| naturaldane |
| Posted 4/23/2008 5:57:14 PM |
 |
|
|
 
Active: 08-13-2006
Posts: 3012
|
Well after almost a year working at becoming a mini farm I believe we have finally put the icing on the cake.
I just bought my milk goats, my baby chickens are finally grown enough to lay eggs, and this seasons garden is looking very fruit full.
I will be attempting my first batch of cheese tonight, have several different ways to try it.
It took a while but I have finally achived the goals I set, now if the price of fuel would only go down so we can afford to keep it |
|
|
| mlrgmax |
| Posted 4/24/2008 12:03:28 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 04-23-2008
Posts: 6
|
I hear ya, sounds like a nice life you got going. I have to find a home for a very sweet very active 84 lb Dog so I can get my houshold back on track and my kid healthy again, then maybe we will be having a nice life too.  |
|
|
| naturaldane |
| Posted 4/24/2008 12:22:51 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 08-13-2006
Posts: 3012
|
| Quote mlrgmax: I hear ya, sounds like a nice life you got going. I have to find a home for a very sweet very active 84 lb Dog so I can get my houshold back on track and my kid healthy again, then maybe we will be having... |
We have three danes, one is a long term foster, 3 small dogs, one of those is a rescue, and a med. size mix breed, 10 cats, 2 goats, a horse, 2 lizards, 2 parrots, 2 rats, and 16 chickens, if it wasnt for the price of hay we would have a cow as well, but we will probably stick to meat and dairy goats because of the limited space we have. |
|
|
| maligirl1 |
| Posted 4/24/2008 7:25:32 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 12-14-2007
Posts: 309
|
| Quote naturaldane: We have three danes, one is a long term foster, 3 small dogs, one of those is a rescue, and a med. size mix breed, 10 cats, 2 goats, a horse, 2 lizards, 2 parrots, 2 rats, and 16 chickens, if it wasnt... |
nd, just curious do you have any children? the only reason i ask is when i was a kid i grew up across the road from a farm and they had everything you have except for the danes and they had 3 cows.i had the best childhood partly because i had so much fun being around all of these animals.helped me learn alot too.anybody with that much energy to take care of all those animals i give credit to. |
|
|
| naturaldane |
| Posted 4/24/2008 8:07:01 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 08-13-2006
Posts: 3012
|
| Quote maligirl1: nd, just curious do you have any children? the only reason i ask is when i was a kid i grew up across the road from a farm and they had everything you have except for the danes and they had 3 cows.i had... |
I have 3, 3 year old, 10 and a 11 year old
Our goal within 3 years is to become almost totally self sufficient, we will be adding solar power hopefully by next year and have the land fully cleaned off by next year so I can plant a full acer of a garden, oddly the garden is harder for me to keep up with than the animals, it only takes about 30 min to get every one fed and turned out, and it took me about 10 min to milk her last night, we had just taken her away from her babies and shes in a new place so shes scared to say the least and is not as easy to milk as she can be. |
|
|
| naturaldane |
| Posted 4/25/2008 10:24:22 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 08-13-2006
Posts: 3012
|
well, I have 3 different cheese textures and taste off the same one recipe there is most certainly an art to this, but at least it taste good |
|
|
| moggie |
| Posted 4/25/2008 10:47:23 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 09-01-2005
Posts: 345
|
 yee haw...green acres is the place to be. i have a farm. i bought it 3 years ago and am still wondering what i thought i was doing, but...good luck on your goat cheese. the trade mkt here has applewood and jalapeno flavored goat cheese and they cut it in strips about 3 to 4" long and 1/4" thick and then fry it up a little in an electric skillet sprayed with pam. OMG!!! GOOD!!!
also...do some homework on jerseys. we have 2. you can get them from a jersey dairy at a day old for a little of nothing. the meat is unbeatable..it does take longer to get them to the weight you want, but they are very easy keepers...do not make pets out of them..whatever you do!!!! grass fed is the best...they always do much better as a pair. good luck on your farming. you will keep it. i have dabbled into a lot of things since being here. i cannot have goats as my poodles would kill them in a second. but i will be getting chickens this year along with 2 baby pigs. |
|
|
| NoSkiveez |
| Posted 4/25/2008 11:57:02 AM |
|
|
|
 
Active: 07-10-2005
Posts: 5221
|
Pat, if I could live in the country I would in a heart beat.
Can you feel the envy? |
|
|
| naturaldane |
| Posted 4/25/2008 12:42:46 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 08-13-2006
Posts: 3012
|
all things are possible if you want them to be Some days like today when I feel overwhelmed i go sit on my porch and listen to the birds, as thats all you here, no cars, no people, you see green trees, grass and grazing goats, no other buildings, people or anything but nature, and it reminds me how lucky I am to be able to have this piece of dream, even if its a never ending pain sometimes trying to get things done.
We had thought about getting a cow, but we dont have all our land cleared, and dont have a enough pasture to barley sustain the goats right now, I put my horse in boarding for a while. A half ass quality round bale is $120 if you can find it that cheap because of the drought, Ive tried for 6 months to just give my horse away and no one can afford them between gas and hay so no cows for now, maybe later.
I want to get at least one more goat for milk, debating if we want to try goat meat, I dont care for cows but love goats so thats a bit differnt for me.
2 out of 8 of the baby chicks that I bought earlier this year that where suposed to be hens turned out to be roosters, so we wont have as many eggs as thought |
|
|
| moggie |
| Posted 4/25/2008 1:38:16 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 09-01-2005
Posts: 345
|
you should be able to buy some hens already laying from a farmers market or market bulletin. there is a good chance that hay will go mwyyyy down...just keep your fingers crossed the there will not be a drought. the farm store has bags of hay replacer in case of emergency. i love my horses. cant give them up...cant |
|
|
| naturaldane |
| Posted 4/25/2008 2:13:56 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 08-13-2006
Posts: 3012
|
If things continue to go up we wont have a chose, its cost 60 a week to feed him and we are ok but not rich.
Hay is said to go up even higher this year because of fuel and the raised cost in fertilizers, another pathetic attempt to drain people dry I believe.
Laying hens are going for 10-15 here and when you talk about having 15 or more like use thats a chunk of change so we bought babies, we had gotten over loaded on eggs so we didnt really need adults just yet, Im about to cull down most of the flock.
Found out what when wrong with my cheese so IM happy, you can use cold milk, hence why you cant really make good cheese out of store bought milk.
This is easy, you can use the store milk but its not as smooth. but you heat the milk to 189 degrees, add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt (optional) and 2 squeezed lemons per gallon, strain it through the cloth and let sit in fridge for a few hours and tada you have cheese. I just tried a batch with vinigar waiting to see how it comes out. |
|
|
| NoSkiveez |
| Posted 4/25/2008 3:01:08 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 07-10-2005
Posts: 5221
|
We used to give promise Goat milk daily. It really helped her thrive after her ordeal.
|
|
|
Pet Lovers Discussion Forum 
