So Christine recovered from the terrible tree dweller…and then I surprised her with an early Christmas present (Note to self: do not buy Christmas presents early because you’re terrible at keeping them to yourself until the big date).
First modeling mine myself so you can read it; then us together with them on! I love Etsy and the ability to create custom tees so easily. Yay!
So, also in that week the ducks decided to *finally* lay eggs. If you remember, ducks are supposed to lay a good month or so before chickens and so we were annoyed that our ducks kept slacking. Our chickens have been laying for what, two months now, but finally one morning two weeks ago when Christine went to let them out of their night enclosure there was not one, not two, but THREE eggs. Not sure how we went from zero to three in one day! Silly ducks. But there they were.
Also in the same week (what a week!) the new goat enclosure got finished. We put the boys in there to try it out.
And then this week…
We used the new area as a breeding pen. Three out of four of the adult does are bred (well, we think so, anyway. Time will tell). Ironically doe in picture below, Dollop, is not bred yet. Any day now she should come into heat. The others, including the “babies” have been in heat this past week except for Kissy and Felicia who we believe are pregnant and due in March. Dollop’s sister Bridget is due April Fool’s Day.
Aaaaaaaand we have an announcement.
Last week our family grew in size. We have a new goat coming!
Whaaaaat???? I know, I know…how many goats do we really need? Well, probably not this many, but…we do intend to sell a few in the spring after the babies are born.
The reason we bought this one is because our goats are all low on milk supply right now. Really low. This new goat is a full size La Mancha, our first non-mini goat, and she’s in milk. She’s a good 3-4 inches taller than our tallest goats. She’s supposed to have a really nice personality and not be too bossy with the other goats. She’s also coming bred to a mini La Mancha, so at least her babies will probably be a bit smaller than she is.
We haven’t picked out a name and won’t until we meet her, but I’ve been tossing around Rainbow Dash, Zelda, and Jubilee. Christine said not to Rainbow Dash but my wee human and I are still holding out hope. We’ll see what fits! Her current name is too common and too short; I always prefer multi-syllable names.
What else is going on? My last two kombucha batches were a mega bust. After my first one, the black tea, was so fizzy and tasty I got overexcited I guess and then my oolong was completely flat and somehow I ended up with kombucha that tastes JUST like beer. Not so great for two sober adults like us. The green tea isn’t quite as flat but the flavors, the same flavors I used in the black tea that were AMAZING, are now disgusting in the green tea. And unfortunately my batch that’s brewing and will be done in the next few days is another green tea because I didn’t know how bad my first green tea batch was going to be. UGH. And all this AFTER the kombucha people in a fermenting group told me my Scoby was “beautiful” and “perfect.” I’m about to throw in the towel, but the delicious taste of the black tea batch keeps me going and hoping that another black tea batch will be just as good.
I guess I haven’t been having tons of luck with the fermentation stuff because, boohoo, my ginger bug molded on Day 4 and so I did not end up with an active ginger bug that would have worked so well in natural soda making.
I have made 10 loaves of bread with the active culture creature now, including a batch of cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls coated in garlic butter. I admit I haven’t sold any, but I’ve frozen a few just in case my bread creature Francesca decides to take a turn for the worst like my other cultures have recently. It’s actually be so much maintenance it’s almost more trouble than the goat herd!
Speaking of those goats again…today we let them out “free” in our yard for the first time. They looked so beautiful. I’m still convinced we live in some sort of Heaven, even with the asps.
