Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[NH Homesteader]

Wow! Congrats on sending them off to happy homes! That is such a relief! And it helps with your frugal living kick too.

You need some wine. Then on to milking lessons!

How many do you have left to sell? Or are the remaining ones keepers?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Forgot to say that the first family also bought a young buck! Woohoo!

There are no more goats that I'm really just adamant about selling, but I've still got 5 babies out there and two more does left to kid. And, as much as I hate to say it, I really need to cull one. I'll probably, maybe try to sell another buck also, cuz one of the newest babies is just too stinking cute, lol! He would make a nice kinder-type buck with a little bit of a different bloodline. Most of the does I've kept over the years have been descendants and grand-descendants of one Nubian doe (Red). This little guy that I like so much is from another doe and would cross well on all of Red's descendants. And his mother has one of he best udders on the place - so hoping that will work in his favor. The Kinder buck I'm using now is a wild card as far as udders go. His mom had a couple things in her favor, nice large teats and a good medial support, but she had a pocket in the front of her udder and it just wasn't that capacious. I didn't keep her around very long. AND - he throws BUCK kids! His score this year was 7 bucklings and 2 doelings. He threw ALL bucks last year too - sooooo it might be time for him to go.

And it helps with your frugal living kick too.

Absolutely. As much as I love the babies - it's cost and labor intensive to raise 'em up right.

I would drink some wine - but I haven't bought any more. However - we started a couple gallons of homemade stuff today. It'll be a couple weeks before it's even through fermenting then a little aging helps it immensely. I might, just might use some of the money I made today to buy a bottle or three though, lol!

Today started out HOT and muggy, but we got a cool front and it's awesome outside right now. No humidity and a nice bbreeze...low 70's at the moment. I'm loving it!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Oh sounds lovely, tomorrow here will be 65 and sunny. I'm looking forward to that!

I've never made wine. How difficult is it?

Sounds like you're on a good mission to move some animals and keep better ones! Do you have registered/non registered goats? Do you feel like it matters much when selling, etc? I'm just curious, I go back and forth on it a lot. Like to hear what other people have to say!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have both registered and non registered. My ND's are registered and my Nubians either ARE registered or could be if I'd ever catch up on the paperwork, lol. As far as selling, ya get folks who want what they want. The guy asked me, just out of curiosity, about Dusty, my big Nubian buck and I quoted him $500 because he's awesome (and that's what I paid for him). They guy is like nope, would never pay that much for a goat. But when I was showing pygmies and selling - papers were worth a lot. We get both types of buyers here. Myself, since I'm working on kinder-ish and mini-nubs now, I'm not too worried either way. Someday if Kinders really take off - I may go back to the beginning and do the paperwork. The guy today loved the kinder-types. He said they were the perfect size for his wife and girls to handle....and that's a big thing for me too.

Winemaking, at least the simple stuff I make, is so simple!

http://fivegallonideas.com/1-minute-wine-recipe/

I've made it before and while I'd not call it a "fine wine" it's totally drinkable and you get the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself! That's pretty SS!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Thanks for the link! My phone is being awesome and not loading it, but I bookmarked it to look at later.

That makes sense. I hope minis and kinders take off, I think they're the perfect homestead sized goats! Full size are too big for me (and a lot of people). I talked to a mini alpine breeder from another part of the country today and she said one of her friends used to breed them also but ahe gave up because she couldn't sell them. That surprised me!

I've had more luck selling non-registered goats, but that's possibly just because the price is lower!

Pygmies with papers go for fairly big money around here. I guess that probably doesn't surprise you!

 

[Mini Horses]

Great on goat sales!!! Good list for savings...hmm, you eat lunch "out"?? LOL ..brown bag rules. Would sure drive the car for the mpg issues....I use my car for same reason some days.

So, on your wine, what flavor are you doing? I'm thinking white grape will be my first try....although I like cranberries, so may also do cranberry with a little concord grape mixed in. Have everything here, may do this tomorrow.

Have 4 hens setting, maybe 5 -- one wants to "share" a nest & won't give up. So, will fix up a couple more broody boxes & separate them tomorrow night. Darned girls!! Will have replacement pullets for Fall & roos to butcher. With 5 hens I may have too many of all. LOL Can sell spares.

I need to sell goat kids!! Cut that feed bill -- sure don't need them....and I'm not even milking now!! Should separate & milk, at least. WHAT an idea not even thinking here.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

hmm, you eat lunch "out"??

It was my guilty indulgence, but in all honesty, was rarely ever 5 times a week - most likely 3ish. For our little office of 3 it's our catch-up time. But, we can just as easily catch up over coffee in the mornings a couple times a week.

@Mini Horses - get to milking those gals!

I'll probably start taking his car this week. It's very fuel efficient but dang, it's a CAR! That's almost my biggest sacrifice. I don't like cars - grrrrr. I feel like my butt is dragging the ground and I'll miss the visibility that a truck gives. But, I can do it.

Found another way to cut down this morning. I'm a coffee lover, and what's more I'm an optimistic coffee maker. I always make a bit more than we drink. I hate, hate, hate wasting the last of coffee in the bottom of the pot. A lot of time it's not really wasted - we pour it in the compost, or dilute it and water the house plants with it. Believe it or not our huge ivy loves coffee too. But, DUH, this morning I just made less. (so, why didn't I do this years ago? Who knows?) Hopefully I won't have any left-over today. Such a simple thing.

It's low 50's this morning - yay! I'm planning on gardening today. I'm going to clean-up as much of the goat mess that I can. Besides eating my seedlings they simply tromped down a lot of my rows so I need to clean them up. I'll need to replant some of the climbing beans - seems like they were a favorite snack. Peppers and eggplants are pretty much just wiped out - even the ones I tried to replant. It's going to really tick me off to go pay for new plants. BUT, I'll use 'goat money' from yesterday and it won't hurt as much.
Also bought a small pkg of seed potatoes - PURPLE potatoes. We're not big potato eaters - lotsa carbs ya know - but purple ones are full of anti-oxidants so I'm gonna try to grow some in a tub and see what happens.

Can't waste the coolness this morning so I need to get busy.

Happy Saturday ya'll!

 

[baymule]

Congrats on selling the goats. Less work on you and a reduced feed bill is always good!

 

[sumi]

Congrats on the goat sales!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks ya'll! It is a relief - but of course today I'm wondering what in the he** did I do???? Selling one or two goats at a time isn't hard - but selling a whole bunch of 'em is a bit of a shock! But, I've still got new babies to look forward to. One of the does that's about to freshen isn't sporting quite the udder I was hoping for - she might be 'next' on the list. And, I've actually come up with two more that I could let go of too. Maybe I could sell them as a 'starter' herd.

I've been in the garden. I planted three tubs of potatoes. Two of the purple ones that I picked up yesterday and one tub of just plain 'ol taters. It might be a Yukon gold. Shouldn't admit this but it was at the bottom of the 'tater drawer and sprouted like crazy - so I stuck it in a tub. I've never actually grown potatoes in a tub so this will be interesting. Also re-planted the climbing beans along the fence. The ones I had originally planted were yard-long beans that DH and I just love. The seeds I used for re-planting were some that I had saved (but not labeled - argh) so I hope I guessed right, lol. I might have a big 'ol jumbled up mess of beans out there.

While I was there,I looked very closely at the de-leafed eggplant and pepper plants that I stuck back in the ground after the goats had pulled them up. It looks like most of them are going to try and recover. I see some little tiny leaf tips starting. I started with 12 peppers and 6 eggplants.... and I might have 1/3rd of that many left. Haven't decided if I'll go buy more - but my frugal self is saying just start some more from seed. Our growing season is long enough. But, there's no "instant gratification" with seeds, lol!

It's an absolutely gorgeous day. It's 1pm and we haven't broken out of the 60's yet. It was 69 when I came inside just a bit ago. Breezy and there's not a cloud in they sky. It's the kind of day you want to bottle and save for later!