I’m Milking

I finally got Freddie and Fannie weaned by putting them on the front pasture with my newest moms.

Fannie and Freddie (they are not going to starve)

That means I started milking Ava.

Ava

That girl really gives me a lot of milk.  It’s no wonder Freddie is so big.

I have decided that it’s easier to wean by selling the kids right away. Ava has been a bit melodramatic.

She was refusing to give me her milk at first.  She’s doing better now, but I still think she’s holding it some.

Ava

Since I’m milking again, I’ve also spent some time cleaning in there.  I hate how muddy the milk room gets.

I thought I’d better start with just one goat to get my hands back in shape.  Cinnamon is coming in.  I hadn’t weaned six yet, but Cinnamon was not supposed to have a kid, and she is struggling with getting enough copper.

Cinnamon and Six

Astra also decided she should have her kids weaned so she can come in.

Let’s face it.  I have a whole long line of goats who want to come in and get milked despite not having any milk: Caroline, Haley, Cookie, Dolly, and Pluto are pretty much begging to come in every day.

Three generations of milking does: Dolly, Astra, and Pistol

And I still have Zinnia and Cutie to milk.

Zinnia

Later in the summer, I want to see if I can train Joy and Antigone.  Cupid is another possibility for training–she does like her food.

I Quit

The second reason I did not take many pictures this past weekend is tomatoes and milk.  Seriously.  I’m not getting much milk from the girls right now, but it still adds up.

That means, I started Saturday by making three batches of mozzarella.  I also had to deep fry the mozzarella sticks that we made last weekend.  They’ve been in the freezer all week taunting me.

Then I switched to tomatoes.

This is my canning total for Saturday: 13 pints and 2 half-pints of roasted sauce; two pints and four quarts of cold pack tomatoes; and six pints and three quarts of tomato juice.

My basement is full. I’ve already given away two dozen pints of sauce/salsa.  I quit.  I refuse to do any more tomatoes this year!

That means I moved on to other garden items!  I chopped and froze some okra.

I started preparing and freezing butternut squash.  I did some for me and some for my uncle.

Someone had to check out the squash after I put the skins in the birds’ bucket.

Sky and Snickers

Snickers decided that it tasted yummy.

I pulled the last of the beets and shared them with my nephew.  I roasted and froze mine. Since my peppers didn’t do well, my sister sent me a bucket.

I’m still working on getting the peppers done.  I did take a break though, and made three batches of soap Sunday afternoon.

That includes a new fragrance–crisp apple rose.

The To-Do List

Usually, I wake up with an idea of what I want to get done each day.  Most days, I don’t come close to finishing my list.  But there’s the rare day like yesterday when everything actually gets done.  Yesterday, I started the day with putting on a batch of tomatoes to roast.  While they were roasting, I made two batches of soap.

Black Amber & Lavender and Almond Biscotti

I like the way the design turned out in the soap.

And two batches of mozzarella.

In the afternoon, I put another batch of tomatoes on to roast.

Then I made five batches of goat milk lotion.

I managed to get the tomatoes processed.

Then I started a batch of relish.

I admit.  I had my mom help me with the relish, but we got it ready.  I hadn’t even planned on the roasted tomato sauce when I got up.  So I’m really happy with everything that got accomplished.