Goat milk cottage cheese!

Step 1:
Assemble the ingredients
 *one gallon of milk will render 2lbs of soft cheese.
1 gallon goat milk (raw if possible)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tbs. melted butter
1 tsp. baking soda

Step 2: Heat the milk to 195 degrees.
A digital thermometer works best for this (preferably with an alarm).
Don't let it boil, your cheese will taste strange!
Keep it on medium to low heat and let the milk heat slowly.- stir occasionally!

Step 3: Once your milk has reached 195 degrees, slowly stir in the vinegar.

Step 4: Watch the curds separate from the whey.
(I call this the miss muffet moment.)
If they you don't see your curds coagulating try heating the milk to 205 degrees.
Do NOT add more vinegar, if you do your cheese may taste strange.

Step 6: Remove the curds with a slotted spoon and place them the center of a piece of cheese cloth (preferably placed over a strainer). Goat milk curds are more delicate the cows milk curds, so to be gentle when straining them.

Step 7: Drain the cheese curds and add the melted butter and baking soda. Whey can apparently be used to make bread, protein shakes, and in the case of whey from cows milk ricotta cheese. I fed the left over whey to the pigs (they loved it). 

Step 8: Give it a good stir then, TASTE TEST!!!

Step 9: Maybe just one more little taste....to be sure....maybe a few more will be necessary..

ENJOY!

Mail order chicks (and I ain't talkin' about brides from Ukraine)

Apparently you can send live animals through the US mail. A few weeks ago, I took a trip to the local Post office to pick up a box of 34 live chicks. The Post office had just closed, but I could see the postal worker though the window. I made a flapping motion with my arms and she got the message that I was here for the small box that kept chirping. When I say box I really mean small box. It's just a bit larger than a shoe box. The postal worker proudly told me she had kept them in a quiet dark corner. THANK YOU US POSTAL SERVICE!

They were chirping loudly as I put them into the car (as I am sure I would have been after a long trip in a small box). I had the rolling stones "moonlight mile" in the CD player. The minute the song came on they went silent. They were probably just startled by the sound, but I like to think that our chickens are fans of the Rolling Stones. We put them in a small pen in the barn with plenty of food, water, and a nice warm heat lamp. Luckily they all made it, apparently casualties are common when you send live animals though the mail. (how strange...) 

Things that go quack in the night.

We have about 24 ducks at the farm. They were put out on pasture (compete with a plastic kiddy pool) two days ago and are loving the new digs. Our ducks are Pekin ducks, or Long Island Ducks (Anas platyrhynchos domestica), the breed came from China in 1873. They are the most common breed raised for meat in the US. 95 % of the ducks consumed in the US are Pekin ducks.  Pekin ducks grow quickly and reach market weight at 7 to 9 weeks. They will have consumed about 20 to 25 lbs of feed in that time, and should weigh about 8 to 11 lbs.

Pekin ducks are too heavy to be air-born, but one or two ducks may be the exception and succeed in short bursts of flight. They tend to "stand tall" and and an upturned rump. (I think this makes them look kind of snobby....)

Pekin ducks are quick to imprint on humans. Our ducks did not have much interaction with their busy farmer when they were younger. As a result, they are a bit skittish about humans (as I discovered while trying to move them from one pen to the other). We've started socializing the ducks by feeding them bread by hand and I've started sitting in the pen with them. Hopefully they will start to get used to us.