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!

Single Digits

It's still cold - in the single digits - but warmer than last week. 

All the animals are enjoying the "heatwave". The goats have poked their heads out of the shed to see what's going on. 

The ducks are actually sleeping outside in the sun, and Jip is sleeping in his dog house. 

No eggs cracked from the cold either!

Oh, and no baby goats yet...

Jaron has made some big milestones lately. Yesterday he pulled himself to stand on the stool I sat on eating breakfast. He had been crawling around on the floor. All of a sudden I felt little fingers scritching my pants... I thought, "How is Jaron reaching up that high from the floor?" Looked down, and there he was, standing and reaching for me, flipper braced on one of the stool rungs. 

He tried it again this morning when I wasn't sitting on the stool and made it halfway to standing before he sat back down. 

He also got himself up on all fours (or threes as the case may be) in a standard crawling position. First time that's happened! 

All these milestones, eating a ton, taking long naps... Jaron has to be in the middle of teething or a growth spurt or something.

Kumquat Marmalade

The garden center has some kumquat trees that produced fruit. A lot of fruit. So G brought a container of them home for us. We ate some fresh- very strange to eat the whole thing, peel and all. They are a citrus fruit and taste like a cross between a lemon and orange. There were definitely going to be more than we could eat. How about jam? Or, marmalade as the case may be (peels are included). 

I found a super highly rated recipe online, also, super simple. Perfect. 

The hardest part was slicing the kumquats and dealing with the seeds. Each kumquat is a little bigger than the size of a quarter and inside is a range of 2-6 seeds the size of a lemon or orange seed. It took me at least an hour to get all of them cut. Probably more because I was interrupted by a little monkey who wanted entertaining... 

Brief aside... I was also cleaning the fridge in the midst of making the jam. 😅 I had set a box of carrots on the floor (still from our garden- cardboard box for the win!) and forgot about it as I scrubbed. Jaron was entertained by the box, so I let it be. A few minutes later I looked down and saw Jaron with a gigantic carrot in hand, munching happily away, dirt and all. I did wash it off much to his annoyance, and he happily chewed it the rest of the day. 

Now back to the marmalade. 

Look at all the seeds. 

I kept them because the recipe said they are high in pectin and can be used to help the marmalade set, but I didn't end up using them. After the slicing and deseeding, I wasn't sure if this recipe would be worth it...

But the rest was simple. Sliced fruit, one lemon juiced, water to cover, some sugar.

Boil for 15min. Boom. Jam. I mean, marmalade. 🤦‍♀️

And it's soooo delicious. 🤩 

Might be worth all the deseeding...

Weighing Eggs

We have a faithful egg customer who asked me what the actual size/weight difference is between pullet eggs and standard chicken eggs. So, I got out a scale and began to weigh them...

My notes from the endeavor: 

I weighed full cartons and divided it into single eggs, then I weighed individual eggs.

After weighing two dozen pullet eggs individually and two dozen chicken eggs individually, I found the average pullet egg is 46-47g (35g lowest, 53g highest, most in the 45-47g range). 

The standard chicken eggs range from 57-63g with 57g and 61g being the two most common weights. We have one chicken who consistently lays 63g eggs (the green one). Coincidentally, she is our most mature hen.

So, if I did my math right, that shows the pullet eggs are about 78% of a regular chicken egg. At least at the age our hens are now. I'm sure the early eggs were slightly smaller. 

Now I need to weigh duck eggs...

While collecting eggs over multiple days, I've noticed a pattern; the ducks tend to lay their eggs right away in the morning along with Dixie, our green egg layer. The pullets tend to lay their eggs later in the day. Coincidence? I'm not sure. 

Saturday Bonus Post, Because I Know You're Dying to Know...

No kids yet. Gerda is still large and in charge. 

It was -18 when Jaron and I went out to do chores this morning. Yes, unfortunately Jaron woke up early this morning and didn't want me to leave him alone. I had set up everything the night before to make it quick and easy to feed the animals this morning. So we bundled up and scurried out.

All of the ducks had laid their eggs for the day, and only three of them had frozen. Just two chickens had laid theirs, so I will maybe go out at noon today to see if I can get the rest before they freeze.

With the shed door closed up, it's pretty nice in the shed, but as soon as I open the door to do chores, then it starts to get cold. Sage was shivering while she ate her grain this morning. 

Even though I couldn't get the shed door all the way shut because of the frozen snow, I figured out a way to keep the door mostly closed by sliding the pallet in the empty space. Isn't it amazing that it's the perfect size!

To keep the shed even more closed up and toasty, I put a little bench in front of the side chicken door. That means the birds can't get out, but I don't think they want to on cold days like these. 😆 Only cat tracks in the snow coming out of the hole before I put this down.

What about Jip? He is a 100% outside dog, so how does he keep warm on these frigid days? Well, he has amazing fur. Yesterday, I put some hay in his dog house thinking that it would help him stay warmer. Instead, he pawed all of it out of his house and laid on it in front of his house. I think he enjoyed the warmth of the sun shining on him. 

This morning I gave him more hay, but I put it in front of his dog house. He seemed very excited about it. 

March for Life

My sister's church chartered a bus to bring people up to the Cities for the March for Life on January 22nd (yesterday). She and Jaron and I joined in even though the forecast was in the single digits. After all, there's no such thing as bad weather! Just bad clothes. 😉

So, Wednesday night I gathered up all of our wool and fleece layers, balaclavas, hats, mittens, hand and foot warmers, and blankets and threw them in a bag. I'd wear my boots and my babywearing coat. 

We met the bus bright and early, picked up a few more people in nearby towns, and had a worship service at a Lutheran church up in the Cities. I actually saw one of my college classmates there! The church served refreshments after the service, and we had a little bit of a chance to catch up. After that, Jaron and I geared up with the help of Auntie Eileen... Jaron likes to pull off his hat. 😂

The bus took us the rest of the way to the Capitol. 

It was very windy... I never looked, but the forecast had said - 18° wind chill. With our layers, Jaron and I were a perfectly reasonable temperature. 

We stood on the capital steps to hear a variety of speakers, who kept it short because of the cold. (I included a link to the live stream in case you are interested in hearing what they had to say. The action starts around 8:30 into the video).

The main theme of the day was that coercion is not choice. They kept religion out of it and the focus on that phrase. One speaker emphasized the fact that abortion pills are being used by abusers to give to the women they abuse without their knowledge or consent. Often times, no follow-up care is given with these abortion pills, or abortions in general, which can have dire results for the health of those women.

One of the speakers was a woman who had escaped child trafficking. She grew up in North Dakota, was abused and ran away. She got picked up off the street by a trafficker and was forced into prostitution in multiple cities around the United States. She was forced to have multiple abortions. She said that if the law had been different and her parents had been notified that she, a minor, was getting an abortion, she would've been found much earlier. 

Very powerful messages. I teared up multiple times. And not just because of the wind.

When the forecast was predicted to be so cold, I did have a moment of doubt. But then I realized we'd be sending an even stronger messages by standing in the extreme cold for this cause.

Jaron slept through the whole thing. 😂 You can see his little eye and also the frost from his breath on his balaclava. 

The crowd quickly dispersed after the last speaker, but our Lutheran group stuck around to sing a hymn before we got back on our bus.

Collecting Eggs

The chickens each have their favorite spots to lay their eggs. We've found most of them, although I'm sure there are a few hiding eggs in hard to find places. I used up a bale in the haymow and discovered an egg behind it. The egg grabber was long enough to get it and it wasn't even frozen! 

One of the main locations is up in the haymow on the right side. There's a bunch of loose hay there, and almost every time I go out to the shed there's a chicken there with a few eggs under her. That's nice because the eggs are constantly kept warm and don't freeze! 

(The picture is dark because I've been doing chores early in the morning before Jaron wakes up.)

Another popular egg laying location is under the milking stand. This is where I frequently find frozen eggs- no insulation. The ducks like to lay here. 

Then we have the feed tub layers. There's usually 2-3 eggs in each of the goat feed tubs. 

And sometimes there are eggs tucked behind the bins!

 

Prepping for Babies

Still no kids!

G has been gone in Florida this week playing baseball with his dad in a 30+ league. That leaves Jaron and me to do chores every day. So far so good. Most mornings he has slept in long enough for me to sneak out and do chores. Our baby monitor reaches out to the shed, so I can at least hear when I need to run back inside. 

This morning Jaron woke up at 6am. Thankfully my mom was around and was also up, so she was able to entertain him while I did chores and prepped for the cold weather coming up. Could I have done all that with Jaron in tow? Of course. Was it much easier and quicker to leave him in the house? Absolutely. 

Task #1 was to chip away the ice surrounding Jip's tether so it can rotate freely. Because it's frozen, the chain will get twisted thus shortening the tether so Jip can't reach his food, water, or his dog house. 

Got it free! 

Task #2- stretch an extension cord to the corner of the shed and hang a heat lamp. I'll plug it in when the goats have their babies to give them extra warmth. 

Task #3 was to drill a beam around the corner to give the babies a space they can be without the big goats stepping on them. It's also good protection for the heat lamp so the big goats don't smash into it. 

Task #4- chipping away the snow and ice so the shed door can shut tighter on the really cold nights. This was by far the hardest task. 

The water pail is right by the door hinges, so when water drips, it trickles in the open door crack and ice forms. It's really hard to bust it out! 

I was able to do enough to close the door most of the way, but it's still open a crack. Hopefully it's enough to keep the shed warm on these cold nights! 

Once finished, I came in the house to find these two lovely faces greeting me when I came up the stairs. 

Mom left shortly after that to beat the blizzard that was supposed to come late morning/early afternoon. Here's what it looked like outside around sunset: 

Pretty awful blizzard, right? There was some wind and a little blowing snow, but visibility always seemed good. We still stayed put in our cozy house. 

Another fun thing from today... In my family growing up we liked to "cheers" our food. And if it didn't make a "clink" sound clicking them together, we'd add the sound effect ourselves. Tonight Jaron and I were both eating muffins, so I cheersed our muffins and said "dink!" 

Jaron got a huge smile on his face and held out his muffin to do it again. We did it three times before he grabbed what was left of my muffin and ate it. 🤣

Mineral Mess

No kids yet! But Gerda's udder is getting bigger and bigger. Hopefully she'll wait for a warmer day. Lots of single digits and wind chills in the forecast this week. 

The goats have been pooping in their mineral. Part of the problem is we need the feeder to be installed up higher, but in the meantime, G came up with a solution - put a bag over the top so the nuggets don't actually go inside. 

The one worry was that the weight of the poop would pull the bag down enough for the bag to slip inside the feeder. But no, it's been fine!

Further Plant Experiments

Seed saving has interested me for a while. Both carrots and cabbages take two years to produce seeds. People who grow their own seeds will replant carrots or carrot tops in their gardens to throw them the following year. The same thing goes for cabbages, except the cabbage root gets planted.

We still have carrots from our garden and surprisingly a red cabbage too, so I cut off the appropriate parts and put them in water. 

The carrots have taken off. There might be a hint of roots forming, but it's too soon to tell. 

The cabbage was a little slower to start. It was pretty dried out and I threw it in water on a whim (fished it out of the compost bin actually 😅). 

I'm not sure what that cluster of thin green shoots are... Definitely not cabbage!

Pregnant Goats

Gerda is bagging. 

What on earth does that mean?! 

It means her udders are getting bigger, which shows she's gearing up to have her babies soon. 

Well, we don't know how many she has in there. Hopefully more than one. Based on the size of her belly my guess would be twins. 

These two pictures were taken before Christmas.

And these last week: 

Now here she is today: 

A lot can change in one month! 

The question is, how close is she? Will she wait another week? Possibly. Could she go today? It's possible. But I think it's more likely she'll kid in a few days. Then again, there's a weather system expected tonight/tomorrow, and it seems like whenever there's a storm animals give birth. We'll see if my predictions are correct! 

What about our other two goats? 

Brighita is definitely bred, but her underbelly hair is black which makes it hard to tell how close she is. She's also a first time mom and first timers don't bag quite as early. These pictures were taken last week.

Poor skinny Sage is not pregnant (that we can tell). I don't think she got bred by Cocoa before he left, but even if she had, Sage had gotten sick a few months ago- sick enough we didn't think she'd make it- and that could've ended her pregnancy if she had been bred. G nursed her back to health. He gave her syringes of water mixed with molasses to keep her hydrated, and even some pop for caffeine/energy, until she pulled through. 

Neverending excitement with goats around!

Biscuits

I have a really good biscuit recipe from my mom. It uses shortening and powdered milk, things I have at home but not up in Duluth where I was making them. 

Chat gpt to the rescue! It gave me a conversion from powdered milk to regular milk (1:1, but start on the lower end and add a few T if dry) and a conversion from shortening to butter (also 1:1). 

To make the biscuits even more flaky and fluffy, chat gpt recommended folding the dough in thirds, rotating it 90 degrees, and folding it again (just like puff pastry!). I definitely felt like I was on the British Baking Show when I folded and flattened the dough. It didn't make as many as I thought it would. Maybe from the folding and flattening? 

Still, the biscuits turned out great. I used a pizza cutter to cut them into squares. The tweaked recipe suggested having the biscuits touch for a better rise, so that's what I did. 

The finished product: 

Look at that lamination! 🥳