Planting again

I guess I just can't help myself.  Along with picking up a couple of seed packets, yesterday I brought home rootstock for a peach tree (Florida King variety, a self-fertilizing and "old time" strain, according to Lynn), two American hazelnut shrubs, and five berry canes: two more raspberry varieties, a boysenberry, a dewberry, and a blackberry.  I also grabbed a 3 pound bag of Russet seed potatoes.

The hazelnuts and the peach tree are in pots next to the front porch, until I figure where they'll be safest and happiest - hazelnuts are apparently attractive to squirrels, turkeys, and deer.  If we need to, hubby can put the doors back on the old chicken coop and we can put them in there to protect from marauding wildlife.

First cheese of 2018

I made the first cheese of 2018 now that Molly has (finally!*) switched to regular milk from colostrum.  It's a feta, and half of it was ordered by Larra the waitress up at Leo's.  Leo ordered yogurt and a bit of milk.  We're still working on the colby and cheddar cheeses from the latter half of last year - good stuff.  I shared a colby with Frank and Caroline, but told them hubby is not willing to allow a cheddar out of the house.  LOL  Frank said I need to make more cheddars this year, because he also loves a good sharp cheddar.

I have renamed Molly's second-born white son.  He is now Herbie the Love Bug.  It fits him, and sounds a lot better than "Whitey" so Herbie he is.  I also just got an email from Frank saying their kid and family want Herbie, and can I hold him until March.  He'll get attention (they have school-age children, just like the family I bought Brownie from) and he'll be mate to Harry (Prim's son) Houdini's daughters, making to offspring grandkids of both Molly and Prim.  Prim is still milking from when she kidded last February - just half a quart usually now, but over 11 months after kidding is impressive for a goat.  I am getting between a quart-and-half and two quarts in the morning from Molly, and that is with leaving her udder half-full for the twins!  She is likely producing over 3/4 gallon of milk in a 24 hour period.  Any wonder that I am trying to cross those two nannies' bloodlines?

It's warming up and clouding up to rain again (forecast to start tomorrow night and run until Tuesday morning) so pictures will need to wait until better weather.  I have the idea to see if hubby can get a video clip of me and the kids.  We'll see if goats cooperate.

Meet the new goats

OK, while I napped this afternoon, hubby went out and snapped a few pics to add to yesterday's attempts at pictures.  I've already taken to calling the firstborn Brownie Junior, and his little brother Whitey.  Maybe not the most imaginative names, but I tell them they got better first names than the triplets did last spring.

Whitey and Brownie Junior, tucked safely in the corner

believe it or not, Brownie Junior is definitely bigger than Whitey

shortly after birth, me trying to point them to the right part of Molly's udder

newborn Whitey hunting for the teat

I kept trying to point them in the right direction, but they were a bit confused

Brownie Junior, nearly dry after birth

Cocoa Puff was a bit curious and more than bit jealous

hubby and Cocoa Puff ... I really like this pic!

As mentioned in a caption, there is a definite size difference between Brownie Junior and Whitey, and I am already noticing character differences.  Brownie Junior is quite the adventurous little twerp, so in a night or two they are going into a crate for overnight so we don't have a repeat of overly-adventurous kids getting out at night.  Meanwhile, little Whitey is probably going to be a very affectionate goat.  He already loves having his nose stroked, from tip to forehead.  I did that this afternoon (once the rain stopped) and he just lifted his head right into my hand with a "Oh I like this!" look on his face.  I do hope I can find a good pet home for him.

I got my birthday wish

So back in August when Chocolate kidded, I noticed Prim and Brownie dancing in the back of the pasture and remarked about how I would love to have new baby goats for my birthday (this was five months and one day prior).  Prim may not have been listening, but apparently Molly was.  She kidded twin boys this morning.  Hubby tried to take pics, but the kids were too unsteady on their feet, so the pics aren't clear.  Still, as I remarked in Christmas phone calls, "If I spend my birthday midwifing baby goats into the world, that would be a good birthday!"

And so far, it has been.  It is still so cool to have twin kids born on my birthday ... that's not exactly something that can be planned.  Hopefully, we'll get clear pics tomorrow - right now one is racked out sleeping, and the storm clouds are rolling in.  While last week was colder than all last year's winter, it has warmed up in front of the rain to almost 70F.

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.

Chocolate's twin girls at ten days old

So I followed the goats around, had several incidents of the older ones photo-bombing my pics, and got quite a few pics of the back ends of Chocolate and often the twins as well as Chocolate led them away from me and that flashy thing I was holding.  Here are just the pics of Chocolate and the very very cute kids at ten days old.

I call this little girl Blue Eyes
(no, not very imaginative)

Chocolate and her twins

the twins have figured out how to jump up on the trunk sections

the usual pose the twins take -
they are bottomless pits!

this girl is my favorite,
Little Firecracker

A note on Firecracker (I figure Blue Eyes' name is obvious): She wasn't even 36 hours old when I saw her lower her head, bounce unsteadily, and make a little noise like she intended to butt heads with her sire.  I remarked to hubby, "This one is gonna be a little firecracker!"  The name just fits.

Both twins are taking the bottle now in the morning.  We had to start crating them at night once Blue Eyes discovered she is the right size to go through the fence.  We don't want a repeat of "lost kids in the night" ... ever.  Needless to say, the twins are voraciously hungry in the morning, and happily take the bottle then.