Farmer's Markets

J. and Junior enjoying one of our rare sunny days.


Yesterday Dave and J. went to our first farmer's market. He did well, selling over 100$ worth of soap. We are almost out of soap. I have two small batches curing at the moment, but it's not enough. Tomorrow I'll have to make a few batches, and really everyday for awhile. I'm not expecting to be successful every weekend, but one has to be prepared.

"Red Green" and his new tool. Mixing soap.

Dave thought he had invented a new way of stirring the soap, but it didn't really work well. He had a small paint mixer on the end of a drill, but it didn't make the soap trace any faster. I really don't know what the deal is with those stick blenders. Why they work so well. But like most soapers know they overheat fast. I have two identical ones and alternate them all the time during the batch and still they get really hot. Really I'd need another one for good measure.

Soap taking waaayyy too long to trace.

Today we went for a drive to the Bear River farmer's market. It was nice. It was smaller than ours but still nice, with lots of nice people. I love Bear River. Most of the buildings are on stilts, it's so cool.

J. in Bear River today. Notice the building in the background on stilts.

Bear River Farmer's market.

We left some of our soap in a local boutique there. Another local boutique approached me last week to carry our soap. She tried one bar and fell in love with it.

Well we've been having a few goat problems lately. First Cindi Lou is not still not being cooperative on the milking stand. Still pooping while I'm trying to milk her, squirming, jumping etc... just being a regular pain in the beeehind!

Next Febe has been having udder problems the last month or so. A few weeks ago she had a broken blood vessel in her udder. The milk was full of blood. Yuck! It's not dangerous to her or us, but needless to say, drinking pink milk is not very appetizing, let alone knowing it's blood.

So we called our trusty vet. He told us to take the kids off and milk her several times a day. That's kinda hard when you're working fulltime. I did what I could, but the kids refused to take the bottle. I ended up leaving them on her.

After 7 days it cleared up completely. Yesterday I noticed that it's back again. It's not as bad as last time. Dave never even noticed. I did. I figure it'll only take a few days to clear up this time, but it's still a pain in the buttocks and a waste of milk.

Next kidding season mark my words!!! I AM BOTTLE FEEDING THE KIDS!!!

Did ya'll hear me! Next spring I want you guys in blogging world to remind me of these words!

This year's greenhouse.

Tundra and Moocher playing around. Dave has finally finished the other end of the pasture.

Our son is growing up. Sigh.....he's actually mowing the lawn.

Growing up. Sigh...

Every morning when I milk Febe and fight...uh...I mean milk Cindi Lou, Tigger waits patiently for his treat....the strip cup. To people who don't know what that is, it's the cup you use to put the first three squirts of milk from each teat. This milk is used to get rid of bacteria that is harbouring in the teat and to check the milk for clumps, nastiness and blood. Cats don't really care about all that. I spoil the cats though. I usually fill the cup with milk, not just a few squirts.

Tigger having his snack.

Anyway I digress...Tigger waits patiently for the cup. He sticks his head in and drinks to his little hearts delight! Down to the last drop. The first few times, he actually would jump on the stand and curl around Febe's legs. After he got stomped on and kicked off he now waits at the bottom of the stand.

We moved the meat kings and laying hen chicks into the big pen. It's amazing to see the difference in size. They're the same age yet the meat kings grow so much faster!

Meat king in the front and laying hen in the rear.

We had to move the older hens, so that meant they needed new laying nests. So voila! Milk crates! It works actually very well and they've stopped picking at the eggs.

Our new nest boxes!

Well it's time to go separate the kids from their moms for the night.

Have a Blessed evening

Lisa

Whirly Gigs, Udders and Spring Flings!

Well one bad thing about a goat having a single kid is that there might be the possibility of it suckling on just one teat.

Well we seem to be having this problem with Cindi Lou. Prince William is only eating from one side. Soooooo.....this is what we are dealing with!

This is so wrong

One very lopsided udder. They say that a seasoned milker is worth their weight in gold. Well guess what....They're RIGHT!

Not only does Cindi Lou have a lopsided udder, she kicks and jumps and POOPS on the milking stand. I have to pick her up and put her on it. She has very bad milking manners. I really thought that she'd be a good milker. Before she was bred she'd jump on the stand, let me feel her udder, stand still as a statue. A perfect little milker in the making.

Then.....

She had a baby. ugh. So now to even out the udder we have to milk her twice a day. It's coming along. The other side is getting bigger. We probably got it just in time. It wasn't producing much milk either, but it's getting better. We have to use the hobble. I don't like to but until she calms down we have no choice. Tonight was the first night she didn't poop on the stand.

Dave fighting with Cindi, even with a hobble.

But she seems to be more tolerant with J. milking her. So doesn't move with him milking. So he might have found himself a job.

Chicks!

It was chick days last Tuesday. We got 24 laying hens and 15 meat kings. So far they are all doing well. Since the incubator massacre I needed to get more laying hens. I find those brown layers are so boring but this year I've got no choice.

This weekend Dave and J. packed up the soap and went to Pubnico for their gardeners Spring Fling! I, of course, was working. He sold a whack of soaps and Epicure and met alot of people.

Our table at the Spring Fling

J. even had his own table with fudge and beach glass pendants he had made.

A guy with whirly gigs gave one to him, another vendor gave him a daylily plant and another vendor gave him chocolates! He made out like a bandit!

Table with rock paintings. Look on the right, the pug rock.

Pastries!!!

Whirlygigs!!

He bought a painted rock from a lady. It has a fox on it. It's really nice. I wish I could paint half as good.

Well I'll leave you all with cute pictures of baby animals.

No, he's not stuck. Just nosey.

Tigger the cutie!

Have a Blessed Day.

Lisa

YAY!!

Yipee!! The blogs that I follow list is back!!!!

Lisa

Kids say the darndest things!!

Last Saturday while I was at work and Dave was at the cattle sale, J. wanted to go to Grand-mere's (my mom).

At around 3:30 pm I got a call from a panicked Grand-mere saying that J. had fallen off a granite boulder and hit his head on another granite boulder! The medical center was closed so what should she do! No doctors on call! ACK! He had a bump on his head the size of not a goose egg, but an emu egg!

So by then Dave was back. So he went and picked up J. at my mom's and drove to the ER in Digby, picking me up along the way.

By this time J. was looking not much worse for wear. My mom had applied ice packs to the emu egg and so did Dave. The swelling had gone down a tremendous amount.

I sat in the backseat with J. and asked "What happened?"

There he was looking all sad, holding an ice pack to the emu egg when he looked at me and said,

" I was playing on top of a big boulder, that I was a Jedi Knight and I was swinging my sword, when I slipped and fell head first on the other granite boulder.....I guess the force wasn't with me."

Well I thought I was going to pee my pants laughing!!

I said to him, "No Sweetie, the force of gravity was with you though."

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Ok, WHAT"S GOING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was going to blog tonight, but I've lost all my blogs that I follow. Is anyone else having this problem?

That's not cool!

When I go on one of those blogs I can't find the follow button, so I can follow them again.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!!!

Not having a Blessed day on the computer.

Lisa