another

I milk two quarts of milk a day from my goat. I can get more if I start milking her twice. Oprah is way to big for nursing on her momma, but she is still stealing suckles. Oprah is a healthy girl.

We have switched completely from cow's milk to goat's milk. Today I took my surplus of goats milk and made a big batch of cheese. I didn't think to pick up the camera until I was watching the whey drain from the curds. All you missed was me warming up the milk in a pot and then adding lemon to curdle the milk. No recipe. I let it sit and cool a little before I poured it in the strainer, lined with linen, to catch the curdles and drain the liquid (whey.)

See why I thought it was pretty?
Then I added salt. About this much:

Then I picked some fresh herbs, parsley, basil, oregano, and a pinch of thyme. I chopped them up into a fragrant burst of fresh from the earth flavors. I added a sprinkle of garlic powder, black pepper and chunks of roasted red peppers. Yum. I wish I could have smell-a-blog, you would love this part of my blog. Later on in this blog, not so much.
Then I used some hay baling twine and hung it from my wood stove pipe. Tomorrow, cheese will be served. That pretty much ended my domestic chores for the day.


After the cheese making, I went out and cleaned the Rabbitry. It always needs cleaned up. Rabbits never stop pooping. Plus, I have three younger chickens up there. Which in turn attracted my other younger chickens. Funny how they naturally flock. Now I have six chickens in the rabbitry with some others who come and go.

As I was cleaning, Rusty came up and helped, and all of a sudden he said, "Did you see this big snake skin up here?" A shiver ran down my spine. "No I did not see that snake skin", I answered, sizing up how long it was. It was long. It went from my chest to my foot, and the skin had a loop in it. So I am guessing to my neck. I am 5'6".

Look at it's head, face, eyes, and mouth. So the snake is bigger, now right? Rusty says it's a black snake, maybe a rat snake or a black racer. He says it's not big enough to eat my rabbits and that it is there probably keeping the mice population in control. I have never seen a mouse in the barn. Maybe that is why. Thank you snake?

Hi I am a snake, what are you?

After all of that excitement, We decided to go pick up a little package that we paid for last weekend. You know the way...


Except we weren't going to town, we were heading down into the valley and over a hill. Past some farms...

Until we came to this farm.

I so need a lamb. Look at that face. I need to paint sheep.

Pig Pile!
Yes, today is the day we picked up our piglet. Everybody was excited when we got him home. Especially the piglet. SQUEAL! He had been free roaming with his siblings and big Mamma, cousins and Auntie Sows. So he really didn't have a whole lot of human interaction. Until today.

Tonka wants to see who is making all the noise, and that smell... somebody dropped a stinker.

Well, hi there Mr. Piggie.

Welcome to Bluestone River Farm. You don't know it yet, but I give the best piggy back scratches, and I will talk to you and feed you nice goats milk with your feed, when you are bigger you can go root and hunt for acorns. The baby goats will like having you around. When you get big, they will try to stand on you. Oh and watch out for that donkey... and your tail.


You are cute as a button. I think we might go back and get one of your sisters.

Yes, so this little guy is Sling Blade's second cousin, or something like that. He is nestled into the barn on his hay bed right now, with his new roommates, the chickens, ducks and goats. I was hoping to get a nice sleepy time shot of everybody, they looked so cute an snuggled in, but it is my sleepy time. However, tomorrow, I will be taking the series of how not to photograph your pig.

Nite all,
~crow

honey you are egging me on to bee a pig

I love bees, and have always wanted to keep them. I met a guy who keeps bees and he says he is part of a small group of beekeepers, who all help each other out. I went to his house tonight to buy some laying hens from him. He asked me if I wanted to see the bees. I said, "yes!" so he took me out back, above his garden to the bees.

I got goose bumps.

Bees boxes lined up. His 10 year old son, kept telling me bee stories. They were great stories too. His dad told me to lean close to the hive box and listen... I heard the low hum. He told me they were regulating the temperature. He talked about scout bees and the queen and all about honey. I was mesmerized.

Oh yes, I want to keep bees. Or I want the bees to keep me. Bees work for the common good. Bees help the earth. Bees are magical creatures. I can learn from them.

And the honey, it is a healing tincture. You want to buy local honey. Because it has everything you need for the area you live in.

Also, I got to pet his very young Jersey calves. I had this strong urge to take them home. Sweet beautiful bottle babies. They have the sweetest faces and big brown eyes. ah.

I met his little girl, she was 4 and made her own clothing designs out of her Mom's clothes. She told me about her pool, and her cat. What a cute age. I told her about my rabbits and she asked if she would be able to hold one. I told her she could hold all of them if she wanted. I told her next time her Daddy came to my house, that she should tell him to take her.

He said he would set me up, in his bee network. So I am waiting for the bees. Oh yes, I am.

Today also marked another purchase, a new piglet. We go to pick him up in a week. A brown and white belted, tiny piglet.

So what shall his name be?