Barker Glen Farm
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Life...

6/30/2013

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We have a sick goat - a buckling.  Unfortunately, we have too many boys, so I'm not going to do anything heroic for him.  It's a sad part of this life - the boys aren't needed, and they aren't worth as much as the girls - even though they are half your herd!  :sigh:

It's one of Risky's...the pretty one.  Jordie (we call him "Tripp") has runny poo, isn't eating, and has lost a lot of weight in a very short amount of time.  I'm thinking it's dehydration - the waterer was FILTHY (my son has been chastised - it's his job to keep the waterers filled and clean, and he's been slacking) and I think Tripp decided it was too nasty to drink.  We've moved him into the kid area in the barn, with fresh water; I've given him a dose of Banamine (for any pain), a dose of Oxytetracycline (in case it's a bug), a couple of doses of Thiamine (for his appetite...and just in case it's polio) AND I treated him with Baycox again (it's 1 dose for cocci......but just in case.)  We're now in wait-and-see mode.  (DH said he just took another 1/3 of a bottle - yes, he's weaned, but we're still giving the boys 1 bottle/day - because we have the milk.  This is a good sign...I hope!)

Cheese:  Today is Manchego.  I just ordered the culture for Swiss, so I'll be making some of that soon.

Soap:  The dragon's blood is AWESOME.  The Cedar and Saffron is nice....but Grandma's Flower Garden kinda flopped.  It's still good soap, but my swirl...didn't.  I have a lovely batch of rose-colored soap.  :lol:  I know what happened - as I was getting ready to swirl the rose into the natural, my left hand lost it's grip and I ended up kinda dumping the whole container of rose into the rest.  So....no swirl - but it's a lovely shade of rose, and it smells great. :lol:


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Say Cheese!

6/28/2013

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Today it was Monterrey Jack - but I think (no, I KNOW) I screwed it up.

See, all hard cheeses start out the same:  heat your milk to x*, add your starter and hold at x* for y minutes.  Add your rennet and hold for another y minutes (might be the same, might be longer/shorter.)  Cut the resulting curds into various sizes, let set for yet another y minutes, then heat to x*.  Usually stirring. Let set another y minutes. Drain whey, add salt (sometimes), then put in mold and press.  Simple, right?

Only some cheeses add steps.  Like Monterrey Jack, for example - you raise the temp, then drain off HALF the whey (which I did), then you ADD COOL WATER to drop the temp from 100* to 80*-ish, hold for 30 minutes, then drain for 20 and then press.

I....didn't add the water, so I held the curds at 100*. :sigh:  Still – it looks normal, tastes OK, so I'm gonna keep on and age it.  We'll see what the difference is in 4 months or so.  (Cheese is cheese is cheese, and it'll be edible.  Just...might not taste like it's supposed to. :lol:

I used 2 gallons (to get 2 pounds of cheese)...I need to do a soft cheese too. That'll use up another gallon.....and it looks like I need to make cheese tomorrow, too.  Our r
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today was a soaping day!

6/27/2013

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Today, instead of cheese, I soaped.  I refilled Grandma's Flower Garden, then decided to play.  The other 2 batches are Dragon's Blood (nice, dark green with red swirls; smells DIVINE!) and Cedar and Saffron (Lemon yellow with grass green swirls).  I'll post 'em to the soap page in 4 weeks!
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C-h-h-h-hanges!

6/27/2013

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I decided, after a LOT of thought, that I needed to have a farm-specific blog.  So...here we go.  I'm still going to be posting to my LJ (and there's still a tab at the top of the website for it!), but this will be for farm-specific posts.  

My cheese-making will go here, as well as soap, and I'll also be noting anything we do with/to the goats here - like breeding, medicating, etc.  Yeah, it might be boring to most of y'all, but I need a place I can note this stuff down, and where I can quickly FIND the info.  (Try estimating due dates when you can't remember WHEN you put the bucks in with the does.  Lots of fun, that!)

So, yeah...now I have 3 active blogs (my LJ is mirrored at Dreamwidth)....whee! :lol:
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    About Us

    We're just a family living the good life in the country.  With goats. (And horses, chickens, and dogs.  But the goats outnumber everybody else!)

    Cast of Characters:

    SG: short for "Sweet Geek", the man of the family

    Fiberaddict:  me, the mom and zoo-keeper

    Herself:  daughter of the house, creativity unbound

    Himself:  son of the house, budding engineer and physicist

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