It was a dark and stormy night.....

We are expecting a snow and ice storm, so Whitney decided this would be a good night to kid. After I finished evening chores I put her in a stall with a bale of fresh, dry straw.

At 10pm I checked her and found a beautiful buck kid.

An hour later, while checking on him, she produced another buck without incident, affording me the opportunity to get these somewhat graphic photos of the process.

You don't get any more newborn then this, just seconds old.

The barn cat, who appears to have picked a fight with someone tougher then he is, watched over the proceedings from the safety of his perch on the stall wall.Well that was it, two bucklings.
Two more does left to kid this spring and one in summer so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some girls!

Fresh Goat Milk Mozzarella

I took the time the other day to cook up a batch of mozzarella cheese from some of my goats milk. While I have made all sorts of cheese in the past, a friend organized a coop for a Mozzarella/Ricotta kit from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. at a price I couldn't resist and it included a a simple mozzarella recipe I had to try. I had taken a two day seminar from Ricki of NECS a few years back at the University of Wisconsin and knew that have very high quality supplies.First I mixed citric acid (from the kit)into a gallon of milk and heated it to 90 degrees using the supplied thermometer. Then I added dissolved rennet (also in the kit) and let the milk sit to form a curd. You can see see the custard like cheese has separated from the watery whey. I then cut the whey with a large knife into 1" chunks and then heat them to 110 degrees while gently stirring. Viola', curds and whey!
After draining the whey I was left with a relatively small amount of curd, which is normal in cheese making. The whey can be used in cooking and baking and animals love it!
The trick with this method is you can use the microwave to heat the curd for stretching. After removing as much whey as possible, I heated the curd in the microwave for one minute, i again drained the whey and added 1 tsp of salt and folded the whey into a chunk.
I heated the curd again for about 30 seconds, I'm aiming for a temperature of about 135 degrees to start stretching and forming the cheese. You can pull the whey into string cheese, form it into a ball, little mouthfuls or a braid and then place it in ice water to set and hold its shape.
Here I've made a classic Caprese salad with Brandywine tomatoes and basil from the garden.
Melted on spaghetti, our favorite with garlic bread!
This cheese can be made with store bought milk and I'm sure you have the utensils necessary in your kitchen, so give cheese making a try. It's very fun and rewarding! What a great way to get picky children to eat dairy.

Doelings (and a buck) that need to go!

I think it is time for a couple of the girls, and one of the boys, to go. I don't need that many to milk and I really would like to have an all registered Oberhasli herd.

Both of these girls are about 7 months old and come from a friends dairy herd. They were bottle raised on pasteurized milk and are very friendly. They have been dis-budded, vaccinated and wormed. The girls have been running with an older registered Oberhasli buck, so it is possible that they are bred.

Alpine type doeling

LaMancha type doeling

I also have an 8 month old registered Oberhasli buckling I would like to sell.

Registered Oberhasli buckling
I'd like to get $75 each for the does, or $125 for the pair of them. I'm asking $150 for the buck, but I am open to trades too.

Now that was quite a surprise!

Today I was planning on blogging about our trip to visit Grandpa, but mother nature sent me a surprise instead. Boogie and I drove across the state and back yesterday, so we got home very late, nearly midnight. After bundling a dozing Boogie off to bed I headed down to the barn to milk Whitney. Iris, my other doe, has a terminal condition called CAE which creates difficulty for her keeping her weight up, so I left her in the feed stall where she could munch through the night as I often do. I did notice she had a bit of an udder, but wrote that off to hormones. This morning, I waited about an hour later than usual to accommodate for the late milking last night, and to my GREAT surprise found Iris with a doe kid. I took the doe up to the house and went back to milk two goats now and get some milk pasteurized for the new little girl. As I sat down to milk I hear maaaaaaaa, maaaaaaa from the corner and lo and behold a little buck kid as well. I am amazed since Iris had just had twins around the first of the year in addition to her disease. I never expected more kids from her. I pasteurized her colostrum along with Whitney's milk so it didn't turn into custard and both of the kids have gotten a good dose.

Now Boogie has 'babies' to help with, though he really needs to work on being more gentle with the little guys, and I have a busy day moving bunnies off the porch to make room for two bottle babies. In the mean time they are sleeping up in the bedroom. Yes, once again I have goats in the house+

My Diverse Stock Portfolio!

No, not a post about investment banking, but more photos of some of the animals with which we share our farm. These are the brand
new Angora kits born just yesterday! I generally don't have such great access to newborn bunnies, but this Mama chose to kindle behind the nest box rather than in it. They are nice in cozy in a super light weight and soft nest of Mamas fur. I've counted at least six in various shades of gray. I'm amazed at the difference just 24 hours makes. The lower photo was taken yesterday when they were just hours old, all new and pink. The one above taken this evening and I can already see how much more coat they have. Look at those teeny tiny little toes!



These are the kits born a few weeks ago. This Mama did use the nest box and I am just getting my first good looks at the little ones. There appears to be two white, two black and one gray. I think I will need to set up one or two more colonies fairly quickly, they are breeding like, well, rabbits!

Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do with all the lovely, soft fibre they will produce. I'm not sure if I want to learn to spin, have someone else spin for me or just sell it out right.

The four goat kids have been out and about this week after being kept inside by the rain this past weekend. The Oberhaslis are now four months old, the Alpine and LaMancha cross does are three months old.

This is the lovely little doe that had the bout with Clostridia a few weeks back. As you can see she is completely recovered and enjoying the out of doors with the Alpine. That was a very scary episode and one which I do not wish to repeat again, ever.














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Of course there must be a barn cat. What farm is complete without a barn cat? This gentleman showed up nearly feral well over a year ago but has become quite tame helping me milk twice each day, and grown fat on spare cream. He has the common sense to avoid the dogs and to make himself scarce on the days the DVM comes out, thus avoiding castration to this point, but that will be remedied very soon.

The jack donkey is doing very well. He came here a few months ago, very thin and face and ears covered in fungus. He is gaining a good amount of weight and the fungus is very nearly gone, just a smidge left on the tips of his ears. He's doing his best to woo the two jennys, even though both are considerably taller than he.

and finally......
The large pasture on a sunny spring day.

Now I haven't forgotten the cow, sheep, fowl or dogs by any means, but it is late and they will have to wait for another day.
Good night, sleep tight.