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