Goat tutorial

Ten minute morning milking with Tim, Ariel, Esther, Petunia, and the babies: 

Be sure to watch with the CC on!

Cleaning the milking machine:

 

Be sure to watch with the CC on!

 Cheese recipes:

• Chevre - In the morning (warm), heat one gallon of milk to 85f, add cultures, cover and set aside. In the evening (cool), pour through cheesecloth and hang with a bowl under to catch drippings. The following morning, mix in salt and put in a jar in the fridge. 
• Paneer - Heat two gallons of milk to 185f. Turn off heat and let sit 10 minutes. Add three glugs (about a quarter cup) of vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice to curdle the milk. Pour through cheesecloth and hang to drip for a few hours. Cut in cubes and freeze on a cookie sheet, then put in a zip-lock in the freezer for use in stir fries, using as you would tofu. 
• Gjetost -  take whey, the clear liquid left over from making chevre or paneer, and boil and boil and boil and boil and boil until it is reduced to a syrup (start with at least a gallon). When the syrup is thicker and thicker, turn the heat lower and lower. When the syrup begins to change to a solid, not a syrup, remove from heat and cool. Place in a jar and refrigerate. 

Build a milking gadget:

 

One break bleeding vacuum pump for about $25

Several feet of 1/4 inch food-grade tubing, about $0.17/ft

Two lead-free brass barbs to fit tubing, about $4 each

Two lead-free brass flare nuts to fit on barb, about $3 each

Washers to fit barbs and nuts

Thin rubber seals to fit barbs and nuts

A wide-mouth mason or Ball jar with lid

A drill with bit the same size as barb and nut to drill lid

An irrigation tip syringe large enough to easily fit teats 

Assemble all pieces. Make sure tubing is long enough to set on ground and reach goat on milk stand. Make sure tubing to vacuum pump in long enough to use comfortably.  Press tubing securely on to syringe. Use backing when drilling lid for cleaner edges.

Thankful for Rain!

My poor little mint and lavender starts were suffering in the hot sun, despite my occasional watering under Tim's concerned watch (if the ground is THIS dry, how much water is left in our aquifer?) The potatoes we planted before leaving for fishing looked as if they hadn't grown an inch since I saw them last and several plants were missing - wilted away to nothing. Hopefully the thunder and lightning means a few days of good rain to bring everything back to life. The goats and chickens were looking desolate in their dry, dead yard.

Speaking of chickens, chicken butchering is starting to seem like a normal activity around here, so much so that I think I didn't even mention it! This was our third round of juvenile rooster elimination, and we've learned a few lessons along the way.

1. Neighbors like you better when you kill all the squawking young roosters and I get to sleep in past 6am! It's great to only have one.
2. Being sneaky in the barn helps: I slipped in just after the chickens went to bed, before it was so dark I'd need a flashlight to see or a gun to fight off the rats, and quietly stood in the hen house waiting for the young roosters to ignore me and go back to sleep. To catch them, I put my hands on their backs and wings and stood still like that for a minute before picking them up. This way they didn't scream and flap about waking everyone else up. They went very quietly.
3. Feed: My process involves separating the death-row chickens from the rest of the flock 24 hours in advance and locking them in the small sandy run with only water to clear out their digestive tracts. It's a good idea but it means that a) I have to really commit to killing them 24 hours before I do it, with no backing out because we are tired; and b) I have to get the whole rest of the flock out of their house and around to the yard in the morning, then reverse the process at night. Last time there was a lot of catching and chasing and herding and frustration and a few bent feathers. This time I made a little trail of feed going out the hen house door and around to the gate (locked Tilly inside the house away from the action), through two sets of gates and into their big yard. After laying the trail with a big pile of food at the end (better lock up the goats somewhere away from that too!) I stood back and in about 10 minutes, the big red rooster led his girls along the trail, no problem. In reverse worked just as well. It helps that I was withholding food from them inside their house to try to encourage the rats to relocate, thus creating very hungry chickens.
4. Prepare: The night of the butchering, I neglected to really make sure we were set up well in advance. It turns out the painting crew over the summer removed some of my butchering supplies and I got a little desperate racing around finding the missing parts in time to hopefully be done by midnight and in bed sleeping soon after. Now our deck is beautifully painted and clean AND set up for butchering with things like a leg loop hanging from the beam for plucking and hooks around for hanging lights and other tools. The all important head-bucket-with-lid was located and we were ready to go before it was all the way dark (see above about rats and holding flashlights in my mouth).
5. Wait until they are all the way dead: Catching the roosters for the final time went like I said above. In the dark I held their backs and wings for a moment before picking them up. Sleepy eyed, they hardly made a cluck. Up at our butchering station I tightly swaddled the rooster in a black towel (hides bloodstains), and tucked him under my arm or between my knees and slit his throat over the main artery. The first two times I broke their necks and chopped off their heads a bit prematurely, this time I waited for that final shutter of life leaving their bodies, then removed their heads. As a result, the process was that much calmer, no fighting, no perceivable pain or discomfort, just very sleepy roosters transforming into dinner.
6. Control the feathers: This time around, we were much more prepared for the pile of sticky, wet feathers we accrue. Instead of having a deflated garbage bag near-ish and feathers everywhere, we lined our large 55-gallon curb-side-sized garbage can with an equally large bag and were much more successful at catching all those feathers. 
7. Package whole: In an effort to expedite the process as well as use the meat better, we elected to leave all the chickens whole this time around. Once all five were plucked and gutted and rinsed we brought them into the house, gave them one more rinse and scrub, and Put the whole bird into an 11" vacuum seal bag - they fit! With their wings and drumsticks tucked in tight to their bodies, they look just like commercial chickens, ready to be thawed, soaked in a sugar-salt-herb brine, rubbed with butter and baked. Delicious! 

In other chicken news, I discovered the secret of the missing eggs. I have 20 hens and was only getting about 6 eggs a day - suspicious. Before I left I was getting 10 eggs a day and now there are three more girls that should be starting to lay. Up in the hay loft above the goats, I pulled the tarp off the bales just to be sure, and lo, there were all the eggs. About 60 eggs ranging from very rotten to a hen mid laying when I interrupted. My neighbor, Linda offered to take all the eggs and mash them with garlic and onion for her own special deer repellent. 

On the goat front, I have a nice new bit of fencing up for them, but despite the shock they keep slipping through! They'll do alright staying in their yard and grazing the tall grasses until they see a person walk by and then their fear of the electric fence dissipates as they go running for affection. It's nearly time to breed again, and then they can start being useful and contributing members of the farm instead of just taunting tails for Tilly to bite at.

The goats had another admirer this week. Our friend from middle school and high school came down from Alaska on a work trip and took a day off to see us. Emily Thorpe, now Emily Bordelon, is expecting her first baby in another 6 months and we had a great time catching up and showing off the farm after so many years! We really need to work on our tour guide routine before she comes back as we fell a little flat on our presentation of the island, "um... there's a bowling ally in Oak Harbor, that's like 45 minutes from here, um... there... is... a market! on Saturdays! that's fun... but not today... You wanna go see the wild show bunnies at the fair grounds?" We can do better.

Having a visitor was a nice relief from my farm chores for the week: removing all the ivy from 5 trees and installing a new kitchen sink.

Nearly more ivy than tree it would seem. Last year's test tree seemed to be a success with my method of removing all the ivy as high as I could reach and hoping the rest would die and fall off - it did and hopefully these ones will too 

The kitchen sink project was an educational opportunity, proving myself as a strong independent woman and all. What probably would have taken a plumber only a couple hours took me three days with daily phone calls to Dad and sending labeled photographs to explain why I couldn't just unscrew the parts. But if we would have called a plumber, the plumber wouldn't have wiped out all the spiders and dust and mold and painted the inside of the sink cabinet to make it a usable and relatively pleasant space. I am very proud of my beautiful new sink. Hopefully it won't even leak!

While I was doing all that, Tim has been working on his own ATF approved projects; brewing beer and trading out foreign for domestic parts. He even brought me a baby hop plant to add to our garden.

Now it is time for Tilly and I to go to Search and Rescue practice while Tim monitors his brewing and waits for Joe and Roni to come by for the weekend.

Closing Thoughts

On goat milking:
After trying out the milking experiment and proving the theory (manually inducing lactation), Nancy and I made the decision that the 1/4 cup a day over four milkings I had worked up to was simply not enough for it to be worth her scheduling around and attempting to maintain while I am away for the summer, especially while first learning to milk - so until next spring when we have real live baby goats, we are weaning off on the milking. We look forward to spring when (hopefully) both Petunia and Esther will be producing much more milk than that with much less effort from me. Through milking, Petunia has become more gentle and sweet, so that is a plus we can hang on to for the summer.

On the Canine Good Citizen test:
Tilly passed! We are now a fully qualified search and rescue team with Whidbey Search Dogs, with voting rights and everything. Amazingly, over only a few weeks, Tilly has gotten her bouncy paws attached to the floor even when being given attention by a stranger or stopping near another dog. Hurrah! She did great during her test, though I was fairly nervous and worked up. I would have benefited from spending our time before the test laying down and snuggling with her in the grass like normal instead of practicing the test items over and over again.

On my teacher test:
Actually the "WEST-E" which is the Washington exam for "highly qualified" teachers and to be certified as a teacher in Washington, I must first be "highly qualified" in at least one subject - and art is the subject the Department of Education instructed me to test in. Though an art exam may sound easy, in reality it is 47,000 years of history from cave paintings to the modern day across all the major cultures around the world; quite a lot to cram for a test on! In addition to all that history and culture, the test also covered printmaking terms and techniques, sculpture, glazing chemistry, and kiln firing temperatures, hazardous materials handling, weaving, carving, musical theater, digital file formats, principles of movie making and editing, art theories and principles of design... you get the idea. In Alaska, I had to take the "Praxis" version of the same test twice before barely squeaking by on passing. Today, however, the test went smoothly and I was immediately told I passed despite not a lot of studying and even less sleep.

What was I doing not sleeping before a big test if not studying you ask? The advantage of taking a big test on the way to the airport for two months commercial fishing in the Bearing Sea, leaving my puppy and farm behind, is there is little time or energy left for worrying about the test. The disadvantage is there is so much else to do!

With short breaks to run errands around town, I spent nearly the whole day from sun up to sun down out in my garden. The center garden circle in the driveway has long been a problem area. Being the first thing people see, I want it to be beautiful, and being a confined and defined area that seems possible. When we first moved in, the area had been tilled over and piled high with fresh dirt - I don't know what it looked like for the previous owners but I'm beginning to have a suspicion. After a year of trying to garden this area, planting veggies and succeeding with growing garlic, I let the area be enveloped by the pushy horse tails. Last summer Mum and I went about trying to tame the wildlands again by mowing down the weeds and covering the area in thick ground cover and many many many bags of bark chips. Even after all those efforts, the horse tails were determined to come back. In early spring, we did a little weeding and I planted five asparagus plants, two mint plants, and an old lavender plant rescued from Greenbank Farm. Other than that, I left the planting up to the wind. Beautiful flowers have begun springing up and filling in around the edges. A poppy is in full bloom on the downhill side, columbine border the rocks, and other beautiful plants form little groups around the area. After taking out another 10 wheelbarrows of weeds this week and adding a few more bags of bark, the wanted plants are well framed and its beginning to look pretty nice. When I come home in the fall I hope to plant more lavender and mint (deer deterrent) in a border starting with our neighbors side, maybe a lilac bush too, then more asparagus ferns in the middle each year. I hope when I come home the horse tails and quack grass haven't gotten too out of hand.  

Remember how just a week or so ago it seems I was showing off my nicely cleaned up compost area? Well now the mound is higher than ever with a freshly cleaned goat and chicken barn and those 10 wheelbarrows of weeds. I also cleaned out the far bin of finished-ish compost mounding up the potatoes again. I skimped on rotating the rest of the piles before heading out. Always more to do!

The potato bins are finally full to the top and have been well watered in. It is best to water deeply and thoroughly or not at all. The dirt was mounded up higher than the sides before I added the water to help the bins settle. I look forward to opening those big wooden boxes in the fall and seeing how many potatoes are inside.

While we are gone, the chicken coop is all set up for "U-Pick" eggs with a big box of recycled egg cartons and directions on the door. Hopefully our neighbors will keep picking up eggs and the system will work for the summer. I wouldn't want Nancy to get flooded with over a dozen eggs a day!

I also included some egg "safety" and handling information for those a little nervous about eating something that is so farm fresh and not from the familiar supermarket. (click below to expand and read)

The goats are all set up for while we're away with their feeder finally reattached securely to a new section of wall and a salt block to supplement their mineral needs. So far they still seem to prefer the familiar lose minerals. One thing I forgot to do is add a few new staples in the corner of the chicken run fence where the goats managed to push a hole straight through to the great outside world. I used bailing wire to lash the chicken wire fence back together around the corner post, but a few staples too would have really sealed the deal. 

The sun set around 10:30pm last night, so that's when I finally headed in to start laundry, dishes, packing, and cleaning. I know I should have been on this a lot earlier, but I got it all done! I even cleaned and organized my ever messy "farm room", cleaned off my desk, and swept all the floors! I think I am ready to go!

This morning, just as I was putting the finishing touches on cleaning and worrying how I would take care of Tilly before I left and how she would do home alone after getting all wound up watching me pack, Nancy showed up. She thought I wasn't leaving until later and was coming by to practice the morning routine before I left but it turned out to be the most perfect timing. Nancy took Tilly to the beach with her dog for a long run while I headed out the door and then brought her back to spend the day with Grandpa and her new toys after I had left. Thank goodness! Also Tilly gave me a very nice hug before I left, managing to calm her crazy wiggles long enough for a goodbye snuggle. 

I know my farm is in good hands while we dip our nets in the far North!

Recap

I've been getting out of order lately. Looking back over my recent pictures, I realize I never posted in April about the Search and Rescue helicopter that didn't come, despite our very cool gear and good positioning around the edge of the landing field. At the very last minute, the crew decided the wind was above their safety limits and had to cancel.

 April 21 Search and Rescue helicopter drill

The first weekend of May, Tim, our friend Zac, Tilly and I headed east over the Cascades to Okanogan Barter Faire. Zac stole the show with an excellent fire-spinning show. Tilly wasn't allowed in the faire, so she spent the day in the woods with her Eastern Washington foster family. Though they took great care of her, she was happy to get back to our camp site on Curlew Lake.

I also didn't say much about our most wonderful Juneau/Whidbey neighbor finally returning to the island! Nancy's son, Zac, and I spent the morning at her house clearing out piles of horsetails from the yard so she'd come home to beautiful flowers rather than a sea of green.

I had the most excellent birthday on Sunday; waking up to a delicious breakfast (after milking Petunia) of french toast made with our eggs and Amanda's pumpkin bread thanks to Tim, going to Unity together, stopping by a farmers market, (milking again), and having friends over for an evening on the beach around the campfire (between milkings).

Tim has our car almost back together again after spending the last week removing, rebuilding, and replacing the transmission.

And I have succeeded at my potato project, I moved the finished compost to the potato bins to "mound up" the plants after adding more side board, then moved the second compost into the third bin, first compost into the second bin and the giant pile of stuff into the first bin. Hurrah! 

Potato bins now half filled with dirt after adding three more levels of siding.

 The compost shuffle! Turning the compost pile and adding water as needed helps keep the composting process going by mixing together the inside and outside, mixing in air, mixing the "greens" and "browns". Also note the potato plant growing out of the middle bin? 

First harvest of the year! 

For the first time in a long time, I actually cleaned up the ground all around the bins as well, throwing everything in for composting! Now it's all ready to be piled high with fresh weeds and grass clippings and coffee grounds and - time to clean the barn? Here I am just trying to take care of my potatoes and somehow it leads to turning compost and cleaning barns!

Zac is kindly using his arm and to measure the height of the nettles around the compost bins - over 8 feet?

 Tim took a little time out from fixing the car to fix the goat playground. They had a teeter totter for a while but it was becoming increasingly sad and broken. The new and improved structure is a kennel they are loving going in and on, with a raised walkway over to a second platform. They love having something to fight over!

The milking is continuing to be increasingly productive with increasing time between milkings and decreasing milkings per day. The result is my enduring resolve to continue with the milking program. If I had to go the other way, starting with one or two milkings a day and gradually working up to 10 a day, every two hours and waking up at 3am to try (and fail) to convince myself to milk just one more time... I would not have made it a week. Below is my magnetic refrigerator calendar clock milk scheduler as of Monday. The colored magnets mark milking times during the day, with little fuzzy chick magnets starting and ending the day. The white inner magnets with lines pointing to times are my goal magnets, which I march my milking times steadily towards in 15 minute increments every day. Today my markers are on those white dots - 5 milkings a day about 4 hours apart. Tomorrow the little rainbow markers will start marching towards 4 milkings a day about 6 hours apart. It gets better!

Manual Goat Freshening: Week 1

So normally goats need to have babies to start lactating (making milk), just like people. But in this day and age with increasing infant adoptions, I know many adoptive mothers choose to breast feed and are able to accomplish this by taking supplements, hormones, or simply by being really persistent with the pumping or hand expression. This last option is what I'm on about for my goats.

Day 1 (Monday the 11th): I was going to start after Search and Rescue on Sunday, but I was so tired after our weekend away with only 4 hours of sleep so... I thought 6 am Monday would be just fine. A little after 8 am Monday, I headed out to the barn with a bowl of warm water, my softest washcloth, and some sleepy eyed determination. The warm washcloth is like the wet warm mouth of a baby and is supposed to help, plus gets their udders and teats nice and clean! So, I did that. And then the milking part is like practice - low expectations, rhythmic milking while imagining something is actually coming out. Petunia got a bit sticky! Very encouraging. Nothing from Esther. Milkings continued every 2 hours until 10pm. Tim helped for one of them by trying to entertain the goats and Nancy came by for one to watch and help keep the food supply flowing to the patient beasts. I was going to milk at 12, then 2 or 3 am and so on, but at 11:45, yes, 11:45 pm - I couldn't wait another 15 minutes, I fell asleep. And opted out of that 2 or 3 or 4 am milking. That sort of thing is for crazy people! Besides, the girls weren't very impressive with the milk production the first day, so why should I waste precious sleep and get nothing to show for it?

Day 2 (Tuesday the 12th): Starting off not feeling very motivated. There was no miraculous appearance of milk in the (8a, 10a, 12n, 2p, 4p, 6p, 8p, 10p...) 8 attempts on day 1, then I slacked off for 8 hours and let everything go back to nothing so what's the point? It's probably not going to work anyway! Regardless, I dragged myself out of bed at 6 am, and again at 8 am to repeat the process. During the day, I got multiple (small) squirts from each teat during multiple milkings from Petunia - very promising! Still absolutely no sign of hope from Esther. I decided to trip Esther's hooves instead. It didn't go well. She kicked and I held her mostly upside down and cut off a bit too much and made her bleed and and and... So then I let her eat all the peanut butter and molasses and peanuts and goat treats and sunflower seeds and oats and alfalfa pellets it took for me to stop feeling guilty and for the bleeding to stop while I gave her a vigorous brushing. More milkings mostly on every two hours, though I can't set 12 alarms at a time on my phone so a time or two I was a bit late and the 6 pm milking turned into a 7 pm milking... Every three hours is still pretty good, right?

Day 3 (Wednesday the 13th) I had a milking plan. I lazy yet effective milking plan. I was going to have my goats bred, have them kid, then after a few weeks start separating the kids at night and milking in the morning, gradually separating the kids earlier and earlier in the afternoon until they are completely weaned and I get all the milk at 8:30 every morning. Instead I am doing this. I made the midnight milking on Day 2 and was delighted with the number of small squirts of milk hitting my arm and thought for sure I was motivated enough to get up at 3 am. At the actual 3 am? Not so much. The 6 am milking produced a good number of squirts from Petunia (nothing from Esther still), but also suggested she is either tired of the grain and routine or is getting sore teats from all my squeezing. Poor thing. She will get used to it and I am trying to be gentle, but maybe she's just not a morning goat? I'm thinking it may be time to upgrade my milking stand to include a clip to hook into their collars and remind them of the importance of standing still. By the end of the day, I did get 30 squirts from one teat from one milking! Still not a measurable amount in standard terms like ounces, but serious improvement. Also I gave up entirely on Esther.

Day 4 (Thursday the 14th) Is today day 4? It's all running together! So many milking sessions! So many days without a proper night sleep! Today I sat down and made a calendar - the future milking schedule! I am counting down the days until I can sleep more than 5.5 hours a night. It looks like it may be all the way through the end of this month and into the first week or two on June before I start pushing apart the 12 midnight and 6 am milkings. I am hoping not to leave my goat-sitter, Nancy, with too terrible a task, though she did want the goats to be in milk saying she was looking forward to it! By the time I leave for fishing, I plan to be down to 4 milkings a day at 7am, 2pm, 9pm, and 12pm, working towards three milkings a day at 7am, 3pm and 11pm. From there it will be up to Nancy to get Petunia down to just the 8:30am/pm two milkings a day. Agg! Day 4 and I am dreaming of when it will be over! Really, every two hours is pretty demanding and figuring out the proper transitional schedule is tricky stuff. I made a very cool milking time gauge on my fridge today to keep track of it all and visualize with. I've given up on Esther, Petunia has largely given up on food in favor of licking me and nuzzling me. I have been rewarding with a scratchy brush after milking to supplement the not-so-appealing food. I have been counting 300 squeezes a session on Penuia's Teats - not all producing full squirts of milk but the first few are now pretty solid and in tandem.

Day 5 (Friday the 15th) Day 4 was rough. Day 4 was a lot of milking and not much milk, though more than day 3 and day 2 and day 1, which is the important thing to remember. Day 5 is going much better, feeling more optimistic, feeling hopeful. I re-evaluated by milking schedule and decided to start stepping it up a bit sooner rather than later. The most dedicated bottle-feeding schedule I could find for newborn goats in the top 3 Google results suggested every 2-3 hours for the first week, then moving on to every 4, 5, 6 etc each week after until it gets, you know, reasonable. If that's how babies eat, then that's how I'll milk! They also said to do the 6 hours of sleep a night thing the second half of the first week, then quickly start moving towards 8, long before the rest of the day is yet in 8. Today is an every-2-hours-and-45-minutes day, which is nearly 3 and so much less like two then yesterday's every 2-2:30 schedule. I am tired, but milk is coming out! I estimate between a teaspoon and a tablespoon per milking x sooo many milkings per day. I mean... 10 milkings per day? I guess I'm down to 9 today. Anyways, that comes out to be nearly a cup of milk! It looks like it's about time to start aiming for a bowl and measuring it. Maybe I'll have milk on cereal instead of licking drops off my fingers. It is beginning to all be worth it.

Day 6 (Saturday the 16th) The whole milking thing is getting to be a comfortable and normal schedule with rewarding milk production. Today I made my first attempt to collect the milk. This meant holding the jar up close to petunia's body while milking with one hand at a time and trying to aim, then giving up after the first 20 squeezes or so and closing up the jar to resume my normal milking habits. Even missing a bit of each milking, I managed to gather about 4 teaspoons over my 8 milkings, which is pretty good considering a few days ago she had no milk at all! Milk production should continue to increase and in a few more days we will be down to 4 milkings a day, 8 hours of sleep at night, and maybe a cup of milk a day - enough for me to drink. I look forward to coming home at the end of summer to (hopefully) a reasonable amount of milk production, enough to make some cheese and butter and ice cream and yogurt and drink as milk - yum!

Wide-mouth mason jar with the day's milk 

Tablespoon full of milk

7 cars, 4 moms, 30 chickens

- Tim is working on fixing Daniel and Amanda's car.
- Alice came to visit (borrowing Nancy's car).
- Dawn came to visit and met Alice. Dawn's step-mom, Stacy also came and was choked up by how much Tim reminded her of her late husband - milling away in the shop listening to music.
- Grandpa bought a new (used) car!
- Joe came to visit to pack up the truck full of fishing groceries, left for two weeks, and is now back to look at trading the Kachink Kachink for a new car and a smaller boat.
- Ariel finished the EMT training, top of the class.
- The chickens. Oh the chickens. There are about 4 crowing roosters now. They are calling back and fourth across the property to each other and one is peering in the bedroom window at me, crowing, then ducking back down again (big red rooster). They always look like they are up to no good. The other night, the big white rooster was bleeding from the head. Did a rat bite him or one of the other chickens? I was afraid we would have to butcher him just then, but it looked worse than it was and he seems to be okay now, though in the next couple weeks - as soon as there is a break in the visitors, we must butcher! Mama Ukrane is bringing her new chicks out in the grass during the days now. They are about 4 inches tall and super adorable.
- The other day, Tim let the goats out to eat the tall grass on the other side of the fence and they promptly got themselves on to the neighbors roof. The neighbor carried Esther and Tim carried Petunia back inside the fence. Naughty goats!

Alice and Dawn - Tim's moms

Dawn and Tilly - every picture is best with a Tilly!

Alice and Dawn Moms

Really purple potatoes - they came that way

Goat-pro: Esther is wearing the special camera saddle.

Petunia wishes it was on her head.

Tim working on Daniel and Amanda's car. After many, many hours, and many, many broken tools, the broken and seized parts finally came off.

When the 10-lb sledge hammer wouldn't get the last bolt out of the hole, Tim switched to drilling.

We celebrated Alice's birthday! Also Joe's birthday two days before.

Ronnie's birthday is next weekend, Joy's birthday on April 1st, and Dawn's birthday soon after.

The only parent not celebrating a birthday in this month-chunk is Rich, waiting until June.

To recap the month of March:
Alisha left on the 6th - Joe arrived on the 6th
Joe left on the 9th - Alice arrived on the 10th (Dawn 13-15)
Alice left on the 22nd - Joe arrived on the 23rd
Joe plans to leave around the 25th - Joy and Rich arrive the 26th

We were worried there that we might be alone in the house for four days between Alice's visit and the arrival of the Easter Lyons, but Joe stepped up and filled the void. Our solid streak of visitors has been continuing steadily since October and the month of April is starting to fill up with plans of visits and camping trips and chicken butchering as well. We have the luxury of seeing all our friends and family without all the trouble of traveling. We really should formalize this hostel of ours and accept that we will never be a household of only 3.

Where are all the babies?

Petunia technically has until March 7th to kid before I can give up all hope of spring milk for this year. Her teats are definitely bigger than Esther's - does that mean she's working on developing her udder and getting ready to kid in the remaining 10 days? Or is that just my wishful thinking and it is from being a year older, different genetics, non-kid related? I am putting off trimming hooves until I know I don't need the clippers to be sterilized and ready for an umbilical cord.

Three new chicks

Well, no baby goats to date, but at least the baby chicks are predictable, right? Mama Ukraine started sitting on the eggs February 2nd making them due to hatch on the 23rd, which was Monday. Sure enough, from under her we could hear peeping and after much patience, even saw and held the little ones!

Holding the red chick after several attempts to snatch her without being pecked by mama hen

One has a red face and will probably turn out looking a lot like Little Chicken like her big brother has, one is pretty black, and the last is cream colored, maybe to turn out speckled like one of the hens and the rooster.

The little red-faced chick from the December 1st hatch is all grown up

But now it is Wednesday and the rest of the dozen eggs that so promisingly looked full of chicks when we candled them a week ago are now over due and behind. Mama Ukraine is still sitting on more eggs than chicks. The chicks born Monday are already venturing short ways from their mom to search for food and water. She won't be able to keep them in the nest much longer and then the unhatched eggs will be abandoned. We will candle them again and see if there is any hope. It is possible to tuck an egg in close to your body and hatch it that way - humans happen to be just the right temperature.

Mama Ukraine's unhatched eggs

With these newest three chicks, we are now up to my hen-house maximum of 25. The older babies aren't looking so much like babies anymore, and one is beginning to hit rooster-puberty, indicating I can't put off butchering much longer. We are still getting about 6 eggs a day, from the same 6 hens every day, so I am spending today keeping a close eye on the nest boxes and trying to label who lays which egg. I figure if I try to mark them down for a few days in a row, I will know which hens will be joining the little roosters as fried chicken and soup.

In other news, I am finishing up my EMT class and working on my application for the South Whidbey School District after finally transferring my teaching certificate to Washington. I am also finally almost feeling better from the string of colds and flues I seem to have had. Tim is continuing to enjoy his work as an apprentice electrician, on the road to journeyman. Grandpa hosted bridge club at the house last week and is having his car fixed this week. Our house guest, Alisha, is getting ready to leave us for a new job and new adventures as we get ready for our next visitors - she says leaving has nothing to do with me accidentally locking her in the barn with the chickens for multiple hours yesterday. Tilly and I missed the last search practice, but spent Valentines night running up a hill at midnight with our survival pack and Tim gallantly accompanying us.

Tilly testing the new doggy survival bag for another member of our SAR group