Three Wee Goats

These three look like trouble, don't they. The fella in the middle is Little. He's our wether, very friendly. The doe on the left is Hedda. We are trying to impregnate her with the buck on the right. He is a borrowed buck with a scur (remnant horn) on his head. Would you want to bring him home to mother?

They are staying toasty and dry in their own seperate quarters. The milking does are in another shelter until the buck returns to his home.

Yo Mama say you Uglay!

Chick Update. They're about 3.5 weeks old and they are huge! We will have to move them soon, out of the brooder and into a kennel in an unheated room to acclimate them to life outdoors.

We'll begin collecting fertile eggs to incubate for Late winter babies, then likely slaughter the rooster...hate to do it, he's a sweet heart.

We've been having some competition issues with the rooster and a guinea cock. The wilder guinea runs circles around the big, slow, domestic rooster and nearly took out an eye. We've separated them but it's difficult in the cold winter when the birds have a smaller area to live. Once the rooster contributes some fertile eggs he will make a decent meat bird as he's big and young. The guinea is over three years old and not much bird to eat. He's more valuable as tick control come spring.

Sometimes I really hate making these life and death decisions...and doing the deeds, but at least all our animals have a great life while they are here and we make every effort to spare them stress at the end as well.

Woodstove Cookery

Today was cold. We had the woodstove going all day. This a perfect time to take advantage of a roaring fire to cook lunch. I've been brining a pork loin end roast all week and decided to cook it in the woodstove.

In the photo you can see the pork in the foreground, broccoli to the right (also cooked in the oven) and sauted mushrooms and shallots in the cast iron pan. I take one cover off the firebox and place the pan directly over the fire which provides high heat. The potatoes are boiling in the stainless steel pot on the back burner. They will join the butter and homemade goat yogurt preheating in the pyrex bowl. Some apple rings are drying at the back of the stove. The child loves these. Insta-snax. Just yank a few off and chow.

I roasted the pork in a pan on top of some wedges of onion and carrot. I didn't use any water in the pan. The oven was at about 300 degrees when I put the roast in. The fire cranked the heat up to about 450. I went outside and brought in some cold and slightly damp birch. One log brought the temp back down and I was able to keep it pretty consistent at 325 for the last hour. It took about an hour and 45 for a 3.5 lb roast with bone.

It's nice to be able to use the stove for heat and cooking simultaneously. It feels like a good way to use the energy resource. I'm glad to practice the art of cooking on/in the woodstove so that I can feel confident should we not have power to use our electric stove. This is a real problem for many folks in New England today.

I've used the stove's oven to roast pumpkin seeds, bake bread and reheat leftovers. The trickiest has been the bread and pies. It's easy to burn the side of the food closest to the firebox. You must pay attention and keep turning the food to avoid scorching it into oblivion.

Luckily the pork roast doesn't care about that. The crispier the fat, the yummier the bite.

We really enjoyed the meal today what with the cold and the burned fat and all.

The Newbies

We brought the babies inside this week. Luckily we have a brooder facility my husband built last year for the chicks we ordered. The new birds both have sidestockings like their daddy and are slightly different in coloration suggesting two separate mothers. The surrogate mother hen was a bit out of sorts at first when we took the babies but she seems somewhat reintegrated into the flock. A good thing as she had lost alot of weight.

Nearly a year since I blathered

How is it that every time I set down to enter a blog post I end up reading everyone else's and decide there's nothing left to say? Perhaps I'm lazy. Let's just pretend that we've not missed a year, that I am merely pickingup where I left off.

What's going on? Unbeknownst to us, one of our chickens who we thought had vainly been setting on eggs, has in fact hatched two babies. Good job, Mama Hen! They may not even be her blood relations but she's the best damn surrogate I've ever seen.

Our does kidded this Tax Season 2008. The boy is named 'Little'...not so little now, and the girl is named Heddar...rhymes with cheddar...as in I woke up this morning and took a heada outta my mutha's womb. She needed help being delivered so I was initiated into the scary and sureal vocation of goat midwifery. Yikes. I hadn't planned to be elbow deep in a goat uterus that morning. At least not before my coffee. WTF. It was crazy. I'm glad I could help the doe and the kid. I'm not looking forward to kidding season this year.


In other news my husband bought a tractor and we're planning to use the back field next year to grow more veggies and let the goats forage. We've got 20 lbs of garlic in the ground and that's a start. I planted a bit more last year, but in a smaller area. This year I added another variety and spread em out more.

It's getting colder and we've got our food put up for the most part. Tomatoes, potatoes, tomatillos, beans, edemame(need to plant more next year), pumpkins, apple butter, squash, cabbage, celeriac, garlic, onions, pickles, peppers and blueberries and assorted roasted veggies in the freezer. We sold alot too through a CSA and hope to up the ante next year.


I will attempt to write more in the near future...a pre-New Year's resolution.
Happy Harvest!