Bucks and Bellies

This week started with a 10-hr round trip to go pick up one of my favorite does.  Tina lived with us for a couple of years, but when I had to split the herd 2 years ago she went on to do some bigger and better things.  And she did.  My long time readers may remember her...she was our "supermodel" goat.  She has the most elegant gait...like a supermodel on a runway.

She is stunning when she is at her peak.  Unfortunately she had a difficult kidding this year and has lost too much weight.  She needs some TLC, which seems to be what we specialize in.  :)

Soooo, I loaded up the truck and went south.

She's home now, and so far so good.  Personally I think she's happy to be home again.  I know I'm happy to have her here.

Meanwhile bellies and tempers are growing.  Moon Pie is getting huge.  She's making me nervous.  I'm trying to psych myself up for this kidding....expecting either a couple of elephant kids or a tangled group of kids.  In the meantime, she's still growing...with 4 weeks to go.

Her half-sister Glory is growing as well.  I expect kids anytime from her.  Glory, Genesis, and Gidget were Lace's grand finale kidding.  Of all Lace's kids....Glory reminds me the most of her dam.  Glory is bred to Sparta for kids that are linebred on Lace.  I expect spectacular silver babies...

And oh my.  My dear, sweet, gentle Farrah...

She's such a darling girl, sugar wouldn't melt in her mouth.  Until this week when the pregnancy hormones have taken over.  Holy cow I've never seen such a change in personality....

She's T-Boned every goat here from Faith down to the monster kids.  Which earned her an all-expense-paid ticket to the day spa.  Maybe some quiet mommy time and aroma therapy (piney woods scent ala pine shavings) will help.

On Tuesday I helped a friend trim feet on her bucks and got their paperwork in order.  This is Troy, who happens to be Sparta's brother. 

Handsome fella, isn't he?  And here he is with his buddy FauxPaus.  FauxPaus was born here, but raised at her farm.  He's moving on to another herd and stopped by here for a foot touch up before he made the trip...

It's been a regular buck chinese firedrill here.  FauxPaus went to his new home, Troy went back to his home, and we also sent our yearling buck, Beaux home with Troy....

He'll be working in her herd this fall...so he'll have plenty of time to settle in.

It's left things a bit quiet here, we're down to 3 adult bucks now.  Pete is feeling much better after his sickness last week. 

He still needs to gain some weight, but we'll be doing that slowly over the summer.  I had to do some foot work on Ditto too; I guess it's just that time of year.  The bucks are tired from working all winter and need some TLC...

I have already done Manny's feet this month, he's in great shape.  Our other buck is up and coming....he looks really good so far...but time will tell.  This is him, "Hairy" aka Prince Hairy (on the left).  You can almost see his spots in this picture...

Busy day ahead today too.  Saturday we made the drive to the pig farm and picked out our 2013 pigs.  They were being castrated Monday and today we pick them up. 

Brooders

I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago, and they had some rubbermaid containers marked down to $1 each.  I keep these things around for brooding our newly hatched poultry and couldn't resist the bargain.

Usually we just use a piece of wire on the top to keep the chicks in and to hold the light fixture.  But this time I came up with an idea that would do both and take up less space.

First I used my angle grinder to cut the lids...

Essentially it leaves a frame to attach wire to...

Then Bob got an idea to build a rack for the brooders...

They usually take up a lot of space in the mudroom, his idea was to build shelves to sit them on...

And they turned out great!

There's a shelf on top for storage, and space underneath for the really big brooders.

Gotta love having a pile of free scrap wood and a creative husband!

5 Minutes..Tops!

5 mins at a time is the most I have on my computer these days!  With 10 goat kids, chicks everywhere, laying hens invading the neighbor's garden (wait, that's a different post), first fresheners screaming like banshees, fences to build, and so on.

I'm not complaining, I love staying busy.  I go stir crazy if it gets too quiet.

I'm just offering excuses for being absent.

I spent a while this morning sorting quail.  I'm culling all of my old quail roos and moving in the new ones that I got at the gamebird farm back in Feb.  We should start seeing more eggs soon now that the weather is warming up.

I also moved Joy's babies to the monster pen.  They are down to 2 milk feedings a day and were hogging the milk from the tiny kids...so now they are full-fledged monster kids with Rita and Holly..

The dogs get upset every time I move the babies around....and sulk in the walkway.  Nothing like a couple of hundred pound dawgs pretending to be speed bumps.

There's a lot going on in the greenhut too.  The mint is growing like crazy and I'm going to harvest more of it pretty soon.  This is a lovely sweet mint...perfect for tea!

One of the great things about aquaponics is there's no dirt to wash off the plants when you harvest....

And everything has a clean, clear flavor.  I really want to grow leeks in the big growbed this year, imagine fresh leeks without all the sand!  The celery that I planted is getting pretty tall too, I'll probably cut it in a week or so, and then replant the base and see if it will grow for a third time.

And I did manage to get the garden fence done....I think it has a lot of character..

I still need to tie down the arch and make a gate.  Not bad for a bunch of scrap wood in the hands of someone that's never built a wooden fence before!

It keeps the dogs out of the garden, and is sturdy enough that I could tie a goat to it if needed.

I'm ready to get it all finished and get some planting done!

And Another!

Fame gave birth to a beautiful strawberry roan doe this afternoon.

Still no top rail on the garden fence.

Still no garden gate.

But I was busy all day!



Hanging On...

I am SO behind on posting. 

Essentially what has been going on is what happens every spring.  Utter chaos.

We've been working outside every warm moment we get.  Got the garden fence started, at least you can get an idea of where I'm going with this thing.

You have to picture it with a top rail, and all freshly painted....

And a garden gate in the archway...

By the way, here is the official announcement for Pete and Nommy's kids....

They are already getting so big.  Here they are soaking up some rays...

It looks like MoonPie is trying to have quads this year.  Last year she had a pair of elephant bucklings, so a girl or two would be nice this year from her.

Wonder what she's saying to them...

Here I think she's praying....because she still has 6 weeks before they are due!

And here is our sneaky girl.  Pie's half-sister Genesis.  Lounging in the sun so peacefully.  I think she has the most exquisite face....

I say she is sneaky because last night as I was milking Joy, Genesis quietly gave birth 5 days early.  A beautiful 5-pound-nothing daughter!  I'm calling her Heather.  She is a fine weaving of mixed fibers indeed.  Genesis is the last daughter born to our beloved Lace; and we bred her to Beaux for a mix of some of my favorite bloodlines.  She looks just like her daddy!

Here is the new kid with Fiona's 4 day olds, just to give you an idea of her size...

And little Heather marked number 12 of our H kids so far!

More birth announcements coming soon, for now the royal scribe has a fence toprail to build and laundry to do.  Oh yea, and a lot of milk to feed!

She boiled!

Fiona finally kidded this morning with twins, a buck and a doe.

Fiona used to be the most uniquely marked nubian I've ever seen.  Until now....

Born at 11:30ish this morning is a 6# 7 oz little doe

And shortly after was a 7# 4 oz buck...

I really thought they were much bigger, long bodied and long legged little boogers!

Here are a couple more pics of the girl....isn't she a beauty!