June 1, 2010

New Members to the Muddy Boots Farm!

I hope everyone's Memorial Day was wonderful! Yesterday it stormed here quite a bit but a bulk of the weekend was very nice! We were able to get a lot of stuff done AND do some fun stuff too.

Now for the new members to our Farm Family! Here is Sophie! She is our new milking goat! We were so excited to find a lady not too far from us that actually breeds the goats to sell them as MILKING goats! Downfall of buying from this lady was that this poor 2 year old female had never seen the outside of a barn. We got her Friday night, and have been trying to help her "work through" her fears of dogs, chickens, sheep, kids, etc, etc, etc... She stays in her pen a lot because she doesn't know what grass is! She doesn't know that she can eat it! So after hubby had cut some grass up from one area of our pasture he took the long cuts of grass in for her to eat, along with her hay and grain. I think she may have ate some of it.


In the pic, you will also notice the milking stand! Hubby built that for me. There are some GREAT plans and information HERE if you are considering a goat, or already have goats but need more info! Lots of WONDERFUL info. Including HOW to milk a goat. To be honest, I have never milked an animal before, and didn't know how. After reading the post on how to milk, I got my goat and milked her 2 hours after bringing her home! It was amazing!

Now just look at this sweet face. Sophie is a REAL sweet heart, and she already knows me as being "safe". One day we tied her outside (we are keeping her separate from the other goats, because we don't want to have her get hurt or loose milk production!), and there was a rope that was literally TIED to her collar. The rope came untied, and she went running. I thought, OH NO. But she ran straight to me!

Right now she is producing just shy of a quart per milking, but after the whole "scared of everything" goes away, she is SUPPOSED to be producing 1 gallon a day. Hopefully she will get back up to that. She is going to help us save so much money on our grocery bill! Instead of the $30+ a week for milk, that can go for other things!!! :) That makes mama happy!


Here is another new member! He is yet un-named. He is going to be our lucky little man, our breeding male... I thought about calling him Fabio, or Rico, or something funny like that. Any ideas? Of course, it has to be clean. We do have children... and family... and a conscience... He looks pretty with those spots and will probably have some nice looking little babies.


We also have pics of baby kittens coming soon! 4 baby kittens were born Wednesday or Thursday!

This weekend, we went to a local state park, Pokagen State Park. It is a beautiful park with some nice biking areas, and walking trails. The boys love going there too. It is one area you can take 4 little boys and they can't hurt much! We love it! :)

Here is some pictures of my 4 guys...


Don't EVEN tell me that the one on the end isn't ornery! CUZ, I KNOW BETTER... ;)



The woods there is beautiful and is was such a nice day, a little hot in the sun, but under the beautiful trees, it was perfect.

It was a great weekend...

And to prove I actually DO exist (cuz sometime, it doesn't seem like I do... I'm the photographer!), here is me and Koen. This is his little "ride" when biking. Not fancy, but better than those crazy seats they used to have when I was small!


I look forward to hearing if you have any names for my little billy, and let me know what you did this weekend! How was your weather?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you should name the new billy goat "Massuer" since he will be giving so many back rubs.
I know I should be ashamed for that.

Sarah said...

Anonymous- hahahaha! That is a good one! :)

Lollie said...

I think I would call him Solomon, because he had so many wives. Or Abraham the father of multi-tudes:)

Betty Crocker Princess said...

Simple but a true STUD, possibly. :)

Jamie said...

Is the milk from a Nubian that much different from Cows milk we go through so much milk.How do you do it,the steps,how or what to do with the milk after milkimg.
Thanks

Sarah said...

Jamie- I haven't drank "normal" milk in 4 years. But my husband and sons LOVE it. Hubby says there is no difference. We go through about a gallon a day, and that is one of the MAJOR reasons we got a goat!

I am milking by hand. I taught myself by the site that I linked in the post. I take a small amount of bleach & Dawn dish soap in a quart jar of water. I use paper towels to wash her utter. I use a bucket that has been washed in hot soapy, bleach water. After she is milked, I clean her again. Then, you take the milk in and strain it (there are special filters and strainers. I got mine at Hoegger Supply Company). This will take any hair or anything that may fall into the bucket when you milk.

You can at this time pasteurize your milk. I don't choose to do this. But I have to say what is right for me doesn't have to be what you do. Find out some info on raw milk and the nutrients in it on realmilk.com. So after I strain the milk, I stick it into the freezer (you should do this within 30 minutes of milking), to cool it off quickly. After about an hour I take it out, and it is good to go!

My milk budget just went WAY down. TO build a stand, you can use scrap lumber. You need a few supplies (I spend less than $100), like a bucket and strainer. Then the cost of your goat. It took about 2 month's milk money to buy all of that! And it will last me 9-10 months! If you have the time, it's a great way to healthy milk for your family!