I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.
Been another doozy of a week. I had to work my part time job 3 days instead of just 2 so that cut into my project time a lot. Then on Wednesday morning Bean was yelling her head off. Sure enough she was in a full standing heat. Not sure what happened, since I thought she was in heat the week before. However there is such a thing as a short cycle where a doe can come into heat close together. But as far as I know she and Bentley had a successful date and we should have kids in 5 months.
Back side of the big chicken house
I've been working on making repairs to my big chicken house, being very careful looking for the rattlesnake. So far no sign of it. I'll probably do a little video about this and the mistakes I made when I built it. In the meantime there is a page about it here; Big Chicken House
Fresh Goat Milk
In spite of the girls having their heat cycles and our weather being wonky I'm still getting a lot of milk. I did make a couple of batches of cheese.
Death Nap
The first time I found a goat stretched out like this I was panic stricken to say the least. But 'death naps' are a regular occurance.
pomegranite
The little pomegranite tree is almost ready to pick, but a squirrel got one first.
Goat Milk Soap "Orange Coffee"
Goat Milk Soap "Cedar & Sage"
I did get some soap packaged up that was ready so a couple of scents are restocked now. I really need to get more made so I don't run out of anything again but it's hard to do with so much other stuff going on.
Welcome to Farmer Friday, a recap of the past week here on my little farm. Egg production is still down due to a majority of the flock being senior ladies that quit as soon as it gets hot. Waiting to see how many pick back up when it cools off and who needs to meet some dumplings.
Salting the cheese curd
Some clabber cheese
I made cheese this week, experimenting with clabber. That is the technique of filtering warm raw milk into a clean jar and capping it lightly. You leave it out on the counter to begin to sour or clabber. I started with 8 ounces then the next day poured it into a quart jar and added more warm fresh from the goat milk. The day after I added that to about 2 1/2 gallons of milk, some fresh, some from the fridge. Warmed it up and let it sit about an hour, then warmed it up to 90F and added some rennet. After draining and salting the curd I pressed it in molds overnight. It's very much like some Queso Fresco I've had.
Soap in the freezer makes it easier to unmold
I've made several batches of Goat Milk Soap this week.
Goat Milk Soap with Lavender essential oil
I also finished cutting bars of soap made earlier in the month. My soap is super fatted and can be a little sticky when first unmolded so I let it sit to firm up then begin cutting individual bars. Altogether it has to sit and cure 6-8 weeks after making. That is so the bars harden up and don't melt away when you use them.
Making Goat Milk Lotion with Prickly Pear juice
I made some Goat Milk Lotion with prickly pear cactus juice. Prickly pear is supposed to have healing properties similar to aloe vera.
Sonoran Desert or Colorado River Toad
I have quite a few poisonous toads hanging around. So far Digger has not tried to eat one, just barks at them.
Some peaches from Nida's Peach
I had to pick the peaches, even though they are not soft ripe yet, the birds and squirrels were just too much.
Harvest 8/30
All ready to go to the Globe-Miami Farmers Market
This week's harvest included cucuzzi gourd, tomatoes and Japanese eggplant.
Tithonia aka Mexican Sunflower
A lot of other things went on this week, yard clean up continues, the triplets broke their mineral feeder and I had to fix that.The cucuzzi gourds are taking over the trellis by the house and trying to expand their territory while the pumpkins in the back garden are trying to take over the world. Even more things in the video!
So yesterday was a very busy and pretty productive day. I didn't have to be anywhere else so I was able to stay home and focus on things I needed to get done. There is still a huge long list of things to do but I was able to cross some off yesterday.
I made goat milk soap and lotion. I gave the prickly pear juice a final straining and made some prickly pear lemonade. I set a pot of cheese and just before bed got the curds salted, drained and put into the molds and the press. Oh yea and I fixed the mineral feeder that the triplets broke a couple days ago.
I love the color of fresh prickly pear fruit, although it does fade under light and heat. Here I've cheated and bought a natural brand of lemonade, basically like what I would make from scratch, lemon juice, water, sugar and mixed it 50-50 with the prickly pear juice. Totally delicious.
Prickly pear is supposed to have healing properties similar to aloe vera so I used it to make Goat Milk Soap, Lotion and Sugar Scrub.
We have had weeks of high heat at least 105 every day and some days as high as 113. Pretty much anything in a smaller pot has fried to a crisp, I've probably lost a seedling tree that I planted this spring and the figs aren't looking too good since the squirrels tunneled under them and dried them out big time.
But I do have tomatoes! And after all the years of dealing with root knot nematodes I *think* I am finally clear of them. Now I just need some rain and cooler tempertures to get some more things planted. Not much thrives in this heat and dryness. Even the prickly pear cactus are dried out and shriveling up!
Mmm. Alright Bambi how many kids are you hiding in there and when are you going to let them out???? I thought it would have happened by now….
Found some cute new signs for my market table. I have had to increase my prices a bit….. soap is now $6
A sugar scrub is this month’s new product
The lilac soap was ready to package. Mmmm. Smells heavenly
Picked up an awesome solar light for the Patchwork Shed.
Digger sniffing around in the car.
Digger went to the veterinarian for his rabies shot and other vaccines. At 5 months he weighs 62 pounds.
Digger digs. That hole is knee high on me.
Mmmm. Looks like some chickens need a new roof pretty soon.
These four little bucklings will soon be wethers. They are all still available and if not sold will go in my freezer when the weather cools off. They are already eating almost as much as adults and the price of hay is going up.
Well I’ve been a bit lazy today. Did chores and cleaned pens until it got too hot. Came in and had some lunch and played on the computer some. And now it’s time to do afternoon chores. One of the reasons I haven’t been posting a lot is my phone battery seems to be dying. Of course it’s only 6 years old….
Had a lovely time at the Globe-Miami Farmers Market this morning. Sold out of some lotion scents.
The goats cracked me up this afternoon. That’s Digger going to explore the hill pen. Bashful’s pen and Posie’s pen have line of sight to that area and they immediately began “telling” on him!
This afternoon made a batch of lotion and did some laundry and dishes then all the usual chores. And now, again it’s way past my bedtime. Zzzzzzz.
Dreamed all night this little guy didn’t make it. I was almost afraid to touch him when I got up because it looked like he hadn’t moved all night. A little weak but alive. And after 1 1/2 ounces of milk pretty frisky.
Doing the usual morning chores. And there are Midnight’s twins in with Chocolate and Gazelle. I put them back where they belonged.
They did it again so I just put Midnight back in the pen. So far things are good.
Got caught up on processing eggs, just 3 days behind.
Little goat was hungry after his nap.
Made deliveries to Superior. Did chores. Forgot to get a picture of Storm on the milk stand. One side of her udder was getting full and tight. Milked out a pint of colostrum for the bottle baby.
Another pic just because. 😛
Not sure which one has longer ears! This is bottle baby’s brother.
Dark thirty when I got done outside and even then probably forgot to water something. 20% chance of rain tonight. Fingers crossed.
Up at 4:30 outside at 5:00 to hay the goats. Started a batch of soap and started laundry to wash.
The cheese I set last night is ready to drain.
Shade cloth up but I ran out of zip ties.
Found a chain for the gate.
Hung out the pile of udder washing rags I washed earlier
Took hay to my buck Bentley who is staying at my friends house for now. He got a hoof trim while I was there. Realized I was missing a meeting at work. Went anyway because I need zip ties. Meeting was over of course. Realized I had no cash and new debit card hadn’t arrived yet. So go home for $, go back and also get feed.
On the way home. It’s not even 10:00 am. It was actually reading 100 down on the highway.
Check on goats. Got a big piece of tin off the back of the pen so they have more airflow. Water goats and chickens while I’m out there.
Get to taste a White Marseilles fig for the first time. Yummy. Thomas Jefferson brought them to the US from France.
Finished this batch of soap. Unscented with colloidal oatmeal.
Check weather. Supposed to rain next weekend. But we have already exceeded the predicted high for today by several degrees. Afternoon heat check. Chocolate (in back) and Gazelle are fine. I have decided to move Gazelle along so message me if you want to know more.
Got the chèvre draining.
Put away all the milk things I washed last night.
Had toast and cheese for lunch.
Went out and checked on everyone again, filled up water buckets, wet down shade cloth and of course played with baby goats.
Feed & water chickens, pick up eggs. Get ready to milk. Midnight’s udder feels hard so I coax her the milk stand by carrying her twins. So then Chocolate and Gazelle are yelling because they want to go too. Midnight has the tiniest teats ever! They’ll get bigger but it was hard to get much milk out of her. She did super standing for her first milking and after they went back to their pen her boys were nursing. I hope that relieved some pressure. I’ll check her again in the morning.
Bambi is last in the milking line and I decided to move her and Bashful in together in the new pen. Bambi isn’t very nice to Esmarelda, always butting her around. I’m afraid if Storm and her kids get in the way the kid would get hurt. Anyway took some coaxing and manipulating with a pan of grain to get Bashful in. Bambi immediately began yelling and testing the fence and gate. Cross my fingers I did a good enough job.
I grabbed my clippers and trimmed some tree branches to give them something to do. But there was still a lot of yelling even past dark. On the other hand Storm and Esmarelda didn’t seem too concerned that Bambi didn’t come back to their pen.
By the time I brought the milk in the house it was going on full dark. So I filtered milk, washed up all the milk things, a few people dishes, got a bath and went to bed.
