what happens when the barn turns out better...

... than you'd ever thought possible? Horsey thoughts pop up again!
I was already (semi) joking to get a pony for Simon when I found out I could get a pony for me as well! Oh my god, all my childhood dreams (well, I only had one dream) within arms reach! No wonder I'm driving hubbie Rolf nuts with my sudden onset of horse obsession :-)

I'll copy/paste something I wrote as an introduction for the yahoo forum of our very nice local Icelandics organization called the St. Skutla Icelandics Horse Group couple days back (with my right hand swaddled from surgery typing is not my strong point right now):

"Thank you for your warm welcome!

I sorta rolled into the Icelandic awareness, having thought for a while our property did not lean itself for horses and not wanting to stable somewhere else - I wouldn't want to my kid off to boarding school either! Then we got a couple meat goats, which evolved into a couple milk goats which needed fenced pasture - and a winter barn... and seeing the new structure go up - much larger & nicer than it looked on paper - made me wonder about getting a pony for our toddler son someday.

So here I was, googling pony housing information, thinking of the ponies back home (we're from the Netherlands, lots of fjords and ijslanders) when I came across a picture of Altario (Pangea) getting ready for a hunter pace event (my newly discovered absolute favorite outdoor event). And oh my goodness, it suddenly dawned on me: a horse might not fit, but Icelandics sure would; we've got an acre of fenced meadow pasture and a 14x10 walk in stall - and I can ride and even jump one!

Unfortunately, my hubbie has not quite progressed from the acquiring goats to acquiring ponies/horses yet - the barn's not even finished... but I'm not sure he realizes the forces of nature at play here! I'm not sure it's safe to stand between me and my own horse - as a matter of fact, it's what got me to America in the first place LOL"

This is my ideal horse "Altario". He's for sale at the Pangaea Farm in the White Plains: he's beautiful, jumps hunter paces but alas, is very much out of my budget... you can check out him and other gorgeous horses on the Pangaea website.

the goat barn is looking great!

And I am so proud of my hubbie Rolf for pulling it off... though having that "it'll be winter soon" deadline sure was motivating! We just about made it in time, they moved in about three weeks ago, initially without front door and windows but anything is better than a tarp tent, I'm sure. With the last November windstorm Monika aka Mountain Goat did catch a bit of a cold I think, plus Gazelle stopped nursing (and Whitey is safely rutting in the bachelor pad) which made her milk production drop significantly as well with me only milking in the mornings.

I did get her back up to milking fine again, only to find out I would need to stop milking her soon anyway so right now she's dried off and on her date with boer buck Octavian. Not sure why I missed her estrus last month, maybe being miserable from her cold minimized the signs; plus, with the new barn and the cold weather nobody is hanging out with Whitey anymore so he's not as good of an estrus "thermometer" as he was with Thirteen :-)

The barn is not completely done, but mostly done, and definitely working. We have heated water buckets, a place to separate Thirteen from her kid overnight, a large keyhole hayfeeder in the walk in stall, haybales stored within the barn - no juggling flakes of hay while trying to open and close gates - a separate area for the milk stand so I don't have to scrape poopies off every morning, opening & closing double pane windows, a dutch door and since a couple days: light at night! It's funny how "camping out" with minimal resources really makes you appreciate when you do get some!

And why I had to stop milking? Turns out that annoying pain I had in one of the knuckles of my right hand was a (benign) bone tumor - go figure! The milking aggravated the tumor (not used to this sore muscles etc) and made it show it's ugly head before it had grown large enough to be felt or seen, so the removal surgery was not as invasive as it could have been. Still they removed about a garbanzo beans' worth of bone, which was grafted and returned from one of my arm bones to give the knuckle ligament something to anker to. The surgery went fine, and I can still milk Thirteen (one handed) but other than that am pretty much confined to the couch & computer... Bummer!

no-knead bread recipe update

There are various recipes for no-knead bread available and I started with the one published in a mother earth article last year or so. But, the bread was pretty dense, tasted a lot like sour dough, and did not really rise very well. I tweaked the recipe and came up with a slightly different but just as easy a version that does rise well, has a good crust and nice air pockets throughout - and still needs no kneading :-)

5 cups all purpose (or white) flour
1.5 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups lukewarm whey (or water)
2 teaspoons of herbed salt
2 teaspoons of granulated yeast soaked in warm water with
1 teaspoon sugar

soak the yeast in a little warm water, whisk well
add teaspoon of sugar for food
add flour and salt to bowl
use dough hook, add whey and yeast
knead until ball forms and dough does not stick to sides
leave in bowl, cover with damp towel for about 1-2 hours
remove from bowl, split in two (with floured hands) and pat into bread pans

the two major differences are:
presoak the yeast, and do not refrigerate the dough.

I like to make one long cut in the middle, it makes for a nice split top. A little flour on top looks good as well. It also does real nice as a pizza crust.

And how do I know it's a good tweak? Cause my hubbie told me this morning not to buy the Heidelberg bread anymore, he definitely preferred this new version...

Same with my small herbed chevres... I gave one to a good friend of mine and she told me later she still could not believe I actually made it myself, and she sure was not sharing with her roommates! This from a person who grows carrots and sweet potatoes as big as baseball bats!

firm goat yoghurt recipe

... with a little help from my gelatin friends :-)

Initially I used a recipe from an article out of countryside magazine, but it did not stiffen correctly. I kinda wondered about that anyway (plus, it used sugar) cause the way I use gelatin for cheesecake sure is different. I retried the recipe but followed the gelatin directions this time and the yogurt looks great!

Heat milk to 185 degrees and hold there for 5 minutes (kills off competing cultures).
Cool milk rapidly in sink of cold water to about 115 degrees.
Add two table spoon fulls of yogurt live culture.
Sprinkle 1 packet of gelatin in some cold water, let sit for 1 minute.
Add milk with yogurt to dissolved gelatin, whisk very well.
Pour into yogurt maker jars, let incubate for 12 hours.
(the longer the incubation the more bitter the taste)
Refrigerate, which stops incubation and sets gelatin.

like I said, it's yogurt for dummies!

very easy hard cheese recipe

A new recipe I found in the Barnyard in your Backyard book Goat section page 225... I made a batch today and have the curds setting in the (home made) molds in the fridge... we'll see about the claim it's a grateable cheese in about 2 and a half hours!

Heat one gallon of raw goat milk to 185 degrees F and keep there for 5 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup of lemon juice to separate the curds.
Drain the whey and stir in a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Press the drained curds into molds and set the molds in a strainer to drain further.
In about 2 hours you should have about 1.5 lbs of mild tasting hard cheese to grate...
Wrap the cheese in plastic wrap and keep in fridge for up to two weeks!

I made the molds from butter containers (food grade plastic) by melting holes with a heated piece of metal about 1/16th of an inch thick (piece of galvanized fencing).

Very curious to see what it will become!

>>>Tried the recipe, two times, once with my new cheese press, and the cheese does not get hard... It's more like panir; not soft cheese, but not hard either. Does not grate but does crumble. I use panir for curry since it does not melt like chevre - but it definitely is not grateable hard cheese :-( The resulting whey is great though!

I started to herb, salt and shape the chevre (2 gallons makes about 7 herbed cones) which I then wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for the rest of the year until milking resumes in spring. I also made cream cheese by whisking not too dry chevre in the kitchenaid (very good!). If only I could make a decent hard cheese :-)

Thirteen goes on a date!

My first time, though it seemed like nothing special to Thirteen :-) Which is why I got the two older does, they've done all this stuff before!

Here's Thirteen meeting Octavian, the 120lbs 1,5 year old full Boer.

"well, hello there!"

"you smell sooo good..."

"my, you're a big boy!"

'I luvvv you!!!"

"I like you too..."

And that six times in the couple minutes Michael and I watched! She'll be there the rest of the afternoon - they seemed to have a good time - and Mountain Goat will have a nice easy day without hormonal bullying from her herd queen!

And now we have to wait five months...

from rain to snow...

from one day to the next! It really is too bad, the two cold nights we've had killed all the flowers including the dahlia, cosmos and marigolds which were all still going on strong! Most of the nasturtium in the veggie garden gave the ghost as well and the pepper plants in the uncovered window boxes were toast and served a nice, hot snack for the goats this afternoon.

First year we've had a flower garden and I must say it sure was a success! I'll be looking for flower seeds at the seed savers this year as well, to make my own seed shaker mixes.