I had planned on taking pictures of everybody this morning, but we spent an hour hanging with the goats and then my camera battery died. When we went out to do chores, I heard some tired little blats. I usually do goat chores last because I like them the most, but I decided to start with goats to investigate. Turns out that all of the goats and sheep had gone out to the back pasture, Suki included, leaving little Cindy Ray behind.
We hung out with Cindy Ray for a bit, while she pogoed on and off our backs, ate our shirts, did skateboard tricks and yelled for Mommy. I tried to take some video of her on my head with my little Flip camera, but it proved impossible. Suki was off eating grass, ignoring her baby, so I called her name and immediately she (and the rest of the gang) came thundering into the goat yard.
I wish there was a ruler beside these two girls, to give you an idea of scale. Alva, who is on the left, is now over a year old. She is about the size of a cocker spaniel. Cindy Ray is minute!
This is Eunice the sheep, my favourite of the two. I will be sad to eat her, she is now very friendly (you get mugged for treats going into the pen) and I like her big dark eyes. I am definitely sold on sheep. They are so… pleasant and sheepy. Goats, as I have mentioned many times before, have a tendency to jerkiness. Which also makes them hilarious… and on occasion, a tremendous (and literal) pain in the ass.
Bob did not want to leave the goat pen this morning.
Totally unrelated, here is a picture of my darling Meeps spraying Scott in the face after a 16K run. Something as you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed. We all do actually, and take turns soaking him.
Remember all that beautiful garlic I harvested recently? I left it out to cure, congratulating myself on such a nice haul this year. Oh, what a great job you did! I thought to myself. Ho, ho!
Well. I brought it into the kitchen. Where it proceeded practically overnight to grow a coat of mould. All over every head. That’s what I get for being uppity. So, I’ve been peeling off the mouldy paper and freezing the individual cloves. Which (believe me) I know is less delicious, but it’s really the only option. I’ll be using it to cook with anyway.
Speaking of cooking, I must admit to subscribing to Martha Stewart Magazine, and her little accompanying food mag this month had a super simple recipe for gnocchi, which I cannot waiiiiit to try out. This gives me an excuse to go to the Amish store and buy a potato ricer, and ogle all of the beautiful stainless steel, manual kitchen accessories which make me ever so giddy. I recently bought a “Whirly Pop” stove top popcorn popper there, because I was tired of making popcorn in a pot and WOW. Totally consistent and I have yet to burn any, which says a lot as we eat popcorn almost every day, and I am generally half a disaster in the kitchen. Enthusiasm only gets you so far, I have learned.
Potato Ricers are amazing! My grandma introduced me to them and I won’t take my potatoes any other way now!
We had a similar experience with our beautiful crop of onions. Someone (my dear, lovely husband) left the entire nearly-done-drying crop out in a rainstorm and we lost about half of them. Sigh.
Also, I’m thinking a Whirly Pop needs to be the newest addition to our kitchen. I’m a serious popcornaholic.
Cindy Ray really IS an especially attractive goat, looks like she would win a ribbon or two!
i subscribe to everyday food, I LOVE IT!!! last month there was a great recipe for buttermilk chicken and scallion cornbread, soooo good!!
You might want to think about roasting some of those delicious cloves with a little olive oil (in the barbecue even). When they are nice and mushy, squish the paste into ice cube trays and freeze those for winter consumption. Yum!
Hey Ashley,
I roasted the garlic you gave me last week and it was divine. We spread it on slices of crusty loaf. MMMMMMM Garlic. Then I continued to roast the top parts of the garlic to carmelize them to eat as a treat. Needless to say Dalton and I were rather stinky but pretty sure we won’t be getting colds anytime soon.
See you tomorrow with Rolie. He is happy to come out again. He told me you make the best “girled” cheese because you use “french cheese that is already girled”.
No pics of Bucky? I love his smile.
Do you HAVE to eat your little sheep?
Couldnt she just be a wool producer?
Ill teach you how to knit
Diane
It’s actually just Colby from Pine River, but I’m glad he likes my “girled cheese.” HILARIOUS.
Oh we’ll eat them. There’s no wool market, we are close friends with sheep farmers who have all the clean wool and yarn and sweaters we could ever desire. We eat our share of lamb, so this is the best way for us to keep doing that. One day I’ll learn to knit, this year I’m determined to learn to quilt!
MMMMmmmmm popcorn is my FAV….but only homemade..gonna try my hand at some caramel popcorn balls at xmas this year..wish me luck lol…ps try melting dill and smoked paprika in your butter for the popcorn..amazing AND parmasan cheese is GOOD too
GREAT pics, love meandering through your family updates girl <3
I have a Whirly Pop as well and LOVE it to bits. I’m a bit of a popcorn addict.
Please share the recipe for the gnocchi! It’s something I recently discovered that my daughter and I both love, and I haven’t been brave enough to try to make any yet.
Goats have the craziest eyes, I swear…
What do they taste like?
I love Everyday Food! Great little mag.
I ordered a lot of garlic from my CSA and had the same mold issue. I peeled all my cloves and just stored them at room temp in a wood basket.
We have eaten a bunch of them already and don’t feel like they were tainted or anything. Hopefully (I was telling myself) they won’t make us sick. They didn’t!
when I harvest my garlic I braid them together then hang them to dry (outside, weather permitting) for at least a few days. I’ve never had a problem doing it that way…
Love the pic of Cindy Ray—goats are great! Our household just learned to knit this past year. Dave’s grandma(86 yrs old) had enough patience to teach us. We WOULD NOT win an award for it by any means—-one item kind of resembles a ???very crooked tie. Is there a market I wonder for knitted ties??!! Perhaps around Father’s Day! Our ten year old son probably enjoys knitting the most! This popcorn maker…I have never heard of it but would consider getting one. Since I became sick with electrical hypersensitivity this winter we NO LONGER use the microwave(VERY UNHEALTHY what it does to your food anyway!!). Popcorn tastes much better made on the stove ! Is a Whirly Pop kid-friendly to use?
Katie – they taste a lot like sheep.
Lauren – I’m glad I’m not the only one!
Hayley – yeah, curing is usually 3-4 weeks, we stack outside or braid, I brought this stuff in too early. Won’t do it again!
Momx3 – yup kid friendly to use! Just give ‘em an oven mitt! It’s really fun because you turn the handle. You can buy them at Countryside Values in Bervie. Love it.
You can always take up spinning and use Eunice’s fleece instead of eating her. Don’t get me wrong, I love lamb but am not so fond of mutton. And Eunice looks like mutton to me
Hey, I have a question. We have two horses in a 2 acre pasture and it is constantly getting overgrown b/c they’re picky. We’ve had to mow the pasture 3 times this summer to keep it under control. We also have LOTS of kudzu and some poison ivy we’d like kept under control. We’ve thought about either getting a goat or a sheep for this purpose. Which do you think is best for this? Thanks!
I have to say, I don’t think either. 2 horses on 2 acres is as many animals as you would ever want to graze on that land. I would absolutely not add sheep or goats unless you have additional acreage to fence.
The only way to control that is to either control the weeds – go have hand to hand combat with those weeds, it may take years, but you WILL make a dent). More than mowing, get out and pull. We were visiting a friends sheep farm where they have been for dozens of years, and they hand battle the thistles and are finally starting to win. It’s worth it though, they don’t spray.
Or rotationally graze your pasture. You would only need one little electric tape and you could move them around the field so grass has a chance to regrow.
Goats are browsers and not grazers – eat the best and leave the rest. But sheep won’t eat nasty stuff either, they just chew lower down the stalk than goats do.
Keeping animals static on one piece of land is a sure way to ruin your pasture.
I took off a sugar baby watermelon too early much to the disappointment of my eager children……………
Here’s a website you may enjoy: http://homesteadgardenandpantry.com/
Martina – they are not a year old until winter. To quote my sheep farming friend, the best time to butcher a lamb is between 1 year and 10 years, ha.
It’s really not worth it financially to kill them so small, and if you cook it right, you would be hard pressed to know the difference. I’m sure of course a 10 year old ewe who had lambed her whole life wouldn’t be very delicious, but all the lamb we eat is a year old and succulent!
I am determined to learn to quilt this winter, I’ll save spinning and knitting for a while yet.
Hayley — BUMMER DUDE!
Thanks for that link, Amandette!
What a lovely blog, family and goat herd you have.
I read your vasectomy story and Oh My. Vasectomy has been on our to-do list for a couple years, but for some reason I’ve had a hard time prioritizing it; perhaps this is why.
We love our Whirly Pop! It is totally kid friendly. My two year old boy loves to stand on a stool and turn the handle while I hold him and the whirly pop in place. It is very fast and so yummy. My husband loves his with parm cheese and black pepper.
Hey, not related to your post at all but I recently found a shop on Etsy that sells great all wood childrens toys.
there’s some great stuff, and I thought you might be interested in at least taking a look.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/happysquashtoys?ref=seller_info
I got something for my neice and she loves it.
Your blog is sweeeeeet and your pictures are hilarious! We just had a baby alpaca last week but unfortunately she’s much more demure than baby goats seem to be so getting ridiculous portraits is more difficult. One day, one day… And yeah, I admit to being a post-Martha Stewart junkie too. (Until I could no longer afford her.) Now my friends just call me New Age Martha. Tehe.