Goats! Well, sort of. They aren't ours. A friend of mine has two goats that are in milk that we are borrowing to see how we like them. We want to see if we want them with thecow, instead of the cow, or not at all. They are experienced, and I don't have to deal with babies so that is a huge plus. So far, we really like them. On the plus side, they are really easy to milk. Even Regan has milked them (with some help from mommy). We tie up one leg and there is no kicking or stepping in the milk. They give about 3 quarts each milking, and they are milked twice a day. I *think* I have figured out the milk handling so that the milk taste really good. They have stayed in their electric fence enclosure. The negatives? Well, I don't have a lot of natural pasture for them, so I need to always buy their feed. The milk can get really goaty if you aren't careful. But, we have enough milk to drink and make yoghurt. Today I made goat's milk soap, and I am waiting on an order of rennet so that I can make some cheese. I am staring with mozzarella, and will move on to other cheeses if that seems to work well.
We processed the 10 chickens we had a few weekends ago. It ended up taking 3 hours from start to finish. I think the next time we do it will be much quicker. Everyone will have their own station that they can man. The chicken plucker worked amazingly well. We were all so impressed with how fast it stripped off the feathers. That was the worst part of doing the birds last time. The chicken plucker was well worth the money.
The cow is over at the breeders. I had planned to get all the different field areas rototilled and planted with some different grasses, but that has been really slow going. It is not going to be even close to ready when she gets back, not sure how that is going to go. Wonder if they can keep her there for awhile? Probably not.
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