Pre-hurricane check-in

It's about 1300 here, and we've been getting rain and a small bit of wind off the Atlantic all morning.  Internet has been in and out with the rain but power is still on at present.  Just to review: we have a new generator, two oil lamps (had to put olive oil in them, no lamp oil in town), two WaterBobs, one of which we'll put into the bathtub after showers and fill with 100 gallons of water, and three bags of charcoal to cook out with Tuesday, which is forecast to be clear and sunny behind the storm.  Here's hoping the storm weakens before getting up here.

More goat pics and hurricane prep

First, yes we know about the coming hurricane and are making preparations.  No, we aren't evacuating.  Yes, we know this one is a lot stronger than Matthew last year.  Hubby is getting ready to go to town to buy a generator and more drinking water today, since the generator we bought used from our neighbor last year doesn't want to stay running and the new spark plug didn't fix the situation.

Now, for the fun part: more goat pics.  I'd like y'all to meet Cocoa Puff, granddaughter of both Prim and Chocolate (offspring of Cocoa and Harry Houdini).  Hubby and I took pics back in April of her bottle feeding, and I just have not posted them, though I've been promising to do so since May.  Feeding a bottle baby, from hubby's point of view, then mine:

bottle feeding Cocoa Puff, back in April

what I see when bottling a kid

the lower the milk level, the more sleepy the eyes get

 For a much more recent pic of her ... well, only one is in focus enough to bother posting.  She usually comes up to me when she notices me, wanting attention.  Bottle babies are VERY affectionate goats.

Cocoa Puff at approximately six months old

Yes, she has horns.  I tried to disbud her, but when that 900F + disbudding iron touches the horn bud, you realize there is no amount of reading, YouTubing, or planning that can substitute for experience.  I've banded her horns, but am wondering if the bands have lost some of their elasticity since I bought them a good six months ago.  Both she and Maggie (formerly called Two, of Molly's triplets) have bells on their collars.  Cocoa Puff was the main reason for buying the bells: she doesn't stay in the fence any better than either of her parents did here (and Frank says Harry has figured out a weak spot in their fence now) and now instead of wriggling through the gaps in the electronetting, Cocoa Puff, noses up the bottom unelectrified strand and shimmies under the fence.  She snuck up on me in the feed shed one morning, and that was when I decided she must be belled.  She stills tries to sneak into the feed shed some mornings when I'm getting the chicken feed ready, but other mornings she remembers that I tell her, "No!" and shove her out the shed.

I may not get any more pictures of the twins - they are definitely in the "bounce-bounce-zip-zip-ZOOM!" stage.  They also enjoy attention, and will come up to the fence and "Meh! Meh!" for petting, patting, and ear rubs despite their mother's warnings.  Blue Eyes also seems to enjoy climbing on us, especially hubby.  She's been up on his shoulders a few evenings while I've been milking.

Prim had cycled the morning Chocolate kidded, but apparently didn't settle as Brownie was doing his billy goat job again this morning, after breeding Chocolate and maybe Tangie last evening.  It looks like I won't be getting new baby goat kids for my birthday in January after all, but Prim, Chocolate, and likely Tangie will all be kidding the same week in early February (unless they don't settle this time).  I do need to take Maggie up to Frank and Caroline's, but I think I'll wait until after the hurricane since they live pretty close to the river.

I have a cheese to make today - I've been making 2-4 cheeses per week with the amount of milk brought in.  My cheddars have been sharper than I like, but hubby loves a seriously sharp cheddar and has been snacking on them when he hasn't been incorporating them in our meals.  Something was off with the Monterey Jacks, but the Colby cheeses ... they are gone and certainly did not last long at all.  I am making more, but they do need about eight weeks of aging in the wine refrigerator.  When hubby unwaxed and cut into the first one, he commented, "I think you're gonna be very pleased with this one."  My response: "Oh yeah, THIS is the real Colby flavor!"  It really is sad that not even the blocks of "colby" at the grocery taste right these days, and it has been a while since I've seen a real longhorn Colby in the deli case.  I do sometimes see a real Swiss cheese - in fact, it even has the name the Swiss call it on the label: Emmental.  The regular ladies at the deli counter know about my dairy goats and that I make cheeses, but sometimes don't recall that I don't make Swiss.  They do love hearing about the goats' antics.  When we turn off the AC later this month, I'll need to make some Butterkases (there's an umlatt over the a, but I don't know how to make it show up on my keyboard), as that is what the in-laws have asked for as a Christmas present.  They tried my one Butterkase last year, and said while it was drier than it should be, the flavor was spot-on.

Okay, break time is over.  I'll get caught up after the summer of silence eventually.