tired hands...

She's way too cute. Buttercup is finally learning that bottle means food. Not an easy task to teach a baby goat that rubber teats are as good as the real ones. Same stuff comes out of it and since I ended up milking momma goat three times today it was the same temperature too. This morning Georgia (the new momma goat) was blocked up on the right side so I went down again this afternoon, worried it might turn into mastitis, and tried again. No luck but I got another 6oz out of the left side again which the Buttercup needed anyways. This evening I went down and finally got the right side working (scrubbed her down real good with a warm rag first) and I both sides (about 12oz). Buttercup only got 4oz though because the last thing I want is a sick kid. She'll get another feeding before I go down to the barn in the morning. That'll help me pass some time before it gets light enough to walk down there.

My hands are sore (i wonder why). At least I was smart enough to use both to even out the soreness. At least I think that was smart but since they're both sore I hope I don't have to grip anything real soon. The caps on my beer bottle is a pry off which means no gripping to twist. Yay! I was reading on the homesteadingtoday forum that hand cramps are unavoidable in the first week or so. I guess it's a good thing only one goat kidded and not both. Boy I might be in trouble. Let's just hope Icy (the other goat) doesn't have her kids till my hands are over the newbie stage of milking.

Ok. I gotta put the children to bed, tuck Buttercup into a box so she doesn't get into trouble while we're all sleeping, grab a beer then head to bed with a netflix movie. Oh no I'm going to take my netflix box with me. :D I got one of those boxes that you can watch netflix on your tv. It's the neatest invention since.. um.. I don't know.

Anyways. Off to bed. Cross your fingers Icy won't have her babies till next week.

The trick to getting up early...

Have a good reason! Yup this morning I jumped outta bed eager to get the day started (actually I jumped out of bed after I hit the snooze button once, only once). Of course it's dark until about 6:05 which means I spent a long time contemplating how I could get my day started earlier. Then the light bulb came on. *grin* My barn isn't hooked up to electricity but the previous owner had wired it up for a generator and last summer I had the plug in for the generator swapped for an extension cord which runs up the side of the pasture. It takes a second extension cord to reach the garage so I plugged 'er in. Of course by the time I had all that done it was light out, but it made it nice and bright in the barn for my first lesson in milking.

I left the kid with it's momma last night so I wasn't expecting too much this morning but I got a whole 6oz. I know not much to be excited about but it was 6 more ounces than I was expecting to get. I would have got more but I only took a little jelly jar with me expecting not to get anything. Smart huh? She filled it up pretty quick. By the time I got back up to the house for another jar and back down again she'd had enough of that activity so I brought the kid up with me so the momma will be ready for later. The children and the new kid made friends this morning. Now she's napping in the kitchen.

So yea, the trick to getting an early start: find something appealing enough to get up for :D Who'd thunk it?

Now to build a milk stand. Yea I know, shoulda done it 3 weeks ago. I sat in the straw this morning to milk. I didn't even have to tie the momma up though she just stood still patiently till I got up. Nice of her huh? But she's way too low to the ground. I don't think I'll get a whole pail and my hand under her. This morning I held a small jelly jar in one hand and milked with the other. Which is why it was so nice of her to stand still for me. Not much room for error. Oh and since she's never been milked before I'd say that says a lot for her. I did good with my dairy goat shopping :D Yea I'm bragging cause it turned out so well. Of course it could just be beginners luck. I'll take it though, whatever it is.

Now to keep myself from going down there to milk too soon. Patience is not my forte.

The sun is out again today so I think I'll spade some more of my garden and see if I can get a couple more squares planted. Sunshine and dirt make me hungry. It's nuts my mind is thinking salad and tomatoes and squash and pickles and I'm drooling just thinking about all of it and it's just dirt and sunshine out there. Nuts! But than I get hungry just thinking about buying weaner pigs to finish and put in the freezer. Bad huh? My mind is geared on good food I guess.

Well I better get at it. I think the laundry is ready for the dryer.

Goats and sunshine!

As you can see we now have goats. Or at least a baby goat. She is the first of hopefully not more than 3. By 3 I mean out of both my pregnant goats. I had nightmares of my two goats turning into ten. But I'm pretty sure she's the only one from her momma. Her momma is Georgia (bought with that name) while we were waiting to see if this little cutie was a boy or a girl we discussed what would happen in either scenario. If it's a girl she'd be the future of our little dairy farm which would make her butter and if it was a boy she'd be the future of our freezer meat and would be stew. Lucky Butter she's a girl. Officially she'll be Georgia's Buttercup but we'll just call her Butter for short. Time to go take another look and see how momma and baby is doing.

no goats, no sun...

April is really not... being... nice? Springy? Something. Yesterday of course the sun was out. I was gone all day yesterday. From the time I dropped my oldest off at school till the time I picked her up 2hrs after class was out from her choir practice. The only thing I really have to show for yesterday is my wallet is about $600 lighter because my truck needed brakes and the 4wd switch thingymajig fixed. Oh and new underwear from Victoria Secrets. *giggles* Does anyone else just love their tables of panties? 2 or 3 times a year I go in search of... it's a guilty pleasure. They're all so perky and pretty and some sexy and daring. I can be someone different 5 times over for only $25. Not bad. They say what you wear under your clothes does more for you than the clothes themselves. Try it. Anyways.

So yea I spent half the day at the mall waiting for my aunt to get a perm and spent the other half of the day waiting for my car to get done. I got home in time to start dinner and go pick up my daughter, and discover that the ups guy had left a package on my garbage can. I guess the dog was too intimidating for him to leave it on the porch. So he left it on my garbage can. I'm glad I noticed it or it might have ended up in the back of the garbage truck. :D

So yea, yesterday was sunny. Today it's already been sprinkling all morning. I miss that good weather we were having. April needs to shape up and start acting a little helpful. I gotta get my salad planted.

And no baby goats. I'm starting to think that one might not even be pregnant, she sure hasn't changed in size at all. The other one is increasingly getting bigger. The dairy stuff is spose to be here on the 13th so I guess it's ok if they wait another week.

Has it been a whole week already?

It's amazing how time just flies by. Right now I'm waiting for my lasagna to get done so I can chop up some lettuce and make a yummy salad with the feta cheese I bought today. I caved completely. I'm a HUGE fan of all things cheese (I can't wait till my goat's start milking... mmmmmm cheese). The cheese craving is what prompted the lasagna, that and I just didn't have any inspiration for anything else. But who doesn't just love lasagna? Especially home made.

So as you can guess no baby goats yet. But my milk pails are in the mail and should be here by Friday. What luck huh? I know I should have got them like 3 weeks ago but I couldn't find any stainless steel pails that didn't make me want to milk into quart jars instead. Stainless steel is... not cheap. I'm not cheap either but WOW. So yea, it took awhile to find some. But I did it and now they're coming. Maybe they'll get here before the baby goats. Wouldn't that be handy?

Oh and I have a rootbeer kit coming. I've been brewing beer for the last 3 or 4 years and have been tempted to try rootbeer. I personally love the stuff but like all things sugar it tends to stick to my tummy. Not my thighs, not my hips but my tummy. I actually wouldn't mind more hips but I'm not real happy with my tummy. So I've been putting off the rootbeer thing, but figured it would be a good time to try it since I've got more customers this year. I can see what the general audience thinks. Should be fun!

It's still too wet to do anything around here. Maybe, just maybe if it doesn't rain tomorrow than I can put some salad makings in my garden. I love fresh salad. Love it. Almost as much as cheese. Actually as much as cheese because cheese goes so good on it.

There's my timer. Gotta run!