Sleet and Ice Days

On Thursday we were pelted with 3/8" of ice and 4" of sleet. I was concerned that the electric lines would go down due to ice accumulation, and so I cleaned house like a crazy woman all Thursday morning until everything was caught up and spic and span. After that, I was able to relax and enjoy activities I don't normally have time to do. My first project was a simple home cooked soup for us to munch on.

 Since I have an abundance of fresh milk, I decided to make my potato soup a little differently than I ever have. It turned out amazing! Here is the recipe:

Best Ever Potato Soup:

One Gallon fresh, raw goat’s milk
Ten large/medium potatoes, diced
One large red onion, coarsely chopped
One stick of butter
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Sharp cheddar cheese
Three heaping TBSP corn starch mixed in a cup of cold water

Combine first six ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender. Add corn starch to thicken. Return to boil. Ladle into bowls and garnish with grated cheddar cheese. Enjoy!

My daddy has been fussing at me because I never make my own butter. He says there is so much cream in this milk that it is a shame to not skim it and use it. Since I had about five gallons of milk in the fridge, I decided to give it a try. With all the milk skimmed, I got enough cream to make about 2 cups of finished butter. It is LOVELY! Probably not something I will do all the time unless I am blessed to find an affordable separator, but it's nice to know it's an option.

Next, I used that lovely skimmed milk to make homemade mozzarella cheese. Interestingly, the recipe was titled 30 Minute Mozzarella, but it took ALL afternoon! I had heated the milk at 1:00. It didn't cool off enough to add the citric acid, lipase, and rennet until 6:00 P.M.! Just in time to make me late for chores! Argh! It is SOOOO yummy, though, it's hard for me to quit nibbling. :-)

While the mozzarella was cooling I made Lemon Cheese. It is very nice. It has a very light flavor and the lemon juice certainly adds a nice quality to the cheese.

Over the course of the three days I've been home I have been working on making homemade dishcloths. I received two as Christmas gifts, and fell in love with them! They are round and have a rippled edge. They fit so much more nicely in your hand than a square dish cloth. I hope to make an entire set.

Deworming Goats

I was recently asked for advice about what I use for dewormer, and by the time I finished writing my response I decided to make it into a blog post!
I am philosophically opposed to using synthetic chemical/drug dewormers. For the first 2.5 years I had goats I successfully used Hoegger Supply's herbal dewormer with excellent results. When I took a goat to the vet for another issue I had the vet perform a fecal exam and he was amazed to find NO worms in ANY life stage present. That is a huge deal because even with synthetic dewormers used on a consistent schedule they expect to find a few. However, in the fall of 2011 I began to experience some health problems at the same time that my herd grew to an overwhelming size. I was struggling to meet all my responsibilities/obligations and I kept forgetting to give the goats their herbal dewormer. (It has to be given every week religiously.) I kept telling myself I wouldn't forget again, but I kept stumbling. After several times of forgetting their dewormer and having to go through the entire start up regimen which is both time consuming and costly, I decided I was going to have to give in and use synthetic dewormers until I could get things under control again. I bought the Agri-Labs brand of Ivermectin and used it faithfully according to instructions. (I believe it was once every six weeks.) In the spring of 2012 Miracle began having some problems originating with mastitis. I immediately sought medical intervention for her mastitis, but it took three rounds of antibiotics to get her cleared up. In her weakened state the parasites took hold with a vengeance. My veterinarian recommended Safeguard to me, and that is what I have used since then, though I do intend to return to the herbal dewormer protocol upon kidding. (I have reduced my herd to an easily manageable size now, currently two does with a possible acquisition of one more, and selling all this year's kids.)
I know there are people who are expert users of synthetic dewormers who talk about using "white dewormer and clear dewormer." I think it's simply an easy way to keep straight the basic classes of dewormers where the white ones attack one class of parasites and the clear dewormers attack another. I tried to find information about that, but was unsuccessful.

Rather than discuss dewormers that I have never used, I am going to refer you to some websites of folks who are more knowledgeable than I am:

Fias Co Farm is my go-to source for information. They have always been spot on with the accuracy of the information offered.

The Dairy Goat Journal is a good source for continuing education about our dairy goats. I do not have a subscription, though I've asked for one as a holiday(Christmas, birthday, Valentine's Day, etc.) gift several times. Their website offers some of their articles for free,  and this one was on the cover when I went to find the link for you. How timely!

This is the author of the above article and also recommended by my "goat mentor."