Meet The Kids

And Mama, too!

Naomi!


Naomi is the four-year-old doe we'll be bringing home. She is quite a sweetie.

Surrey!


This is Surrey, our buckling, who after much debate, got to keep his equipment after all. ;-) He's very outgoing and friendly, and extra lovey just like a puppy.

I'm sorry to say that I don't have a clear shot of Patience, our doeling. She is a week older than Surrey and looks much the same, but she is mostly black. She's very sweet and a bit shy. It was really difficult to take pictures of the kids, because they never stop moving. They're full of energy and very curious, even at such a young age.

We spent Saturday with them. I got to milk Naomi and we disbudded the kids, which was unpleasant to be sure, but not as traumatic as we feared it might be. They've recovering nicely and we'll get to bring them all home sometime around mid-March, after they're weaned. I can't wait! Well, actually I can wait, since we have tons of work to do before they arrive.

Getting My Goat

My husband and I met our goats yesterday - the ones that will be ours. It was really exciting, and they're unbelievably cute, and of course I didn't take along a camera. What is wrong with me?

It looks like we'll be getting three Nubian goats. One is a mature doe in milk that we were already acquainted with. One will be a wether, and is one of the mature doe's new kids. The third will be a doeling, and is from another bloodline, but the mother is also known to us.

We feel like this will give us a well-rounded starter combination. We'll have one that's experienced at kidding and milking, one female that we can learn with as she grows, and a boy to keep them company and help us with brush clearing (and who knows, maybe I'll teach him to pull a cart). We spent the rest of the afternoon yesterday assessing our barn and fencing, and we have a lot of work to do to get it up to goat standards, but we think we can manage it. I'll tell you, I am a complete list nerd, and right now, I NEED A LIST!

We'll likely be seeing them again soon, so next time I'll remember the camera. For the next few weeks, though, it will be work, work, work for us.

And then it will be milk, milk, milk!

A Boy and his Belongings

This is our boy, Stanley.



Stanley has lots of stuff. His own stuff. He found it, he loves it, he keeps track of it, the stuff is his. Just to be clear, his things are mostly not toys. Oh sure, there are a couple of favorites thrown in for good measure, but toys are largely community property around here. No, his are things that he picks out for himself. "Owning" things seems to be a common trait among German Shepherds, a rather charming one that I had forgotten about. Our other shepherd used to do it too - she kept "her stuff" in the crawlspace (we found dishes, yes dishes, out there all the time). Here's a small sampling of Stan's possessions, in the usual place that he likes to keep them - on the kitchen stoop:



Today we have a particularly well-loved toy (mostly destroyed), a curtain tie back, and a worn out slipper. This is an especially small and, uh, clean sampling. Ordinarily this pile would include such things as my favorite pair of pants (pinched from the bedroom), a chunk of broken glass, a dead and fantastically ripe mouse, aluminum cans, pieces of metal pipe, chunks of wood and things I can't even hope to identify. He can be seen spending most of his day lying in the sun on the stoop, amid his private collection of valuable artifacts, each and every one hand picked for its unique aesthetic.

He is a collector. A connoisseur.

Making Mozzarella

I've been trying my hand at making some simple cheeses lately and thought I'd share the experience. I watched a live demo over Thanksgiving weekend and decided it looked easy enough for me to do at home. There are a couple of special items needed to do this but as long as you have the right tools, it really is quite simple. I've now made two batches of mozzarella and a batch of ricotta (lasagna, anyone?). These are some pictures from the second batch of mozzarella.

First, I warmed some milk with citric acid added (this helps provide elasticity).



When it reached the proper temperature, I added rennet. This caused curds to form.



Once the curds have separated from the whey, the whey gets poured of and the curds are formed into a solid mass.





At this point, the whey goes back into the pot and the ball of curds goes back into the whey. It needs to be heated and stretched to form the cheese.



It starts out looking like this:



And ends up looking like this:



Now some salt is worked in.



When it's finished, it can be shaped into a ball, or pressed into a loaf shape, like I've done here.



And there you have it - fresh mozzarella!

In an Ice Cocoon

Monday brought us freezing rain. It rained lightly but steadily all day, and as it fell, it formed icy sheaths around everything. It was a great day to be at home, and everything looked fascinating under the icy shell. I thought I'd share some pictures.

Choosing The Right Stove

This post is in response to the question of how we chose this particular wood stove.

First and foremost, we had to choose a stove that was within our budget. I learned quickly that the price of wood stoves can vary widely, and it seems to me that a lot of the extra expense goes to "pretty". As much as I love the look of soapstone stoves, they're way too pricey for us. Besides, living where we live, our heating needs are fairly minimal and so it wasn't essential for us to get the best stove possible. If we lived someplace much colder, I would consider it more of an investment and put up more money to get the best we possibly could, but that simply wasn't necessary in our case.

This stove is a Drolet Classic that we ordered from Northern Tool. Drolet is a Canadian company, and well, we figured they might know a thing or two about wood stoves. ;-) We looked at the technical specs on this and other comparable models and concluded that there wasn't really too much difference. We chose this specific one based on the following factors:

• The size (BTU output) is adequate to heat our house.
• It was within our price range
• It is UL listed and EPA certified (these were important to us).
• It had some small design features that we preferred over similar stoves in other brands (it has a flat top rather than "stepped", we preferred a pedestal base over footed, it has a large, pull-out ash drawer, etc.)

We elected not to purchase the optional blower, and frankly, I don't think we ever will. It seems to heat very well even without a blower. We've had steady temperatures in the mid-thirties today and the stove is working great. The area right around the stove is VERY warm, and even the farther reaches of the house are pretty comfortable. It's easy to use, especially if you're comfortable making fires (if you've had a fireplace, or can build a campfire, it's a cake walk). It also kept a hot coal bed overnight, and reignited readily this morning with the addition of some new wood.

So far, we're very happy with it!

Warm!

We had lots of things planned for this weekend, but shelved everything when we found out our wood stove was in. Although it's Texas, and not that cold compared to most of the rest of the country, we have had quite a few miserably cold, foggy breath days in the house. We were quite excited to have heat in the house, so naturally it was 80 degrees the day we picked it up. We drove to the store in t-shirts, with the air conditioning running in the truck.

We discovered that even in winter, it's difficult to find stovepipe and chimney pieces in Texas. We found everything we needed, but only after visiting several stores and buying an expensive five-piece kit from which we only needed two pieces. Why these things aren't sold separately I'll never know.

We spent the following day installing it, which went fairly smoothly since part of the chimney was already in place. By mid-afternoon the stove was burning, and just in time too, since a cold front came through and we're now looking at a couple of days of freezing rain. The warmth feels downright luxurious now. I'm already amazed at how well it works. Even though the stove is on the opposite end of the house, I got up this morning and the kitchen was even warm! Finally, it feels fairly civilized in here. Working at my desk without a hat and coat on is quite a novelty. The dogs seem to like it too, they're having trouble getting out of bed today. :)