Welcome Lady Autumn

Yes, I know this is a bit delayed, but I've been busy with the coming of Autumn. Lady Autumn feels like she's in a hurry this year to get to the winter ball. She's rushing by brushing everything with frost and cold. I'm thankful for the rain,even if it is cold autumn rain.

I've been drying common mullein. It is a hairy biennial plant that can grow up to 2m tall. Ours is nowhere near that large! We just had small plants out by the goat pen. I am drying the leaves and the roots to use in teas. The flowers are also great to dry for a variety of uses, but we did not have any flowering stalks. I'm going to be out gathering burdock roots in the next couple of days as well. Mullein infused in a tea is great for variety of respiratory aliments from asthma and coughing to strep throat and the common cold. It is calming, relieves pain, and can make one a little drowsy. It is good for back pain as well and hemorrhoids.  This information I have gathered this information from many sources. I recommend that each person does their own research before preparing any of the herbs I may talk about for their own consumption. We plan to mostly use the mullein for teas for coughs and colds, as well as back pain.

Our kits are growing! We lost one whole litter; Eris killed them for some reason. But Nyx, Artemis, and Psyche still have healthy, growing kits. We have 17 total right now in a large variety of colors. We have a couple of new goat friends. We have a 3 year old Alpine/Lamancha doe and an 8 month old lamancha doe. Both are bred. Apples (3 year old) is due in February...which is a little early. We will be constructing a kidding pen with a lamp and a warming barrel for the kids. If we need to, we plan to bring them in to the porch for warmth. Nevva (8 month old) is due in March. I believe Celeste to be bred, but I won't know until the end of the month when I can see if she comes in heat again. If she is bred, she will be due about the same time as Nevva. We are very excited for the new squalling little lives we will be welcoming into the world next spring. Our spring will be full of wonder and new life.

Our goats are now staying in their pasture, which is great! I really enjoyed letting the goats roam our yard, but they were a bit destructive. For now, they will remain in their pasture. Next year, we are debating letting them roam while we are outside working on chores or playing. Letting them move among us as one thinks of dogs being among their people.

We are up to 9+2+3+18+29+25= 86 +/- 3 chickens at this point. Way more than we want. I am hoping to find some people interested in trading some chickens for turkeys, guineas, quail, or goats. Preferably a couple of turkeys and some guineas. We shall see. I will be making soap tonight or tomorrow and will be posting on that as well. See you later!

Rabbit Kits!

We must have received two of our does already bred because on Monday night, I went out to check on the rabbits for their evening water and food, and Artemis had a litter of kits in her nest! Tuesday afternoon I went out to check on the kits and Nyx also had kits! So right now, we have between 12-17 kits (I'm sure exactly how many kits are in each litter because I haven't handled the kits because of the risk of the mother not caring for them because of my scent). We did lose on kit last night now.

 Nyx's Kits (I know you can't really see them, but she had them covered up)

Her's are mostly spotted or pink.

I think she has between 6 and 8 kits.

Two pictures of Artemis' kits. She has a fair mix of pink and black kits. Although one or two of the pink skinned ones are lightly spotted.

I believe she originally had between 7 and 9 kits. She lost one last night (A spotted kit)

The kits are beautiful little jelly beans! There are black skinned ones, pink skinned ones, and spotted skinned ones (pink and black). I can't wait to see how they turn out as they grow. I think we are going to do one big set of breedings next  week and then that will probably be it until next spring because the risk of kit deaths increase as the temperature drops.

UPDATES!!!

Ok, to everyone who does follow and read my blog, I am very sorry for all the delays. We have been so busy. We have gotten many things updated, changed and developed. We have fenced in our garden (although the back three panels aren't completely fitted yet). It looks so nice, and more importantly, it keeps the chicks safe and it kept the goats out before we finished their new pasture.

We got a batch of fall chicks. Just a rainbow pullet back and some bantams. We are getting a back of rare egg layers later this month. I'm really excited to see those guys grow. Our next adventure is getting everyone's nest boxes ready.

We also constructed rabbit hutches and got rabbits. We plan to raise and breed them for meat. In a couple of months, we should be able to slaughter our buck after he breeds our does (talking about goats) as well. Along with a couple of our chicken roosters, we should have good meat for the winter and most of next year! The rabbits are so sweet. They all have names. Our buck is named Zeus. Our does are Eris, Psyche, Artemis, Nyx, Demeter, Athena, Echo, and Calypso. And then we have a single lop eared pet rabbit who is named Pan.

Roland petting Echo.

We also constructed a new pasture for the goats. We enlarged it, divided part of it, mucked out the barn and added a gate. The goats approve, and, hopefully, will no longer free range. I loved having them roaming about the property, but they were causing a bit too much destruction to our shrubs and herbs and such. They have two big trees in their pasture that they can eat, so hopefully, that will sate Celeste and Ziggy's hunger for shrubs. Siren (formerly Misery) is not nearly as interested in shrubs luckily. And even more luckily, Siren's leg is healed. She doesn't jump well, but she was fine and moves fine and is putting on lots of weight!

And last but not least, I am simply in love with our backyard right  now. The wetland is in full bloom and color! It is just gorgeous. I am so thankful for the life I have been given. For the opportunities I currently have! I am sooo very blessed.

Welcome Lady Autumn.

The Adventure of Getting Our First Goats

We finally got all but one of our first goats. They are amazing creatures. When I was researching goats, I read lots of information that made it sound like they were a lot 'worth it' trouble. They were escape artists and could be mean. However, I have been nothing but pleased with my current herd. They are very mild tempered with no real efforts to escape, as long as they are well fed of course. They all have their own personality and voices. I can tell by the 'maaa' who is talking, even if I'm over in the fenced yard with Roland and not looking.

Roland absolutely LOVES the goats. He will stand out there and talk to the goats forever even if they won't come up and let him pet them yet.

Our first group was Viola and Sebastian. With my brother's help, we loaded them into the back of our little buick park avenue and brought them home. About a week later, we did the same with Ziggy Z, Celeste, and Mischief (we have not decided if we want to rename Mischief). Mischief has an injured back leg, but she is very sweet tempered. I'm planning training her to walk on a lead so that she can be our 'all natural' weed wacker and kind of like a pet dog to our family. Celeste is our milker right now, although I haven't milked her yet. Don't worry, I'll have that up as a post! Along with my first batches of goat yogurt, goat cheese, and goat milk soap.

 --Ziggy, Mischief, and Celeste out in the pasture--

 --Ziggy Z finally trusting enough to eat from my hand--

 --Ziggy, eating--

 --Celeste is the larger one. She is in milk now. Mischief is the baby girl in the front--

**Note : we are probably going to rename Mischief, but I just haven't gotten around to it. She's just sweet for such a rambunctious name :p

Livestock Barn and Pasture Construction

Today, we were working on our livestock barn and the connected pasture. This barn is about 10x20, it is old and slightly debilitated. We are restoring what needs to be restored and adding a pasture (I will add pictures tomorrow morning). The barn will be divided in half. One half, on the northern side, will house our chickens. We are getting 26 chickens on July 2nd. The southern half will house our goats.

-- Before doing anything--

 

Today we drove metal posts into the grown using a sledge hammer and attached some 'dog wire' fencing to the posts. The fence is about 4' high. It will hold goats, and eventually some sheep (hopefully). We also cleaned out the inside of the barn. It was full of old oil bottles, bowling trophies, traffic cones, steel pipes, and a million other little things, not to mention soil, sticks, leaves, and shingles from the decaying roof. It was quite a job!

At the end of the day though, we have a cleaned floor, a finished pasture, and all the lumber we need set up so we can complete the wall this week and put up the divider. Sunday we will be getting a large roll of chicken wire to secure the chick side of the coop against predators. We will have gates on the goat's side. We also are going to be building a milking stand for the goats.

--Finished Pasture--

 

I am getting very excited to bring my goats and chicks home! I can't wait to do my first batch of goat milk soap. However, my next big adventure is dishwasher soap, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Watch tomorrow for updated pictures of our livestock barn and for a post on another delectable homemade product!

Update 06/08-

 --Back wall before any work was done.--

So we did some construction to get it all ready for the goats. There is so much work still to do. To the roof, back wall, and some of the side walls yet. However, it is functional, safe and secure! I get to bring home my first two baby goats tonight, Viola and Sebastian. Then sometime in the next month, I will be bringing home Mischief, Ziggy, Celeste, and Fiona. Fiona and Celeste (Celeste is still under debate as to whether I will be getting her) are the mature goats. Celeste is 1 year and Fiona is 4 years. They are both lovely, sweet goats! They are both in milk as well. Excited to try my hand at milking. 





--Beginning to work on the barn divider. It will have a gate to keep the goats on one side, away from the chicken's side, the hay bales, and the bagged goat feed --

--The almost finished divider. We added a gate and will be running chicken wire along it--

Garden Beginnings

We got our garden tilled today. We had a friend with a lawn tractor and rototiller attachment. It was fun to watch. This is my first real garden, although my husband grew up with yearly gardens.

We will be planting all kinds of good things to eat! I will be posting my garden plan later and will be updating with our garden fencing project, our initial planting, and other things.


Update: 06/08/12
Today we have been working on raking out the sod clods to get the garden ready. I hope it have it completely planted by next weekend. I will get my garden plan up soon. It is drawn out I promise. I just have to scan it!





Update: 06/18/12

We have our garden in rows and have planted a couple of crops.Our soil is pretty sandy, so next year, I think we will need to add a couple bags of topsoil (plus compost, of course). Since our soil is so dry and sandy, I wanted to make sure our seeds would sprout. I made 5 rows and planted green beans in one, carrots in another, and beets in another. The remaining two rows are for potatoes and sweet peppers (haven't planted them yet). I have been watering them regularly (3 times a day at least with this heat and very little rain we are getting here in Dexter, Mi).

--My 5 rows--

Two days ago, I saw the first sprouts! Lots of beets and carrots coming up and couple of beans! Today, I will be doing up the rest of the garden. I am very excited to get started on this!

 --My beet sprouts!! So excited--

--My carrot sprouts...they are a little harder to see, but they are there, I promise!--

And this morning (06/19/2012) I saw my beans coming up!

Laundry Detergent

Made Homemade Laundry Detergent this morning. It is the liquid kind.
The idea is credited to Larissa Williams, my cousin.
The original source is http://duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30455/homemade_liquid_laundry_soap_front_or_top_load_machine_best_value

Ingredients:
1 Bar of Fels Naptha Soap (can be found in either the laundry aisle or the bar soap aisle of your neighborhood grocery store. It's actually really easy!)
1c. Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (It has to be washing soda, not baking soda or Arm and Hammer Detergent)
1/2c. Borax (also not hard to find. It will be in the laundry aisle of your neighborhood grocery store)
Tap water

When I first heard of this recipe, I didn't really want to try it. I had never heard of the ingredients and was worried about having to find them in the store. After my cousin, Larissa, mentioned doing the recipe on Facebook, I knew finding the ingredients couldn't be that hard (especially since she mentioned you could find them at Wal-Mart!). So don't be discouraged if the ingredients seem foreign to you. 

Step 1: Grate the Fels Naptha Bar.
           - This was the most time consuming part! I felt like it took quite a while. Fels Naptha is harder than even a fresh cheddar cheese. But it smells good and doesn't take much effort, just time. I'm going to be investigating some other ways to melt the Fels Naptha since the only reason for grating it is to make Step 2 go faster and more uniformly.

 Step 2: Add the grated soap bar to a sauce pan. Add 4 cups of hot tap water. Heat on medium heat until melted and dissolved, stirring continuously.

             -  This step also seem to take quite a while. I did not stir continuously, but pretty close. You do need to stay close to the pot at all times, to stir and prevent burning, but more importantly, when it is close to being done, it will easily boil over if you are not stirring it and paying attention. Mine didn't boil over, but it tried. I would say this step takes about 5-10 minutes.

 

-- Water with unmelted, unheated, Fels Naptha grated bar--

 -- Melted Fels Naptha bar --

Step 3: Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water
          - You should fill this up after the Fels Naptha is melted. Because the water in the bucket has to be hot. If it isn't your freshly melted soap will harden in the cold water. I left the Fels Naptha mixture on my stove on low heat to keep it hot while I filled the bucket. I let my son (2.5 years old) help with this.

Step 4: Add the borax, melted Fels Naptha, and the washing soda to the water. Stir until it is all dissolved.

Step 5: Fill the bucket to the top with hot tap water. Stir, cover, and let stand or 8 hours or more. 12 hours is best.

-- Full 5 gallon bucket with Borax, Washing Soda, Fels Naptha, and water--

 -- 5 gallon bucket covered to stand--

** I am using one of my serving trays on top because my bucket didn't have a lid. My cousin Larissa covered hers with a lid from one of her pans. however, none of my pan lids would fit. **

Step 6: After the soap is gelled through out (8-12 hours), stir and fill your laundry containers half way with the soap. Fill the containers to the top with water.

 --Stirred--

 --My containers this time around--

 --How I got the soap into the gallon jugs--

USE: Shake before use. 1/4 cup per load





Notes:
Next time I hope to have laundry soap containers, not just the gallon jugs. Next time I want to measure the soap to make sure that I am putting in the appropriate amount. I think this batch may be a tad on the strong side, but that's ok. Next time, I'll definitely have better labels and make it prettier. I want to add essential oils next time too.