That secret road trip, thrifting find, poultry update

As I mentioned previously, we made a trip to view some land. The land turned out to not be for us. There is a 1/2 acre flat area about 50 feet higher then the other 6 1/2 acres. The lower acreage flooded last year which does not make me feel good. Having a barn with poultry, goats, and cattle down there to chance is not what we want. We LOVED the area and am determined that is where we will buy. Land is cheap there, which means we can have our 10...

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Neufchatel cheese and some future plan rambling....

I began the process of making cream cheese or rather "Neufchatel" the evening of last Thursday. I followed the process listed on this great Cheesemaking site-(Fankhauser's)- many of you may already know of. It was so easy and simple which produced a large enough amount to make 1 cheesecake. After the milk/buttermilk/rennet sat all night at room temperature, I drained the curd( in 1st picture). Then had to hang in a sterile handkerchief (pic 2) for...

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Yogurt success , a weeks garden bounty & secret road trip

I used 1 gallon of "FRESH" cow milk mentioned in my last post to make a batch of yogurt. At first i thought i goofed due to the websites recipe stating it should be ready in 3 hours. After utilizing a great homesteading forum asking for answers, I placed the above back in their warmed water for 6 more hours. SUCCESS!I did not realize till later that I used Dannon All Natural yogurt WITH vanilla added. All recipes call for plain yogurt to be used...

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blueberry picking, old man in the tree, sewing, fresh cow milk

This week has been filled with activities. After reading Cheryl's post on her blueberry picking, I could not hold off the urge and packed the kids up for a day of it. We reached our goal of entire bucket filled for the day. Frog was more active this year- but not helping in the picking department. She would sneak berries from our buckets as we dropped them in. Her wagon was brougt along and she would take breaks from all her sneaking sitting in there-...

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Fernie, Delawares, Zinnias, & our table runneth over....

I picked up our dairy doe Saturday. A long drive due to wrong directions and a late night drive home - really "blew"- which I do not like driving at night on the interstate.Her previous name was Fawn- which I find myself calling her Fern. It just flows out and feels so right to call her that. So Fern it is. Sometimes it is Fernie but we call Lady Chia "chi chi" all the time now... In fact all goats are named Chi Chi according to Frog.I...

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Chica bonita and in search of Buddy......

I have had a bit of bad luck on the whole goat breeding experience. Last year we had 2 does which neither were successfully bred. So I sold Cleo (keeping Lady Chia) and this last spring brought dehlilah home in the hopes of another try. Lets just say a farm friend was visiting and noticed something a bit different about her & did an exam. Lets just leave it at she has been sold to a lady who wanted her for just a pet and not breeding.After searching...

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A day at Goat Fest (with 2 slideshow links)

The goat fest was an enjoyable day with my girls. They had a decent amount and variety of goats to view, decent demos including basic canning and basic soap making. I overheard there was one for cheese making but could not find any info for it. They had a great raffle pavilion with LOTS of great goat related items. I won 2 3.5 lb containers of goat kid milk replacer. There was a windmill on display which showed how it can aerate your pond- kinda...

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How many do U C?, cast begone and Wagon makeover

Did you count them? I had to take a picture just to be sure I was not counting double. There were more eggs under her then I realized. 17 baby Muscovy ducklings. Now what the H*** am I going to do with 17 of them. I had not expected this many to hatch out. I thought maybe 12 or 13 at most. It costs $4 a duck for processing so I am doubting all will be done. We will save 1 female out of the bunch & hope it is not from Clyde. We will go with one...

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Wholesale Furniture Brokers now Advertising on "5 Minutes for Mom"

Wholesale Furniture Brokers has posted advertising on a website that we feel is worth some extra kudos. Started by fellow web-entrepreneurs Susan & Janice (who are both very pleasant to work with), 5 Minutes For Mom is a great web ring for all work-at-home moms, helping with recipes, experiences, website/blog links and, yes, kids furniture. Check it out, and don't forget, moms, we have grownup furniture t...

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Furniture Shoppers Want Your Opinion Online

Globe & Mail recently reported that consumers (possibly one reading this sentence) are shopping for furniture online, rather than going store-to-store in their community."About 38 per cent of online buyers visited more than one online store this year before making a purchase, an increase of four percentage points from 2006, the study by J.C. Williams Group found Wednesday.The survey also showed that online buyers are early adopters of social networking such as writing or reading blogs, customer reviews, and community websites. They're more...

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Ducks are hatching!

Walked out this morning to find 3 Muscovy ducklings have hatched. 1 which hatched out in front of Panda & I. Another had poked a hole before our eyes which was amazing to watch and then see these eggs jumping around in the nest along with little peeps.As of 9pm, there are 8 that have hatched out with one who appears to be still soaking wet.I think I saw 5 more eggs left ( a which few I could see did have the beginnings of a hatch) which also...

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chickens and berries

The Delaware hens & Brahma bantams were let out to free range today. I have kept them in the chicken tractor that is moved every other day on the hilltop and around the gardens, which gives fresh greens often. But today they were loose to wander IN the gardens. They follow me around as I go through attacking the (many) weeds, which have escaped my sight over the last month. Little peeps surround me, feathered wings brush my ankles & little...

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