Our Goat Milk-Flow is Back!

Fresh goat milk is back and oh how I missed it.  Normally we leave all of the mother's milk for her kids for the first three weeks, then separate the kids at night and milk the mother in the morning, leaving some for the kids.  With Alure, we are getting about 3.5 lbs each morning (about 8 lbs per gallon).  Nettle gave birth less than two weeks ago and I have been milking her in the morning for the past nine days, and averaging over 4 lbs. per day.  I was concerned that maybe her kids are not eating well (I seldom see them nursing but then I'm away most of the time).  Yesterday I took all of the kids up to Oak Harbor to Ron & Arline's farm (Stonebrier Farm) to have them disbudded and neutered; Arline commented that Nettle's kids looked great and that they were feeding well.  Toots, the first born, weighed in at 18.5 lbs, Puddle (who we thought was the good eater) weighed 16.5 lbs.

Puddle and Toots bouncing around in the goat barn

Rain and Storm watching the new kids

So we once again are making Kefir, our beloved milk drink.  I made some this past winter with frozen milk, it kept the grains alive but they did not thrive.  Oh how they love the fresh milk.  We still have 10 lbs of Pannier cheese in the freezer from last year, many pounds of other cheese, but with two gallons in the refrigerator I need to do something this morning.  It builds up fast.  Last year I was milking four goats and it was a major chore to use all of the milk.  

Nettle has become an excellent mother this year

We named Nettle's two kids Toots and Puddle.  We will be keeping them for meat, butchering them next May.  It'll be interesting to see what our meat total will be with them being half Boer.  We received 90 lbs from the two Nubian bucks we had butchered last month.  Nubians are considered "duel purpose" - very good milkers and also good for meat.  The Boer is a meat goat.

Our apple orchard in full bloom

Our new chicks are doing well.  One of the problems with chicks is called "pasty butt" - their poop clumps up on their butt and can be fatal, blocking more from coming out.  The book says to use a warm wash cloth to remove the clumps.  This is a major chore when you have 70 chicks as we do.  I have found an easy solution: feed them milk every few days.  The milk give them loose bowels and we don't get the pasty poop.  Last Saturday I went in the chick brooder to give them some milk when problems developed.  I have a bungee cord inside to hold the door closed when I'm inside - the hook on the door stripped out at the same time I dumped the milk upside down, scattering the chicks like a bomb when off.  One of our layer chicks fell out the door and ran off into the brambles.  I was running late for a real estate appointment so had no time more time to spend looking for her.  It was 45 degrees out and raining hard, so I logged her as gone.  Sunday afternoon when we returned from Seattle after our Mother's Day gathering, the little check was still alive, scratching around the door.  I put a little dish of food out and when she returned to snack I trapped her with a leaf rake.  She'll be happier with the warm place and plenty of food and water.  I'm also happier with her being back.  I once read the only thing better than happiness is freedom, but this is a farm.

 This Saturday Pam and I are off to Eastern Washington for our annual anniversary and birthday trip.  Our wedding anniversary is May 16, Pam's birthday was May 3, mine is May 17, so each year we do a short trip with Pam taking two personal days off along with the weekend.  This year we rented a place in Winthrop, a small resort town on the eastern sloop of the Cascade Mountain range.  Our friends and neighbors Michael and Prescott will run the farm while we are gone.  It's hard to leave the place when everything is peaking, but once we are away it's fun.

One of our bees working the apple trees

The bees are doing well.  Our apple, pear and cherry trees are in full bloom, along with salmon berries and elder shrubs, so the bees have a lot to draw from.  I love to set in front of the hives and watch the bees come and go.