The last post was actually Saturday's post...  This is Sunday. 

It's official.  The mule, Cyrus, is at my house and the Arabian, MiEddie, is at my neighbor's down the road. 

We were really concerned about loading the mule.  It took some patience (and separating him from the rest of the animals), but he finally just hopped up into the stock trailer and I shut him in.  When we got him home, John did an excellent job of backing the stock trailer up to the paddock (thanks, John!).  I got in with Cyrus, put the ropes on him and the halter and he just calmly walked out, through the paddock and then to the snubbing post in the middle of the paddock.  Ooookay.  I snubbed him up to the post (which means tying him securely and closely to the post) and left him there while I built the electric fence around the inside of the paddock.  After it got the fencing done and a charge going through it, I left him loose and now he's pacing and won't come to me.  I'll let him go overnight and hopefully work with him after work tomorrow.  I don't like leaving the halter AND lead rope on him, but it does teach a potential harness mule NOT to step on ropes/harness.  He'll be fine (I say to myself and anyone that'll listen)...  I did find out that I thought he was coming three years old?  No.  He's just coming a little over two years old.  So I feel a little better about him being such a punk.  Two year old anything are punks. 

It's been windy, cold and sunny all day.  Pretty much all I got done was working with the mule, but that's ok. 

The goats are milked and I hope to make paneer from the milk.  I love paneer (a type of cheese) with garam masala (a combination of spices).  Yes, I consider myself a closet vegetarian.   

Since I was outside all day (it's now almost 6pm and I left to get the mule at 11am) the fire is now out in the woodburner.  I'll get it started soon.  Ahhhhh...  Fire in the woodburner, heater running in the bathroom, a warm shower and food is in order. 

Hmmmm...  Mini pepperoni pizzas on tortillas with homemade mozzarella?  Italian pasta with homemade ricotta and homemade spicy sausage?  Shredded hand-raised pork on basmati rice?  Venison stew?  I have a Muskovy duck in the freezer that I want to roast soon...  I also want to make some Pumpkin whoopie pies (from the Jarradale pumpkins I grew last year) in the next day or so...  And make some coffee syrup for mocha.  And make some chocolate syrup for chocolate milk...  I made some goat butter the other day and was very happy with it.  Wow.  I must be hungry! 

Wow.  We started the day at 27F here in Indiana this morning!  Brrrrr... 

I'm looking for a hay fork for my tractor so a friend of mine with a truck and I went to a farm auction (thanks, John!).  Lots of interesting farm equipment, prices way too high, imho.  I was in the market for cattle panels, hog panels, fence posts, hay forks and a posthole auger.  Well, I found everything I wanted?  But everything was within 10-20% of new prices!  So I came home with nothing (besides being chilled to the bone) and curled up in front of the woodburner. 

I love my woodburner.  There's some dust and dirt, sure.  But when you have ~20 acres of trees?  A woodburner is frugal.  A lot of work, but frugal. 

I've cooked a lot of food on this Fisher woodburner..  Stews, soups, many many meals...  The brick to the left of the woodburner came from the Purdue smokestack from the North Power Plant... 

The blower in the front is part of a system that I use to heat the house.  The Fisher stove is basically a stove within a stove with a channel under and out the top of the stove.  When you have a fire in the firebox, the blower blows cool air at the bottom of the stove through the channel.  Hot air blows out the top.  There is a damper at the right and two dampers at the front.  It's looking a bit dusty in this picture.  I need to re-black the stove after the heating season is over.   

I got a call from UPS on Friday (yesterday).  I'd just gotten out of my exam in Com 318 (Principles of Persuasion) and was waiting for a bus to go back to work.  Nope, I had to run home and take delivery of my roofing panels for the atrium (thanks, Ryan for helping!).  They weren't supposed to be delivered unti April 6 or later!  Now I have MORE to do asap.  But I'm really looking forward to having a windbreak/greenhouse/atrium at the front of the house.  And if it doesn't work out, I can cut two stabilizers and move it where ever I want.  It's LARGE, but it can be moved...

I was able to put the goat babies out, I think they are happy.  What do you think?  They bounced the whole day.  Then?  It turned off cold.  Both does needed air and light.  They're a little underweight from feeding babies.  Out in the open air, more hay available, more of everything and they'll regain the weight.  Dairy does are like dairy cattle, though.  Usually a little more angular and thin - but these girls, Taffy on the left and MayBelle on the right, need some groceries...

Happy first day of Spring 2011!  I didn't get to see the megamoon last night, it was somewhat cloudy here in Indiana.  But I got to see it starting to be full a few days ago.  Gorgeous!

Well, I will have a new member of my animal family.  I've been working with my down-the-road neighbor's mule (just three years old now and a total punk) for quite some time.  She bought a new, gorgeous-built Foundation-style Quarter or QuarterX paint horse for her grandaughter.  She left them across the fence from one another for a while and then put them in together this morning.  Yep.  The punk mule, Cyrus, decided that Amos (the new horse) was not to be tolerated.  Ran him, kicked him, tortured him until Amos jumped the 5' fence into the next-door neighbor's pasture.  The amusing part is that Amos, at probably 1100 lbs., is scared to DEATH of the neighbors goats.  Here's this huge, bulldog-style QuarterX snorting and trying desperately to get away from a 100# goat.  Pretty amusing if I hadn't felt so badly about him getting beaten up by the punk mule.

Amos has quite a few scrapes and marks on him now.  I helped her bring Amos back into her pasture (without Cyrus in it!).  The vet is coming to check him out but he appears to be ok.  But the punk has to go!  So I am going to fence off my drylot into two sections and bring the punk home here to work with him.  He's big enough, nice enough and smart enough to make a nice riding mule.  He'd make a good protector animal, but not if anything new is introduced evidently.

Always something here on a farm.  Here's Cyrus!
 

Total punk.  About 14.1 or so.  I've still got to measure him.  I like everything about him except his neck is a bit donkey-like and not as refined as it could be.  But I like him.  I think he'll make a nice riding mule!  This was back several months ago when we still had snow on the ground.  Not anymore!

I'm making another batch of ricotta.  I made the mistake of adding some aging-yogurt to the mozzarella I made yesterday and the yield was awful.  So very very low.  I'll not do that again.


On the upside, I'm getting ready to garden!  With the tense economy, I'll plant a little extra this year.  This year will be interesting.  Groceries are predicted to be 5-10% higher in cost than last year.  I've sent for some blackberries and need to buy some strawberry plants yet.  I have wild pawpaws, mushrooms, black walnuts, hickory nuts and other foraged wildfoods so I'll be fine.

I've got Roma beans (flat-podded Italian green beans), yellow wax beans (wonderful color!), beets and more beets for juicing, herbs, Elephant garlic, tomatoes, pumpkins, black zucchini squash, Red LaSoda potatoes (a wonderful multi-purpose potato), flowers, Amish heirloom seeds - including Painted Lady Runner beans (edible and decorative), netted nutmeg cantaloupe and Dinosaur kale seeds - also known as Tuscan Kale - all the Amish heirloom seeds are from http://www.amishlandseeds.com  Very nice folks and I'm looking forward to the decorative morning glories and different hollyhocks I got from them. 

Other than breakfast (fresh Americana eggs, homemade sausage and coffee) and the ricotta cheese that's taking FOREVER to make, milking two goats and feeding the goats?  I've gotten nothing done (except for helping bring Amos home for the neighbor)...  It's after 1pm and I have a LOT to do today.  It's my last day of my four-day vacation.  Enjoy the First Day of Spring! 

Sarge kitty - one of my two outside cats.  He's a lover AND a nipper.  Silly cat.  From a month or so ago when there was still snow on the ground!  The rooster and the guineas are in the background... 

It's Spring Break here at Purdue.  I took off Thursday and Friday so I have been enjoying a four-day weekend!  I'm still getting about a gallon of milk a day from by two goats.  I've made several batches of mozzarella and ricotta with another batch "setting." 

I've not been down to the neighbor's house to work with her mule and donkey for a while, my plan is to go down there today.  It's very sunny, almost 60F and WONDERFUL outside! 


I'm working on making screens for the back work room and the atrium on the front of the house.  I'd hoped to get the atrium built by now (it was started last November!) but the weather just didn't cooperate.  My goal is to make the house more energy efficient by blocking the southwest wind in the winter, having some late growing space and using the new space (roughly 8' x 23') as a passive solar collector for the house to use as warmth.  Here is what the shell of the atrium looks like:

Maybe a bit hard to "see" but this is facing south.  I've a lot more to do, and more has been done.  This was back in late November when the beets were still growing in my cattle bunker feeder I converted to a planter.  I grew LOTS of beets, greens and even a few potatoes.    I have ordered the SolarSoft panels for the roofing from Gemplers (Thanks, Gemplers!) and they are due to arrive early April.  The panels are supposed to diffuse 85% of the sunlight coming in.  Then the openings will have screens AND plastic for the winter.  Two doors, plenty of area to bring in the wood for the woodburner.  I'm looking forward to having greens and beets for juicing well into late in the year.  I think it could have quite a bit of warmth for the house as well.  (Can you tell I'm excited about it?)

Taffy and Snowflake.  Notice Taffy's height in the milk stand...  The NEXT picture will be Rachel Rae, the monster Nubian doe...

If you notice, Rachel Rae's front legs are buckled a bit so she can fit in the milk stand!  What a huge doe!  I'm still hoping she's pregnant.  With her deep, wide body it's hard to see babies if they're kicking.  No udder yet and she's extremely quiet and laid back.  She's must be around 150# or so and being quiet so laid back is very much appreciated...  Or at least it seems like she weighs that much when I had to lift her onto the milk stand... 

MayBelle and her buckling.  She's an Oberhasli, a Swiss breed that's listed on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy listing as 'recovering.'  Oberhasli are noted for their smaller size, mahogany brown color with black 'points' and are said to have the least goaty flavor of milk.  They're also noted for their hockiness (their back legs are structured to make them good candidates for pack and cart goats). 

Here's the website for the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy:  http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html#goats 

This website is dedicated to American Livestock breeds that are in danger of being forever removed from our planet by extinction.  Listed are horses, cattle, hogs, poultry, rabbits, asses (American Mammoth for one), sheep and goats.  If you have an interest in preserving old-stock, please check out their website!

It's chilly here again in NW Indiana...  Rachel Rae is in the barn with the other two does.  MayBelle's son is bouncing off his momma and she seems to be tolerating it well.  Taffy's daughter, Snowflake, is starting to bounce off her too.  I'm milking out 2 quarts morning and evening.  That's a lot of milk!  If the does had delivered twins or more, there wouldn't have been extra for the table.  But with singles I have plenty for my table!  I plan to make some ice cream base later today.  With whole, fresh eggs, fresh goats milk and a vanilla bean.  Wonderful, rich, creamy.

Went to look at some goat stuff for sale off Craigslist...  I bought two milk pasteurizers - one from the early 1950's by a company that was part of Sears Roebuck and then was sold off and became the Waters Conley company.  It works and I'll see about getting it to some of my goat people on Homesteadingtoday.com 

I also got some hoof trimmers.  Wow.  One was really wonderful (a lot better than my hoof trimmer) and now everyone's feet have been trimmed.

Rachel Rae, my black Nubian doe is not eating all her feed, acting like all her limbs are loose and is staring at nothing with a dreamy look on her face.  Into the barn she went!  She's now in a goat stall with sawdust bedding in the barn with the other two does and their babies.  I'm very concerned about her as she's been by herself for about two weeks in the outside pen and may be just lonely.  Goats HAVE to have company or they tend to be so lonely they can stop eating...  She LOVES babies and is always the babysitter for all the other does' kids.  I'm hoping for a good udder on her this year.  Her first freshening two years ago her udder capacity was very poor.  She wasn't bred last year (the buck was too small) so I'm a little worried.  I'd love to see a nice baby and a nice udder.  I travelled to Ohio to buy her daddy.  That Nubian buck-line had been cryo-frozen for over 50 years so it's an old-style Nubian. 

On a completely different note?  I love my 'new' refrigerator.  I have researched converting a small freezer to a chest fridge from a really neat site out of Australia.  http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html  This fellow is into some amazing energy-savings.  I loved his piece on using bubble wrap for lining the inside of windows for winter R-value.  Anyway.  I love my 'new' refrigerator.  It does build up some moisture on the inside, so you have to wipe it out regularly (once a month) but my energy requirement is lower, I cycle through my leftovers more efficiently and it's brilliant for chilling home-butchered meat before the final cutting and packaging for my freezers.  Brilliant idea, wonderful idea, I'm very happy.

Did I say 41F?  It's supposed to be 51F!!!  Since MayBelle and Taffy's kids are a week or more old, I may just bring them out to have a look around!

Well, I've decided that although this is a site about my soaps at least six-eight months of the year I don't make that much soap - I'm mainly working on my Small Holding.  There are 25 mostly wild acres here and I enjoy working it. 

I didn't get to tap maple trees this year for maple syrup making - I have the spiles (the equipment you use to put into the drilled holes in the trees) but didn't have all the equipment together to tap the maple trees.  Maple sap only is usable in the early Spring during the early thaws.  Past that, the sap turns cloudy and bitter.  Then isn't flowing as much.  It'll have to wait until next year!

I made mozzarella cheese on Thursday night and then ricotta cheese last night from my dairy goats' milk.  Wonderful.  I always forget how wonderful it is to have fresh goats milk.  Off to take some pictures and then some posts!

It's supposed to be a sunny, blustery day here in NorthWestern Indiana.  A high of 41F or so is welcome after the long, snowy winter.  Our average 17 inches of snow a winter grew to over 40!