Baaa

Since we lost our milking goats to mastitis, I figured it was time to get another goat so we could have milk. I love the benifits and the taste of raw goat milk.

This is Marina. She is part Alpine and part Nubian. She is registered also.

When I bought her, she had twins on her that were ready to be weaned. She isn't giving a whole lot of milk right now but I hope that she will come up in the future.

Below is an Alpine that my goat partener (Deb) got. She is only 8 weeks old. She will make a good milker someday.

Martha Austin

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/jun/03/martha-austin/

This is the obiturary for my friend that passed away. I will miss her so much. It was a sudden thing. Totally unexpected. She and her husband had gone to Austin to a doctor and she had a stroke while in the Dr.'s office. She passed away a few days later.

I started cleaning for Martha about two years ago when she broke her foot. I told her husband that I would help them out until she got better. Well, Martha wouldn't let me quite. :) I am so glad because I got to know her. We would have coffee breaks while I worked and we would visit and talk about all kinds of stuff.

They have 3 Wheaton Terriors that just adored her and she loved them too. They filled her time and she wouldn't have had it any other way. I am sure Murphy, Maddy and Tucker miss her a lot.

So I will say goodbye to Martha. Thanks for being such a good friend!! You will be missed!!

Loosing friends

What a week. Actually the last few weeks have been so emotional.

We lost one of our registered nubian milk goats about a month ago. She had gotten mastitis and just went down hill in 3 days till she died.

Two weeks later, we found two other goats with mastitis so we started doctoring them. The next day one more had it. One of the first two was another registered nubian and she died within 3 days. The other one didn't get down like those two did. The last one went down hill fast and we were sure she would be dead the next day. She was my first milk goat and it was really hard for me. We found some old medicine in the cabinet that we had used last year for a different kind of illness and we said, "what have we got to loose?" so we gave her a really strong dose. By that evening she was sitting with her head up and then the next day she was up and munching grass. I was so excited. She is fine now except she will loose half of her udder.

In the meantime, I got a call that a really good friend of mine had a stroke. It didn't look good. She was in the Austin hospital since that is where she was at the time. She ended up dieing a few days later on Monday. So this was a greater lose than those two goats. It is still hard to believe.

The next day after my friend passed away, we decided to take the two remaining goats to the vet to have them put down because we had read some stuff about mastitis that they would pass this on to their kids. The vet talked us out of it and told us to dry them up and doctor them some more. We brought them home. I am so glad we did.

So here I want to say good bye to two great milk goats Foxy and Mammy.

I don't have a picture of Mammy but here is Foxy. Mammy was her mother.

I want to also say goodbye to Martha but I want to put that in another post.

To paper towel or not to paper towel, that is a good question.

I ran out of paper towels the other day and I wondered, "How long can I go without them?"

I know there are people who don't use paper towels.

I did pretty good for a few days and then the dog peed on the floor. Well, I used an old wash cloth.

Then I wanted to wash the tray that goes in the toaster oven and it had grease in it from warming fried chicken. I did not know what to do. I didn't want grease on a cloth. I ended up going for toilet tissue. :)

I really hate buying paper towels. You can get the double rolls but the towels are thin. You can get regular sized rolles and they are thicker and the same price as the thin double rolls. It is really hard to find the best deal for the money. How much is it per sheet? ha. One cent? It takes too long to figure it all out. Then you have store brands that MIGHT be cheaper and I don't always buy them at the same place. It is probably the most frustrating thing for me to have to buy.

I ended up getting a really small roll of Viva Paper Towels. The are the most absorbant that I have found and I guess if I only need a small piece, I can tear it in half since it isn't the select-a-size which I really like. I had put an 8 pack in the buggy but ended up going for the Viva.

What kind of Paper Towels do you use if you even do. If you don't, tips would be greatly appreciated.

Got my apron.

I received my apron today from Chrissy at Meaningful Days. I won it when I participated in her Spring Cleaning Challenge. Thanks to my 5 years old son for taking my picture. LOL. We finally got a good one after about 20 takes. He kept cutting my head off. haha..

Thank you again Chrissy. I am sure I will enjoy this.

Last Spring Cleaning Check in

Today is the last day for Chrissy's Spring Cleaning Challenge at Meaningful Days.

I did not get finished with my cleaning but have enjoyed this challenge. I got more done than I would have if I hadn't taken her up on the challenge. She is a great encourager!

I would like to have finished cleaning our bedroom. It wouldn't take a lot to get it finished.
There is also another room that didn't get touched. It is a storage room right now. No organization at all.
Now I am off to get some other stuff done. Got to make some bread so we will have something for breakfast tomorrow and then make some cornbread to go with our beans that I need to get cooking. opps. Almost forgot about them. hahaha. Later.

Goat Milk

We have milk goats. Have you ever tried goat milk? It is so interesting when we tell people that we drink our milk and they wrinkle their nose. "I have never tasted good goat milk", or " that stuff is nasty." They haven't tried OUR milk. hehe. We have good milk.

What about the goat milk from the grocery store? Most of this, in my opinion, is nasty. I am so glad to have my own goats and my own fresh milk!!

We milk into a sterilized bucket, filter into a sterilized tote that is submersed in ice water, after 3 goats, we take this mix to our milk kitchen. While we wash dishes the milk continues to sit in the ice water, after most dishes are done the milk is poured into sterilized 1/2 gallon jars. At this point the milk is cold enough to drink.

That is why our milk does taste good. It can keep at least 3 weeks in the fridge and it still taste the same. Of course ours hardly last that long but it can.

Goat Milk has lots of good benifits. Check out this site.

Compare the Health Benefits of Goat Milk Versus Cow Milk
Goat milk is consumed in most parts of the world except the United States. It is becoming more common in the United States as more people are discovering its health benefits.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/136851/compare_the_health_benefits_of_goat.html

Now, go find some fresh milk and give it a try!