Puppy Chow

Jar of golden syrup.

Pancakes and syrup.

Mabel's babies checking out her leftovers :-) She has to eat in the milking stand because otherwise, she'll eat as fast as possible and try to steal Flora's food.

I realized that I never shared a photo of the final product for the syrup - we got a decent amount for the "work" that we had to do. We could have more, if we continued to tap and collect every day. But like I said before, this time was more about the experience and not to have the full blown - collect/boil/store syrup. Hopefully that will be next year.

The night before last, we tried a tasty new "dessert" - David, Kait's boyfriend, suggested something called "Puppy Chow" is was delicious - a little treat (a little goes a LONNNNGGGG way - it's very sweet...but very good. I thought I'd share that here.

Puppy Chow
Ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
9 cups Crispix cereal (any flavor)
3 cups powdered sugar

Instructions:
Combine peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips in a double boiler (or you can do it in a microwave safe bowl).
Melt the peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips together. Remove from heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir well.
Place the 9 cups of Crispix cereal in a very large bowl.
Pour the peanut butter-chocolate mixture over the cereal and toss evenly, making sure all the cereal gets a good covering.
Place the powdered sugar in a large zip-lock type plastic bag - we just used a large bowl that has a lid to shake it up.
Add the peanut butter-chocolate cereal mixture to the bag, leaving enough room for the puppy chow to be shaken (you may have to divide the mixture into smaller batches, coating one batch at a time).
Shake the bag vigorously to evenly coat each piece of the puppy chow with powdered sugar.
Once the mixture is fully coated, place in a large serving bowl.
Coat any additional pieces by shaking the mixture in the powdered sugar filled bag.  Add powdered sugar to the bag as needed until all the mixture is coated.


So good!

Barnyard Antics

Ratta Tap Tap

This past weekend, was tapping weekend! We decided that the weather conditions were just right for tapping our "maple tree". We've never tapped before, but I've been looking online to learn how to do it and when to do it. Apparently, it should be cold (preferably below freezing) outside at night and warm up above freezing during the day. The process of freezing and melting helps build up the flow of sap - when the tree is tapped, the sap flows easier. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to tap this year, because the "start up kit" is a little spending and we weren't in a position to purchase anything "extra". However, I put it out there on Facebook that we were looking for some spiles - I assumed that no one of my generation would have spiles - but asked if maybe a parent or grandparent would have spiles that they wouldn't need for this year's tap. My cousin and his wife sent me a box of 25 spiles!! 25!!!!! What an amazing gift!!!! I'm so thankful. We had some water jugs and a stainless bucket to collect the sap and off we go!

A pile of spiles

A single spile - isn't it awesome!?

Tapping Supplies :: Cordless drill, hammer, a handful of spiles, a drill bit - large enough to tap the tree the size of the spile, bucket/water jug sap catchers, and a blade.

Hey, that's me tapping a tree for the first time.

Tapping in the spile (tap).

Drip, drip, drip ... sweet water sap dripping into the bucket.

Collecting sap.

By the time we were done adding the three taps to the tree, we had collected this much sap!

The next morning - we checked the buckets...look how much sap!

Straining out the bark bits.

Not too many particles of bark etc.

More sap!

More sap!

So delicious!

Carrying the bucket of sap into the house.

Mark and Shelby - Maple Tree Tappers

Drake, sneaking a finger full.

What do you think Drake?

It's delicious and sweet!

Boiling down the sap.

Tracking the evaporation.

Our goal is to fill this jar, think we can do it?

Evaporating more! Quicker than we thought!

Going very quickly!

Starting to turn color.

Getting thicker and darker.

The first batch nearly filled the jar - but as we were boiling this down, there was more collecting in the buckets outside and we were able to fill the jar to the top.

This was a great experience, in just a (less than) 24 hour period, we were able to gather enough sap to fill a jar of syrup. The jar was more than enough for us to have a pancake breakfast. Kait brought home pancakes from her job at Hueston Woods - they had an "All You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast" in celebration of their Maple Syrup Festival. Since Kait is a server there - she was able to bring home the leftover pancakes! NICE - free pancakes, free syrup (with just a little roll up your sleeves) and it was a delicious dinner. EXCEPT :: that I don't think it was MAPLE syrup ha ha ha. Maybe I got my tree identification wrong. We looked at the tree last fall, after all the leaves were gone, but thought that (from the bark and buds) that it was a maple, but the taste is definitely different from maple...maybe it is sweet gum? I don't know, we'll have to figure out, once there are leaves on (in just a month or so). The good news is that although it is not as sweet as maple, it is still delicious syrup - more of a nutty flavor...and we have enough taps to tap several trees next year, but we were able to sample the process with a smaller amount (easier to handle) - I'm hoping to get with a few of our neighbors and tap their trees in trade for some syrup. I think this is something we'll be doing for years to come and improving on the process each time.

Spinning, Spiles and Kindness

With all the excitement about Mabel and Frankie's babies, I forgot to show my first finished piece of spun-by-me yarn! I've already decided what the first two pieces will be once I get to using our own animals' fiber - the first will be some time of art piece to show off our first animals on the farm - I'll hang it in the house and admire it forever. The second piece will be something for someone very special in my life. He's the one that helped me make my dream of owning a farm come true. That being said, I decided to make myself a little something with the purchased roving that I spun. So...I decided I needed a new hat! That's the original intention of that purple roving was a hat for me - the gray and lighter purple were roving I bought at JoAnns, just to play around with. I'm happy with what I created though. It's fascinating to me to watch something turn from a blob of fiber to yarn to a crocheted wearable piece. Love it!

This is just as I had completed it - one day, hopefully, I'll be wearing a homespun, hand knit sweater to match.

Here's another picture - after someone (Mark) was being so so wonderfully helpful - after Frankie pooed on my hat (I was helping her nurse and she decided to poo on my hat, after I laid in on the ground - my fault) - he decided to wash...and dry my hat. What happens to wool when it is dried in a dryer? Felt. The hat shrunk a bit - but I got it stretched back out and it looks super cute. 

In the second picture, you'll notice that I'm in a classroom. I asked Mark if he'd like me to bring little Sweet Pea into his class for a little show and tell. Since we can't just say "here's a goat, come pet it" - where's the learning in that? We also brought in the spinning wheel, fiber and carders etc. The kids were so excited to touch everything...they are 1st graders...so there were lots of questions, lots of comments...lots of AWWWWWwwwwwwWWWWWs when I got Sweet Pea of the her travel pen. LOL I love it! At the end of the day, I held her as we walked to the bus lines for bus duty and got stopped a million times on the way - Mark and I were quite popular yesterday. I sometimes wish I could just do stuff like that all day...teach children about animals and farms and everything that I've learned over the past few years. I would want to be an everyday teacher - more like a traveling teacher that just teaches about special themes and helps support the main teachers. Maybe I'll win the lottery and be able to do something like that....one day. Sweet Pea behaved perfectly - so snuggly and cute, letting everyone pet her and love on her...but it was obvious when she was ready to go home and go back to her mama. It was really cute - as soon as Frankie heard me get out of the car, she baaad really loud and Sweet Pea heard her and responded with a loud baaaaaaaaaaa - and back and forth they went until I got Sweet Pea back in the pen. Immediately Sweet Pea went to nurse and Frankie wanted to clean the smell of all those yucky humans off their baby. Oh! I also wanted to share something else...the amazing kindness of some of the people in my life. About two weeks ago, on Facebook, I put it out in the universe that we were looking for spiles (the taps that go into trees for Maple Syruping) - we were thinking of buying a kit, but they are over $100 and we just didn't have the funds. I was looking for a place around here that we could buy just a couple spiles and couldn't find anything in this area. So thinking that maybe someone knows a guy who knows a guy, I thought I'd just put it out and see what came back. This past Wednesday, I received a box from UPS - it was clinking...hmmm what is this strange sound?? I opened it up and realized that my awesome cousin, James (I call him Jimmy, because I've known him since birth) and his beautiful wife, Kim, had sent me 25 spiles! 25!!!! Man, how cool is that!??!?!!??!?! Looks like I've got some tapping to do. Another awesome thing - my friend Alysia sent me the cutest little heart shaped planter that has hens and chickens plants in it. I absolutely love it. I wish I had more money and time to show the people around me how much I love them and that I'm always thinking about them and I appreciate them. I guess that's why I make them macaroni and cheese?!?!?!?! LOL

Baby Watch 2013

Things I've learned, in all my massive experience in goat birthin'...
...and by "massive experience" I mean, two of my goats had a total of three babies (so far)

• I will really, really, really want to be this awesome mid-wife, helping my mamas bring new life into the world - we'll cry together, hold each other, maybe hum kumbayah, I don't know, we'd just play it by ear.
• In all actuality, I will miss the entire thing - I will walk to the barn and find two babies or wake the next morning and find another baby and I won't even be sure who the hell this one belongs to. 
• I will want to photo document the entire process - both as a learning experience for myself/my family and other newbies...however, see the bullets above.

In all seriousness though - we were faced with a really tough situation with Sweet Pea. Obviously we were hoping that her and her mama, Frankie, would figure things out naturally, but we were fighting against the forces of nature too. It was extremely cold the day that she was born (of course) - she was having an extremely hard time maintaining her temperature, she just didn't understand how to nurse, Frankie was likely sore, tired and nervous about giving birth - she just couldn't understand why this crying baby kept bucking at her stomach, face, neck, legs, fiber anyplace it could get close enough to. We had to make some quick decisions, both for the short and long term (keeping the well being of the mama, baby and our family in mind).
**Note that much of what I'm going to discuss was talked about was on the last post - but I'll have more detail and more suggestions

Decision 1 - Maintaining Temperature
Since a cold baby won't focus on anything other than being cold, we had to prioritize this. Plus, with an internal body temperature of 93 degrees (more than 10 degrees below normal) - I believe we were in a critical state and needed to act quickly.

• Leaving her outside would have given her more bonding time with her mother, but I feel in my gut that if we would have left her there, she would have died. We decided to take her in (two separate times...still trying to work with her and mama).
• Wrapping her in a plastic bag, up to her neck (keeps her dry and able to breathe) - we used a cheese making floating thermometer to fill the sink with water that was about 105 degrees. We soaked her little body in the water (which she seemed to love). 
• After her spa soak, we took her into the bathroom and gave her a blow dry and got her nice and toasty. 
• Finally, Mark set up a sandwich of electric blanket/heating pad/beach towel/baby goat/beach towel/electric blanket/regular blanket to enclose that heat. 
• There, she rested for most of the day. Except for when we were trying to get nourishment in her.
• We successfully raised her temperature to above 100, and I was happy.
• Not feeling secure that she was out of the woods with her temperature, we decided to keep her in the house for the night, risking Frankie refusing her in the morning - but a risk we felt was necessary. Into Blue's cage she went (I wonder how offended Blue is that we make her share her cage with weak/premature goats, baby squirrels, kittens, and lambs with bad legs). She slept through the night, kept a good temp, ate out of a baby bottle in the morning and peed in my carpet...perfect (it goes with the occasional cat/dog/lamb pee). 
• The next question is how do we keep her temps up while she is in the barn (especially if mama was being standoffish)?
• I rigged a heat lamp in the barn - remember, we don't have power out there yet. I ran an extension cord from the garage...through the loft and dangled over the angora pen. I used rope/twine and hay bale wraps to hang the lamp from the loft rafters and tadaaa - a sturdy, suspended heat lamp that was well above where Frankie and Itty could get caught up in it, but low enough to keep the baby warm. I added some extra hay in the corner, under the lamp and created the perfect nesting area for Sweet Pea.

Decision 2 - Feeding/Nourishment
The hope is that Frankie would just nurse her baby, as Mother Nature had built women and intended...but that just wasn't happening. We assumed that Sweet Pea hadn't eaten anything since birth - YIKES. So here is what we did...

• We made a mixture of black coffee (5cc) and a tablespoon of Karo Syrup. In theory, this is like a jump start for the Sweet Pea - hopefully, giving her a spike of energy, especially once her temps came up, encouraging her to eat.
• Since angoras are tough to milk (their teats are extremely small) - we decided to milk a bit from Mabel, the dairy goat - I understand that Frankie could have refused to take Sweet Pea back if she smelled another goat mama on her, but again, a chance that we were willing to take. We went to TSC (and by "we", I mean "Mark") and got the calf bottle with a smaller nipple - but she still was a little small for that - Mark went on trip #2 to get baby bottles and the heat bulb (which we'll also be able to use with our chicks coming next month). The baby bottle worked better - did I mention that she's a little dumb when it comes to nursing (it isn't just a Frankie issue). 
• When Josh came over - he mentioned the benefits of giving her a boost of Vitamins would help her out. 
• Vitamin E - we had soft gelcaps here at the house. He took a syringe and pierced the vitamin caps and drew the Vitamin E out of the cap. He pulled the vitamin out of approx 6 caps.
• Vitamin B Complex - we had B complex pills. I took a spoon and crushed several pills in a bowl (note to self, buy a mortar and pestle).
• Josh took the crushed Vitamin B (approx 2-3 tablets worth), mixed it with some of Mabel's milk and used a syringe (with the needle removed) to feed it to Sweet Pea. 
• All of these things helped her pull through the night, but there was still the issue of long term. Did we want to have a bottle baby - not necessarily. Our lives are busy enough to not have to worry about feeding a goat every couple of hours for the next few weeks. 
• In the morning we took her back to Frankie. I pressed Frankie against the wall and sorted through all that fiber to find her teats and got the baby to latch on...and then she dropped it...latched on again and dropped it and well...you get the point, this went on for several minutes. But she was indeed nursing. Whew. Frankie, however, still wasn't loving it - if I wasn't pressing her against the wall, she would have just scurried away from the baby. 
• All of Frankie's fiber was confusing the baby too - so we used scissors to cut away some of her fiber. We didn't want the fiber to go to waste so we scattered in on the baby's bed, to add softness and smell like mama. 
• By cutting away the hair around her back legs, belly, butt, teat area - Sweet Pea was able to find the teat much easier. 
• We spent the day Monday, going out and holding Frankie while the baby would eat...and then, all of the sudden...they figure it out. We went out to assist and Sweet Pea was already nursing - Frankie was talking to her and cleaning her baby's butt while she kept butting the udder and latching on...They did it! Great job to mama and baby.

My assumptions

• I think that Frankie's engorged udder made it difficult to latch on for the baby and painful for mama...but once we got some of the milk out, it made it easier and more comfortable for both of them. 
• By that next morning Frankie and the baby were rested enough and regained strength to deal with the process of learning to nurse.
• It's damn cold outside and who wouldn't want to stay under a heat lamp!? The sleeping baby didn't look so bad to snuggle up to if Frankie could share some of that warmth LOL. Maybe nursing isn't so bad after all.

I'm happy with all of the choices we made...it worked out for the best, for everyone involved. Maybe I would be second guessing everything if the outcome was different, but I feel like we did the best things we could, with the resources, experience and knowledge that we have.

**I appreciate anyone that reads this blog; however, we know that there are a million opinions about how others shoulda, coulda, woulda handled the situation - we'd love opinions and suggestions and won't tolerate criticism :-)

We just hope that someone else might learn from what we did and help save the life of their own baby goat.
Lessons learned everyone!

Surprise - It's a baby!

Yesterday morning, we were surprised with another baby girl. Surprised because we weren't even sure Miss Frankie Blue was pregnant...so let me step back a minute and explain...When we got Chip (the goat man-whore) - his job was to get Mabel and Flora pregnant; however, since we are such small potatoes here, we weren't sure how to keep the dairy goats separated from the angoras - so we just...let it happen. They co-existed and we thought, hey, if we get babies, great, if not, fine.
Last weekend when Josh was here, he couldn't tell if the angoras were pregnant or not, they are full of hair and it's tough to figure them out. So when Mark and I woke up yesterday, we asked if anyone had checked on the Mabel's babies or to see if Flora had any - Drake offered to check and then came running back in yelling that Itty had had a baby! We threw on our coats and hats and went running out to the barn. All of us we a ball of confusion out there...I mean...there was this tiny, cream colored baby, in the pen with two goats that we didn't know were pregnant and there were zero signs of delivery - where was the placenta? where was the blood and goo that comes along with something like this? With a little sleuthing - and a little hay moving around, we located the buried placenta and saw a bit of blood that was on a low part of the side wall. Ok, so we had the correct pen - but who is the Mama? Neither one of their whohas looked like it just gave birth - Mabel was (and still kinda is) a mess and these girls were acting and looking like nothing had even happened. Finally, I saw some gunk matted in Frankie's fiber (so it wasn't Itty's after all). So we had a baby, some gunk and a Mama WHEW (Sherlock Holmes, watch out!) - then, Frankie came over and started "talking" to her baby, ah ha! We were right.
Even though Frankie was being attentive with her baby, keeping her clean etc. she wasn't getting the whole nursing thing. I want to make sure that the baby is nursing and doing well before we just assume that everything is ok. Frankie, unfortunately, was just not getting it. Every time the baby would go toward her hind end, Frankie would get nervous and try to run away from the baby, sometimes stepping on her in the process. UGH. We held Frankie against the wall and got the baby to latch on for just a moment. Apparently the baby didn't know what she was doing either. So, we let them be for just an hour or so and figured that we'd check on them later (giving them time to try to figure things out on their own). An hour later, we went back to check and the baby was really cold - shivering over in the corner, by herself...Grr. So again, we pinned Frankie down, this time, on her side - hoping that would help things along...the baby nursed for just a bit and again - lost the latch and let go. She was seeming lethargic a bit and I decided that something just wasn't right. We brought her in the house and took her temp - it was only 93 degrees...a goat is typically around 102-105...Critical time. So we gave the baby a dose of black coffee mixed with karo syrup. We wrapped her in a plastic bag, up to her neck, and dunked her in 105 degree water, used a blow dryer on her for a bit, set her on a heating pad, tucked in with an electric blanket and finally were able to bring her temp up to 100 and some change. We saw some energy come back into her little body. After a bit, we decided to try and get her back with Frankie and try her back outside - We got her to latch a bit, Frankie seemed excited to see her and cleaned her off - but yet, when we weren't assisting, Frankie just didn't want to do the whole nursing thing. Frustrating. We left the baby in there anyway - hoping that they would just figure it out.
Josh came out to help us out and give the babies a once over. When we went back into the barn, it was obvious that the baby wasn't doing well again. I scooped her up and brought her back inside - we got her a dose of Vitamins B and E, milked Mabel and got some of her milk into the baby and put her back in her warmer area (with heating pads and electric blanket). By bedtime, she seemed to get some of her spunk back. We put her in Blue's cage for the night, we towels fresh from the dryer, the heating pad and a blanket. She ended up sleeping really well...until 6 or so in the morning. We had leftover milk from Mabel from the night before, so I was able to get between 3-4 ounces of milk in her. Her temps seemed to have maintained and now she is a spunky little thing, wandering around my living room...baaaaaing. I'm hoping to get her back out to Mama Frankie in the barn in just a few more sips of coffee (for me, not her). I'll let you know how it goes.
For now though...here are pictures and videos of our "Sweet Pea"...

More Mabel Baby Pictures

Baby goat kisses...LOVE

She takes after her daddy - but not as dark brown, more like caramel.

Mabel gave Blossom the business when she came to give the new herd members a sniff.

Pretty girl - she's the smaller of the two, but the stronger one.

She's jet black, with a tuft of white on the forehead, a "soul patch" of white on her chin and a small patch of white on her toe.

Working on the nursing thing...

My Cora, the farm girl.

Mabel keeps a close eye on her babies.

Ollie helps Mabel clean the baby bottoms!

Mama Mabel and the babies.

Goodness these little ones are SO cute!

Drake and the little brown one.

Enjoy a new video of Mabel and the babies in the barnyard...

Everyone seems to be getting along well. I worry about the little black one sometimes - she is fine, but I see her with poo on her butt from time to time - Mabel (and Ollie?) need to do a better job with cleaning her off. Mabel is a great mom though, very attentive and loving. The black one does seem to be not quite as strong...the caramel colored one is smaller but stronger. They are both absolutely beautiful.
Flora still hasn't had her baby (babies?) yet...her sides are very wide (especially the right side) and she seems to be displaying pregnancy symptoms a day or so after Mabel displayed the same ones...so maybe just a few more days? Maybe we should try to track the breeding dates better by keeping the boys separated until it is time to mate...I don't know...but maybe this just works for us too...
Our next task though...NAMES! "The little black one" and "The little brown one" will only get us so far. When we figure it out...you'll hear it here. :-)