Shed Clean Out and... Kids???

I know I keep saying that Gerda is really close to having her kids, but this time I really mean it. 😅 Her udder feels tight and full, and I'm pretty sure I saw some mucus coming out this morning. 

When I think back to how small her udder was in early December and how worried we were that she would kid when we were gone, I have to laugh. She's probably three times as big now as she was then. 😂 Well, now we know for next time. 

Thankfully we're in a warm stretch this week. My father-in-law was able to take Jaron for a couple hours this morning so I could tidy up in the shed.

Because of the cold stretch, the goats were stuck inside that whole time, and the poop has really built up. I wanted to clean out the back area so Gerda would have a fresh clean place for her babies. 

Turns out, there's about one foot of bedding on the goat side of the shed. I took this picture after I had cleaned out all of the hay from the back corner.

After it was all out, my protective bar was way too high up. The mama goats could walk right underneath it. (I also found a duck egg buried in the hay. I wonder if it's still good?)

The chickens loved scratching in the dirt once it was uncovered. A bunch of them gave themselves dust baths until I rebedded the area with straw.

The amount of hay I took out of the back corner:

Why is there so much? Well, most of it is wasted hay the goats were supposed to eat. We need to get a better feeder. Goats are actually pretty picky eaters; they really like eating leaves and not stems. So if the hay they're getting doesn't have a lot of leaves, they eat the good stuff and leave the bad stuff- aka the stems- behind. Sometimes they knock their feeder over (which is just a big tub) and everything falls out. We could put that hay back in, but if they poop on it before we can, that's no good, and the hay ends up as part of the bedding mound. 

So, a better feeder is at the top of the to-do list!

Back to the shed clean out...

Here's the lowered bar. I added another above it just in case.

After putting fresh straw down, the back area was finished. I thought about cleaning out more of the shed, but since it's only the beginning of February, there's still a lot of potential for cold weather. The deep bedding helps to keep the animals warm in two ways - one, by insulating them from the cold ground / keeping them higher off the floor; two, the bottom layers of bedding can decompose, providing heat. I'm not sure how deep the bedding has to be in order for part two to happen, but I figured it'd be better to leave it. 

Even if Gerta has her babies in the main area, we can easily move her into the back corner with her kids until they have bonded. Stay tuned on whether my prediction is correct!

Crockpot Quinoa Update

Quick quinoa update: 2 cups of quinoa is too much to put in my small crock-pot. One cup or 1.5 cups would be much better. 

Some of the quinoa didn't cook, probably because it got pushed above the water. Some of the quinoa was a little mushy. I wonder if I had less in the crock pot if it would work better. 🤔

Slow Cooker Quinoa

Still no kids yet! 

Tonight will be a busy night for us; there's an MLC vs BLC basketball game at 7:30pm (my brother-in-law coaches for MLC), and before that Help Me Grow is hosting a parent/kid night from 4:30-6pm. 

So, there's a small window to quick eat supper! We have leftover stir fry veggies in the fridge I'm planning to heat up, but no rice to go on the bottom. 

I'm going to try making quinoa in the crockpot. Instructions are simple - put 2c quinoa in a crockpot, then 4c water. Cook on low for 4-6h. Perfect! 

A friend of mine made her quinoa in a crockpot overnight, so I think it should be fine if I start it now... Hopefully I picked the right size crockpot! 

Visitation and Funeral

The visitation at the garden center went very well. The lines were set up for an easy flow, friends of the family made popcorn and hot dogs for visitors to snack on while they waited, the funeral flower arrangements were stunning. 

I witnessed this one being put together on Saturday, by far the most magnificent:

Everyone forgot to take pictures of the visitation, but there was lots of positive feedback about how well it went having it at the garden center. A number of people joked about the garden center branching out for more people to rent it for their wakes.

Apple Cider Vinegar Mother

In my cleaning the fridge efforts, I used up the rest of the apples from this fall in applesauce. That left me with little apple scraps perfect for making apple cider vinegar. Even better, I found a bag of apple scraps in the freezer so this batch would be a nice size. 

As I mixed it up, I dug out a jar of ACV I made earlier this year looking for a mother to jumpstart the vinegar process in this batch. 

The first jar I grabbed had one! 

And then I grabbed the jar next to it...

Yes, that mother is as thick as my finger. 

Isn't it amazing that things like that grow "wild" in our pantry? 😜

Snow Fun

G's cousin came for a visit this morning. In addition to being a big Jaron lover, she's a big animal lover, so she wanted to check out the animals in the shed and have Jaron and me come too. 

It was 11 degrees outside not including windchill so we bundled up.

No baby goats! We played with Jip, got the eggs, and then played in the snow. 

First time trying a video on the blog, so we'll see how this goes...

As much fun as Jaron had outside, there did come a point where he pointed to the door and said "done." 😆

Garden Center

Jaron and I spent most of the day at the garden center. 

G's boss unexpectedly died last week and the family decided to have the wake at the garden center (Galen's idea actually). All this week, the employees have been working hard to get everything ready for a lot of visitors. They also got a shipment of plants in, so I came today to help however I could. 

Jaron helped with morale. I put price stickers on the new plants, moved plants to make space for people, and helped rearrange the greenhouse layout. The last thing was prepping a ton of fresh flowers brought in to make floral arrangements for the funeral. We filled up at least 12 buckets with flowers and greens. 

It was a long day and a good day. Nice to be able to do something to help the family. Also nice to be in a warm greenhouse surrounded by beautiful plants... Plant therapy is real. 😜 And nice to be around this guy all day too. 

 PS- no baby goats yet!