The one thing that does bug me is that I ended up having to give a whole lot of my milk to my dogs. While I love my dogs, I gave them a good 8 gallons that I would have liked to have for us over the winter. Oh well. Live and learn. I also pulled my girls back to milking once a day, another maybe not so wise decision. You get less milk once a day, which is fine because I was getting buried in it and had no where to store 2 gallons a day. We can run through about a gallon a day, but running out of room to make my soft cheese too. So how to solve the problem? Bring them down to once a day. The only problem is they are now only giving me about 3/4 of a gallon a day. Sheesh. I was hoping to run them through to next year but if they keep dropping and drying off I may have to get them going again this fall with new babes for the spring. We shall see.
My one girl Cassie is probably pregnant. Due in November. When the weather starts to get rougher. Some positives and negatives there. Not good to have babes in that kind of cold that comes in December and January, but I do have a green house converted into a baby nursery for babies to keep warm in. Plus, if my two big girls start to dry out, then Cassie might be able to help us to stay in milk. It won't be much, but could get upwards of 1/2 a gallon a day from her alone. Always good to keep barn records.
All of that said, these are things I was able to get finished up. Smoked and canned the two young bucks I had to take out. I also dispatched two young animals for meat this Thanksgiving. Absolutely gorgeous little roasts, I couldn't believe it. They were both 6 months old. So young enough to be very tender and still manageable size for dispatch day (we do it all ourselves) and small enough to fit in my existing freezer well. I love it. I canned 30 qts of cherries too, made bread, you know...the typical stuff. I have harvested about 5 qts of raspberries thus far, and have more to go. The wild blackberries are ready and my thorn less will be ready in about a month. Potatoes need harvesting...onward. Oh, and we have 14 new chicks with hopefully 10 more on the way. They are sitting under momma now. Half will be roosters most likely, so some fowl for the Thanksgiving table too :-)
Another thing I'm really looking forward to next year is even more milk (I'm crazy I suspect) Because look at this picture!! My very own butter!! It's the first I've made. It is raw goat milk butter and wow, I've never had anything this amazing. Smooth, really lovely flavor, ever so slight tang. It was extraordinary. But I don't get enough milk right now to make anymore. I actually insisted the day I made it that I will never do that again for such a small amount of milk, but really, just because whey was flying all over the kitchen and huge messes were being made for one softball sized ball...doesn't mean I should not try again. I was being too fussy. I've since come to my senses and cannot wait to have more next year. I should have 6-7 milking does. Instead of 2.
Yeah, I need that freezer don't I?
Ok, a few of the sights and sounds of the last month. A lovely rabbit salad and some fried rabbit "wings" and my fabulous, over the top butter! |
| Fresh Raw Butter from Goats Milk |
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| Rabbit Salad - my Rabbits and Garden w/Blackberry wine |
6 comments:
I really want to taste (eat a bucket of) those rabbit wings! It all looks delish! And the goat butter, how did that come out?
You can freeze the butter. Can you freeze the cheese too? Or barter your dairy products; or sell and hope not to get raided by the FDA... with volume producton back up to 2-a-day's. Neighbors have anything you need who would love some of what you've got a'plenty.
Okay, I can't stop thinking about those wabbitwings :-)
The goat butter came out so fantastic I just have to make more, hence the happy, happy over having 6-7 does to milk next year. I really thought after this first batch, no way, I'm never doing this again. But it actually was easy and I was just second guessing myself (with whey all over the ceiling and floor - I used my mixer. Not a good idea, LOL -- after my blender, and trying the shaking by hand method) But it is divine, especially on sourdough bread. Oh boy...
Those rabbit wings...they are as fantastic as they look. And I have two liters I will be moving on through next week. So...about a bucket full, yep! :-)
Oh, yes I can freeze my cheese, that is what I'm doing with the majority of it right now. I don't really have enough milk to make cheese anymore, so pretty much just what I've garnered over the course of the last 3 months is what I have left.
Barter baby, it's all about barter. I'm not getting onto the radar of a thing at the moment. In a year or two or three when all of this "works" it's way through (hopefully not a decade, egads!) I can actually consider some business enterprise, but until then...nope. I'm stubborn that way.
I do not like the way the environment is setting up right now. WA state is pretty cool about most of this stuff...but they did allow the Estrella farm to be raided, so...not happy there at all. And I've been there, a really lovely and very well managed farm.
Weird.
I start milking my cow next spring and so i am going to get a few pigs to raise at the same time so they will drink the left over milk, .. and yes you can freeze the butter. I would not freeze my cheese though, it kind of defeats the purpose..if it is waxed it will keep for ages and get tastier too.. c
Hello,
Very inspiring article and blog. Does the rain get to you up there? We are looking to relocate in the northwest.
Hi there Michael, thank you for your kind words, much appreciated!
The rain can get on my nerves sometimes, yes. Mostly because it really rains very heavy here during the winter months. Upwards of 200" plus some years.
Being on the western side of the Olympic Mountains does not afford the rain shadow effect that the other side of the peninsula gets. Sequim and Port Angeles are absolutely gorgeous and really lovely for a maritime climate, but being even just 50 some miles west and we pretty much get hammered out here. It takes some getting used to.
So it sort of depends on how much you can handle. Seattle actually gets less that NY city believe it or not, but most don't know that. 30" is nothing compared to what we get out here. Sequim gets about 15" and Port Angeles about 18". So you can see the effect of that rain shadow. Some of the islands are in the rainshadow as well. So there are some really amazing areas up here in particular that have drastic changes within just a few miles.
What area are you looking at as far as "northwest" is concerned? The eastern sides of the states of WA and OR are pretty close to intermountain (Rockies and the Plains) and have more in the way of 4 seasons and a whole lot less rain. Coastal and yeah, rain, but pockets of not so much if you know where to look.
Hope this helps a bit, let me know if you have more specific questions as to areas out here, I just might be able to help you out :-)
And thanks for dropping in!
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