and another new addition!

Well, here we are with another new goat. This time kind of on a more sad note. Alot of our babies that were born this spring, ended up dying. They got a parisite that made them very sick very fast, and by the time I figured out what it was and how to treat them, it was too late. The only doeling we have left is Petuna, and so she went in with our adult goats, but she was still lonely, and needed a goat her age, so we found this pretty little girl, her name is Penelope(for now). They seem to really like each other! She is a really sweet goat, who will follow you around like a puppy dog. Sullivan and her seem to like each other quit much!

 

 

Sullivan and Penelope, he offers her a treat, then they kiss and hug!

This is what Sullivan does now when he see's the camera, he smiles reeeeaally big and

says "cheeeeeeesssseeee"! And if you know me at all I did not teach him to say cheese for the

camera, that is like a photographer no no! He picked that up from someone else!

 



Another New Addition!

Proud to introduce (a little late)..... Sawyer James Hayward! He arrived Sept.21st at 12:25am weighing 8lbs 10oz  21.5 inches long! He is just soo sweet, so calm and quite. We are so blessed to have him. His birth went very smooth and was born perfectly healthy! Praise the Lord!

 

 

New additions!

Here is Petuna, our new addition to our little farm! She is a purebred Nubian, pretty little girl might I add! I just love the ears and their big eyes! too cute! She is about 5mos old. I think her and our little Joe will be making the cutest of babies, once of course they are both old enough!

 Here is Daisy learning to like her new friend! ;)

 Petuna enjoying some rubbing

 Lily and Petuna are becoming aquanted a little quicker than her and Daisy!

 and one last addition, here is Gracie, Mikayla new fiber bunny! She is too cute as well!

Love this, she was trying to hold her closer to her face for a pic, but the bunny had other ideas!

The deal was for Mikayla to build Gracie a home, and she did do that, I just havent got pictures yet, will soon!



Cajeta!

I can not believe I have never heard of Cajeta before now! It is AMAZING!

Cajeta is a mexican caramel sauce made from goats milk. It does take a

little bit of time to make, but well worth it! Especially when you have utter

overflow going on at your house! Milking four goats twice a day equals alot of extra milk!

Cajeta
Ingredients:
2 quarts of goat’s milk
2 cups of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Method:
1. Stir together the milk and sugar in a large pot (make sure the liquid only goes half-way up the sides as it’s going to get frothy at one point and you don’t want it boiling over) and add the cinnamon and vanilla (if using a bean, split it lengthwise, scrape the seeds into the liquid and add the pod as well). Bring to a boil on medium heat while constantly stirring. This will take about 15 minutes.
2. When milk boils, remove from heat and add baking soda (dissolved in a bit of water) to the pot. The mixture will rise and get frothy, but as long as you keep stirring it will be fine.
3. Place the pot back on the stove on medium heat, and stir and stir and stir (though if you need to take a break, leaving the pot unattended for a minute or so won’t cause any harm to the cajeta). Make sure the milk stays at a gentle simmer rather than a raging boil.
4. After about an hour, the milk should start to turn golden brown. Remove the cinnamon stick and the vanilla pod. At this point, it will start to thicken fast, so it’s important to keep stirring so the milk doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan.
5. Keep stirring until the mixture is a rich brown and thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, which will happen in about 15 minutes.
6. Pour into a glass container. It should keep in the refrigerator for a week, though mine has never lasted that long.
Notes: You can find goat’s milk at most health-food stores or farmer’s markets. Also, the cajeta gets thicker as it cools, so be sure not to overcook it. If it’s too thick, however, you can thin it by adding hot water.

I think this is one recipe that we will be enjoying for years to come!

Summer Days

Summer has seem to go by so fast, I know it's not over yet, but we are already in August! Wow!

Our little farm keeps us quit busy. Seems like something interesting is always going on. Usually it's just goats getting out of the fence or stuck in the fence! Maddie our horse, she had a hoof infection, so she needed contsant care to her hoof, which is all better now!

 This is our new Nubian Buck, he is 9weeks old, and will be our herd shire. I'm wanting to steer in the pure bred breeds with nubians. They have high butterfat in their milk, good for cheese! Also who can resist those supper cute large floppy ears!! So this is Joe(for now, the name he came with) He is sooo sweet. He's been previously bottle feed with his owner before, so we thought to help him adjust we would continue to do so, he is also soo much smaller than our other boys who are the same age, so I think more milk will do him good!

 Mikayla bottle feeding Joe(with the only spare bottle we had on had-4oz he could drink in 2secs) Sullivan with his bottle, he thought it was very funny to see the goat drinking from a bottle! :)

 Mikayla with one of our doelings that we recently sold along with another! We miss them, but can not keep them all!

 We have been rolling in HUGE zucchini lately! Wow, this stuff grows sooooo fast that I can rarely get it out of the garden in time before it's wayyy too big! But in the freezer it's going!

 Just to show how big, the yellow summer squash is about the "normal" size you see in the store right now!

 More of cute Joe! Love his flop ears, big eyes! soo sweet!

 This big guy has changed soo much, when he was born he only had a black stripe down his back, now he has all this black on his face, more starting on his chest, and on his sides! I didnt realize they could change that way!

 Chickens- they have not been very good lately, they have decided to lay their eggs somewhere besides the coop, we cannot find them! So we have practically no eggs! One chicken has stayed faithful to lay in the coop. But the rest, who knows where. We have been on soo many egg hunts and cant figure it out. Anyone have any ideas where too look?
  These next pictures Mikayla has taken. I have let her start using my backup camera, and she seems to be enjoy capturing moments! Great job Mikayla!

 Sullivan giving his baby brother a hug!

Things happening lately....

Warning: Long post and Lot's of Pictures! :)

Wow, we have been rather busy here lately on our little farm! But's it's been soo fun too! I've started giving horse riding lessons to a couple people, plus Mikayla. Which I found to really love teaching begginers to ride! Mikayla is coming along with riding. Still a little nervous, but understandable, being on and in control of such a large animal! She has not got to ride as much as would like, due to soo much rain this spring!

Mikayla and Maddie

and here is Sullivan lately, he really likes to wear his riding helmet around the house, for when he falls! He is such a funny boy. He keeps us laughing all day long! He is also starting to say soo many words now.

and most recently, we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby goats, I thought I couldnt take it anymore, everyday I keep saying "when are they going to have their babies, I just want them to give birth already!" I was tooo excited, well I got what I wished for. We had four goats pregnate, three of which were due days apart, and one was I thought due, a week and half later than the rest. Well all four goats gave birth over the weekend, basically, one on friday, two went into labor on Saturday, only one did not have hers till Sunday in the wee hours of the morning, one on Tuesday! What a crazy experience it has been!

Now I've done alot of reading on goat's pregnancy and birthing etc. Was alway kinda fear full that something could go wrong, and we'd have to assist, and thought I never could! I have been praying for them just to have their babies with no problems! Well, the first two came super easy and all was great, now the first goat to go into labor on Saturday, had been laboring most of the day, but never hit active labor, it was starting to get pretty late in the night, and I had been sitting in the barn with her since 2:30pm( mind you in the mean time delivered Chloe's babies in between) it was 11pm and I said to myself if she does not start to go into active labor by 12pm I was going in for the night. Well very shortly after that she started pushing, only every half hour, at 12pm she started pushing very very intensly very couple mins. Now with the other two births I've witnessed so far, they only pushed a couple times and you could see the baby starting to come out. Well this was not the case with Launa, nothing was coming not even emering a little, and she was struggling, and hour went buy and I just knew that this was not right, something had to be wrong! So I had to do it, I started to feel around just slightly with my fingers, and right was all I could feel was hair of the baby, a normal presentation would be a diving postistion for the baby, feet first and face resting on it's legs. I thought it felt breech. Launa was kinda cramed up against the wall, and I am not strong enough to move her and I knew I was going to have to reach in further to rearrange the baby, I figured I'd need some help, so I went and got my husband, and from there I tried, and realized that the babies head was first, but at a very odd angle, forehead coming out first, the chin was pointing down and could not be felt and who knew where the feet were! I tried and tried to fix the babies position, and just could not get it, then Woody tried and tried, we went back and forth both trying for over an hour. Now mind you the baby's sac was popped for was longer that that, and once that happens alot of times the cord breaks soon there after. They say that the baby should be out with in an hour of pushing, it's now been over two hours! We knew the baby had to be dead, and we were just working on trying to save Launa's life. She had been struggling for soooo long and sooo hard, it was soooo awful to see that. I was at the point of just putting her down, the baby was dead and stuck, what else was there to do. We talked with some knowledgable friends and they agreed that baby was gone and we were pretty much at a ending point here, either vet assistance or putting her down. So we prayed and I had given up, I wanted her suffering to end, but Woody didnt agree, he went in and tried again, somehow, by the help of God, he got the baby's chin up, which in turn made the babies head come right out, but still the feet where stuck in a difficult position, but the most amazing thing, is once the head came out, Woody realized that the baby was breathing!!! That baby should be dead!! Amazing, after a few more minutes of struggling still to get the baby out! Launa finally delivered a healthy and huge baby boy!!

 

This is the precious little miracle baby! He is just sooo adorable!

We really didnt want any boy goats, but after all that we all went through with him, I think he's a keeper! Soo good looking too!

 This is Brandy: she had twin girls on Friday!

 Brandy's first baby girl-Lily

 Brandy's second baby girl-Buttercup

Lily

Buttercup

 This is Fawn she had two babies a boy and girl! This is the girl pictured with her mom

Fawn's Huge, Huge boy, he's the biggest of them all, and looks almost identical to Chloe's boy.

 Just look at the difference here between brother and sister!


This is Chloe, she had twins, a boy and a girl!

The boy! so handsome!

The Girl! I just love her markings!

I think she's a keeper!

This is Launa and her little baby!