ants, rain, chevre and more chickies...

Of all the 5yrs I've been in this house I've never had a problem with ants. I mean sure you get the occasional ant wandering around the kitchen counter but they never stick around. Well I think they must see my house as a safe haven in all this rain because they're everywhere. The bathrooms, bedrooms, living room, kitchen. It's annoying. Last night I did a late night vacuuming because I couldn't bring myself to go to bed with the thought of walking on ants when I head to the bathroom in the middle of the night. They're not after anything in particular just escaping the rain. I'm sure all their homes are waterlogged by now. The news this morning said this afternoon is suppose to dry up and it'll be sunny for awhile. It's about time but I'm not holding my breath. It's June and it feels like the beginning of spring.

I made a big batch of chevre last night. You really don't get much cheese for the amount of milk it takes. I only used half a gallon of milk and got about 2 cups of cheese out of it. I sprinkled it with sea salt and herbs and it's very good. It's very dry but I imagine it'll make some really good lasagna or pizza. It'll be good on salad with some balsamic vinegar too. I brought a whole gallon of milk up last night just to make the cheese and restock my buttermilk. I have come to really love buttermilk, it makes everything taste so... um.. yummy! Now to learn to make sour dough and I'll be set. That and find myself a fridge to start aging cheese. I don't dare age cheese in my fridge, I'm sure it'd suck in some funky flavors and wouldn't be very good. My fridge isn't nearly big enough anyways. I do have more space now that I'm picking salad just for each meal instead of having to buy a weeks worth.

This morning I there were 14 chicks hatched out. I have 24 eggs due to hatch so I'll give them a couple of days and see how they did. All the other chicks hatching in previous batches made a bit of a mess of these eggs so I don't expect a high number and the humidity and temperature has changed dramatically with the past chicks. 14 isn't too bad though. So far I've only lost one of the previous hatched chicks so that'll give us 22 chicks to grow. Hopefully most of them are hens.

Elizabeth is napping next to me, which is ok, it gives me an excuse to sit still. There's not alot to do besides domestic chores with all this rain. A little more gardening inside. With all this indoor gardening I should be getting better at it.

I think I'll shampoo my carpets. Maybe that'll discourage the ants. Wet outside and wet inside. Sounds almost cruel huh?

Hope you're day is dryer than mine!

All this rain is SOOOO depressing...

How do you get out of a slump when it's caused by the weather? The last two mornings I slept through my alarm. That's how down all this rain has got me. I started milking the goats twice a day this week which means with missing mornings it's once a day in the evening instead of twice a day. But what do you do? The volume on my alarm is at it's highest. I'm sure it's just all this weather that has me down (couldn't have been the disaster of a date I had Saturday night). I'm completely unmotivated. Even my Monday morning cleaning routine got skipped. Tuesday saw me doing laundry and dishes which I didn't do Monday. Sometimes I hate being the only adult in this house. That's depressing too. Do you see the theme here?

Farm chores do continue though. There was a gathering of hands in the barn last night for milking, which I am really thankful for.

My oldest saves me sometimes. She's such a blessing to have around. She's only 8 but she begs to help with milking every single day. I've let her try a few squirts in the past but today I handed over the goat to her. She made it about half way through before she handed her back. We only take half a gallon of milk up to the house every day so we milk that into quart jars and then milk the baby goats milk into the pail. The goat on the stand is Georgia, this is her first year milking and she gave us a single doe kid. She's very patient.

Another blurry shot. My aunt Nina came over. She's also someone who saves me. When I was growing up she was the only real parent I had and although she didn't really know what to do as a parent she made me go to church 3x's a week. I'm thankful for that. Anyways. So she came over to watch Elizabeth while Michelle and I caught the roosters. She came while we were milking and so I encouraged her to get in touch with her childhood. Her family had cows which when the electricity went out she got to help milk. Two old pros on the stand. The goat on the stand is Icy, she gave me the triplets and a gallon of milk every time I milk her. She's been very forgiving of my newness. She also has teats on her that cramp my hands every time I milk.

My garden is slowly growing. Slowly. No I don't have any pictures of it because I'd be too embarrassed to show them anyways. My chinese cabbage has bolted (I mentioned that before) and now has beautiful yellow flowers on it. It's a rather attractive plant and taste great too. I keep meaning to get out and plant corn and more lettuce but it's so wet and muddy I think the seeds would just get moldy. I'm half debating putting off my garden customers one more week because I can't imagine the weather being any different by Monday. I guess  it could be worse. It could be snowing or hailing or a tornado could take away my entire garden. Now that would be a good excuse to put off my garden customers. :)

Oh and the roosters. All but three are gone. 9 birds and I'm sure they were atleast 50lbs of poultry. I only picked up one crate from the butcher because the note said it'd hold about 10. Well they fit but it was a tight squeeze. When I took the crate back I took a look at some of the other crates full of birds and I am now pretty sure I should have grabbed two crates because all the other chickens were half the size of the roosters I took in. I guess that's what I get for keeping them for a year. I might try to fire up the bbq and grill chicken tonight. Or I could cook one whole in the oven, I don't think it'd fit in the crock pot. I'll have fresh chicken stock for cooking. Oh chicken salad. Now I'm hungry. I'm going to make a loaf of dill rye bread so I have something to put chicken salad on tomorrow for lunch. I should talk about food more often it just raised my spirits. :) Think I'll be sick of chicken by the end of summer? Maybe by the end of June. Ah June. May really didn't leave much room for anything. I hope June isn't the same.

Anyways. I need to find some vita B or something. Maybe a nap. I need some sunshine.

Anyways. Have a great week!