She’s A Keeper

Have I mentioned lately how much we love our milking goat Dolly?

She’s been a lot of fun and she is productive as all get out.  Her return is definitely much greater then what we are feeding out. 

Plus she forages a lot of her food and she eats whatever garden goods we feed her.  Unlike the last goats we had she will eat just about anything.  She LOVES broccoli (not just the head but the whole plant).  Everyone that has tried her milk says it tastes no different from cow milk…even my neighbor Biker Stacy  and she’s a tad bit fussy.  Soon I will post on the milking process.  Not sure why everyone doesn’t have a goat! 

Making Goats Milk Cheese

This is my first attempt posting using Windows Live Writer so bear with me, blogger has has some issues lately so I figured I’d try something different.  This past winter I gave one of my neighbors a Muscovy (not live, the ready for the oven kind).  In trade she said she’d give me some goat milk come Spring when her does were freshened.  She did just that!  With that milk I made goat cheese and Maine Man absolutely loved it.  He has recently figured out he has issues with milk products yet this cheese I’d created did not bother his gut.  Long story short……we purchased a goat.  Another one of those things I’d said I would never do again…LOL.  Her name is Dolly.  We are not quite sure what breed she is, maybe an Alpine/Nubian mix.  Regardless she is a big girl and she is sweet as ever and we’ve really enjoyed having her around.  She is producing between 1 – 1 1/2 quarts twice a day.  EXCITING….scratch another item off my grocery list ….MILK.  Besides using it for cooking & drinking I’ve only used it to make this cheese.  It is a FAVORITE with MM & Flower Girl and I like it too.  It’s also Wicked EASY to make so that helps. 

• Slowly heat milk to 185 degrees
• Add 1/4 cup of vinegar
• Keep temp @ 185 stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes.  Soft curds will form.
• Line strainer with cheesecloth then pour curds/liquid into strainer (remove liquid)
• Sprinkle cheese with salt (I use a coarse sea salt)
• Tie corners of cheesecloth together and hang allowing it to drip for a few hours.
• Add seasonings (dill, pepper, and/or garlic) if desired
• Break up with fork & refrigerate

 

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Who needs a Topsy Turvy? This brilliant idea came from Unusual Unusual Farm Chick's blog. She has lots of good ideas! The basket is from the dollar store. I bought it a couple years back and it was just stashed away in the hay loft.

On the top we planted some morning glories. Flower Girl also made a post about this a couple days back over at her blog. She has posted more than usual this summer thanks to her buddy Morgs. Morgs also has a blog, check it out. Flower Girl also recently posted some pictures of the fish birthday cakes that I made back in the spring. The idea came from Family Fun.

Ok, enough with the good. Now onto the bad & the ugly. Recently I have been overwhelmed with the tasks around the farm, mostly the animals. It is time to cut back! After much contemplation I have decided to sell the goats. My intention when I first bought goats was for milking. I have since come to the realization that adding another chore morning & night would send me over the edge. It is MUCH cheaper & easier to buy from my local farmer then to keep goats. I do not have to be responsible for watering and feeding day in and day out, no injections to give or hooves to be trimmed. Same goes for cows. I dream about having cows grazing in the back field but in reality it is just not in the cards right now. My garden needs more of my attention and we have a greenhouse that needs to be assembled. Oh yeah and we have LOTS of wood that needs to be hauled off the back forty, split & piled. At this point if I want raw organic milk it again easier to go support my local farmer for $4/gallon. As far as meat goes it would in our best interest if I put a little more time and effort into deer hunting. It is good, lean, meat that we do not have to tend day in and day out. Until this past year I have always taken for granted the deer meat in the freezer. You always miss something when you don't have a lot of it. From here on out I will cherish every morsel!

I am not quiting farming, just cutting back. Learning from our experiences and our mistakes. God knows I have made plenty of those, that is a topic all on it's own! After my pullets are all laying I hope to sell of last years hens, the turkeys are soon to meet their maker followed by those egg laying ducks (khaki campbells) Maine Man had to have. If the pigs ever have their piglets, we swear they are pregnant! They will be off to freezer camp as well. Maine Man is a little hesitant about that after bonding with "Pumpkin & Ham" over the last year but I volunteered to be the trigger man. Can you believe that? That is how badly I want to simplify & minimize before winter. 2 years ago even I would have said "NO way" but I must say this farming stuff has hardened me. I am jaded, kind of like working in the ER.

If it don't produce (eggs/meat) I am all set. Never use to be like this. This whole farming bit was never even intentional, it just happened.

My plan is to go through the winter with 24 layers, 2-4 muscovies, and a few rabbits. That's it!

Sorry for the rant but d@#! I feel better now! A bit hormonal ehh? The planned post to was suppose to be about thriftiness. Ha, Ha, Add PMS & ADD and this is what you get.

Sunny Sunday

It was a beautiful weekend here on the farm and everyone agreed as evidence by the following photos.All the animals had the oppurtunity to get out of the barn on both days. The goats came out on leashes and they were groomed and hooves were trimmed.The chickens free ranged. It will not be long before they are in their chicken tractors. When the gardens goes in there will be no more free ranging until fall. Otherwise they will DEVASTATE the gardens.Only in Maine could you where the outfit above and below in the SAME day!This is not a normal occurrence. At least when I am around. MM is a little more laid back. I have PTSD from working in the Emergency Room too many years. When I came home from running a quick errand this is what I found. I was ok with Luke driving..........but when I saw Leah I was frightened. The kid has NO FEAR. She is a WILD child. Everyone has one, well she is mine! Yesterday we went to a sliding party at some friends just down the road. They have an AWESOME hill just outback of there house. I had barely said hello to my friend and there goes Leah flying down the VERY steep hill on a saucer hooting and hollering. People were looking around like, who's kid is that? She is SO me when I was 16 but she is ONLY 6! Yikes...I think we are going to be in for it!
Another thing about her is she will only learn when SHE is ready. Just today she learned to ride a 2 wheel bike by the assistance of her big brother and his buddy. They made treats for her and bribed her than they.....

Scored her abilities. Hey....What are you boys doing on my Momobile?

Later this afternoon. We tapped our 2 maple trees for a first time.

Maine Man drilled the holes.


Luke hammered the spickets in.And sap started running immediately. The kids were ecstatic!Leah hung the jugs. We planned to hang buckets but I saw over at Sugar Creek that they used gallon jugs. I thought that was mighty clever so we borrowed their idea.
Thanks SC!Within minutes we had this. We have 4 gallon jugs out.
Just before bed the kids conned me into going and checking how much we had one last time.

Then we finished the night making sugar cookies. They were they some yummy!

FALL MADNESS

This summer we raised 23 meat birds, another first for us. They were honestly the best chickens I've ever eaten! We were down to 4 or 5 in the freezer and I mentioned to John that I'd like to get some more because I didn't care to eat store bought chickens again. Same thing that happened after having laying birds, now I only want farm fresh eggs....I see a pattern here.
So for all you that know John or have followed this blog know that John is always looking for a good deal and the more chicks you buy the cheaper. So you know it he ordered 200 chicks and received 208 because you always get a few extras. He was hoping to sell 150 or so but, here we are in Maine, it is September but it feels like November and we still have 177 left (30 went to a new home and 1 died ) YIKES!!!
Guess you know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year!
I did want to declare a homemade Christmas this year...homegrown same thing right?
I guess we'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope we get some calls or take some to the auction.

Neglected goats

That is a sweet potato, I was thrilled to see the vine actually produced something. We didn't realize that you could grow them in Maine. They started out as an experiment after seeing it on others blogs. I can't wait to dig them up!

A Blue Heron at the pond. I tried all summer to get a picture of him (her) and finally Luke was able to capture the moment .

Last year we planted edamames and the beans were real tiny, this year they came out perfect, not sure if it was because of all the rain we had this season or because we left them on the plant longer?

We harvested approx 6 bunches of celery. We have relentlessly planted this year after year with no success until this year.

As usual this year we had many more tomatoes than we wanted to process. My neighbor and I purchased this sauce master from Johnny's Select Seed . John and I processed a bushel basket of tomatoes in 30 minutes. We are very pleased with how well it worked just turn the handle and the skins and seeds shoot out the end and sauce flows out the side. The basket made 31/2 gallons and we added peppers onions and spices and turned it into a great spaghetti sauce. The skins and seeds were feed to the pigs.


Lastly, a picture for John's Aunt Bea that requested a more recent photo. This is last June, John's graduation.



That is it for now I need to get some rest I am headed to the Common Ground Fair in the morning with friends from work.
Happy Weekend! :)

On A Happier Note

Meet "Smores". Luke named him before we loaded him in the truck.
He is 3 months old.

Initially Annabelle was not impressed but I think he's grown on her.

John is getting good use of his tractor.
I thought there was lots of work before but now is the rush to get stuff taken care of before the frost, this is Maine so it could be any day.

Yeah, the pigs are out of the barn! John and the neighbor bought a bunch of fencing from a local animal shelter that relocated. They sold most of it, both making a little cash and they made enough to feed their pigs until slaughter.
Between the pigs and the chickens our waste here is minimal and I love it. The chickens enjoy overgrown zucchini and cukes sliced in half and the pigs like rotten tomatoes and whatever scraps we may have from the house. It is a great cycle I feed you, you feed me.
The neighbors girl named them Obama & McCain. Can't tell she comes from a family that is right into politics.

Life has been busy with the kids starting school, work, preserving. I am looking forward to the cold days of cuddling up on the couch with a good book. I am excited that going into the winter we will be able to enjoy some of our summer's bounty. This is really the first year I have ever put up any amount of food. We are getting well over 2 dozen eggs a day and tonight I just made another batch of pickled eggs. They are so easy to make and they are a yummy, nutritious, filling snack.

On a final note we went to the local fair and Luke entered a hubbard squash and a pumpkin and received two 2nd place ribbons and a check for $1.50 and Leah entered a big pumpkin and won 1st place and a check for $25.00 for the biggest squash weighing in at 80lbs.
We can't wait for next years fair! :)

Check out the TRIPLE yoker!

Necropsy Findings

"Oreo" Necropsy Findings
* Lots of abdominal fluid

* Rumen was absolutely FULL (impacted) with very dry feed material. Rumen papillae were bunted, which may be secondary to the impaction, but we also see this in animals that ingest "toxic" materials. (No evidence of this in Oreo)

* Bladder was completely distended & unable to be expressed (i.e he had a urinary blockage which we see commonly in male goats) This caused fluid backup into the kidneys leading to some kidney damage as well.

Conclusions

Oreo had evidence of both urinary blockage and an impacted rumen. We did not find any foreign objects that were obstructing passage of feed in the GI tract. We cannot conclude which one of these was primary & which one of these was secondary at this point (i.e. did he get the urinary blockage first which led him to feel bad, go off feed & become dehydrated leading to the impacted rumen OR did the rumen impaction happen first & then he acquired the urinary blockage secondary to too much grain since that's all he was eating when he was sick? As stated, we cannot conclude based on necropsy findings. Oreo did not show signs of urinary blockage when we saw him last week, did he show any signs of straining at home? Also, unfortunately, we were unable to see the bladder on the x-rays we took because the rumen was so big it covered the whole abdomen.
Hope this provides some answers. Sorry again about Oreo & sorry we cannot offer more conclusive reasoning for what happened. Please do not hesitate to call with any questions.

Click here if you want to see the pictures of the procedure but enter at your own risk as they are graphic. (the pictures are displayed backwards, no patience to fix..sorry)

Some my think why share this?
The reason I share this is for educational purposes.

I am devastated by his loss and feel responsible. In hindsight I look back at what should of or could have been done.

Oreo had intermittent symptoms prior to getting really sick. He was having intermittent bloating and some times inactivity. I did not see as much, the couple times it happened I was working and John had told me about it.

I think the Sunday before he died was when we knew for sure something was wrong. I then consulted with Amy and she gave me advice and called my breeder whom told me to use probios with a couple other recommendations. Not having any probios on hand I used yogurt instead. We did that for a couple days and he only seemed to be getting worse. John called me at work on Tuesday of last week and said that he had taken a turn for the worst (in the necropsy report she wrote last week but he really had been seen 3 days prior to the day he died). While at worked I called around and spoke to a farm Vet and he was a bit of a pessimist and kinda scared me off but I do recall one thing he said "with a male goat you always have to rule out a stone" regardless of of me trying to convince him that he had a blockage of his GI track.
I called by breeder once again and she recommended a Vet that she has used for her goats. I called made him an appointment and begged John to bring him in. They x-ray'd him finding the rumen impacted and put in a g-tube and mineral oil and off they went. Again the next day I was working a 12 H shift. John diligently cared for him. That next morning I spoke with the vet and we scheduled the surgery for the next morning. The night before surgery I went out to check on him and he was unable to get up and was blatting. I got him up and started rubbing his belly and walking him and he seemed to improve. Regardless I called the vet as I could see his condition had deteriorated. His breathing was rapid for a few days and I mentioned it to everyone I spoke with. The vets thought it was from the pressure on the diaphragm which I am sure is accurate but he was heading into respiratory failure and died a couple hours after I dropped him off for surgery Friday, just before they were going to administer anesthesia is what I was told.

What should/could I have done differently?

Given him probios. I think it was good to start with the yogurt but I should have went to the feed store to pick that up right away.

I wished I was home on the days he was really sick, maybe I could/would have advocated more.
Maybe I would have more time to research, figure out what was going on.

He was straining but we thought it was to poop because after he did he always pooped a bit, I'm not sure if John mentioned it.

I should have listened to the key words that vet gave me over the phone, "with a male goat you always have to rule out a stone". If it would have stuck in my mind I would have had that ruled out. Kind of like a person with chest pain in the ED, we always rule out that it is not their heart.

Trapper Creek had made a comment that if calves "are removed to soon from their mothers, the rumen never does have a chance to develop properly, the proper enzymes they need for rumination just aren't present and they have a difficult time." I wonder if that is true for goats because we bottle fed our babies because I thought it would be "a good experience" for Luke and Leah. John thought I was nuts but went along (it's easier than resisting) but looking back he was right. God I hate it when I say that. :) To do again I would have let them stay with their Momma until they were weaned.

Live and Learn, right! That is what it is all about. We are new to farming and we will make many mistakes as long as long as we can learn from them and admit to them I guess that is all right.

Thanks to all my fellow bloggers for all of your support. Thanks to Amy who contacted me right away after reading my comment asking for her advice. BIG thanks to my breeder Melonie who has been an awesome resource as she always has been. Thanks for all your concerned phone calls and e-mails and thanks for giving us a break on Smores (pictures to come). He really helped Annabelle, Luke, and I deal better with this sad event. Lastly, a thanks to My Maine Man for all the time and effort he applied to save that little buggers life despite his supposed dislike of goats. :)

RIP Oreo!

What do you think?

This morning I picked up Oreo and John and I laid him to rest. The kids are doing good, thanks for all your kind words. I also received an autopsy report and they did take pictures. I asked John what he thought about me posting the pics and the autopsy report and he did not think I should post the pictures. Being an ER nurse I have no issues with graphic pictures and but I'm not sure how the rest of the world feels and I would not want to upset someone. People learn from their own experiences and from those of others and if a goats life can be saved by this post than that would make it all worth it.
Should I make a post with the autopsy report and pictures, just the report, or no post regarding this? What are your thoughts? I will post based on the feedback I get from you all.

Sad to say

Sadly, Oreo has passed. He was not doing well last night and I called the vet around 9pm. He seemed to come around a bit after tending to him for a bit. I brought him to th vet this morning for his rumenotomy and he passed just before going to surgery. They called and asked if they could do an autopsy free of charge. I agreed and they are going to take pictures of what they find (I left my camera there). We will pick him up and bury him in what I'd say is our farm graveyard. In the 1yr 1/2 we've been here we've lost 2 cats to the road and an old dog and an old cat and one sweet, mischievous baby goat. That little bugger will be missed! :(

To the OR he goes

Oreo loves yogurt, good thing because that is all he has been able to eat the last few days except a little hay.

See how bloated he is.

Our treatments are not working so there are 2 options and we have choose to try and save this little bugger. He is heading to the OR in the morning for a rumenotomy
The kids and I will be having a lawn sale and hopefully I can talk then into selling their chinchillas (that they rarely pay attention to) and I have a bunk bed to sell to help fund this madness.
The estimation is $300. Hopefully I will have pictures to follow. I am going to see if they will take some pictures in the OR, doesn't hurt to ask right?
STAY TUNED!

Tid Bits

Kiddos started school last week. Exciting for them and us.

This hen escapes from her pen every morning and heads for the barn to lay and egg at the top of our sawdust pile.

The turkeys are free ranging for now and enjoying the final days here on the farm.

I have dehydrated a couple batches of tomatoes so I will be looking for some recipes come fall.

Our goat Oreo has been very sick with what I initially thought was bloat. I was treating him with pepto, and belly massage as suggested by my breeder. At first he was more active and the girth of his abdomen seemed to go down. Yesterday he took a turn for the worse and John called me at work. I called a local vet that was willing to take a look at him, with some resistence John brought him in. (remember he is real frugal and the thought of spending money on a "farm animal" nearly sent him over the edge) Oreo was found to have what they believe is an impacted rumen. They took an x-ray, placed an oral tube and gave him some mineral oil which we are to continuing to do and if it does not resolve the only other option is surgery which they say does not have a good success rate. Oreo is Luke's goat and his cat Annie was hit by a car last week. :( I guess that is how it is on a farm. There is life and there is death. We are hoping for the best but it is not looking good. Thanks to Amy whom gave me advice and suggested the mineral oil, and yogurt, you were right on!