Fresh Raw Goats Milk

WOW! This is definitely a new experience for a city raised girl. We began milking our goats and we are getting about a half gallon a day from our two does. We only milk once a day and they are left with their babies all day after the milking until about 6 in the evening when we lock the babies up in a separate pin.

My son Lance and I are both lactose intolerant and this has been a great experience for us both. Not even one little gurgle after downing some of our fresh goats milk. My other son Logan is not as excited. He is missing his store bought milk but is slowly coming around either because he is beginning to get over the thought of where the milk comes from or because he is deciding he likes milk to much to go cold turkey. Jared does not seem to care one way or another but he is enjoying the fact that we are no longer paying for milk and that we are finally beginning to see our farm animals come to... fruition?

We do not pasteurize our milk so, it is raw. This is a new thought process for me but so was gathering eggs out of the coop  the first week the chickens started layng rather than buying at the store. I do have to give props to Dansha Farms ( http://www.danshafarms.com/  ). We bought a battery operated milker from them through eBay. This was a better idea for us than a pump you pump constantly by hand because if we are out of town 9 times out of 10 my mother-in-law would be the one coming to pump and we were thinking of her arthritis. With this pump you just press a button : ). It is a closed system so this helps keep our milk clean from debris (poop, hair, mud, etc.). I am new to this but I have to say that I love this system.

We now have milk, eggs, canned food from our garden, meat from our chickens (soon goats) and gonna start raising rabbits this year as well. Jared goes fishing and keeps the freezer stocked with fresh fish and hunting in the winter and if things go well (this year they didn't) we have venison as well. We are also hoping to start raising hogs next year. My herb gardens are going in this year. We are as busy as it sounds but we love every minute of it. Self sufficiency is the goal and we are getting pretty darn close. I need a good bread recipe that can replace our store bought bread and I will feel more complete.

Baby Goats

We had our first baby goats born on April 7.

Lupine had two boys (Loki & Floki) and is a wonderful first time mother. We were so excited to all be able to be present for the birth. Of course there was mixed feelings of interest, humor and disgust from our 15 and 13 year old boys but they were no less amazed to witness their first live birth. Lupine made giving birth look like a piece of cake. She took no time pushing them out and cleaning them off. They began to eat within 20 minutes of being born. We did not weigh the boys until the next day at which time they were 8.5 and 7.5 pounds.

On the following Wednesday, April 11th Lupines half sister Lilly gave birth for her first time to a boy. She had a much harder time than her sister had. After about 20 minutes his head finally made its way out and with a little pull on his legs; to help his exhausted mom, he was right out. Lilly took a bit longer to begin cleaning him off but the poor thing was sooo tired. Once he was placed in front of her instincts kicked in and she took care of him right away. We weighed him right away and he was 10 whopping pounds. No wonder she had such a hard time. My son named him "Block Head". I thought it was mean but it has stuck. HaHa! He is still bigger than his cousins who were born 4 days before him.

Unfortunately we will not be keeping them since they are all males and Lance is extra sad since Loki has become a good friend to him. He follows him like a puppy dog and naps in his lap. He also bites him if he stops petting him. So cute. Lance has comes to terms with it but I am sure it will be very hard when they are sent off to the butcher. He is hoping someone will buy him as a pet (I kinda am too).

This week the babies are all 2 weeks old and we will begin milking the moms by the weekend. This means fresh goats milk, butter and attempting to make goat cheese too.

The boys will all be banded at about 4 weeks of age. We did not disbud these guys because we are not keeping them and so we felt it was an unnecessary harshness in their short lives. Our goal is to keep them healthy and happy for the short time they have and show them plenty of love in that time as well.

This is harder on me than I make it out to be. I am a huge animal lover but this was our goal from the start. This first week of these guys lives I found myself almost crying at the mention of the butcher. I have come to better terms with it but Jared (my husband) is sure I will cry when we drop them off and not sure if I will eat them when they come back. We will see.

Rustic Healing Salve

SALVE, SALVE, SALVE!

This stuff is awesome (if I do say so myself). I love it and so does my family. I originally made the salve for Logan's Eczema but we use it on sunburns, burn burns (ha), bug bites, scratches, cuts, sprains, swollen ankles (after working all day), cracked/dry feet, farmers hands, gardeners hands, construction hands, nurses hands, pets and the list goes on and on. Comfrey and Calendula are the two major herbs in it and they are known for soothing and healing a multitude of things. I have not begun selling on eBay or etsy as of yet but it is my plan in the future. However, if you are interested and are not close enough to pick it up, I will ship to you just message me on facebook.

A 2oz tin is $8.00 and a 1/2 oz tin is $3.00.

Ingredients:
Olive oil, organic calendula flowers, organic Comfrey root, all natural beeswax, lavender essential oil, tea tree oil & all natural vitamin E oil.

I have started a page on facebook and you can find it as we are listed here, "The Rustic Raven Farm & Grove". I update that much more frequently than this blog that I keep forgetting about. Oops.

So, come check out our facebook page and don't forget to order your salve.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rustic-Raven-Farm-Grove/387625968001853?ref=stream

Hello all. I created this blog so long ago and am just now getting around to attempting to post. We have been busy bees this year.

This year we finished the barn which doubles as a dog kennel and storage and clean area inside for processing our own meat. Well, finished means the walls are all up. Ha! No sink or shelving or counters yet. The dogs are very happy in there new kennels tho.

We already had about 20 chickens and some guinea hens and we decided to order Americanas, Rhode Islands and a few more Barred Rocks this year adding about 30 more to our lot. The guineas wanted in on this and decided to give us 10 babies and what great timing they had, the babies were hatching the day our new chick shipment arrived. : )

We purchased 2 young female goats in June just before our vacation. When we returned home we had 4 goats. No, no one had babies, my mother-in-law gave us hers that she had just gotten a few months prior because she thought they would be happier in our new fenced lot with our new goats. Whew! We went from none to 4 and still were not and are not quite certain what we are doing. Unfortunately, that proved to be really bad since we lost one of our sweet little ones just a couple weeks later. Luckily (or unluckily) we learned through the process of loosing her what went wrong and what to do right in order to save her sister that began to show the same illness.

We are currently in the middle of gardening and canning season and we are so tired some days from all the fun to be had getting the food processed. My husband and I are still both working full time and when we get home from work we start working at home and don't stop until bedtime. Luckily I am on summer break right now from my college courses and the boys are a huge help while they are out of school as well. The boys love this and hate this as they will tell ya. : ) They love it more when they have time to play their XBOX (of course).

I will try to keep posting with what we learn with the goats as we go as well as our many other adventures.