Excerpt from The Weather Channel online just now.
"What:
Strong high pressure will invade the central United States transporting VERY cold air into the Plains, Midwest and as far south as south Texas.
When:
Begins Monday morning (northern Plains) through Thursday morning
Impact:
Dangerously cold air combined with harsh winds will give way to subzero wind chill values. Long-duration exposure in the elements will be life-threatening."
Monday, January 31, 2011
Good recipe for a cold day 2: Carrot raisin bread
If you've ever visited Mimi's Cafe, you've probably had their delicious bread assortment that's brought to every table. I started making this bread from a recipe I found online a few years ago tweaking it a bit so it's a a little better for the consumer. The recipe originally called for a lot of oil! Yes, the oil makes it so very moist and you're more than welcome to substitute 1/2 cup of oil for the apple sauce but I prefer the applesauce.
Ever wonder what to do with molasses? Here's the ticket! Quite frankly though, I love molasses and I won't buy brown sugar any longer (brown sugar= white sugar with molasses). Molasses is multipurpose and I love multipurpose.
For those of you who do not cook and/or cannot improvise, I advise not to use my recipes. If I ever write a cookbook it will have find print with cautionary words letting people know not to expect exact measurements or cooing times and to expect a lot of extra opinions from me.
Oven: 350 degrees
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (and I LOVE cardimum so if you can get it and like it, this would be so so so good! If you're a fan of ginger this would be good too (I am NOT unless it's in tea or chinese food.)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2-3/4 cup apple sauce
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1- 1 1/2 cup(s) shredded carrot
1- 1 1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and carrots.Mix.
In another medium bowl combine sugar, eggs and molasses. Blend well. Add vanilla, apple sauce, oil. Blend well. I add the dry ingredients to the wet but it can be done either way. Mix until blended but DO NOT over mix! It will make your bread/muffins dense and tough. If there's a little flour on the bottom of the bowl, this is okay.
Add your raisins and nuts (if you're using them) and stir just a few times to incorporate. Pour into one large greased loaf pan or 2 smaller ones or 8 mini-loafs or muffin pans.
Now, this is where I am kind of bad about writing recipes. I don't know how long to cook it for. I don't normally time things. I'd say for a loaf perhaps 45-60 minutes but ovens are different. I've gone from a gas stove that I've cooked on my whole life to electric for the first time ever and things cook faster in it. The mini loaves took about 30 minutes, muffins may take 15-20, . My best advice is to check them when they start to look puffy and the edges a light brown, they may be done. If you gently touch the top and it springs back, they're done. If it doesn't spring back so well it's not and if it's raw in the middle, well, I hope you know what to do.
Good recipe for a cold day: Potato Soup (with or without additions)
I did a lot of baking yesterday afternoon- chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies and one of my favorites, carrot raisin bread. I also made potato soup for dinner. It's turning cold again and there's no better time for soup and fresh bread hot from the oven.If you've ever seen me cook you'd know I don't go by recipes other than what's in my head/what I make up. There are so many variations on what I do and I do try to give good directions/ingredient lists/measurements but mostly, "I am a pinch, douse, and handful" type of gal. I also substitute ingredients too depending on what I have. This recipe could be done with all milk and no stock, water instead of stock or all stock. You can add heavy cream and/or butter. There are so many variations. The recipe for soup makes about 10 single size servings.
Potato broccoli soup-
1 medium onion (or half a large)
3 ribs of celery (more or less)
1 clove of garlic (more or less)
3 slices of bacon (optional- sometimes I have it, sometimes I don't.)
8 ounces of frozen broccoli (half a 1 lb. package, more or less, optional)
7-10 small/medium potatoes (peeled, cut tin half and chopped-how small you chop them will determine cooking time.)
2 cups cheddar cheese (I like sharp the best but a mixture of cheeses will due. I had a "fiesta" blend last night that I used)
*2 cups of water (or 2 cups of chicken stock or veggie stock)
2 chicken bullion cubes if you aren't using stock and want to (or vegetable cubes or just plain water)
*2 cups of milk
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil (if you're not using bacon to saute the veggies in)
Heavy cream (totally optional to be added at the end when you add your cheese. DO NOT add this during cooking or it will curdle.)
*Please note: We like our potato soup on the thicker side so the liquid measurements worked well on consistency for us. If you have more potatoes (or less) you'll need to adjust measurements accordingly and depending on how thick (or thin) you like it, you'll need to adjust too.
Chop onions, celery and garlic and saute with bacon or olive oil on med/low stirring occasionally. DO NOT LET THE GARLIC BURN. Sometimes I prefer to have crispy bacon as a topping so I'll cook it up first, set it aside on a paper towel to drain and saute the onions, garlic and celery in the fat. Last night I just cooked them all together.
Usually it takes too long to peel the potatoes while this other stuff is sauteing but if it's on low, you may be able to peel and chop in time. Once your onions, garlic, and celery is soft, add your potatoes and coat them in the oil/grease and let them cook a bit. You don't have to do this but I think it adds more depth of flavor. You could just throw the potatoes in and then your liquid(s) & bullion cubes. Add broccoli after your liquids.
You can put a lid on at this point but I would recommend setting it in such a way that it can vent but don't want away and forget it you may need to turn it down. With milk in this soup, it WILL boil over. I prefer to leave the lid off and cook on med/low and turn the heat down if need be just so it's at a slow simmer.
Simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Cooking time will depend on how coarsely chopped your potatoes and broccoli were. You want them as soft as you would if you were cooking mashed potatoes. At this point, I turn off my heat and use my stick blender carefully to blend it all. I have used a potato masher in the past but an electric mixer would work too, IF you even want it blended at all. Some people don't. Some times I dice the potatoes small and roughly blend it so I get bits of potato. At this point, if you want to add a few pads of butter, you're welcome to. I let my soup sit a while before adding my cheese if I have time.
And serve. There have been times I have served this over white rice (starch lovers dream I know!) or brown rice (especially if I am making Jambalaya and people don't like Jambalaya and prefer potato soup. Since both dishes start out the same, it's not too much work). Toppings run the gantlet and are optional: sour cream, crispy bacon, green onions, etc. So, you can get as hearty (and fat laden) as you wish, or don't.
Some other ideas for additions would be corn or shredded carrots (like I did lasts night since I was making carrot raisin bread and shredded too many). I've even added shredded zucchini once and it was delicious.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The pitter patter of little feet hooves
No, no babies yet. Almost though and we can't wait. I entrust that the weather will be as nice as it's supposed to be this week for the kick off to our 2011 kidding season. We're supposed to hit 63 by Friday but I won't hold my breath. I've done that before, nearly killed me :o).
I am reading a book a cousin bought me for my birthday (I think?). It's about the prairie. I had almost decided the weather people were paid a great deal too much to give us the weather because it was always wrong. Well, now I know why in this part of the country. According to my prairie book we get winds from 4 directions-wet SE gulf winds, dry SW winds, wet NW winds off the pacific and dry cold winds from Canada. With winds coming from 4 directions, I guess it's safe to assume it's hard to tell what the weather will be. I'll give them that.
However, yesterday was lovely and the rest of this week is supposed to be nice too. Monday we're expecting snow again but I'll soak up what we've got for now. Although, today was supposed to be warm but the wind's pretty bitter.
Some of my does are nearing the end of their pregnancies. Poor Fluer looks like she should have kidded weeks ago and she still has quite a few weeks to go. She looks like she swallowed a hot water heater sideways! Every move for here takes much effort and she grunts and groans with every step. I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news for her that she's not right around the corner from the finish line.
PJ is not settling. I took her to the vet yesterday and the initial prognosis is metritis (uterine infection). I kick myself for not catching it sooner though I did suspect it 2 months ago and treated her nearly a month ago after was sure she was not pregnant as the antibiotics I would have given her would have been very very bad for a growing fetus. But I've got/had a few forces at work against me. For one, she's not had a normal cycle all year with the last few being very very far apart. Most dairy goats cycle every 18-21 days so they're ready for breeding every 18-21 days. PJ's started out short cycling willing to breed every 5-6 days for about 3 weeks, then went to a 22-23 day cycle and now I am concerned everyone is going out of season. Most dairy goats in the Northern Hemisphere only breed from around Sept. to January (sometimes earlier, sometimes later). Some do cycling all year long but normally there's a certain window in the fall/winter.
I am waiting for lab results to come back early next week and it's almost as if no news is good news. No bacteria present may mean either I was able to kick the infection "in house" (great news) but it may also mean endometritis which is no more of a good thing than having the infection at all. Endometritis means they don't now the cause. No bacteria present (but still not settling) could potentially mean she'll need further evaluation, surgery, be 100% sterile or very hard to breed in the future. Bacteria present means I wasn't able to kick the infection but there is at least another option that's somewhat of an easy fix potentially.I can't imagine she'd have no bacteria present though unless I cured her since there was discharge. More on that later.
Are you appalled yet or enthralled? This next bit gets better. If reading about goat reproduction and body parts grosses you out, best to skip the rest of this post.
Q: How did she get it? A: I have no idea. I'll have to check back through my records but I don't think I had to go "in" and rearrange kids on her last kidding season. Which doesn't mean anything but more often than not, when you have to manually go in, obviously it opens up a lot of opportunity for bacteria and nastiness to enter the uterus. The infection It could be fairly recent from a breeding this season. It's very hard to say. There would have been no reason I wouldn't have given her antibiotics though after having to go in as I am aware of the potential for major infection. However, after doing some research on the subject, if I ever do go in to another goat again, I will immediately be infusing antibiotics directly into the uterus instead of giving it by injection.
Q: How did you know she had an infection? A: I didn't specifically. It was almost like hindsight is 50/50 thing though and makes me want to bang my head against the wall now knowing what I know. When she started the season off short cycling I thought it was peculiar but it can be normal when their bodies are trying to "figure things out". When she went from short cycling to long cycles I didn't think much of that either until I tried breeding her in Oct. (I believe) and she didn't settle. Tried breeding her again in Nov. thinking it may have been the buck I was using because he's still young and not proven, maybe it's him. She didn't settle again and at this point I was really thinking there was a problem and started looking at possible causes. I know it seems like I would have had a lot of opportunities to figure this out, but in all actuality, you don't really have that much time especially when their cycles are longer than average. And trust me, I didn't miss any. Know my goats and you'd understand, you don't miss a heat.
So anyway, about the end of November, first of December I thought she had what looked like urine scald (when urine sits on your skin and irritates it causing soreness, redness and sometimes even "burning" of the skin). I couldn't figure out exactly why there was urine on her back parts all the way down her udder. I mean, I know WHY it would have been there given the fact her urinary exit is there and all but why it was dribbling down there was beyond me. Long story short, it wasn't urine scald, it was actually vaginal discharge from an infection. I hadn't known because I've never dealt what that sort of thing before. Practically from Oct. on when I thought there could be an issue I have researched. Believe me, I have researched. I've run the gauntlet of reasons from worm load to mineral deficiency and in Dec. thought perhaps a uterine infection. Perhaps I mentioned that on the blog already. Early in Dec. she was in heat, so I bred her but at the same time contacted a goat mentor of mine who advised putting her on antibiotics.
So, just about 2 weeks ago I finished up her round of antibiotics. Still no sign of heat and she's way overdue at this point. The only thing that makes sense is that the season is over for her or it could have something to do with infection. The whole reason I took her to the vet in the first place was because, at the time I didn't know 100% for sure it was an infection, and I figured instead of wasting time in the event it was something like cystic ovary which usually is something simple to fix with an Rx injection, I would take her in and see if I could get some expert advice.
The vet wants to wait until the test results to come back before we go any further but says an intrauterine infusion would be the most likely option. He's not convinced, and understandably, that the antibiotics I gave her will due the trick. I have good reason to hope they may have as I received the advice from a long time breeder who has had luck on 2 occasions with it. I understand the vet's point of view. many studies have been done in regards to this (on cows) and because the uterus is a formidable wall, it's very difficult for antibiotics not directly infused to do much good. So, without the vet knowing it, we're butting heads on this one.
It's not that I mind having her infused, minus the fact that it's expensive and while it would be nice and rosey to think that all my goat's are pets and they just LIVE here and I just FEED them, that is not the case. Everyone who lives here must provide. If you do not provide, well I am sorry, such is life here on the farm...I think.
The bad thing is, is that, like I said, we are running out of time. We could very well be out of time. Unfortunately the vet doesn't know dairy goat. I guess he does see some boer herds (meat goats) but they are a totally different animal in regards to breeding. Most of them can breed all year round so to think we've got all the time in the world is quite wrong. And I expressed my concern here. And if she comes into heat, my plan is to go ahead and breed her, vet approval or not. If she settles, great! If not, then we deal with it. The problem is, getting her into heat. I asked him for some Lutalyse to artificially stimulate heat and he didn't seem enthusiastic about that option...again, he wanted to wait and see. So, I will give him his time to get the results back and, providing they are negative for bacteria (which, again, couldn't mean good news and it could mean somewhat bad or potentially very bad news) and I respectfully explain that I have reason to hope that my antibiotics did help her and that I would like to hold off on any infusion and go ahead and try to breed her but would like some Lutalyse to artificially stimulate her into season. In the mean time, I would like to have some blood work done to make sure we are also not fighting some type of mineral deficiency as well. Goats, I swear!
As far as the infusing, I could potentially do that myself. It doesn't mean I will, but potentially I could and I am seriously considering it. I would need some tools, and the tools for artificial insemination- which I plan to get into someday- would be about it along with some antibiotics which are OTC. The money I'd pay the vet to come out and do what I potentially could, well heck, I could pay for my A.I. kit! I know, I know...first it's goat breeder, then goat obstetrician, then goat gynecologist and some day goat fertility expert.
If the test comes back positive for bacteria, there's not much I can do other than infuse, It means I was not able to kick the infection. However, I cannot infuse without her being in standing heat. Her cervix needs to be open and this does not happen unless she's about to give birth or is in standing heat. So, just infusing her with some antibiotics vaginally won't do it. So, I'm a little worried about that, perhaps unnecessarily n regards to being able to get it done this season. I guess there's a few ways of looking at it that all make logical sense. The first one being, what's done is done. If it's ruined her, it's ruined her and I cannot do a thing about it. Secondly, it's possible the uterus has walled off the infection and it will just sit there, encapsulated until something comes to kill the nastiest which is not unheard of. Thirdly, it could get progressively worse which is why I am trying to be very aggressive about it but careful at the same time. Yes, we could manually open the cervix to infuse but then that opens a can of worms potentially by scarring her and while she may be healed from infection, the chances of leaving her scarred and unable to conceive are a possibility too.
I am hoping, if we cannot induce heat, and cannot infuse the uterus that we just wait it out until next season and can take care of it then. In all the reading I've done, not one bit of any research could give me a definitive answer. One would think it would get progressively worse, but no one can really say. They can only speculate.
Thinking about this more Thursday morning (and I wrote this post Wednesday morning), I could artificially simulate darkness and trick her body into thinking it's not as late in the season as it is to try to get a few more weeks out of her. This would be quite an undertaking really and not one that I'm really prepared for. Quite honestly, if we could hurry up with the Lutalyse I think that would be better. Although, I will discuss it with Jeremiah. Basically it would mean constructing something at the back of the barn where she could be in near to total darkness for a few more hours a day. Possibly in the afternoon when I put them away. I won't put her in the milk room, that would be a mess but I could construct a box of sorts...the back of the barn is rather dark already...hmmmm, my wheels are turning. At any rate, like I said, I will give the doc. his time and then figure it all out and hope between now and then she comes into heat.
So, that's been my life, or an aspect of my life. I really didn't think my post about PJ and her female problems was going to be that long but I figured I may as well educate you :o). It's all really quite interesting. Frustrating, but interesting. I'll be the first to admit that while this may be expensive and time consuming, I am learning a lot so it's not just a wash.
I/We will do as much as we possibly (financially) can for her, but past a uterine infusion and trying some homeopathic medicine here and if we can't get her to settle this spring waiting until the fall to try it again. If she is still the same in the fall, I'm afraid there is not much more that I am willing to try. I am hoping, if she doesn't settle, a good long summer rest on good pasture will do her well and we'll just wait and see. I am not giving up before we know for sure what's going on.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a couple goat photos.
(PJ in the foreground and Loli, Apricot and Granite in the background. Maybe that's Mea and not Granite, hard to tell but anyway...)
(And here's Fat Fluer)
I am reading a book a cousin bought me for my birthday (I think?). It's about the prairie. I had almost decided the weather people were paid a great deal too much to give us the weather because it was always wrong. Well, now I know why in this part of the country. According to my prairie book we get winds from 4 directions-wet SE gulf winds, dry SW winds, wet NW winds off the pacific and dry cold winds from Canada. With winds coming from 4 directions, I guess it's safe to assume it's hard to tell what the weather will be. I'll give them that.
However, yesterday was lovely and the rest of this week is supposed to be nice too. Monday we're expecting snow again but I'll soak up what we've got for now. Although, today was supposed to be warm but the wind's pretty bitter.
Some of my does are nearing the end of their pregnancies. Poor Fluer looks like she should have kidded weeks ago and she still has quite a few weeks to go. She looks like she swallowed a hot water heater sideways! Every move for here takes much effort and she grunts and groans with every step. I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news for her that she's not right around the corner from the finish line.
PJ is not settling. I took her to the vet yesterday and the initial prognosis is metritis (uterine infection). I kick myself for not catching it sooner though I did suspect it 2 months ago and treated her nearly a month ago after was sure she was not pregnant as the antibiotics I would have given her would have been very very bad for a growing fetus. But I've got/had a few forces at work against me. For one, she's not had a normal cycle all year with the last few being very very far apart. Most dairy goats cycle every 18-21 days so they're ready for breeding every 18-21 days. PJ's started out short cycling willing to breed every 5-6 days for about 3 weeks, then went to a 22-23 day cycle and now I am concerned everyone is going out of season. Most dairy goats in the Northern Hemisphere only breed from around Sept. to January (sometimes earlier, sometimes later). Some do cycling all year long but normally there's a certain window in the fall/winter.
I am waiting for lab results to come back early next week and it's almost as if no news is good news. No bacteria present may mean either I was able to kick the infection "in house" (great news) but it may also mean endometritis which is no more of a good thing than having the infection at all. Endometritis means they don't now the cause. No bacteria present (but still not settling) could potentially mean she'll need further evaluation, surgery, be 100% sterile or very hard to breed in the future. Bacteria present means I wasn't able to kick the infection but there is at least another option that's somewhat of an easy fix potentially.I can't imagine she'd have no bacteria present though unless I cured her since there was discharge. More on that later.
Are you appalled yet or enthralled? This next bit gets better. If reading about goat reproduction and body parts grosses you out, best to skip the rest of this post.
Q: How did she get it? A: I have no idea. I'll have to check back through my records but I don't think I had to go "in" and rearrange kids on her last kidding season. Which doesn't mean anything but more often than not, when you have to manually go in, obviously it opens up a lot of opportunity for bacteria and nastiness to enter the uterus. The infection It could be fairly recent from a breeding this season. It's very hard to say. There would have been no reason I wouldn't have given her antibiotics though after having to go in as I am aware of the potential for major infection. However, after doing some research on the subject, if I ever do go in to another goat again, I will immediately be infusing antibiotics directly into the uterus instead of giving it by injection.
Q: How did you know she had an infection? A: I didn't specifically. It was almost like hindsight is 50/50 thing though and makes me want to bang my head against the wall now knowing what I know. When she started the season off short cycling I thought it was peculiar but it can be normal when their bodies are trying to "figure things out". When she went from short cycling to long cycles I didn't think much of that either until I tried breeding her in Oct. (I believe) and she didn't settle. Tried breeding her again in Nov. thinking it may have been the buck I was using because he's still young and not proven, maybe it's him. She didn't settle again and at this point I was really thinking there was a problem and started looking at possible causes. I know it seems like I would have had a lot of opportunities to figure this out, but in all actuality, you don't really have that much time especially when their cycles are longer than average. And trust me, I didn't miss any. Know my goats and you'd understand, you don't miss a heat.
So anyway, about the end of November, first of December I thought she had what looked like urine scald (when urine sits on your skin and irritates it causing soreness, redness and sometimes even "burning" of the skin). I couldn't figure out exactly why there was urine on her back parts all the way down her udder. I mean, I know WHY it would have been there given the fact her urinary exit is there and all but why it was dribbling down there was beyond me. Long story short, it wasn't urine scald, it was actually vaginal discharge from an infection. I hadn't known because I've never dealt what that sort of thing before. Practically from Oct. on when I thought there could be an issue I have researched. Believe me, I have researched. I've run the gauntlet of reasons from worm load to mineral deficiency and in Dec. thought perhaps a uterine infection. Perhaps I mentioned that on the blog already. Early in Dec. she was in heat, so I bred her but at the same time contacted a goat mentor of mine who advised putting her on antibiotics.
So, just about 2 weeks ago I finished up her round of antibiotics. Still no sign of heat and she's way overdue at this point. The only thing that makes sense is that the season is over for her or it could have something to do with infection. The whole reason I took her to the vet in the first place was because, at the time I didn't know 100% for sure it was an infection, and I figured instead of wasting time in the event it was something like cystic ovary which usually is something simple to fix with an Rx injection, I would take her in and see if I could get some expert advice.
The vet wants to wait until the test results to come back before we go any further but says an intrauterine infusion would be the most likely option. He's not convinced, and understandably, that the antibiotics I gave her will due the trick. I have good reason to hope they may have as I received the advice from a long time breeder who has had luck on 2 occasions with it. I understand the vet's point of view. many studies have been done in regards to this (on cows) and because the uterus is a formidable wall, it's very difficult for antibiotics not directly infused to do much good. So, without the vet knowing it, we're butting heads on this one.
It's not that I mind having her infused, minus the fact that it's expensive and while it would be nice and rosey to think that all my goat's are pets and they just LIVE here and I just FEED them, that is not the case. Everyone who lives here must provide. If you do not provide, well I am sorry, such is life here on the farm...I think.
The bad thing is, is that, like I said, we are running out of time. We could very well be out of time. Unfortunately the vet doesn't know dairy goat. I guess he does see some boer herds (meat goats) but they are a totally different animal in regards to breeding. Most of them can breed all year round so to think we've got all the time in the world is quite wrong. And I expressed my concern here. And if she comes into heat, my plan is to go ahead and breed her, vet approval or not. If she settles, great! If not, then we deal with it. The problem is, getting her into heat. I asked him for some Lutalyse to artificially stimulate heat and he didn't seem enthusiastic about that option...again, he wanted to wait and see. So, I will give him his time to get the results back and, providing they are negative for bacteria (which, again, couldn't mean good news and it could mean somewhat bad or potentially very bad news) and I respectfully explain that I have reason to hope that my antibiotics did help her and that I would like to hold off on any infusion and go ahead and try to breed her but would like some Lutalyse to artificially stimulate her into season. In the mean time, I would like to have some blood work done to make sure we are also not fighting some type of mineral deficiency as well. Goats, I swear!
As far as the infusing, I could potentially do that myself. It doesn't mean I will, but potentially I could and I am seriously considering it. I would need some tools, and the tools for artificial insemination- which I plan to get into someday- would be about it along with some antibiotics which are OTC. The money I'd pay the vet to come out and do what I potentially could, well heck, I could pay for my A.I. kit! I know, I know...first it's goat breeder, then goat obstetrician, then goat gynecologist and some day goat fertility expert.
If the test comes back positive for bacteria, there's not much I can do other than infuse, It means I was not able to kick the infection. However, I cannot infuse without her being in standing heat. Her cervix needs to be open and this does not happen unless she's about to give birth or is in standing heat. So, just infusing her with some antibiotics vaginally won't do it. So, I'm a little worried about that, perhaps unnecessarily n regards to being able to get it done this season. I guess there's a few ways of looking at it that all make logical sense. The first one being, what's done is done. If it's ruined her, it's ruined her and I cannot do a thing about it. Secondly, it's possible the uterus has walled off the infection and it will just sit there, encapsulated until something comes to kill the nastiest which is not unheard of. Thirdly, it could get progressively worse which is why I am trying to be very aggressive about it but careful at the same time. Yes, we could manually open the cervix to infuse but then that opens a can of worms potentially by scarring her and while she may be healed from infection, the chances of leaving her scarred and unable to conceive are a possibility too.
I am hoping, if we cannot induce heat, and cannot infuse the uterus that we just wait it out until next season and can take care of it then. In all the reading I've done, not one bit of any research could give me a definitive answer. One would think it would get progressively worse, but no one can really say. They can only speculate.
Thinking about this more Thursday morning (and I wrote this post Wednesday morning), I could artificially simulate darkness and trick her body into thinking it's not as late in the season as it is to try to get a few more weeks out of her. This would be quite an undertaking really and not one that I'm really prepared for. Quite honestly, if we could hurry up with the Lutalyse I think that would be better. Although, I will discuss it with Jeremiah. Basically it would mean constructing something at the back of the barn where she could be in near to total darkness for a few more hours a day. Possibly in the afternoon when I put them away. I won't put her in the milk room, that would be a mess but I could construct a box of sorts...the back of the barn is rather dark already...hmmmm, my wheels are turning. At any rate, like I said, I will give the doc. his time and then figure it all out and hope between now and then she comes into heat.
So, that's been my life, or an aspect of my life. I really didn't think my post about PJ and her female problems was going to be that long but I figured I may as well educate you :o). It's all really quite interesting. Frustrating, but interesting. I'll be the first to admit that while this may be expensive and time consuming, I am learning a lot so it's not just a wash.
I/We will do as much as we possibly (financially) can for her, but past a uterine infusion and trying some homeopathic medicine here and if we can't get her to settle this spring waiting until the fall to try it again. If she is still the same in the fall, I'm afraid there is not much more that I am willing to try. I am hoping, if she doesn't settle, a good long summer rest on good pasture will do her well and we'll just wait and see. I am not giving up before we know for sure what's going on.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a couple goat photos.
(PJ in the foreground and Loli, Apricot and Granite in the background. Maybe that's Mea and not Granite, hard to tell but anyway...)
(And here's Fat Fluer)
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Mrs. Pickles
There's a chain of sandwich shops in Northern California (and Nevada) called Mr. Pickles. We only ever went once but they had good sandwiches. That's besides the point though.
Jeremiah has said since we were married I should open up my own restaurant but just like sewing, I need the freedom to be creative and making the same monotonous things over and over and over would take the love out of it all.That's kinda besides the point too except for the fact that the sandwiches I made today for lunch kinda reminded me of Mr. Pickles except for the fact that I don't even know if they make panini style sandwhices and in that case it would have nothing to do at all with my own restaurant or Mr. Pickles.
ANYWAY, I had 'kraut in the fridge, home made bread I had to use up and we always have cheese and sandwich meat. So, I set to work on a toasted sort of reuben sort of grilled cheese ham and pickle panini type sandwich and it was delish. It wasn't until after I was done shoveling it into my mouth that I realized I should have taken a photo but at that point it wasn't looking its best.
Recipe:
-2 pieces of bread (rye, wheat, sourdough, white, whatever)- I used home made white that was a couple days old
-butter or margerine (butter makes nicer grilled cheese I think)
-sandwich meat (turkey or ham or pastrami or whatever)- I used ham
-sliced pickles
-kraut
-ranch dressing (or mayo or miracle whip, though quite frankly I think miracle whip ruins just about everything so take your chances :o)- I used ranch
-processed cheese (or rubber cheese as my Mom would call it, or swiss or whatever)- I used Kraft processed "rubber" cheese although swiss sure sounded good!
Preheat an iron skillet on medium or so before you start assembling but make sure all your ingredients are ready to go when you start to preheat.
Layer your sandwich as follows (it may work a different way but I hate when the middle layers fall out and I found this layering to hold together quite well!):
Bread, cheese, pickles, meat, 'kraut, ranch dressing (on the bread), bread.
Butter your top piece of bread lay the buttered side down in the pan. You don't want your skillet so hot that it burns right away and smokes up the whole house though so be careful in timing your preheating. . Put a heavy weight on top before you butter what is now your un-buttered top piece of bread. I used another skillet for my weight and viola, home made panini press without the grill lines. Once your bottom bread is toasted, butter your top piece of bread, flip and put your weight back on. The heat under the sandwich shouldn't be searing hot, you need enough time so that cheese melts and the insides get warm without burning the bread (just in case you didn't know how to make a grilled cheese).
As a side note, the weight on the sandwich kinda smooshes it all together and gives a really nice crunchy crunch on the bread...not just a soft crunch of a regular grilled cheese-or boy cheese as Drew would call it.
Drew's so funny. For those of you who don't know him, he will NOT eat a grilled cheese (girl cheese), it must be called a boy cheese.
Anyhoos, there's a new recipe to try if you feel so inclined. Really really good!
Jeremiah has said since we were married I should open up my own restaurant but just like sewing, I need the freedom to be creative and making the same monotonous things over and over and over would take the love out of it all.That's kinda besides the point too except for the fact that the sandwiches I made today for lunch kinda reminded me of Mr. Pickles except for the fact that I don't even know if they make panini style sandwhices and in that case it would have nothing to do at all with my own restaurant or Mr. Pickles.
ANYWAY, I had 'kraut in the fridge, home made bread I had to use up and we always have cheese and sandwich meat. So, I set to work on a toasted sort of reuben sort of grilled cheese ham and pickle panini type sandwich and it was delish. It wasn't until after I was done shoveling it into my mouth that I realized I should have taken a photo but at that point it wasn't looking its best.
Recipe:
-2 pieces of bread (rye, wheat, sourdough, white, whatever)- I used home made white that was a couple days old
-butter or margerine (butter makes nicer grilled cheese I think)
-sandwich meat (turkey or ham or pastrami or whatever)- I used ham
-sliced pickles
-kraut
-ranch dressing (or mayo or miracle whip, though quite frankly I think miracle whip ruins just about everything so take your chances :o)- I used ranch
-processed cheese (or rubber cheese as my Mom would call it, or swiss or whatever)- I used Kraft processed "rubber" cheese although swiss sure sounded good!
Preheat an iron skillet on medium or so before you start assembling but make sure all your ingredients are ready to go when you start to preheat.
Layer your sandwich as follows (it may work a different way but I hate when the middle layers fall out and I found this layering to hold together quite well!):
Bread, cheese, pickles, meat, 'kraut, ranch dressing (on the bread), bread.
Butter your top piece of bread lay the buttered side down in the pan. You don't want your skillet so hot that it burns right away and smokes up the whole house though so be careful in timing your preheating. . Put a heavy weight on top before you butter what is now your un-buttered top piece of bread. I used another skillet for my weight and viola, home made panini press without the grill lines. Once your bottom bread is toasted, butter your top piece of bread, flip and put your weight back on. The heat under the sandwich shouldn't be searing hot, you need enough time so that cheese melts and the insides get warm without burning the bread (just in case you didn't know how to make a grilled cheese).
As a side note, the weight on the sandwich kinda smooshes it all together and gives a really nice crunchy crunch on the bread...not just a soft crunch of a regular grilled cheese-or boy cheese as Drew would call it.
Drew's so funny. For those of you who don't know him, he will NOT eat a grilled cheese (girl cheese), it must be called a boy cheese.
Anyhoos, there's a new recipe to try if you feel so inclined. Really really good!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Ramblings
This evening I am sitting in our living room which is probably 80 degrees or so. The rest of the house is about 68. The fire feels so good. We got some good wood this last batch from a black locust that we cut down only a few months ago but despite it being fairly new wood, it's dry and is burning so long and hot.
I can sit on the couch and see the main road this time of year because the trees are leafless. Yesterday the big tanker trucks came by and sprayed salt solution on the roads in preparations for this storm moving through. I can tell how icy and slick it much be because the headlights move slowly across the width of the window. I was nice enough to park the Explorer in the garage so Jeremiah can take it tomorrow without having to scrape ice off the windshield. I'm wonderful right? I have chili simmering on the stove and it just smelled so so good. It was perfect...warm fire, simmering chili, cold cold cold outside and me...inside...warm, looking out into the cold. Perfect!
I don't think it made it above 24 today...overcast and a bit foggy even, felt colder. It was flurrying snow and ice when Drew and I left for the grocery store this morning shortly before 9. They were salting the sidewalks when we walked in.
It was a busy busy day. We didn't arrive back home until 11 and after rushing groceries in it was time to get Drew back out the door to catch the bus, back in to put groceries away, bake a cake to take to Rachel's class and while it was in the oven, I hussled out to the goats with warm water though there wasn't any ice on their buckets. Being under shelter really keeps them from icing over even when the air temp. is 24 degrees out. They so appreciate the warm water.
I wanted to kill me some goats yesterday! I really should take the camera out when I feed. There's always something worth documenting. Yesterday I went out and the little angels had about 900 lbs. worth of straw strewn about!!! YES, that's NINE HUNDRED...with a 9 and then two zeros. We bought 2 large round bales of straw before the last storm. I opened one up to bed them down well and tried to tie a tarp around it. Goats decided they had to get underneath and check it out so I hauled 3 gate panels to it to make a pen around it with the 4th side being an unused pen's fence.
They hadn't touched it after the gates went up but that's because they hadn't been outside of the barn since the snow started falling 2 Mondays ago!! We finally got rid of most of the snow this past Monday when the temps warmed up and it took them a few hours to knock down the gates, rip off the tarp and have a 900 lb. bed of straw to lay on all day! Stupid goats. I didn't have the strength to throw it all into a tall haystack so I covered it the best I could and grumbled some choice words to them about it and almost didn't feed them dinner...I thought about all 12 of them BEING dinner...for me.
After the cake was done baking, I worked on getting some packages ready for mailing while they cooled. Then it was back upstairs to make frosting, take it to school, serve it and then rush back home with the kids after school let out. It was spitting ice when I went out to feed this afternoon. It hurts your face when you walk into the wind which is all the way out to the barn. I am dreading this storm. I'd much rather have the cold than the snow. I hate gearing up with boots to go feed, falling in snow, slipping, trudging, getting wet, falling, trudging, swearing...
Snow is hell. I freakin' hate snow! I would rather deal with negative temps than to have to trudge through snow so hopefully this storm doesn't dump much. Hard to imagine this place green and full of life with this crappy weather. On that note though, 2 weekends ago Jeremiah got the generator up and running. We needed a longer extension cord for it which ended up costing a fortune. He had to make it as I don't guess they sell generator specific cords with special generator plug things. He taught me how to hook it all up and run it. I wrote the directions down in case he's out of town or at work and I need to start it up...not too difficult and we can run everything but the dryer and the stove on it but that's why we have the woodstove and why I have been practicing cooking on it! Not to mention the fact I'd just assume hang clothes up around the house on hangers than use the dryer. I'm trashy, it's official.
As for stuff around the house...wood requirements are kicking our butts this year. Which, I guess, is to be expected. We're playing catch up...some day we'll be caught up on that front but one can only chop so much wood at a time. This latest bundle we got, as I said, is burning so well. There's still a ton out there we just have to get it and getting wood gets old real quick when you know it's going to burned just as soon as you stack it...it would be nice to know that the work we're doing stacking wood will be for future use. ::Sigh:: Someday.
Still haven't painted anything but the basement...I wanted to get the kid's rooms done for Xmas but just too much going on. I did buy the paint for the 2nd basement room today though and we got it textured last Sunday. This weekend's chore is to prime and paint in there. I want to paint a wall in the living room red, the rest of them white or country white or something. I picked out the color today but will wait until I am ready to get it all mixed up...which I say is within the next two weeks but I've said that before too. I want to get this popcorn crap off the ceiling and can't really bare the thought of the mess just yet.
I made a big pot of beans last night for dinner. Simmered them with some pork steaks on the wood stove yesterday and was a bit afraid of how the whole meal would come out but it actually was pretty good. I cooked up some rice to serve the beans over the top, liquid was almost as thick as a gravy, had enough meat for a 2nd meal (tacos) later this week and plenty of beans for 3 meals worth...that's what I call cooking ahead. I used them in the chili tonight and can I just tell you how delicious it was!Well, it was delicious.
We went to Sam's club (Walmart's version of Costco) on Friday after the kids got out of school. It's in Wichita and most people would think that's a hop skip and jump away but I hate going down there. We bought the membership in August. We've never belonged to one of these big bulk warehouse stores because it was never worth it. We were a small family and we just didn't need the bulk. Now the bulk comes in handy for some things but I really think after all is said and done (membership costs and gas+time+hassle to go down there), it's not worth it!
I amaze myself at being able to memorize the prices of things that I buy to compare. There really isn't too much at Sam's besides yeast, Gatorade, a few herbs/spices and large cans of tomatoes that is cheaper. I hardly think those items are worth it! You'd think things like 3 dozen eggs and 50 lbs of flour would be cheaper at Sam's, but you'd be wrong. I did buy a big thing of All free and clear laundry detergent the last time I was there in August. Would you believe I am still using it? And it said good for 110 loads. HA! Little do they tell you their recommended amount is about 3/4 more than you really need, concentrated or not. I wash a whole years worth of laundry for about $20. I tried making my own soap once...for the effort, $20 is cheaper.
I dread waking up tomorrow to find my walking path out to the goats covered again in the white crap. I keep thinking spring though and maybe someday it'll be here. It kind of reminds me of the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Seven brothers went to town and kidnapped their beloveds, took them to the spread they all lived on but not before creating an avalanche in the pass stranding them on their "own side" until spring and preventing the townsfolk from coming to get their kinfolk. Anyway, the girls sing a song about the snow falling and falling and falling mentioning January, February, March, April, May...J.U.N.E and when you're, "about to forget the whole thing...all at once one day it's spring". I kinda figure it'll be like that here...or, you know, not. Whatever. Maybe this winter will just roll right into next and it will be like one long year in hell.
Past the children's bed time now and still haven't cleaned up from dinner. Been nice to sit here and just relax as I haven't, "had a chance to pick my nose all day let alone sit down for half a minute" as I so eloquently put it to Jeremiah when he asked how my day was. Well, the kids thought it was hilarious anyway.
Good night.
P.S. The phone rang a bit ago. It was the kid's school. The district is closed on Thursday due to icy road conditions. Free day for them. Not too long after we got another call from the Hutch. school district. I told Jeremiah all kids get a free day. But him? All teachers had to report. HA! What a low down mean and dirty trick. Course I told him the truth...only I have to wake up early and get to chores...just like every other day. Oh well, maybe we'll get the room in the basement primed and painted earlier than this weekend.
I can sit on the couch and see the main road this time of year because the trees are leafless. Yesterday the big tanker trucks came by and sprayed salt solution on the roads in preparations for this storm moving through. I can tell how icy and slick it much be because the headlights move slowly across the width of the window. I was nice enough to park the Explorer in the garage so Jeremiah can take it tomorrow without having to scrape ice off the windshield. I'm wonderful right? I have chili simmering on the stove and it just smelled so so good. It was perfect...warm fire, simmering chili, cold cold cold outside and me...inside...warm, looking out into the cold. Perfect!
I don't think it made it above 24 today...overcast and a bit foggy even, felt colder. It was flurrying snow and ice when Drew and I left for the grocery store this morning shortly before 9. They were salting the sidewalks when we walked in.
It was a busy busy day. We didn't arrive back home until 11 and after rushing groceries in it was time to get Drew back out the door to catch the bus, back in to put groceries away, bake a cake to take to Rachel's class and while it was in the oven, I hussled out to the goats with warm water though there wasn't any ice on their buckets. Being under shelter really keeps them from icing over even when the air temp. is 24 degrees out. They so appreciate the warm water.
I wanted to kill me some goats yesterday! I really should take the camera out when I feed. There's always something worth documenting. Yesterday I went out and the little angels had about 900 lbs. worth of straw strewn about!!! YES, that's NINE HUNDRED...with a 9 and then two zeros. We bought 2 large round bales of straw before the last storm. I opened one up to bed them down well and tried to tie a tarp around it. Goats decided they had to get underneath and check it out so I hauled 3 gate panels to it to make a pen around it with the 4th side being an unused pen's fence.
They hadn't touched it after the gates went up but that's because they hadn't been outside of the barn since the snow started falling 2 Mondays ago!! We finally got rid of most of the snow this past Monday when the temps warmed up and it took them a few hours to knock down the gates, rip off the tarp and have a 900 lb. bed of straw to lay on all day! Stupid goats. I didn't have the strength to throw it all into a tall haystack so I covered it the best I could and grumbled some choice words to them about it and almost didn't feed them dinner...I thought about all 12 of them BEING dinner...for me.
After the cake was done baking, I worked on getting some packages ready for mailing while they cooled. Then it was back upstairs to make frosting, take it to school, serve it and then rush back home with the kids after school let out. It was spitting ice when I went out to feed this afternoon. It hurts your face when you walk into the wind which is all the way out to the barn. I am dreading this storm. I'd much rather have the cold than the snow. I hate gearing up with boots to go feed, falling in snow, slipping, trudging, getting wet, falling, trudging, swearing...
Snow is hell. I freakin' hate snow! I would rather deal with negative temps than to have to trudge through snow so hopefully this storm doesn't dump much. Hard to imagine this place green and full of life with this crappy weather. On that note though, 2 weekends ago Jeremiah got the generator up and running. We needed a longer extension cord for it which ended up costing a fortune. He had to make it as I don't guess they sell generator specific cords with special generator plug things. He taught me how to hook it all up and run it. I wrote the directions down in case he's out of town or at work and I need to start it up...not too difficult and we can run everything but the dryer and the stove on it but that's why we have the woodstove and why I have been practicing cooking on it! Not to mention the fact I'd just assume hang clothes up around the house on hangers than use the dryer. I'm trashy, it's official.
As for stuff around the house...wood requirements are kicking our butts this year. Which, I guess, is to be expected. We're playing catch up...some day we'll be caught up on that front but one can only chop so much wood at a time. This latest bundle we got, as I said, is burning so well. There's still a ton out there we just have to get it and getting wood gets old real quick when you know it's going to burned just as soon as you stack it...it would be nice to know that the work we're doing stacking wood will be for future use. ::Sigh:: Someday.
Still haven't painted anything but the basement...I wanted to get the kid's rooms done for Xmas but just too much going on. I did buy the paint for the 2nd basement room today though and we got it textured last Sunday. This weekend's chore is to prime and paint in there. I want to paint a wall in the living room red, the rest of them white or country white or something. I picked out the color today but will wait until I am ready to get it all mixed up...which I say is within the next two weeks but I've said that before too. I want to get this popcorn crap off the ceiling and can't really bare the thought of the mess just yet.
I made a big pot of beans last night for dinner. Simmered them with some pork steaks on the wood stove yesterday and was a bit afraid of how the whole meal would come out but it actually was pretty good. I cooked up some rice to serve the beans over the top, liquid was almost as thick as a gravy, had enough meat for a 2nd meal (tacos) later this week and plenty of beans for 3 meals worth...that's what I call cooking ahead. I used them in the chili tonight and can I just tell you how delicious it was!Well, it was delicious.
We went to Sam's club (Walmart's version of Costco) on Friday after the kids got out of school. It's in Wichita and most people would think that's a hop skip and jump away but I hate going down there. We bought the membership in August. We've never belonged to one of these big bulk warehouse stores because it was never worth it. We were a small family and we just didn't need the bulk. Now the bulk comes in handy for some things but I really think after all is said and done (membership costs and gas+time+hassle to go down there), it's not worth it!
I amaze myself at being able to memorize the prices of things that I buy to compare. There really isn't too much at Sam's besides yeast, Gatorade, a few herbs/spices and large cans of tomatoes that is cheaper. I hardly think those items are worth it! You'd think things like 3 dozen eggs and 50 lbs of flour would be cheaper at Sam's, but you'd be wrong. I did buy a big thing of All free and clear laundry detergent the last time I was there in August. Would you believe I am still using it? And it said good for 110 loads. HA! Little do they tell you their recommended amount is about 3/4 more than you really need, concentrated or not. I wash a whole years worth of laundry for about $20. I tried making my own soap once...for the effort, $20 is cheaper.
I dread waking up tomorrow to find my walking path out to the goats covered again in the white crap. I keep thinking spring though and maybe someday it'll be here. It kind of reminds me of the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Seven brothers went to town and kidnapped their beloveds, took them to the spread they all lived on but not before creating an avalanche in the pass stranding them on their "own side" until spring and preventing the townsfolk from coming to get their kinfolk. Anyway, the girls sing a song about the snow falling and falling and falling mentioning January, February, March, April, May...J.U.N.E and when you're, "about to forget the whole thing...all at once one day it's spring". I kinda figure it'll be like that here...or, you know, not. Whatever. Maybe this winter will just roll right into next and it will be like one long year in hell.
Past the children's bed time now and still haven't cleaned up from dinner. Been nice to sit here and just relax as I haven't, "had a chance to pick my nose all day let alone sit down for half a minute" as I so eloquently put it to Jeremiah when he asked how my day was. Well, the kids thought it was hilarious anyway.
Good night.
P.S. The phone rang a bit ago. It was the kid's school. The district is closed on Thursday due to icy road conditions. Free day for them. Not too long after we got another call from the Hutch. school district. I told Jeremiah all kids get a free day. But him? All teachers had to report. HA! What a low down mean and dirty trick. Course I told him the truth...only I have to wake up early and get to chores...just like every other day. Oh well, maybe we'll get the room in the basement primed and painted earlier than this weekend.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Goats & kid in snow
Just so we're clear, I'd like you to know I braved the elements unhappily to bring you these photos. You're welcome.
I had to coax the goats out of the barn with food. They won't go more than 18 inches away from the opening of the barn. Darn goats. These feeders are portable. I just hook them up wherever I please. In this case, outside the barn in the snow.
I had to coax the goats out of the barn with food. They won't go more than 18 inches away from the opening of the barn. Darn goats. These feeders are portable. I just hook them up wherever I please. In this case, outside the barn in the snow.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
I LOVE SNOW!
I LOVE SNOW! I love photos of it. I love how clean and beautiful it looks. I love watching it fall from the sky. I LOVE SNOW...when someone else is in the picture, someone is else is standing in the gosh darned friggen cold taking the photo, someone else is hauling hot water to their animals and cleaning up after children and getting dressed and undressed and redressed and undressed and dressed and undressed yet again within an HOUR and all that other crap! Yeah, I love it alright. Love watching it on TV, love watching it from the window from inside a warm and cozy house and love especially when I don't have to deal with it.WHY did we move here again??? The kids have been out playing in it about 500 times now! It hasn't even been here 24 hours. WHY did we move here again?!?! Thankfully both the kids are in school as I write this otherwise that 500 would easily triple. WHY did we move here again?
Imagine me dragging Drew along out to the road to catch the bus all the while I am almost screaming at him to stay in the tire tracks that Daddy had made that morning as he left for work only to get to the bus about 300 feet away from the house to find him COVERED in snow! I had to ask myself if I was that one tacked minded trying to get him TO the bus if I didn't realize I was dragging him IN the snow. Nope, I wasn't. He just thought that walking through 8 inches of it was much more fun than walking in the packed down tire tracks!
It was nice alright. Nice for the first 5 minutes when I woke up and everything is blanketed in white. That was about the extent of the nice but since then, I have had it! Those 20 lbs. I lost are easily going to turn into about 50 with the trips I am making to the goats with hot water and convincing them that it's not anthrax! It's not the trips I mind with the water bucket. I could easily put in a deicer cutting my trips to 2 or even one to just feed. It's all the other crap! (i.e. dressing, putting on boots, falling on my as...rear end in the snow, etc. and then reversing all of that on the trip back up.) It's not even the cold for the most part. I scored a wool zip up jacket yesterday at the farm store for $10. I am WARM. If I knew I wouldn't freeze to death by wearing nothing, surely I would just so I didn't have to deal with taking all the layers off and putting them back on and dragging snow and dirt inside, ug. If I had to deal with this more than 2-3 months out of the year (and LORD HELP ME IF IT'S A BAD YEAR AND IT STICKS AROUND THAT LONG), I'd literally choke myself to death on snow. NO JOKE! People who like living in snow are INSANE! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go kick a snowball!
FRIZZLE FRACKING FLARKIN FLICKIN SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Imagine me dragging Drew along out to the road to catch the bus all the while I am almost screaming at him to stay in the tire tracks that Daddy had made that morning as he left for work only to get to the bus about 300 feet away from the house to find him COVERED in snow! I had to ask myself if I was that one tacked minded trying to get him TO the bus if I didn't realize I was dragging him IN the snow. Nope, I wasn't. He just thought that walking through 8 inches of it was much more fun than walking in the packed down tire tracks!
It was nice alright. Nice for the first 5 minutes when I woke up and everything is blanketed in white. That was about the extent of the nice but since then, I have had it! Those 20 lbs. I lost are easily going to turn into about 50 with the trips I am making to the goats with hot water and convincing them that it's not anthrax! It's not the trips I mind with the water bucket. I could easily put in a deicer cutting my trips to 2 or even one to just feed. It's all the other crap! (i.e. dressing, putting on boots, falling on my as...rear end in the snow, etc. and then reversing all of that on the trip back up.) It's not even the cold for the most part. I scored a wool zip up jacket yesterday at the farm store for $10. I am WARM. If I knew I wouldn't freeze to death by wearing nothing, surely I would just so I didn't have to deal with taking all the layers off and putting them back on and dragging snow and dirt inside, ug. If I had to deal with this more than 2-3 months out of the year (and LORD HELP ME IF IT'S A BAD YEAR AND IT STICKS AROUND THAT LONG), I'd literally choke myself to death on snow. NO JOKE! People who like living in snow are INSANE! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go kick a snowball!
FRIZZLE FRACKING FLARKIN FLICKIN SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Thinkin' Spring
I don't care what the weather report says, I'm thinking spring and will continue to try to keep spring on my mind no matter how much ice I'm breaking.
There plans to build a green house probably next month. It won't be anything spectacular. Truth be told, I'm a real big fan of cattle panel hoop houses. (Click on the blue letters and it will take you to some photos of what I'm talking about). We get some pretty severe wind storms here but I read an article recently of a guy in Iowa who raises calves in them for a few weeks and says his won't blow away. They are staked down well and reinforced and Jeremiah and I have some ideas of our own to get one erected for seedlings.
The cattle panel hoop houses are great for so many things, including animal shelters (click on the blue letters again to see photos of animal shelters) and I have been a long time amirer of them. We've bought 20 or so used panels from here and therefor fairly inexpensively and since my barn would require a bit of modification to keep kids completely safe from predators, I'm thinking about erecting a couple panel houses to keep kids in. I haven't looked too much into sturdy waterproof canvas or duct tarps for an animal shelter but for a green house, Lowes or Home Depot carries heavy duty plastic sheeting that would do real well for a green house.
I got my first seed catalog in the mail yesterday so later today when the kids are home from school we'll go through and circle all the things we'd like.
I've been cleaning the girls barn practically everyday and dumping the contents of the wheelbarrow onto the future garden site. We have very loamy soil here on our property, I hear things do real well on it with some good fertilizer. I certainly have that, and A LOT of it! Around the end of March we may start rototilling the garden site to work in all the amenities we've been putting out and with seedlings started early, come planting time in May (or whenever it is) we should have no problem getting a few things to grow this year. We're all very excited to get started with spring and winter has barely just begun. We do expect a couple of warm days (by warm I mean high 40's) this week followed by a storm next Sunday. I'll take high 40's. Heck, I'll even take 40 if the sun's out and there's no wind.
We have an underground spring that feeds the pond. Just the other day while cleaning brush I also discovered we have a creek bed that feeds the neighbors smallish pond in the front corner of their property! Right now there are deer bedding in it. We're working towards clearing out the massive amounts of down trees and limbs in it. Jeremiah would like it looking like a real creek bed by spring. Eventually we'd like shore up the one side of the pond (where I usually take photos from), cut out a lower bank on the creek side and see if we can't actually get it running. If not running, the main purpose would really be to keep the water out of the back yard as that's the lower side of the pond. In very wet years, the neighbor says there can be standing water out by the goat's pen fencing. Some day Jeremiah would also like to get a windmill water pump working to keep the pond full all year round and to water the garden as they are both close to each other. In fact, we plan to use the underground spring as our garden water since it is very close to the surface. I'm guessing that the meandering stream of bermuda grass is the path the stream takes, the water is supposed to be pretty close to the surface so while we may fight the grass in the garden, until we can get a windmill in for running water, we're hoping the ground water and rainwater are all the garden will require. Otherwise we'd have to run a fairly long hose from the house to the garden.
Water has been piped out to the barn from the house and we could try to locate that, trench across the back yard to run a spigot, but I don't know if all that will happen this year. We'll see. Baby steps!
That's all for now...we've always got a thousand ideas running through our heads. Only so much time and money though :o).
There plans to build a green house probably next month. It won't be anything spectacular. Truth be told, I'm a real big fan of cattle panel hoop houses. (Click on the blue letters and it will take you to some photos of what I'm talking about). We get some pretty severe wind storms here but I read an article recently of a guy in Iowa who raises calves in them for a few weeks and says his won't blow away. They are staked down well and reinforced and Jeremiah and I have some ideas of our own to get one erected for seedlings.
The cattle panel hoop houses are great for so many things, including animal shelters (click on the blue letters again to see photos of animal shelters) and I have been a long time amirer of them. We've bought 20 or so used panels from here and therefor fairly inexpensively and since my barn would require a bit of modification to keep kids completely safe from predators, I'm thinking about erecting a couple panel houses to keep kids in. I haven't looked too much into sturdy waterproof canvas or duct tarps for an animal shelter but for a green house, Lowes or Home Depot carries heavy duty plastic sheeting that would do real well for a green house.
I got my first seed catalog in the mail yesterday so later today when the kids are home from school we'll go through and circle all the things we'd like.
I've been cleaning the girls barn practically everyday and dumping the contents of the wheelbarrow onto the future garden site. We have very loamy soil here on our property, I hear things do real well on it with some good fertilizer. I certainly have that, and A LOT of it! Around the end of March we may start rototilling the garden site to work in all the amenities we've been putting out and with seedlings started early, come planting time in May (or whenever it is) we should have no problem getting a few things to grow this year. We're all very excited to get started with spring and winter has barely just begun. We do expect a couple of warm days (by warm I mean high 40's) this week followed by a storm next Sunday. I'll take high 40's. Heck, I'll even take 40 if the sun's out and there's no wind.
We have an underground spring that feeds the pond. Just the other day while cleaning brush I also discovered we have a creek bed that feeds the neighbors smallish pond in the front corner of their property! Right now there are deer bedding in it. We're working towards clearing out the massive amounts of down trees and limbs in it. Jeremiah would like it looking like a real creek bed by spring. Eventually we'd like shore up the one side of the pond (where I usually take photos from), cut out a lower bank on the creek side and see if we can't actually get it running. If not running, the main purpose would really be to keep the water out of the back yard as that's the lower side of the pond. In very wet years, the neighbor says there can be standing water out by the goat's pen fencing. Some day Jeremiah would also like to get a windmill water pump working to keep the pond full all year round and to water the garden as they are both close to each other. In fact, we plan to use the underground spring as our garden water since it is very close to the surface. I'm guessing that the meandering stream of bermuda grass is the path the stream takes, the water is supposed to be pretty close to the surface so while we may fight the grass in the garden, until we can get a windmill in for running water, we're hoping the ground water and rainwater are all the garden will require. Otherwise we'd have to run a fairly long hose from the house to the garden.
Water has been piped out to the barn from the house and we could try to locate that, trench across the back yard to run a spigot, but I don't know if all that will happen this year. We'll see. Baby steps!
That's all for now...we've always got a thousand ideas running through our heads. Only so much time and money though :o).
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Hay
Thursday we drove 30 mile south to pick up some crabgrass hay. Crabgrass? I know right? Crabgrass was always a weed my Dad loathed as he pulled it from the lawn, still does. But, after some extensive research, it's great forage for all types of livestock!
If cut at the right time of growth during the early part of the year (June-July) it can yield pretty high protein (16% or so where a good cut of alfalfa is about 18-23% or so.) and is highly digestible! For goats this means more nutrition since their metabolisms are so fast.
These are about 900-1000 lb. bales.
Lucky for me, crabgrass isn't all that popular with the folks who don't know better and so it's a lot cheaper than some of the other hays like brome which I have been buying small square bales. The round bales are much more economical, if you can swing sheltering them/moving them.
Getting the trailer backed up to the barn took a bit of doing. We picked a perfect day to go get it with the 66 degrees we had and a lousy day to unload it after an ice storm. It was snowing while we unloaded, temp was probably hovering in the low teens and there was ice all over.
Moving them was a lot easier than one would think even without a tractor. We just pushed them off with some brute force. The fist one rolled quite nicely into the main barn, the other two we rolled into the south shelter with the brome bales. We had planned to use the trailer ramps which are stored underneath the trailer but realized, after backing up, they were on the side closest to the wall and we couldn't exactly get them out so improvised with a heavy duty pallet that it later ended up sitting on nicely.
So far, everyone seems to like it quite well. I don't think we'll be buying small square bales (65'ish pounds) any longer. We may need one more load of alfalfa before we quit buying hay for quite a while. Spring and summer pasture should cut way down on consumption.
If cut at the right time of growth during the early part of the year (June-July) it can yield pretty high protein (16% or so where a good cut of alfalfa is about 18-23% or so.) and is highly digestible! For goats this means more nutrition since their metabolisms are so fast.
These are about 900-1000 lb. bales.
Lucky for me, crabgrass isn't all that popular with the folks who don't know better and so it's a lot cheaper than some of the other hays like brome which I have been buying small square bales. The round bales are much more economical, if you can swing sheltering them/moving them.
Getting the trailer backed up to the barn took a bit of doing. We picked a perfect day to go get it with the 66 degrees we had and a lousy day to unload it after an ice storm. It was snowing while we unloaded, temp was probably hovering in the low teens and there was ice all over.
Moving them was a lot easier than one would think even without a tractor. We just pushed them off with some brute force. The fist one rolled quite nicely into the main barn, the other two we rolled into the south shelter with the brome bales. We had planned to use the trailer ramps which are stored underneath the trailer but realized, after backing up, they were on the side closest to the wall and we couldn't exactly get them out so improvised with a heavy duty pallet that it later ended up sitting on nicely.
So far, everyone seems to like it quite well. I don't think we'll be buying small square bales (65'ish pounds) any longer. We may need one more load of alfalfa before we quit buying hay for quite a while. Spring and summer pasture should cut way down on consumption.
It's official...I'm sick!
Sick of fall and winter, sick of cold, sick of ice, sick of gloves, and hats and runny noses and cold wind and Thomas (our wood stove), and cloudy days and brown foliage and leafless trees! I'm sick of it all. I want Spring!!!
We had some last minute company the past week. Gary, Jeremiah's brother-in-law (Rebecca's husband), Thomas and Sarah visited us from WV.
It was 66 degrees on Thursday. As you can see...after wearing long sleeves and jackets and hats and gloves for what seems like forever, 66 degrees feels like summer and out came the tank tops, shorts and flip flops! Can you believe it?
But what a tease...what a horrible horrible awful terrible tease. I knew it wouldn't last. I secretly hoped it would of course but my wishing was fruitless. Thursday evening after such a beautiful day with a warm southern wind, the north wind won out and the temperature dropped so quickly. The clouds rolled in and we had sleet on Thursday night. It was a frozenwonder wasteland by Friday morning followed by snow flurries by 9 AM.
I long for spring! It cannot come fast enough.
Today is Saturday, day one of 2011. We're ringing in the new year working on the basement. We've been slacking off the past few weeks, I'll admit. I have a list of "honey do's" for the next 2 months to include painting the inside of the house. We'll see how far I get with that.
Some new somewhat old news...The Healthy Baby Boutique in Newton (about half an hour due east) will be stocking some of my diapers towards the middle of the month. That's pretty exciting!
One of my goats, PJ, will not settle (as in, she has not gotten pregnant yet). I've run the gauntlet as to the reason for her infertility and narrowed it down to a few possible reasons. I talked to a goat mentor of mine and she said possibly a uterine infection so yesterday, when she came back into heat again (I wanted to wait to be sure she wasn't pregnant as filling her full of antibiotics could harm potential fetus') I started her on a heavy duty dose on Penicillin, after 7 days of that she'll get another 7 days of a tetracycline (which is another antibiotic) and hopefully when she comes back into heat again (approx. 7 days after all the full two weeks of antibiotics) she'll finally settle. I am hoping an infection is her problem because I have about run out of other possible causes. Her daughter Emmy from this year that I kept isn't settling either...I've put her onto the back burner for now hoping that a dose of selenium may be her problem. I'm still waiting to see if she cycles again or not. As for everyone else that I wanted bred is bred so, at least the infertility isn't herd wide, though it may be easier to diagnose the problem if it was! Oh well.
We had some last minute company the past week. Gary, Jeremiah's brother-in-law (Rebecca's husband), Thomas and Sarah visited us from WV.
It was 66 degrees on Thursday. As you can see...after wearing long sleeves and jackets and hats and gloves for what seems like forever, 66 degrees feels like summer and out came the tank tops, shorts and flip flops! Can you believe it?
(Left to right: Rachel, Sarah, Drew, and Thomas. Sarah was 14 months old at our wedding and Thomas was our 3 year old ring bearer...how quickly they grow. How quickly time flies!)
But what a tease...what a horrible horrible awful terrible tease. I knew it wouldn't last. I secretly hoped it would of course but my wishing was fruitless. Thursday evening after such a beautiful day with a warm southern wind, the north wind won out and the temperature dropped so quickly. The clouds rolled in and we had sleet on Thursday night. It was a frozen
I long for spring! It cannot come fast enough.
Today is Saturday, day one of 2011. We're ringing in the new year working on the basement. We've been slacking off the past few weeks, I'll admit. I have a list of "honey do's" for the next 2 months to include painting the inside of the house. We'll see how far I get with that.
Some new somewhat old news...The Healthy Baby Boutique in Newton (about half an hour due east) will be stocking some of my diapers towards the middle of the month. That's pretty exciting!
One of my goats, PJ, will not settle (as in, she has not gotten pregnant yet). I've run the gauntlet as to the reason for her infertility and narrowed it down to a few possible reasons. I talked to a goat mentor of mine and she said possibly a uterine infection so yesterday, when she came back into heat again (I wanted to wait to be sure she wasn't pregnant as filling her full of antibiotics could harm potential fetus') I started her on a heavy duty dose on Penicillin, after 7 days of that she'll get another 7 days of a tetracycline (which is another antibiotic) and hopefully when she comes back into heat again (approx. 7 days after all the full two weeks of antibiotics) she'll finally settle. I am hoping an infection is her problem because I have about run out of other possible causes. Her daughter Emmy from this year that I kept isn't settling either...I've put her onto the back burner for now hoping that a dose of selenium may be her problem. I'm still waiting to see if she cycles again or not. As for everyone else that I wanted bred is bred so, at least the infertility isn't herd wide, though it may be easier to diagnose the problem if it was! Oh well.
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