Random Weekly Thoughts and Updates

* My everyday, carry in my pocket to be able to take pictures of everything camera broke awhile ago so I'm having a hard time shooting the day by day Homestead Life photos. For me that's frustrating. So much of what goes on here is spur of the moment, or wet and dirty and I can't bang around my good camera like that, so pictures of what we're doing are at a minimum.

* The milking machine broke this morning. It's not pressurizing the canister therefore there's no suction. My Saanan goats have teeny tiny teats and are impossible to milk by hand. They also produce the most milk- one girl gives in excess of a half gallon at each milking.

 

UPDATE: Since writing this, Bob completely took the machine apart, gave it a good cleaning and it's up and running again.  I've realized though, that I wouldn't be able to do this without one - or him!

 * Something is destroying eggs in the hay barn. I've set a live trap but it keeps springing the trap and getting the bait as well.  I thought we had eradicated the problem two nights ago when we removed two raccoons who were on the porch eating the cat food. (I have to feed the cats at night because during the day the chickens will converge and take over the food bowl. Everything is afraid of the chickens around here: the cats, the turkeys, the Rottweilers... me too!) I think I need a bigger trap - I suspect the predator is an opossum. Whatever it is chased a hen off a nest she'd  been sitting for two weeks.

*  Today we begin building the Pineapple House. For years we've been dragging potted pineapple plants out of the greenhouse every spring and putting them back in the fall, but those suckers have become quite large and they're sharp! I vowed this past spring that I would NOT drag them back inside again! Not to mention they take up the entire floor of the greenhouse, leaving no room to begin Aquaponics - which is NEXT on the list! 

 The plan is to take down two sets of glass panels on the greenhouse, build a weight bearing wall, extend a glass addition on to the south side of the greenhouse specifically for the pineapples, and plant them in the ground. I'll let you know how it goes (once the milking machine is fixed!)

* I've been making goat milk soap fairly regularly and have begun packaging - even the boxes are handmade. (from scrapbooking cardstock - Use what 'cha got!)  As you can see, I'm targeting sales for the holidays - The ingredients I use to make my soaps are: coconut oil, olive oil, goat milk, and palm oil - no lard or tallow, and so far the fragrances include: Oakmoss, Ylang Ylang, Very Sexy For Her, Heavenly Heather, Peach Mango, Frankincense and Myrrh, Cool Mountain Lake, White Satin and Bay Rum.

Below are just two of the many bar designs I make.

 * The bees are back.  Last weekend we consolidated trailers and brought back our hives from the cotton farm. I'll tell you more about that soon.

 

*  AND the most exciting news of all... After a two year engagement, there's whisperings of a date!