Eye Candy

Every year for the past 4 years we have had a Country Fair at our parish as a fund raiser for all of our crazy building projects we have to work on... This year I asked my friend, who's a professional photographer, to take some pictures for us. It was a horribly wet day, the temp was around 42 degrees, and the wind kept kicking up....so it was COLD! But we still had a great turn out. She showed up with her sweet boy and took some great pics, I couldn't be happier. Some are definitely Pinterest worthy, especially the cake picture, so I wanted to post some on here.

Our sweet Nubians in the petting zoo.

My daughter ran the petting zoo, this is one of our doelings.

The star in Stephanie's Sweet Shoppe.

My adorable nephew.

My daughter's partner in the egg toss...daughter got the better end of this deal...hehe.

Potato sack race, hard core.

Three legged race.

Manly girls tugging.

What's a country fair with out a tug-of-war?

My awesome husband running the chicken fling game, one of the most popular games every year.

Here's Juliana's photography page on facebook, thank you again! Juliana Adele Photography

Goats, goats and more goats.

I have not written specifically about our goats for a while now. I'd like to do a better job documenting them than I have and sharing our hard lessons on goats that we have loved and lost.

Three years ago we got Amelia and Lady on July 4th 2010 from My Kids Farm and I made a new friend named, Karlene. We got goats mainly because hubby and I really didn't want to get a horse. And when your 12 year old is DESPERATE for a horse OR goats. You will probably opt for the lesser of the two evils, or in this case, the cheaper and more practical of the two.

I decided that if we were to get goats I'd like them to be "in milk" already so that we had to immediately start milking every day and that we'd benefit from the new food we would be buying them and it would turn into food for us. When I started this blog I was just really starting to develop a "back to basics" mindset. Trying to grow more, can more, forage more, learn more about the food we eat and how to prepare our family better for harder times that always have the possibility of coming.

We set up our temporary hut for the girls (it was a Rubbermaid lawn mower shed, low ceiling to keep warmth in and keep them dry, I had been researching a little and discovered goats don't need a heated space, little did I know what that little shed would lead to.)

Amelia was the first to breed that fall and Lady was much more stubborn. Amelia kidded in April 2011 for the first time at our house. In the heated garage, we didn't want frozen babies, and April can surprise you here with cold weather. She had 3 big boys, Lazarus, Buck and Billy. We sold Lazarus to a friend and got her hooked on goats in 2011.

Amelia with her batch of boys in 2011.

Lazarus was our bottle baby and SO cuddly and adorable.

My daughter had done so well milking the first year that in the spring when she asked for a puppy, I said, "No, but you may have a goat!" So I bought her a pure bred LaMancha doeling that she chose and we brought her home when she was weaned. She named her, "Elka". This was May 2011. I'd wanted a LaMancha to begin with but took Ameila and Lady (Nubians) because Karlene didn't have any other does in milk that she was willing to sell. K and I worked out an arrangement on how we'd share the work and pay for her goat and how we'd deal with money if we sold a kid out of her in the future. So far it has worked out great. K has milked for all three years now and does not want to give it up, she doesn't consider it a chore, she loves her alone time with the goats.

Elka, our new LaMancha.

Lady still would not breed 'till we dried her up completely, so in August Lady had gone to Karlene's, house to visit for a very long visit...in August she bread successfully and in January we had our first winter kidding. We were hoping that this would be the LAST because winter kidding has many issues attached to it. But, as I write this, Lady is at Karlene's again after the same issue of not breeding last November and bred 3x last week, so it looks like we're in for another one.

Large Lady in her kidding stall in the garage a week or so before kidding.

January 27, 2012 she had two adorable boys, this one was the cutest.

Here's lady and her matching boy.

This boy looked just like his daddy, Impetuous. We named him "Roast".

We named both boys after cuts of meat. We didn't have high hopes they would go for breeding stock, not that they couldn't have, they have great bloodlines, but because boys aren't needed as much as girls and they typically get eaten.

On March 9th the boy with moon spots died. K found him frozen stiff on the ground and came to the front door screaming in anguish with the frozen baby goat. All of the other 5 kids chimed in with the screaming at seeing the dead body and jolted hubby and I out of our TV trance to find out who had died. It was very sad.We learned from that experience. If a goat does not come in for food on a cold day, FIND OUT WHY!!! They should ALWAYS want grain, if they don't there is a problem.

In November Karlene and I decided that we would borrow a buck to breed the girls to. We'd give a Nubian to Lady & Amelia and we took Elka down to my friend, Amber's house, where she had other LaManchas to breed. Karlene brought a buck there first and we watched Elka breed 2x as soon as we put him in the pen.

We brought the Nubian up to our house and put him in with my girls. They flirted but didn't really make any commitments, this went on for about three weeks then, tragically, in the November bitter cold winds, her buck died. We learned MANY more lessons from that ordeal. The most important one was to 2X DAILY at the very least, pet, check, talk to, make stand, your goats. We also learned that bucks pee on themselves to make them more attractive to the ladies, so they are more susceptible to cold, especially the kind we had with the wind and a lame ass shelter. We also learned that no matter how good we think we are, Karlene has a lot to teach us about humility, forgiveness, friendship and kindness. Not a harsh word was spoken, she simply cried, collected her bucks body and told us that it was HER fault for not educating us enough and that she just shouldn't loan out goats. Her heart is so kind, she puts me to so much shame.

Hubby had had enough of my temporary shelter and we hired 2 very burly men to build a small doe barn on the end of our milking shed, we added insulation and a deck area inside to keep cleaned off. This also accessed the hay shed so they could eat with out leaving the shelter. I just wish so badly we had done this sooner.

First day's work building in 10 degrees and much bitter wind.

Lunch break and it's ready for insulation and a door.

Amelia nor Lady bred to Karlene's buck, both their preg tests were negative. So Karlene put me in touch with another amazing goat farmer with a disease free herd and she housed both girls while they were in heat in December. Amelia took the breeding and Lady was taken there two times and still didn't take.

In April 3013 we put Elka in a new kidding stall I had built in the milking shed. K noticed that she had developed a hard udder before kidding and Karlene came the next day to take a look. She had developed a very bad case of dry mastitis. She kidded 3 days later, we had been treating her teat, but the main infection was right in the tip of her udder so the medicine would not even go into her udder very far at all. She has not produced on that side, it's quite sad. We hope that with her second kidding we can watch for it more closely and perhaps get some milk out of that side. I have learned that this destroys the milk glands inside and they don't produce nearly as much as they would have even if it works again. She had a single doeling, now breaking our buck "spell". K named her Belka and has since been re-named by her new owners.

Belka at a few days old.

K with her Belka the day before she went to her new house.

End of June Amelia was due to kid. We weren't worried about putting her in a stall as it was so WARM!!! She kidded right after K had checked on her and this was her first birth she did herself, Ameila had the first two on her own and K pulled the last one that was breeched. My husband usually helps the goats but he was on a trip to his brother's wedding. K, now 15, handled it like a champ, it was very laid back and we were SHOCKED to find that she had had three GIRLS!!! 

Proud K with Ameila and babies.

Karlene had first dibbs on Amelia's girls, just took Amelia 3 years to have one. She chose the dark eared one pictured here. She plans to show her. Her big sister from 4 years ago is already a finished champion. She'll do great.

All in all, having goats is very rewarding. It's more work, for sure, but they are very enjoyable. Goat kids are the CUTEST animal in the world and you sell them when they get bigger. My kids love having goats, people love to visit the goats, I love the manure from the goats for the garden, we all love the cheese that my husband makes. All in all it's a win win.

Much adoo about poop. You heard me, poop.

Where shall I begin, really it wasn't all that wacky of a day on the wacky scale of things; but for nostalgia sake and for the fact that my memory sucks, here's a blog post on last Friday. I started it Friday and finished it today, it's been a busy week.

My daughter is almost 15 and today I got her a new kitty. I also brought home a new goat. It was sunny and a perfect; 70 degrees all day.

I was at my friend, Karlene's house, and she was showing me her pigs, chickens, turkey, geese, cow and of course, her goats. Her barnyard is looking so picturesque. She told me that her husband had bought her a new kitten for Mother's day (because that's what every mother-of-seven and a ginormous heard of goats wants for mother's day, donchyaknow?).

I told her how the week prior I'd given our kittens (Archer and Bumpkin, two that Karlene had given me) to my sister who discovered a large mouse infestation in her chicken house. She had already lost 4 kitties due to mean woodland creatures as she lives in the woods, but with the mice, finally agreed to try it again. It was good timing because the combination of our 4 cats were decimating our new bird population that had just moved in for the next few months to hatch out their babies. They were catching about 5 birds a day, and we had had it with their mad catching skilz. Besides, only our house cat, Oreo, was catching actual mice, she had to go far to find them too, we haven't had mice since we got her last year. Well after I gave those 2 cats to my sister, our other outdoor cat, Fred, decided to get lost, perhaps he was looking for his buddies or maybe a dog ate him, I really don't know, but we were sad he left, he was a sweetie. Then 2 days later Oreo disappeared, she was my son's cat, she was fixed, not very cuddly but a great mouser. That was pretty upsetting, but we have owned 7 cats in the past 18 months and now we have none...

our 3 barn kitties 2 weeks ago

Karlene, being the saint that she is, gladly gave me her long time barn kitty, Yoshi. She is snuggly and a moucer. What a sweetie.

One of the reasons I made the trek up to Karlene's was to get our new little goat, Belka (daughter of Elka) disbuded. Her horns had grown a lot in five weeks and I was behind the 8 ball getting her poor little head burned. Karlene is my goat mentor and she still does all sorts of uncomfortable goat farmer duties I haven't learned yet. She burned large circles around her horns while the goat screamed her little heart out. The smell is awful and there is a LOT of smoke, burning flesh and hair, that smell.

The other reason I was there was to take my friend, Amber's, buck that she was renting from Karlene back to Karlene. Karlene is an hour away. I was also taking our goat, Lady to get bred and in the meantime she would send me home with a goat in milk since hubby is annoyed at feeding animals that aren't producing. So, the new goat I brought home is, Elaine. A sweet Nubian who looks just like my other giant Nubian, Amelia but she's only a yearling first freshener and much smaller. We may end up buying her, not sure yet.

Typically when I load up goats to go to Karlene's I put down a tarp in the back of my trusty eight passenger 2003 Chevy Venture, roll up the edges a bit, and they may poo or pee one time each. Zero times, if I'm lucky and I have been lucky. Well on Friday I learned a lot more about bucks behavior. It's one thing to know about buck smell, but it's another thing to "know" about buck smell. You see, bucks pee on themselves to make them more handsome and attractive to female goats. Their wiener even has a little spinney end on it so that when they pee it is not straight down but in a whirl y-gig fashion. I am so thankful this buck's whirl y-gig was either broken off, or non-functional. They also pee a lot more around girl goats, the smell is attractive to them. And apparently poop much, much, much more than girls do. That stupid buck peed at least 8 times in that hour drive, and I mean PEED! A lot. He also pooped a lot. Probably another 8 times on that count too. So by the time we got to Karlene's the tarp was full of "mud". Nice huh? Unfortunately my doe was not impressed, there was no "van-a-rockin" from their hanky panky that day. Darn.

The other thing my daughter noticed before we left was that Belka had the runs. Meaning she wasn't feeling well. Karlene is basically my vet too so I knew taking her out there would get her help as well as a burned head. So off we went... I put a blanket on my daughter's lap, buckled in my 4-year-old and we were off! Already late as usual, I didn't really consider what we would use to clean up any gooey droppings from Belka. Huge oversight.

We got 45 minutes out, almost there. "Mama! Can you please pull over right now! She pooped in my hand!" Gross. I pulled over as soon as I could but not quite soon enough. She had to put Belka on the floor and she dribbled more poopy on my daughter's "Alaska Grown" hoodie. She asked her 4-year-old sister to unbuckle her (her hand was still full) and so the 4-year-old, who by that point had taken her mud boots off, stepped right into the dribble glob. When I told her to be careful because I could see she might step in it, she had already done so but quickly jumped back into her booster seat, well, yes, spreading it all over her seat. She promptly sat down (in it) and took her socks off, as if that would help at this point. After my older daughter jumped out of the car with the loose psyco baby goat, it was my job to catch then hold the goat from running wild while my daughter wiped poo from her hand on the alder filled tundra-ish ditch area. After she got a make-shift halter around her I was able to look for some baby wipes, because I never leave home without baby wipes...except on Friday. My youngest child is now 4 and apparently I have not made sure we have a good baby wipe stash in a while...not a good time to find this out. Paper towels? No. Napkins? I always have napkins! Oh, look, there's one. One napkin. A little chincy "they are trying to save money at that cheap drive through" sort of napkin. I wiped the poop off of my wedding ring and fingers; and that was all. I resigned myself to doing a load of laundry when we got home. I saw the buck peeing, saw that he wasn't stopping, contemplated letting him outside but thought better of it, told him to stop, he didn't, so I grabbed his face and looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Stop peeing!" and he stopped. Oh, right, and when I was looking for wipes on the driver side of the van and shut the door behind me, the awesome automatic door that sometimes acts like a jerk decided not to shut and to re-open. Lady decided to make her grand escape and jumped onto my oldest daughter's seat and jump out on the road side of the van. Yay! So the oldest threw the halter/leash at the 4-year-old and yelled, "hold her" as she ran off to catch Lady. But the 4-year-old didn't actually have a grip before it was let go of, so off went Belka. We caught her. I rushed around to shut the door before the buck decided to escape as well, I used my daughter's poopy socks to wipe off the "mud" that Lady had gotten all over my other daughter's seat now. We finally got all three goats back into the van, the hoodie now acting as the dribble catcher on the floor in front of my daughters and both girl's seats slightly marred with goat "mud". Time to GO!!! We got there as fast as possible and I pulled the full tarp out of the van to let it drip dry while I enjoyed my visit. I fetched all of the extra goat droppings that had escaped the tarp, there are always some of those. Fortunately I had a pair of work gloves in the van that I wore the rest of that day 'till I got to Taco Bell on our way home to order us some dinner.

I always wonder what the Taco Bell employees think when I go through their drive through with goats in my car. That's how we roll.

Yoshi, Elaine and Belka on the ride home.

Youngest was woken from her nap by kitty snuggles.

"Farmers" goat cheese

With our plethora of milk that we had last summer, this is the basic recipe we like in our house.

1 - 2 gallons of milk
Heat to hot, ~180F (some say to boil, doesn’t really seem to matter)

Stir to keep from scalding milk.
Turn off heat.

Add 1/4 white vinegar per gallon. Stir and let sit 5 minutes.
Pour curds & whey into a colander lined with a fine mesh linen, thin dishtowel, doubled up cheese cloth, muslin, thin pillow case, etc.

(I put another pot under the colander to collect the whey for the chickens.)
Drain, stir in salt to taste. Fresh or dry herbs to your liking.
Can either twist cloth around and hang up to drip dry for the day. (This usually makes a spreadable cheese.)

...or we made a make-shift cheese press and press it into a rectangle mold in the refrigerator. (this makes for a cheese you can cut into pieces.)
Wrap up and refrigerate that night if drip dried.
 or if put it to press in the fridge, cut into chunks and wrap blocks the next day.

My favorite way to eat this is plain cheese on crackers with a piece of smoked salmon. Delish!

random

Do anybody elses kids call umbrellas "bumbershoots"? This is a new thing...but it's consistent.

I heard a yell, "MAMA". and my oldest brought my youngest into my office and her sad dirty face looking up guiltily holding a giant salmon fillet (cooked) in her hand eating it..."Do you want fish?" I ask (it's almost bedtime). She nods her head. "Ok, yes you may." I say.

I'm building a one-bale-of-hay holder for my kid goats. It's fun, I'm almost finished. I like that I'm getting better and faster at building things.

My neighbor came over about a 1/2 hour ago and took his tractor disc to a small part in our field so I can have a big-ish potato patch. It's late in the game for potatoes, but I started late last year and they did fine. It's nice and big.

Kids and dogs

My oldest daughter turned 13 this May. This is my child that has begged me for animals her whole life and this year is no different. She wants a puppy so she can breed it and sell the puppies.

I am not an animal lover. Not at all. I used to like cats, but not anymore. When I started having children I lost any interest I had for animals. HOWEVER as you know, we have many animals. This is mostly the fault of Martha Stewart and my daughter. Martha Stewart because when I watched her show years back she had the most beautiful eggs and I coveted them. I wanted THOSE chickens so I could get THOSE eggs. My neighbor knew about chickens so we jumped in. Turns out having chickens is fun and my husband took to them much more than I did. I love the eggs, he likes the hens.

When my daughter was eight she begged me for a horse (again) we have 2 acers but no fence or barn. Horses are very impractical in Alaska, however, as a homeschooling family we want to encourage our kids passions not discourage them. We got her into horse lessons. Unfortunately she was a natural...which sucks 'cause that means we can't easily quit. So we go during the summer. Last year she won the first competition she was in...beginners luck? At this point in time we are not equipped for horses and perhaps never will be, but we like the idea of her being distracted with animals through her teenage years. I don't think that will be a problem...our younger girls on the other hand, well that's a different story.

Another animal she begged for were goats. I didn't want to milk a goat, who was I kidding. I'm a lazy NOT farm girl. But goats make a whole lot more sense than horses do. I began collecting chain link dog kennel panels after our friend gave us theirs and another friend gave us theirs. I realized they would be great for goats (who are terrible at getting through fences). When I discovered last year that goats don't need the kind of heavy duty shelter that chickens do up here in the winter, I realized it was time to jump on board. No time like the present...if I don't do this now I may never. So we took the plunge, 2 Nubian does in milk producing 2 gallons a day. A whirlwind of a learning curve, what to do with THAT much milk?! Learn to make everything out of it and find what you like best.

This June one doe is maybe pregnant, harder to get her knocked up than the other. The other had 3 bucklings. The nice thing is that bucklings need more milk than doelings, so the doe will produce more that year, but the bad part is they suck it all and you don't have it to drink. We get about 1/2 gallon a day from the other doe now for ourselves, which is barely enough...we have to ration it. I'd wanted a LaMancha doe last year but the breeder I chose didn't have any. This year she had more LaMancha kids available. I don't have enough milk at the moment with the doe feeding kids and I also don't want my children getting attached to the bucklings we're raising to sell as bucks or to butcher this fall for meat...I decided that after my daughter did an amazing job this year doing 95% of the milking that I'd buy her a goat instead of a puppy.

It was a good call (so far) she was not disappointed, she's totally in love, she picked out the one that was born the day we were at the breeder's visiting, she and I will split any profits from sales of kids and the doeling will provide our family milk for years to come. Daughter named her Elka and though LaMancha's aren't nearly as cute as Nubians (no ears!) with her docile personality, she will definitely grow on us.

I'm finding the goats are growing on me in general. I dare say I could end up being a goat lover. Don't tell anyone.

Busy

I can't even begin to tell you how busy we've been this last week.

Thursday I started helping to lay down hard wood floor in our parish hall, we have someone coming to stain it before Easter. I helped Friday, then Saturday, then Monday and today we're almost done. Taking way longer than I expected. I thought two days of my time, but this is crazy! It's been a lot of fun and hubby took this week off so he's been a big help with the kids, but not much school has gotten done.

Chicks started hatching on Thursday thru Sunday. Hubby's project with the kids, they hatched around 160 and sold most of the "extras". We're keeping about 35. The roosters will be our meat chickens this year and the hens we'll keep to lay.

Thursday my husband and friend headed to Anchorage to pick up our temporary priest who's from California. Married with a 1-yr-old girl. We were so happy to have a priest for all of the services that are called for during Holy Week and Pascha. Little did we realize that this priest was my husband's long lost (Arab) twin. Friday began our 2 church services per day ('till Sunday) schedule, so that's in addition to everything else.

My husband picked up his bee hive on Saturday and will get bees in it this coming Saturday.

Sunday was Palm Sunday one of my favorite feasts of the year. Church was full, salmon was awesome and the company was amazing! I even got to wear my new "June Cleaver" dress. When I ran over to my sisters real quick that afternoon I got the van stuck in the mud, argh! So I got out in my nice dress and put on my work gloves and proceeded to gather boards to put under the tires. My brother-in-law finally had to push me out with his 4wheeler. The sun was still shining so it was ok.

The goat, Amelia, finally had her babies (three!) last night during cowboy night. I'd started writing a blog post when he said, "Anna! Now!" and ran out to the garage. I followed and heard her scream. When I got there he was holding a long gooey goat kid by the back legs and there was another on the ground. We called our goat "midwife" and she told me to have him pull up on her belly in case there were any more and there was. It came out backwards and my daughter tickled it's nose with some straw to make it sneeze. They are all beautiful Nubian boys (bummer no girls) but cute none-the-less. They have great lineage so they maybe good heard sires, or, someones dinner (I don't think ours).

On we go with this crazy week. Thursday the annual bishop visit will be upon us. At some point I have to let the kids dye eggs and we have to figure out if we have all the pieces to their outfits. Make food, and more food and buy food. Go to lots more church. And church and then PASCHA! I can't wait!

Wacky Wednesday

2-yr-old with a cold, driving me up a wall, time for a movie for mama's reprieve.

Kids turn eggs in the incubator and feed and water the garage-goat. Yes, there's a goat in the garage ready to kid.

Everyone takes their antibiotics since in a family of this size when 3 people get strep, the doctors just give it to everyone.

Get a phone call from a friend. Miss that girl.

Make oriental salad with the Napa cabbage I bought yesterday...while helping son with math...make the decision not to make dinner tonight, we'll have ramen or leftovers.

Do some work, take a couple of customer's calls, mostly facebook and reading blogs. :p

Bro-in-law comes to do a lock change for me, then takes home my 7-yr-old to help with their kids. I'm relieved as I have girl overload (crying, whining, fighting, screaming, etc) by this point and she's a good baby holder for my sister, I hope she helped.

At 5pm I motivate the kids to do math, I have not been on the ball so can't expect them to be esp when the sun is shining. They can have a gigantic marshmallow if they finish their math by 6pm...they do.

2-yr-old informs me that her poop in the potty is very black, "I promise, I'm serious." she says. Ok, then.

Big kids play rough, I send them outside, the neighbor boy comes over with his dog and 2 of my kids yell at him for it, they get into a fight (verbal) and neighbor boy goes home with dog. Then calls and invites over the child who was not yelling at him. He told me what happened on the phone and I sent 2 kids over to apologize and then straight home. They get to muck out the goat yard.

2-yr-old falls in mud, gets a bath, then goes back outside...naked.

I attempt to bribe the 5-yr-old to do a reading lesson with the gigantic marshmallow trick, we got through one and a half.

I pull out the skirt that I made and fix it again, it finally fits!

Get the second to last kid to finish his English. Today's assignment is copying and memorizing a Psalm or two amendments in the Bill of Rights. He has chosen Psalm 8, very short.

Visit the goat. My daughter discovered how to make her stand super still, by scratching her with a stubby stick...good for photos, I'll try adding some later.

I'm impressed by some of the messes in my house and at my ability to cope with them just fine if my head is in the right place. I'm much nicer when I can tolerate the messes.

Son uses choke chain to take his two little sisters as slaves...puts it on their wrists and puts them in the garage goat pen, with the goat. Give a lesson that that's not appropriate play.

Between the junk food and the sunny day, today was pretty good.

When it's springtime in Alaska, it's 40 below.

boys laughing

cat prowling

chicken chasing

rooster strutting

hens digging

moose lurking

eggs opening



chicks chirping

fun swinging




girls hanging



skirt sewing



goats resting



Saturday

I decided to be better today! I got up, went upstairs, came back down and quickly crumpled back into bead.

Husband left around 9:30 to go pick up fertile eggs from 3 locations around our town.

While he was gone my cousin called informing us that our friend who has been struggling with Cancer and a broken back passed at 3am. My heart hurts for his wife and son that lived with and cared for him. His wife is my kid's Greek teacher and they have not had Greek class for the last 2 weeks because of our illness and his downward turn. Memory Eternal. May his soul dwell with the blessed.

I got in a nap and when hubby was done putting 158 eggs into the incubator to be hatched on Lazarus Saturday or Palm Sunday, I told him about our friend.

He told the kids and some cried. They have seen him more over the last 6 months at their house than we have. It's good, they need to see and fear death just as we all do. He told his wife in the last month or so that the only thing we can really be prepared for is death. He's so right.

After that my husband set up our nice new huge dog kennel (goat kennel) in the garage for our larger goat due to kid on April 13, but can go 10 days early or late. He visits her daily and noticed her laying down more and moaning more. Time to get our rear-in-gear and get all the things we need in order.

The phone rang a lot, the kids screamed, played and cried a lot and then it was time for church. I told one to go with hubby and the rest stayed home and took showers and cleaned up the kitchen.

When he got home he loaded the clean children into the van and drove to Fred Meyer to let them pick out their own dinners. I'm sure they just loved that. I don't think I've ever let them do that. He also got me some whole-clove garlic bread and grapes, a baby monitor to hook up to listen to the goat, and a bag of dark chocolates. He sure loves me.

I have an idea, I'll be better tomorrow!

Whining and itching and spring, oh my

Warning: This post contains an unusual amount of whining. While not saying that I don't usually whine, I'm saying there is more than normal.

I used to eat a lot of fruit one of my favorites was bananas.

In the last 10 years I have stumbled on a food allergy to them (and other fruit). It stinks!

My mouth gets itchy, stating at the roof of my mouth and working it's way down. Then my chin and my throat and neck and even my ears. I had to try again today, so I took an one inch piece and ate it and sure enough about 4 minutes later it started.

~sigh~ Woe is me.

Sus has her fever back today but oldest boy is better. The other kids seem fine, but I've been feeling fuzzy headed and yucky for the last couple of days. We have not been sick much this winter, so that's been nice, I guess it's our time now.

On a lighter note, my husband is currently building a permanent brooding box for chicks. The incubator has been closed up and in 5 days we can open it again. Hopefully the chicks will hatch and live and the kids will have some cute fluffy balls to sell to me and to our friends.

Also the sun is out a lot now, it's been so nice to have so much light! It's still chilly-ish, but slowly but surely melting the snow.

Our larger goat is due with kids April 13, but we're getting her garage "area" set up so she can kid inside. We splurged on a nice moveable dog kennel so we can set it up in there with straw. Our other one got her blood drawn yesterday so that I can send it in to get a pregnancy test. We think she's not pregnant still. :p

Things are busy, I feel crappy, but life is good.

oh, bananas, how I'd go bananas to eat you again

Chicks, bees, baby goats and Pascha

It's amazing.

You look at things you take for granted and you don't notice them until you start farming.

Like "kicking the bucket" we realized where that got the name REAL QUICK! When that goat (or cow) kicks over that bucket of milk you worked so hard to get, you want to slit it's throat and stick it in the freezer.

This article was not what I expected when I typed "Easter Lamb" into google. But this man is Greek Orthodox and describes how his Paschal Lamb is so much a part of him. Lambs (and goats) are born in the spring and at one year old they are at their biggest that you want to let them get before they begin to get tough. Thus giving us the Easter Lamb or an Easter Kid.

The hatching eggs went into the incubator last night. There are 45 total the children are excited as is my husband (me too I suppose). I am looking forward to having some special Black Copper Maran chicks as my own in 20 days from now. It seems the perfect thing to do during Lent, hatch out chicks for the spring.

My husband ordered his bees last week. They will be here in April and we will set up our first hive. Just one this year. My husband will be in an apprenticeship with a friend and he's letting us borrow the hive for the first year to see how we like it.

Our larger Nubian goat is due on April 15th. The girls go into heat in the fall and then you can try to time them to kid when it's best for you. They have to be dried up 2 months before kidding, so Lent seemed a good time to have little to no milk. I think we'll dry up the other one too since she will kid in June but I really wanted my daughter to have a good period of time off so that she would not have to milk 2x per day. I'd like her to be antsy to start when one of them kids and that should happen with a good break. We have thought about raising a male kid up for next year's Pascha feast. We shall see.

It's amazing how our food cycle actually used to revolve around what food was being produced at that time of year. I've already seen that with the garden but it's so much more apparent when you add animals to the mix. It's sad more people don't get to experience that. I'm glad our family is just beginning to learn it.

"Common Sense" Food

No offence to you real food ladies, but c'mon!!!

I'm cooking "common sense" food around here. ATM I'm eating Doritos and drinking my #1 favorite beer, Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery (I love you guys)...I love my chemicals, what can I say?

Common Sense food to me is just that. Cook what you have, gradually move forward with what you can. I can NOT go overnight and just quit buying cereal and bread and cheese and yogurt and chips and and and and and...... However, I can take baby steps. I'm good at baby steps.

Start with one thing, for me, well, I don't remember what it was. My mom raised me to cook. God bless that woman, I whined and complained and hid (a lot) so that I would not have to do "womanly duties" as a kid, but she set such a good example for meals. Salad, bread, veggies and main course. Every day! I didn't like doing that or any chores, now look at me..I'm a wife, mom to 6 and then I go and plant a garden and get animals...what was I thinking??

Anyway, back to the beginning of my baby steps. First step: have kids=must cook. You can make mac & cheese, a lot, but really you have to move on.....to spaghetti! and then.....Mother-in-law's lasagna! and then......good goulash! (notice a pattern?)

Then one day I decided to be "cool" (what can I say, I had "real food" kind of friends) and place an order with "the grain lady" and silly me when I ordered a 45lb pail of wheat flour it turned out that it was indeed wheat berries. Yes. Those. Like the kind that you have to put through a GRINDER that I didn't have. Fortunately I live next door to the burliest Alaskan pioneer woman you have ever known...I mean that....EVER. And of course she owns a really old fashioned grain mill. I borrowed it (after a year of letting my berries sit because I was mad at them) and ground 1/2 the bucket. Then I used my wheat in some bread and then I made it every week and my family loved me.

Around the same time I dabbled in a garden... See, I don't like gardening. At least that's what I told myself when I was young. When we got 3 house plants as wedding gifts I was quite perturbed. Really? Who buys plants?? Anyway. After we were married and moved over the garage of the OTHER burliest Alaskan woman you have ever meet (my mentor) they insisted that I take a part of their garden as my own. I tried to get out of it, really. But they were offering to till in real rabbit manure! I mean, how can you pass that up? (I really tried to think of some good reasons) but alas, I could not think of any, besides that I was pretty lazy and just didn't want to deal with stupid plants. I had to think of some things that I wanted to grow.....hmmm.......nothing really. So she gave me some seedlings that she'd started and some beet seeds (beets? who eats beets?) Needless to say, after only one summer of tending my little patch, I was hooked. I can't say that gardening is my specialty, or that I love it, but I certainly enjoy starting one each year and I enjoy knowing at the end of the season when they are in their beautiful jars....I made that (with a little help from Him, of course).

Canning is something that naturally followed the gardening. I had these beets that I didn't know what to do with and my mentor taught me to make pickled beets (I'd had and loved hers) and if you have canned anything, you know that feeling of looking at your beautiful jars full of goodness and that incredible satisfied feeling you get....that's an addicting feeling.

We were having more kids, so getting egg laying chickens only seemed natural. We have 2 acers of land and no limits on what we can do with it...so we bought chickens and started collecting our own eggs.

Meat? Well, again. My mentor only raised meat chickens, so we followed her lead and got some Cornish cross chicks a few years ago and they helped us raise them and then butcher them. The joy of eating a bird you raised is outstanding!

Milk? Why stop with meat and eggs? The kids are getting older and my oldest has been begging for years for goats. I had enough fencing and upon more research I found that goats need actually less shelter (kind of) than chickens. They only need a roof and protection from wind...not so bad. So, feeling an urgency this year to be even more self-sufficient we bought already milking goats (they need company so we got 2) and began our journey with them. I never really thought about all the things made from milk, but we're both learning to make many dairy products. I feel that at the moment we have almost too much milk, but at the same time, it forces us to make cheese regularly and then that forces us to force our kids to eat the cheese and not buy the store bought kind, which forces them to like what we have made. So, it's a win win. And again, the joy of drinking the milk and eating the cheese you made, simply can't be beat.

For some reason I realized only after we had goats that I could make my own mayonnaise...I could have at any point in my life, but I realized it this summer. It's fun and good.

I still buy chips for treats. I still buy cereal mostly because I'm not a morning person and it's easy. I figure I'll get there (or not) some day, but for me if it's not baby steps...I just won't do it regularly. And I'd like to. In becoming more self sufficient we're by default eating better. We're spending the grocery money on hay and feed and chips and pickling spices. I'm good with that.

Where ever you are on your "food journey" there you are. You don't have to run out and buy chickens or goats... Old habits die hard, so just make one new one. Try making something from outside of your box and you will be surprised with the results. Weather it's making some yogurt from the store bought milk, or making mayo, or canning some beets, or making a ton of zucchini bread 'cause your neighbor gave you too much... Enjoy that day in the kitchen and be proud of what you made. But be careful, it's addictive.

Hay day!

(Picture from Wolverine Farms in Palmer)

Today was another beautiful hay day. I only know what this term means after having to purchase hay for our 2 dear goats. The farmers out here didn't get any (or much) hay on the first cutting this year because of the stupid rain that ailed us for many more than 32 days. I think it was dry for that day right before that and rained about 15 days before that too...so when July 1st rolled around (time to start cutting) most farmers had missed or would miss the window and their hay got drenched, maybe they cut it but it never had a chance to dry out... Everyone looses out on that deal, the farmers growing it especially.

Driving into Palmer yesterday I was beside myself to see the sun out, 75 degrees, and fresh hay in the many fields laying out in the sun. "Dear God, Please don't let it rain today" and yesterday there was no thunder storm like we've been having every other day this week.

That reminds me, I should go check Craigslist for hay.

2010 Projects

I said on the side-bar that I would write about some of my/our projects. I figured I have more space here to write. I realized this blog could be handy when it comes to Christmas time and I have to recall what we have done that year.

January: Majong, it should be outlawed, but I'm pretty sure that's about all I did was play this on facebook in any free or not free time I had this month.

February: It's hard to remember this far back, but I believe that it was at the beginning of Lent that I decided to get obsessed with different foods. This is good for me because I normally don't like to cook and will find that some days it's fun to cook, this month and March were like that. My family was happy. First it was grains, namely millet, then I purchased a cast iron pan and flat breads became my new past time.

March: I found a cool YouTube website called Manjula's Kitchen http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/ and fell in love with her and her food. Became pretty much obsessed with Indian vegetarian food. Start flower seeds, school, canning beans, grinding flour, baking bread, getting ready for Pascha.

Fran is a serious painter, even naps right there to save time.

April: This month was primarily spent finishing up the kid's school and getting antsy to get back outside. I came to realize that all of the white fence posts that we put up 2 summers ago could not all be used where they were placed. I took a good day or two to mourn the loss of my time and future time and got to work digging up posts. We started painting our boards white. I marked out many of the "out of line" posts and had the kids start pulling posts for their outside jobs as they finished their math year. Now on the chore chart it says "math or outside job" so that in the summer they can work outside or do math if they like. I also built a new gate for the garden side of the chicken house (they will swap runs, one year chickens, next year garden.) I also put removable boards on the back of the chicken run side of the house and in May I finally put the wire mesh onto them. This way I can (and did) take them off if I want to unload some manure or "let" my neighbor rototill with his tractor. 

May: I spent some time re-digging only 4 or 5 post holes and re-placing my posts. Then I attached the boards to those shorter sections around the back yard. I also did this around the chicken coop/garden. The boards aren't needed there as I have wire fencing, but it looks so much nicer now. I still have to finish the back side of the garden, it only has temporary wire there now, but I'll save that for a rainy day....or one of the last days of fall before it just gets too darn cold. Papa Stud butchered and froze the chickens we'd gotten in late March. I realized a week or two before June that I needed to plant a garden SOON, so I rushed to go pick up free goat manure where the nice lady loads your truck for only $5. I went back for 2 more loads of that stuff. The last time I picked it up I asked her about her goats................

Terrible picture of the girls.

June: Beginning of June involved getting the rest of the stupid sod out of the new garden area. That stuff is a pain in the booty. Mixed in the manure, well threw it around, literally, hoed up some rows and threw in some seeds. This, of course, was the only hot time we have had this whole summer so they had to be kept watered (kids are helpful for these things). I then obsessed about getting goats, made a decision and paid a small fortune for 2 Nubian Queens as I like to call them. They were in milk but I didn't want them 'till the first of July which gave me one month to prepare. In that time we purchased a small Rubbermaid shed for them off Craigslist, I built a milk stand (too small for these ladys), purchased a new commercial size fridge for our new plethora of milk we were going to have (off Craigslist), cut a hole in the back door of our existing shed so we can milk them in there and get them in through the back, put up the 6' high chain link fence panels I bought 2 years ago in case we got goats, bought a book on goats and how to build animal shelter (I even got sick for a day so I had time to read it.) This month was also VERY busy baseball season, we had two kids on two different teams with 2 practices or games every week - EACH. It was SO nice when we had a night off. K also started her horse lessons again and wants to be in competition in the State Fair this year. She also is in a youth shot gun club, so that's once a week.

July: Here come the goats. Time for me, Papa and K to learn to milk. It's been K's dream to have a horse for years, hehe, goats too, so we are starting with a producer not just an animal that eats you out of house and home. We also had wonderful friends who gave us some lumber and another wonderful friend who came and enclosed our lean-to and turned it into our hay shed. Then to fill it up with hay. And the shed with grain. And now to learn how to make cheese (that was Papa's job, but I learned too) and sour cream, and yogurt, and pudding. I even learned to make mayonnaise with our chickens eggs in there too, it's pretty easy. This month also included quite a few trips to the doctor for my silly ankle that started hurting this winter. I had an MRI, then got hard plastic orthopedics to put into each shoe. Not fun at all, but my arches are collapsing and it's this or surgery. I miss my bare feet and slip ons. Give me a pregnancy any day.

The yellow we ended up with was cut with white paint...better now.

August: This month will consist of painting our green house yellow (started that yesterday), replacing the back patio door (my dad, the glazier, will do that), *crossing fingers* having our old crappy porch/deck torn down and getting a new one built with the lumber I had purchased for the fence that will take much longer than expected. Papa Stud also has his hunt to Adak planned for the end of August, and then there's always the fair (YAY) I love the fair.