TOP Tuesdays.....Leftovers

I'll be skipping the TOP meal this week, since we have a ton of leftovers in the fridge.  The purpose of the TOP (turn over the pantry) is to prevent food waste.  There is no reason to do all the work it takes to build a fine pantry if you let it go to waste.

But this week we've got a lot of leftovers from the meals throughout the week.  With so many people here and with so many different work schedules it can be difficult to cook the right number of portions at mealtime.

So today we are cleaning out the fridge, and re-working leftovers.

Fixing the Mud...and other ongoing projects

With the drastic lack of rain last year, I certainly am not complaining about the deluge of rain that we've had so far this year.  But the mud.  Oh my.  It gets to me.  It's poop soup folks, and slipping around with a bad knee is not a good combination.  So Friday I snapped, bit the bullet, called the garden center and by noon we had this pile delivered....

Three yards of river rock...and we're just getting started.  A few years ago we did some work on our septic leach field and had some gravel like this left over.  I used it to make a walking path along the end of the driveway.  The nicest thing about it is that it prevents mud when it rains. 

With this new load of gravel we were able to extend the path to the milking barn....

And with the purchase of 6 preformed pavers (total about $20) we made a cute little patio in front of the milking room....

Then on the opposite side where the greenhouse is....this is how it looked before...

and this is how it looks now....

We hit all of the gooey walking areas until the gravel was used up.  Of course this was some back breaking work using a shovel, rake, and wheelbarrow. 

Working in the back yard presents itself with it's own set of problems...

The really great news is that we sold all 3 of Faith's babies!!  The kid pen looks empty with only 3 kids in there.  I'm working on some goatie jungle gym stuff that I should have ready by the end of the week although  I'm not sure that Gidget is sold on the idea yet...

Speaking of kids....looks like Angel will be kidding this year after all.  That was not in my plans for the year, I was hoping she would have the year off since she had such a difficult kidding last year.  By the looks of that belly she's going for triplets again.

She is bred to either Manny or Pete, we won't know until they are born who the daddy is....and since we don't have a due date for her it will mean a lot of sleepless nights until they are safely on the ground.

TOP Tuesday...Sloppy Joes

I have to make this a quick post since there are storms rolling in.  Today's Turn Over the Pantry's meal is Sloppy Joes!  I made a huge batch today using:

3 pints Canned Ground Beef

1/2 onion, chopped (3 T dried would do)

1 tsp dried garlic

1/2 bottle Ketchup

1 T Yellow Mustard

1/2-3/4 cup Brown Sugar

 

Lightly sautee the onion and garlic in a skillet until soft:

Add the other ingredients and simmer for about an hour....or until dark and gooey...

Feels Like Spring

It feels like spring here today.  The daffodils are beginning their annual appearance...

Our keeper girls from 2011 were nestled in the morning sun....

Nommy and Joy are still getting to know the herd, but they are settling back in nicely...

I also think my favorite rabbit is working on some bunnies....

Speaking of new additions....Faith's #1 girl now has a name......

Queenacres Gaining Ground is her official goat name but I'm calling her Tinkerbell...or Stinkerbell, depending on her mood...

Like right after nibbling on her brother's tail.

She hops all over the place like she's covered in pixiedust.

Somebody come and get this goat please before I keep her.

TOP Tuesdays - Corned Beef Hash

Today's Turn Over the Pantry meal could not get much easier.  For this dish you will need:

2 quarts potatoes, drained

1 pint corned beef, drained

2 T dried onion (or 1 lg fresh onion, chopped)

Olive oil

Brown the potatoes and onion together in a skillet with a bit of oil.  Add the corned beef.  Done.

Yes it is ugly...but oh my is it ever good!

Ode to the Bucket

If I was a poetess I would write a beautiful poem about the glorious lambar bucket.  I fall in love with it all over again year after year.  I love it almost as much as I love my dishwasher...I'm just lazy that way.

It goes outside with the babies when they go outside in the mornings....I go out and pour warm milk into it many times throughout the day....and it makes baby goats all fat and lazy like this...

Speaking of being in love.  Someone needs to come and get this kid away from me soon.  She is still known as girl one....

I am seriously smitten with her....and she knows it.  She is all that and a bag of chips....and boy do I love chips.

Post Kidding Complications

Faith is still not doing well since her very difficult delivery.  Please keep in mind, I got my first goat over 20 years ago....we've had a lot of kids born.  This was the most difficult delivery I've ever attended...where there were survivors.  I started Faith on the obligatory antibiotic therapy following the delivery and monitering her temp.  Last night her fever spiked and today it was still high.  Not to mention the fact that she is off her feed and her milk production is down by 50%.  So this morning we had to call in this guy....

Hopefully his treatments will get her back on her feet.  I have every confidence in this vet and he's done great work for our family.  He's also the vet that set poor little Hank's leg when he broke it.  For now she is probably feeling a bit like a pincushion....and she's WAY too skinny for my liking.....

The really good news is since we had to pay for a barn call anyway, the big boys got their Rabies Vaccination for the year and we didn't have to haul them!



Kids Outside!

It was warm enough today to take the kids outside...so of course I'm sharing plenty of pictures!  We also have new names to announce...but first a picture of my favorite Faith kid of 2012...still known as girl #1....

Faith's #2 girl now has a name....Queenacres Glowing Gem...

She is a very striking little girl, and her facial features strongly resemble her granddam, Tina, that we sold last year.  She is a very nice combination of Ditto and Faith....

Just for the record....Faith's boy kid has a name....please forgive the irony since he will soon be a wether and perhaps sent to freezer camp...but his name is Giblets...

And as for our Lace kids......this may be the new logo for our herd.  She is certainly a new beginning for an old bloodline....this is Queenacres Glittering Genesis..."Jenny"

And Lace's second girl....Queenacres Givin' Glory..."Glory"

and yes, Glory has spots....just wait until she gets her first haircut....

and finally....a princess in boots....Queenacres Go-Go Gidget..."Gidget"

So there you've seen them....

By the way, they are kept in line by Indiana Rylan and the temple of goats...

Finally Faith!

This is how poor Faith looked last night....misery defined.

She had contractions all day long, I stayed outside working so that I could keep an eye on her progress but there was none.  Finally by about 8:30 I went to bed; leaving my son in charge of watching her.  At 11:30 he woke me up to tell me that he thought she was in full labor. 

I got up, got things ready and went out to the kidding stall to find that she was in active labor....but it didn't take long to realize that something wasn't right.  She was having serious contractions but she just wasn't pushing.  By 3:00 am I decided to go in and try to find out what was going on.....and what I found was a mess of tangled up babies!  It took 9 minutes to get them sorted and

girl #1 was born at 3:09am weighing 6# 5oz

It took just 2 minutes for Girl #2 to arrive, 7# 11 oz

and then finally at 3:20am a buckling, 8# 14oz...born rear first and looking like a Holstein bull...

Needless to say, it was close to 7am before I got back to bed to catch a couple hours sleep!  Here's all 3 of them together...

And now the kid pen looks like this!

So we are done kidding until further notice.  Looking back on the calendar there hasn't been a month that Manny didn't sneak out to see the girls...even for a few minutes.  So there's always the possibility that we have some surprises....other than that we don't expect any more kids until late May!

Lace's Girlie Suprise!

Well apparently Lace can read the calendar because her due date was today, Jan 9.  Shortly after 1:30 am she delivered 4 girls in the matter of an hour.  Unfortunately, we had just checked on her.....with no sign of labor....then returned an hour later to find 3 doe kids struggling to get warm, and one that never had a chance.
Lace is doing great, and the 3 remaining GIRLS are doing well.  Girl 1 weighed in at 6# 3.2oz

Girl # 2 weighed in at 5# 12.4 oz....

And girl #3 (my favorite) weighs 5# 12.8 oz.

The DOA girl was 5# 10.6 oz

For those counting....that was 24# of baby weight alone!

For those REALLY counting....that's ALL GIRLS!!!!!

The Calendar Says....

that today is Faith's due date, but so far she is just ringing for room service and doing a lot of pondering of the wonders of the universe.  The wonders of the universe in Faith's universe include gummy worms, sweedish fish, peanuts, and granola bars.  Oh and her new favorite....baby spinach.  It has to be well rinsed and fed to her lovingly one leaf at a time.  I should try wrapping it around a gummy worm I bet she'd like that too.  Anyway, here is a perfect example of her ringing for room service. (Which by the way is a long series of grunts followed by a lonnnnng moan heard from inside the house by way of the barn moniter).  With so many people in the house, there is always someone awake and listening....much like a very expensive hotel....and someone runs out to see how we can attend her needs.

This is a repeat breeding of Ditto to Faith that resulted in the lovely barn princess Fiona....shown below on her first birthday (yesterday)

Here is a picture of the couple as they went to the honeymoon suite....

I wonder if she will be 5 days late like she was last year.  I wonder if she will have another single kid or if there are twins or triplets?  I wonder if she will have a doe kid as awesome as Fiona....

See...I can ponder the wonders of Faith's universe too...

Will keep you posted on her progress.

Lace is due next....in 2 days.  I don't expect Faith to allow Lace to be the first to kid this year...but you never know!

Cleaning Out the Cobwebs...

Ever have one of those weeks where you know you just have to get some sort of order back in your life or you might go crazy?  I've been building up to that for a few weeks now and it finally hit this week.  There has been a lot going on since the Christmas holiday.  We now have 5.....countem 5 extra people in the house.  Oh, and an extra dog.  But now my kids are all back in east Texas where they belong.  Oh I know that they are all moving on, they are just getting on their feet right now....but it's still nice.

So yesterday I spent the day outside in the kidding room and milk barn.  You have to keep in mind during the winter months I rarely even open the door out there.  No need to, it's a time for rest.  But yesterday the work began.  I was able to contact the lady that bought Joy (Legacy's last daughter) and Nommy (Happy's last daughter) and she agreed to bring them back to me!!  Needless to say I was doing the happy dance all day while cleaning and readying the isolation stall.  It nearly broke my heart to let these girls go last year...and the herd has not been quite right since they left.  Now that they are back I feel like the family is back together again.  Kind of like what's going on in the house....together again.

On the milking side of the barn I am cleaning out a lot of these....

An abundant crop of cobwebs this year.  Once they are all swept out I hope to put a fresh coat of paint on the walls.  Just in time too since we still have growing goat bellies....

I praise God for the reunion of our family, look forward to a brand new year, and we'll keep on working!