Scattered Summer
The baby chickens grow up SO fast.
 |
| 2025-06-27 |
 |
| 2025-06-30 |
 |
| 2025-07-03 |
 |
| 2025-07-06 |
 |
| 2025-07-24 |
 |
| 2025-07-28 |
The goat kids are growing too. The disbudding didn't take properly but they seem to be doing well otherwise. The vet has been by for their vaccines and will be back to castrate. I'm not interested in the "usual" technique which is called "banding" and literally consists of using a VERY strong and VERY tight rubber ring to cut of circulation until the whole sack falls off. My boys are getting neutered like dogs. (Local freezing, a quick incision and removal, before sewing back up.)
They're old enough now that they're locked away from mom overnight. (They can still see and smell and talk, they just can't nurse). This means we're getting about 2L a day from Honey on top of the about 1.5L from Star. The boys are eating hay and a bit of "ration"/feed overnight, plus the usual forage and whatever they can convince from Honey through the day(she's already started to shoo them away more often) so they're well fed and getting strong.
I have been running into the issue that cow milk and goat milk do not usually behave the same way and therefore I need modified recipes just because I'm using naturally homogenized goat milk with teeny tiny fat particles instead of cow milk that has great big fat particles(that's what makes the cream quickly rise to the surface). I've been experimenting with fresh cheeses and also "wasting" SO much milk on yogurt that would just NOT thicken up. It tastes fine and is perfectly safe, it's just as thin as Yop. I am not interested in adding starches to what should be a straightforward dairy product, but thanks to discussing online with some other folks I think I've (mostly) figured it out. We'll have to see next attempt. For now I'll go back to cheeses so we can store some up for later.
The garden is looking okay and the greenhouse is doing fine. I'm kinda glad I didn't get around to planting the corn as this year has been SO dry and I'd rather not risk the water on such a thirsty crop.
We had a bit of a health-scare where Hugslut had to go to the hospital for a skin infection but after the antibiotics she's feeling much better. I've been tired and scatterbrained even worse than "usual" so the doc ordered some bloodwork to check my b vitamins. I hope that's all it is because I can certainly handle a needle every 3 months if it means I'm not napping 1-3 hours daily.
Scattered and tired means I's been hard to keep track of all the things and then I feel guilty about being too tired to do all the things I do remember and then feel even MORE guilty when I remember I forgot and there's even MORE things I didn't do. I'm working on being okay with "Everyone is fed and watered. That's good enough."