We have to go dig a hole.  Li'l Bit - aka Troi - died sometime today.  She was fine at breakfast....but when I went out at 4:30 to feed her, she was gone.  It looks like one of the play toys fell on her - but I can't really tell (she's under it, but it's not on top of her.)  She might have gotten bit by something....SG is going to look her over to see what he can find out.

This has not been a good year for kids, here.  2 stillborn girls, then Trip, and now my baby girl.  :sigh:

I hate this part of critter caretakership, I really do.

Let's see....Sunday I made a quick batch of Queso Fresco - Herself says that when it's about a week old it's her favorite cheese.  :lol:

Today was Swiss - the last one looks OK, but it has no holes.  I didn't see the step where you refrigerate it before setting it out to dry...:sigh:  We'll try again with this batch.

I heard a loud goat earlier...turns out it was Spock.  Somehow, he had gotten out, and wasn't happy.  Herself went to put him up, and started yelling.  He was bleeding profusely from his horn buds.  :sigh:  I went out to look him over (he's fine, just looks like the victim of a mugging or something)...and noticed that all the does were NEXT DOOR.  :sigh:

They had managed to knock over 1 of the fence panels, and waltzed over to eat the neighbor's mesquite trees.  The neighbors don't mind...but I do.  We did get things squared away....life with goats is never dull!

Tripp didn't make it.  I HATE this part of animal-ownership! :sigh:

Had to go to the office today, so no cheese - but I did whip up a batch of shaving soap.  One of my customers buys 3 or 4 bars every time he sees me, and I discovered I'm out.  I won't see him again until October (maybe), so it's all good - I have time for it to cure.

And I found something interesting in the Dragonsblood:

Do you *see* it?  That's the coolest swirl I've ever done - I never would have expected to have a DRAGON in my soap!!!!!  Unfortunately, I have no idea how it occurred, and it's the only one....and no, this particular bar is NOT going to be sold.  Or used.  :lol:

Here, let me give you a view of the rest of the bars:

The yellow-and-green is Cedar and Saffron (we need to come up with a name for it), the red-and-green is Dragons Blood (soap name:  Chimera, because a chimera is a goat-headed dragon. :wink:), and the solid rose is Rosehip-Jasmine (soap name:  Grandma's Flower Garden) - it was supposed to be a rose-in-natural swirl, but, well.....stuff happens.  It's sill good soap, just not as "pretty" as I wanted.  (Huh.  In the photo, I can see a faint swirl in the front one.....guess I need to reserve judgement until it cures.  Sometimes the colors shift a little bit.)

Today's cheese:  Wensleydale.  The first batch of Wensleydale I did kinda flopped - it didn't press into a nice, coherent block; it was just pieces of curd squished together.  Not sure why - usually 50 lbs of pressure makes a nice, solid block - but there was no way I could wax it neatly, so it got tossed and I started a new batch.  :shrug:

Yesterday DH made me a lovely batch of chocolate cherry ice cream.  :mmmmmm:  8 oz of Penzey's Dutch Process Cocoa, 2 oz of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate, 2 bottles of Marashino Cherries, Fresh Goat's milk, Cream......:mmmmmmmmm:  It's yummy!  And all MINE, since no one else in this house likes cherries.  :heh:

Tripp is hanging in there - he took a little more milk this AM.  I've got a lady coming out Wednesday to look at the  2 Alpine bucklings; she's told me she's got her crate in her car, so she's pretty sure she'll be taking one home.  :yippee!:  I got an email last night from someone else looking for a buckling......I HOPE they both sell.  That'll leave me with 3 boys to re-home....

I need to go work on labels.  Fun stuff!

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: