Goat On A Boat

Today I rode a rocky ferry off the island with Bessie Mae and her daughter.

Our regular ferry is being refitted and we have to ride on the dinky replacement boat. I put the goats in a large dog crate, but on this boat there is no covered area for freight and the poor goats arrived WET, having been splashed with seawater in the back of the boat!

Goodbye, dear Bessie Mae! Thanks for all the milk.

Thankfully today was not cold, and Bessie's new owner was happy to see her and her baby. They are going to a good home and soon the billy goats will go elsewhere also.

Snowdrop

This is the other one of Bessie's twins, I am keeping her. She is too beautiful and sweet! I am calling her Snowdrop because she was born on the snow.

The couple who adopted Bessie Mae also have horses and a couple of Nigerian Dwarf kids.They had decked out the back of their car for goat transport. Goats ride amazingly well in cars, a lot like dogs do - although you won't see a goat with it's head out the window! They feel safer in small spaces.

Yesterday was rainy and for fun I brought one of the other little doelings into the house for us to play with. We pet her and tried to feed her raisins. It is important to socialize the babies so they aren't afraid of us.

We returned this little girl to her mom after dressing her up in David's clothes and bouncing a balloon off of her head. Socializing, huh?

Remember that rooster that I said would make a tasty dinner? Apparently the ravens thought so, too.

We caught the raven in the act, but I had to put down the injured chicken. Luckily it was our biggest bird so at least there was some meat for a fried chicken dinner. I made mashed potatoes and steamed some leeks and greens, so everything on the plate was from the land. I love it when that happens.

Tonight was singing practice with my awesome group of ladies. We sit around and harmonize, drink steamy mugs of tea and eat popcorn. I sat with an amazing view of the ocean and watched the white caps crash as we sang. I love living on an island!

My beautiful friend Constanze was battling breast cancer over the last year. This is one of the love blankets we have made as a community for our sisters and friends who have had to deal with cancer or a serious illness. Many people contributed squares and all of the blankets are unique and stitched with intentions of healing and friendship. In addition to all of her many talents, it just so happens that Constanze has an AMAZING singing voice, the kind that stops you in your tracks and makes you shush people so you can listen.

The fruit trees are starting to blossom and sleepy bumblebees are appearing on primroses and red-flowering currants. I have been working on two quilts and I'm ready for BASTING!! Yeah baby!! I can't wait to show pictures of the finished product.

As always, thank you so much for reading.

Milk Recipes and More Baby Goats

We've got oodles of milk thanks to our four lovely ladies.

Fresh Raw Goat's Milk

We are getting roughly 3 of these full jars a day (only milking when the udder is full, so that there is plenty for the kids) The fresh milk is the milk that we drink. Part of the reason for having dairy goats is because don't subscribe to a power company and we choose not to use a refrigerator. Instead we drink milk that is fresh from well cared for animals and has not been pasteurized.

I came across this fabulous and easy buttermilk Boston Brown Bread Muffin recipe on Thimbleanna's blog. There are lots of great recipes over there of the kind of food I like to make!

 I make buttermilk by letting raw milk develop it's natural culture in a warm place for 24 hours.

(Sometimes I do pasteurize the milk first, like for kefir and yoghurt, which are made by adding a pre-packaged culture that you can get at health food stores. You can pasteurize raw milk at home just by heating it in a saucepan to about 185-190 degrees Fahrenheit. I also do this when I make cheese.)

Many recipes call for milk or buttermilk - biscuits, muffins, cakes, cream of vegetable soups, and  homemade cheese. The whole and naturally homogenized goat's milk adds beautiful texture and protein.

Because I have been getting up really early I have been eating a hearty breakfast. Goats milk is in the biscuits and the omelet. It was delicious.

All four of our goats have now had their babies. Two sets of twins (to Bessie and Firefly) and two lone billy goats to Ken and Nemo, who each had singletons. Total count is three doelings and three boys.

Bessie with her two kids, the twin does.

There was a small miracle as Bessie Mae came to accept and nurse her babies on their 4th day. I penned them up together and I forced her to Nurse them by tying her up at the collar and holding her back leg or legs. I also was bottle feeding them to make sure they were getting enough milk, and when Bessie finally smelled her milk in their poo she properly regarded them for the first time. Sounds bizarre, right? But it was magic.

Last night I witnessed Firefly's perfect birth of two kids.

She makes a great mom (did a great job licking the kids clean and then even lifted her leg up to help them nurse) And her babies are so cute. They are my only kids this year from the black haired line, all the rest are Barney's. (I blogged about him on Knits n Goats).

My little guy was a good shepherd and he thought the goats were hilarious as they nibbled his fingers, and sneezed on him.

I think he enjoyed watching them drink from a bottle just like him.

It was wonderful to have the experience of bottle feeding and I am so glad I got to do it but still very grateful that their mother is now doing her job.

I even took a selfie with the elf baby. My little gal pal. This goat has LaMancha ears - my favorite breed for their quietness and sweet temperment. (Nubians are loud!)

 Still so much sewing to do - and I need to start garden seeds.

Baby Spinach Seed Starts

Onions, Leeks, Tomatoes and Peppers, and greens can all be started now, in little trays of dirt, inside on a sunny windowsill. I wait until the first week of April to sow seeds directly into the ground -and even then only for cold hardy rootcrops like beets, carrots, and parsnips.

I want to host a crafty give-away to drum up comments on my blog. Any requests? A knit creation? A quilted bag? Some fabric? A beautiful tea cozy?

I am a grandma trapped in a 26 year old's body.

What a whirlwind week. 

Just Kidding! Get it?

Sleep Deprived

My two baby girl goats are thriving on their diet of mother's milk. I am actually loving bottle feeding them, while I am getting very little sleep, it is so sweet to watch those little curly tails start wagging when they see me, and while I feed them they look at me with their little doe eyes that are full of love.

I'M A MOMMY!!

Sadly I have only a few photos to share today as I have been very busy keeping on top of feeding two babies, milking two mamas, feeding everyone and keeping the stalls clean and dry.

They are on a feeding schedule that starts with my alarm going off at 5:30 in the morning, and ends with a night feeding before I go to sleep around 11 pm.

One thing I must admit is that waking up at dawn is an amazing experience that I have not had the pleasure of experiencing very many times in my life. The most I've seen the sunrise is from staying up through the night before and greeting the dawn before crashing into bed and sleeping until the afternoon.

I go down to the goats at 6am, I prepare for milking, I fill up my jars with fresh milk and then I feed the sweet babies. Slowly the sky gets a lighter shade of blue, the birds start to sing, and the animals are all calm and relaxed because truly their day starts at sun-up. I come inside, having been awakened by the fresh air and activity. I finally did yoga with the sunrise! It was amazing. I've been half delirious with sleep deprivation but wildly happy with a new purpose and meaning in my life, caring for these newborns.

A lot like when I had my own baby almost three years ago.

My sleepy boy with his bunny.

I promise to update some better photos and perhaps a video link as the kids are now starting to jump around, play with the baby chickens, and lick each other. I'm so glad they have each other for company and warmth. Goats are very social and a lonely goat is a very sad creature.

Thanks for checking the blog and stay tuned for some more farm pictures! The silky chickens are starting to have those trademark head feathers that stick straight up in the air. One of them literally has a mohawk.

And just in case farm life isn't your up of tea, I've been chain piecing on the sewing machine and will post photos of that as well.

Now If you will please excuse me, I desperately need a nap.

* I'm going to go blog hopping and leave some comments before I crash! If you have a blog, comment with a link! I'd love to check it out and give you some feedback, too. Right now I have a quilt infatuation so I'm frequenting sewing and quilting blogs the most, but I love to read about backyard homesteading and fiber farms. There is so much inspiration out there.

Blessings to all. The Spring Equinox is fast approaching.