Goats + Yogurt = GoGurt?

Goats + Yogurt = GoGurt?

Our lovely neighbor, Cynthia, took Rylee and I to the pool. It was Rylee's first time in a pool, and she was adorable! We are in love with the little floaty that we bought her. It works great for infants and helps them to learn to kick their feet while also keeping their heads out of the water. 

We went around nap time, so just about when we were ready to leave she decided she wanted to sleep. After fighting it for ten minutes (plus a few putting her down, picking her up, walking, repeat episodes), she finally fell asleep on a pallet of towels I had made for her. I sat down in the pool chair to rest and it started raining. Of course. Cynthia and I rushed to cover her with chairs and towels to make a tent to cover the sleeping baby. She didn't wake up for the entire adventure other than to roll over and squish her face in the ground! Poor squishy faced baby! 

Rylee and I got to meet Sam's Uncle David and Aunt Amy. They came over for lunch while Sam's mom was visiting. It was so great getting to meet them! They were a blast to hang out with!

The peaches from our tree ripened. Rylee thought they were really delicious for breakfast. 

Speaking of feeding the baby, she is almost entirely on table food, now. We can almost feed her anything, though we do still have to be careful about chunks since she still doesn't have any teeth. 

Rylee is officially 7 (okay 7 1/2) months old, now! 

She can army crawl with the best of them. I call her a professional scooter. 

She's growing up way too fast.

We may have found a color that Rylee likes even better than green...orange. Her Daddy is proud. 

Sam made and installed all the thresholds that go in-between the floor and the doors (the little strip of wood that covers up any gaps and smooths out any changes in height). They look super great! 

Our garden is growing at a fast rate as always. The volunteer peppers finally bounced back after being transplanted, and the beans are getting huge!

Sam burned the weeds in the driveway, sprayed them with weedkiller, then paid to have gravel delivered here. 

It took him barely no time to spread the gravel on the driveway. It looks so great, now! Though we do have grass threatening to come back. It's a never ending battle. 

We received another rooster (Another, as in you now have two roosters, Torey? Why, yes!) This rooster came from a friend of a friend from Athens where roosters are not allowed in the neighborhood. Once he started crowing, he relocated to our house. He is an Easter Egger (we believe), and he is a gorgeous mosaic of grey, white, cream, and red feathers. His previous name was Paddy, but we are considering re-naming him. Any name suggestions?? We are really stuck, here. 

Here's a video of him crowing. 

For those of you keeping track, we now have 19 hens and 2 roosters. The Egyptian Fayoumi should start laying anyway now, and I think the silver-laced wyandotte is starting to turn red in the comb. The other hens won't start laying until sometime mid August or later. Either way, we are impatient to get more laying hens because our 3 laying hens are currently on strike. We only get about an egg every other day. 

Which brings us to the goat section of this blog post. Through a series of fortunate events, I got in touch with a wonderful lady that I bought the Miller Fleur d'Uccle hens from a couple years back about goats milk. Sam and I are considering getting goats in the future but one of the things we wanted was to guarantee that we would be able to use the milk that the goats provided us with. We don't want to get goats if they aren't going to provide us with something for the farm. Not only was I able to buy her goats milk, but she also agreed to let me come over and ask questions a million questions. That lesson was today, and Rylee and I had a blast!

Here's her milking station. She keeps the goats still by feeding them treats (aka grains) while milking. 

The goats themselves are a larger breed called Sable. They produce over one gallon of milk per day per goat! She currently has three. 

Rylee really enjoyed watching and playing with the goats. 

My friend also has sheep that she allows to graze with her goats (and a horse). 

My friend pays a lady to shear the sheep once a year and spin the wool into yarn. She then sells the yarn to help pay for the sheep! She has also experimented with milking the sheep and using their milk to make feta cheese. 

The sheep are really cute and fluffy! Rylee and I enjoyed petting them. 

This one is my favorite. 

Now, a little bit about chickens because you know how much I like them. The chicken pen at her house is amazing and built to house many, many chickens. 

She also has two breeding coops (aka Cuddle Coops) that she uses to breed a few different purebred bantam breeds. 

The baby chicks grow right along with the adult hens making it really easy to expand the flock. 

A few roosters patrol the yard, making sure everyone is on their best behavior. Isn't he handsome? He followed us to the house and watched us from outside the living room window for a bit. 

This little feather duster is called a Frizzle chicken. The feathers grow all curly like this!

So, yes, this lady is a future version of myself or someone that I hope to be. A very cool, multitalented homeschooling mom with a rocking, little hobby farm that provides healthy food to their family from happy, healthy livestock. One of the newest ways I have increased the production of our farm is that I have started making our own yogurt (so far from store bought milk and goats milk from my friend). 

REGULAR YOGURT RECIPE

Ingredients: 

2 cups of milk

1 tbs of cream

1 tbs of plain yogurt 

Instructions: 

1. Mix the milk and cream and heat to boiling. 

2. Allow mixture to boil for a few seconds while stirring. 

3. Remove pan from heat and allow mixture to cool to 110*F.

4. Place in dehydrator at 115*F for 3 hours. Tap the edge of the bowl. If the middle wiggles as if it is still mostly liquid, keep in dehydrator and check every 30 minutes until done. 

5. Scrape off top solid layer and store in airtight container in the fridge. 

GREEK YOGURT

Instructions: 

6. Follow steps 1-5 above. 

7. Strain through cheesecloth in the fridge for 1-3 hours. 

8. Dispose of drained whey milk and keep the resulting yogurt still remaining in the cheesecloth. 

9. Store in airtight container in the fridge. 

I actually think the taste of the greek yogurt is better than the regular yogurt. Removing the whey milk gives the greek yogurt a flavor that the regular yogurt doesn't have. For the regular yogurt, I would need to add fruit, vanilla, honey, or some over extra ingredient to eat it by itself. Rylee likes eating it with pureed fruit. 

Pax Domini cum spirito tuo temper sit,

Torey, Sam & Rylee

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