Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Queenacres Holiday Hope

Our new kidding season has begun!  Fennel showed signs of early labor yesterday afternoon, so we moved her to the kidding stall for observation.  I stayed up with her until nearly 10pm and then left Levi in charge of checking in on her so that I could get some sleep.  It's a bit easier to check on them now that we have the barn cam....I'm loving that thing already!

About 1am I woke up and decided to check on her.  Watching from the mudroom tv is much easier than bundling up and walking out to the barn!  I could tell that she was having serious contractions and starting to push so I got dressed and went out to see how she was progressing.  First fresheners are unpredictable, they may push off and on for hours, or they may give a couple of good pushes and pop out triplets. 

It didn't take long for me to realize that she was having some trouble.  She was having strong contractions and pushing hard, but there was no bubble or any sign of the kid.  So I went in to see what was going on and discovered that the kid was presenting shoulder first, with it's head twisted against it's spine.  It was obvious at that point that the kid was dead; and we had to work fast if we were to save the other kid and the doe.  It took nearly an hour to get the dead kid out, a little doe that was marked just like her dad.  Then at 1:58am little Holly arrived, weighing 4# 15 ounces.
She is small (they were a few days early), but she is a good eater and everything about her looks great!
She looks a lot like her mother...and has nearly a full belly band...
But look at the marking on her forehead.....I see a Santa face....
Here is a picture of her dam..
And her sire...
Introducing Queenacres Holiday Hope
"Holly"

Monday, November 26, 2012

Fall Meat Harvest 2

Last week we stayed busy getting the turkeys done and ready for the big day.  I had a couple of friends come over in the morning, which made the work of butchering the turkeys go more quickly...
The turkeys went from this....
To this...
We only butchered about half of them, they averaged just over 9 pounds.  The remaining birds will be done for Christmas, and I'm hoping to have them up around 15 pounds by then.

About the time we were finishing up, a few family members stopped by for a visit...
The men folk gathered around Lil Blue....Bob's truck....to check for any signs of life...
Meanwhile the girls all played with the babies...
And Rylan demonstrated his fancy footwork....LOL

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Coconut Goat Pie

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day a day early here, since both of our daughters have to work on Thursday.  First, Hank got to be the honorary pilgrim.  You can see that he was thrilled to play the role...
I didn't get pictures of family and friends and food.  I was busier than a homesteader on Thanksgiving.  Our menu consisted of:
Oven Roasted Turkey
Deep Fried Turkey
Smoked Duck
Green Bean Casserole
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Corn Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Stuffing
Dinner Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Green Stuff

And Rebekah brought a store-bought coconut cream pie.  Which is where the fun began.
You have to imagine all of us working and getting things ready.  Keep in mind that Rylan is 20 months old and very mobile.  Our huge concern was keeping him away from the turkey fryer; so when we had him in the house we weren't as concerned with watching his every move.  Usually he plays well with his toys and stays out of trouble.
Which he did.
Until he saw.....the coconut cream pie on the table.
Within reach.
It took him about 1.3 seconds (which is way faster than any of the adults move) to grab it and flip it cream side down onto the floor.
I scooped it up and sat it aside.  Once the meal was over and we were too stuffed to move, I started the job of cleaning the kitchen and saw that pie.  I thought the goats might like a bite of pie for Thanksgiving. 
They LOVED IT!
One goat in particular, DoSiDoe, has a big sweet tooth; and I'm glad for it.  She recently had a sudden illness and dropped a lot of weight.  If it had not been for that sweet tooth I don't think she'd have survived.
Since she still needs to gain a bit of weight, she got extra pie...
Of course, Angel got some too...
Silly enjoyed it too...
Is it just me, or did Fiona stop looking at pie and start looking at Pete?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Fall Meat Harvest 1

November is the month that we harvest the meat that we've worked so hard to grow all year.  This week we have been working on our 3 butcher wethers (2 born here, 1 at TUH).  I decided to de-bone and can all of the goat meat to save freezer space for lamb and turkey....and hopefully venison.  Once canned, the meat can be used in soups, stews, enchaladas, tacos.....the possibilities are endless.

So Monday my friend CB came over and we worked all day processing 3 goats.  I am keeping the empty goat suits for tanning practice....
 Next we de-boned all 3 of the carcasses.  Once that was done, I began roasting the bones for stock. 
It took all evening and much of yesterday morning to get them a lovely golden brown that will be the base for our meat stock.
Next the bones are added to a large stock pot with carrots, celery, onion, and garlic...along with some herbs..
I add water to the roasting pans to loosen up the brown bits from the pan, and that is added to the stock pot as well as enough water to cover the bones and veggies...
Then I brought the stock pots up to a boil, reduced the heat, and let them simmer for about 16 hours until they look like this...
Next they are strained through a coarse strainer..
Then a fine strainer...
Once done, it is a rich smooth stock....and ready to be canned.
Meanwhile I cut all of the meat into cubes and began filling jars:
6 quarts
14 pints
3 half pints
Then I add salt; 2 tsp per quart....1 tsp per pint...1/2 tsp per half-pint...then topped each jar of meat with a bit of the broth...
Once all of the meat was jarred and capped, I filled quart jars with the remaining stock.  In all, the 3 wethers were turned into 19 quarts of stock and 23 jars of meat.  I've got 2 canners running with all of this waiting to be run next.  It will be 5 full canner loads in all!
The offal was used as dog food, the hides will be tanned and used, and every speck of meat and stock will be enjoyed over the months to come.  The lard and skimmed fat will be turned into suet cakes for the chickens.  The bones and veggies strained from the stock will be fed to the turkeys.  Nothing goes to waste.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Henhouse Re-do, Veggies in Winter, and Pumpkin Eaters

Before I get started I just want to thank each of our veterans for their service to our great nation.

We've been quite busy around here.  There's a whole lot of stuff to get done before actual cold weather moves in, and before kidding season begins (which is only 3 weeks away!). 

Have I mentioned how much I love our Livestock Guardian dogs?  We have 3 Anatolian Shepherds and I can not recommend them highly enough!  They are not just for livestock!
One of the big projects that must be done before winter, is re-doing the henhouse and brooder house.  Both are on the verge of collapse.  Of course we built them 11 years ago, using scrap and repurposed materials...so I think they've held up fairly well.  This week we started on the main henhouse. 
After a series of storms the roof is no longer tacked down.  The roost has fallen apart, and the floor of the nestboxes has sagged.  You can imagine how uncomfortable it would be in there if it rains at night!
So we pulled out all of the rotten wood and replaced it with new, repaired the roof and secured the tin..
  repaired the nestboxes...
...and added new roosts.
The brooder house is next....but that's next week...

The aquaponics system in the greehouse is doing great.  We have harvested a lot of lettuce and mint so far, but have broccoli, cabbage, celery, fennel, peas, and strawberries all coming up.
  I need to plant some more peas.  I only started 3 pots, because I wasn't sure how they would do....
And I'll be moving the strawberry bed into the house soon.
This has also been pumpkin week at our house.  Pumpkins usually get marked down to $1 each during the first week or so of November, and I try to buy at least a dozen or so of them.
They are a natural wormer and I will feed them to the goats throughout their pregnancies to help keep the wormload down...
And for the turkeys, I collect all of the older eggs and hard boil them.  Once boiled we use a stick to smash the eggs shell and all.....cut a pumpkin in half to use as a serving bowl....and each turkey pen gets a tasty snack.
The 6 turkeys that live in the hoop house will be ready by Thanksgiving.  The 9 remaining birds will be rotated through the hoop house until they are big enough for the freezer.  The hoop house birds get moved to fresh grass twice a day, it's amazing how much faster they've grown just with the addition of grass!
We have raised them as corn-free as possible.  Feeding them whole grains and fresh grass will make a huge difference in the taste and texture of the meat.
Speaking of meat....remember MoonPie's little buckling, Cabrito?  He's nearly as big as his mom! 
He's headed to freezer camp in the next week or so, along with Mikey and Percy from TUH.

I'm looking forward to our new kidding season, Faith is due first....and she seems to be having some strange pregnancy cravings..