making butter and hats and more good things.....

Hah! I made fresh butter tonight, made cheddar cheese curds last week and they were good needed a bit more salt and took over 6 hours to make but it was fun and interesting, I also discoevered I stirred the curds to much and to fast so they weren't as goof as they could have been. Next time I hope but making cheese is trial and error and I expect to have my share of learning blunders.

Here is a p[icture of the butter, I was very surprised it was so yellow because my cheese wasn't. This was made from Fresh raw milk cream that I removed from the top of one of the gallons I bought last week to make cheese, if you let it sit a week the cream rises to the top and you can use it for all kind of recipes. Gave the buttermilk that comes off the butter to the cats. Had to use Cows milk fresh from a dairy since my goats are dry right now and it will be about 4 months before I will have any in milk. I used Jersey cow milk since it has a higher butterfat and they are so sweet looking. On another note I have made 3 hats 2 spiral and one with a button cuff, got to use one of the buttons I made. Here are 2 of the hats. The spirals are fun to make but I need to make the next one a liitle longer same with the button hat. It has been cold and wet lately which we really need the rain but wish it would stay warm cold and rainy is dreary. Took this picture the other morning after the rain it felt so crisp and clean and sparkly as yopu can see. The goats and freckles were waiting to be fed of course. beggars.

It is already November

Time is flying by it seems, I just don't have enough for myself and all the things I want to do and create. I am very happy with how my pottery throwing has progressed but I still have a long way to go. Here are my new goat mugs. Love the glaze but am also working on a black with the clay goat and want to perfect the purple with a clay goat or black goat and a new edge glaze. I have 20 mugs ready to be bisque fired and then glazed which seems to take the most time and can ruin a mug if I am not careful. I took my mugs to SAFF the Southeast animal fiber festival and did really well and it wouldn't have been possible if not for Cindy who gave me free shelf space and encouragement and all knids of help and jess who did the same and they both helped sell too.

Rain glorious rain although we are now under a flood watch

finally rain 1 1/2 inches so far but we are under a flood watch til wed. morning. we have needed this so bad I hope it really makes a difference for my pastures helping to save on hay hope we get warm after the rain to make the grass grow.

Oh the joy of knitting socks just keep the cats out of ones knitting bag!

I just finished knitting a pair of socks, very time consuming but I really enjoyed it. Knitting row after row, counting and then watching the colors come out. I used a handpained yarn and wish I kept the tag to know were I bought it from, someone on Etsy.com.

Socks and my hand thrown mugs

I have finally finished one sock I love knitting them but they take so long to finish when you knit at traffic lights or at the end of the day when my eyes are tired. I have already started the second one, starting them is difficult and hopefully gets easier as I make more. I have found a new way to glaze my mugs and I like how they come out, but I would like to try different color glazes instead of the pale yellow green and oribe and weathered bronze on the lip. Not sure what colors I would use.

My herd of nubians

I started milking again yesterday and got a total of 6 qts from Marian 1.5 qts, Mag 1 qt, Bella 1 qt, Weaver 1 qt and Hattie 1 qt and today I got a qt from Mariah and Hattie. I tasted yesterdays and its was really good I love it fresh and cold. I hope to make cheese soon. Bella is doing better and I won't be able to use her milk since I gave her a thamine shot and a B complex she was off by herself and not acting right but by last night she was back begging for food and eating fine today.

Finally a holiday giving me more time

I can't believe how long it has been, I can't seem to stop going from one to the next and then getting so overwhelmed and tired. OK currently, I have been working on my pottery and like the new mugs but they aren't perfect yet but give me more ideas on how to carve and glaze. @ baby nubian kids disappeared from my pasture last tues/wed very worrying i. if it was coyotes they would have come back for more 2. I was overnighting tuesday night in TN for my job 3. no sign of coyote prints or dogs, dogs would have killed for pleasure and left them usually, 4. Just where did they go and why would someone take them? it was a doe and a buck too. haven't had time to bead but want too and have design ideas that I keep storing, haven't had time to knit either and I drag it everywhere. I have been able to keep the weeds down so far in the garden and it looks good. The zinnia and sunflowers are blooming. So far my lavender has made it thru the winter and part of the summer this is when it gets tricky with the humidity adn the heat we will see.

Another beautiful morning

ok I don't mean to complain but how can someone forget a presentation unless they wanted to at that moment and call the next morning so one would have to reschedule. Having todays appointment changed to 11:30 messes up my whole day for anything let alone leaving for TN. Says she didn't have time to look at her computer except to print things off probably for the presentation so she knew. Yesterday was just as bad between work issues and customer issues and Amy getting a splinter and replacing the gasket in the pool which I thought was going good until 2 things the new gasket didn't come with O rings and I realize after I installed it when the water was coming straight out the top which it hadn't done before and putting the gasket in 180 degrees wrong not once but a few times. The day was a wash. and now this.
Well I started the kittens on kitten chow mixed with warm water to soften and the gray and white started eating the rest spit it out when I had them taste it and then I got a second one to eat on his own now I have to find a real shallow litter pan and then I have to find 4 homes.

The Garden

I got the first batch of Pole Lima beans planted King of the Garden the best lima beans ever, I also planted some cucs and some zinnia and sunflowers. I transplanet 4 lavender plants mixed some reg sand since the green sand hasn't come in yet and added some small rocks to help with drainage. I hope these lavender plants do well like the ones from last year I planted 2 mixed the soil with green sand and so far they are doing well not has big and bushy as when I grew them in Virginia but they have a bunch of flower stalks getting ready to bloom, I did plant them too close together so will have to transplant when they are done blooming.

another new mug

I am excited about these but 1. I still need to work on the glazing and 2. need good color combinations that pop!

New mugs

This is one of the brand new ones were I don't glaze the goat the purple glaze bubbled a little at the lip but the 2 colors look good together.

A long week and its' not over yet

No babies this week, blackberry didn't go yet and I can't believe she could hang on another 3 weeks, her belly will drag the ground. Figures snowflake, hattie and her daughter are all due next friday and I will be in Tn for the level II training.

Not raining yet

Today they have called for rain and it hasn't started yet and I thought it might not because the sun was out. We need the rain but the sun would be nice too. Have a lot to do today and I want to get up to pottery and work on buttons, mugs and plates and maybe throw a bowl or two. The new mugs I made came out pretty nice a few glazing issues but all I can do is keep trying. The next glazing tryout will be glaze the goat and wax over it and then dip the mug and see how that works with the glaze running down. This time I didn't glaze the carved goat but waxed it and then dipped the mug in glazes, only one glaze combo didn't work out that well. The goblet turned out really cool and the were it mixed with the other glazes and ran the bottom of the run broke in the incredible blue color. to do list: feed the goats, take pictures of the 2 goats udders hopefully they are fuller now then 2 hours ago so I get a good isea on how they look. put fencing up in back yard and put the goats in.

stream

watterfall

woods

drining thru the smokies

The best part of me job is the traveling getting to drive thru the smokies to go see customers and the customers are the second best. Took a couple of pictures and got to see those white looking magnolia blossoms on trees I don't recognize. was early in the morning and with my digital the light was tough.

1 day old

and mom is talking to me, her brother is in the shed probably hogging the recliner?? could be he has the remote and doesn't want to lose control over it.

here are pictures of the 2 new nigerian babies

still not great pictures it seems to be to early or late on the day and they move quickly. they are 2 days old.

2 new babiy nigerian goat kids a boy and a girl

Well Stella finally kidded this morning and of course the boy has really great markings, I am thinking about getting him wethered to sell as a pet maybe get a little more for him, sold my other spotted doe nubian cross for $70 which was more than I expected but she was really pretty. Hope to get pictures when I get home later today, I have 2 more close to going allthough blackberry isn't due for 8 days she didn't eat this morning. and faiths kid from last year has no tendons so she will go in 24 hours and of corse I am leaving for Asheville. Want to start using the milk for the goat I am milking for tracie to use to drink and for cheese. Great weather we are having.

Hope things are starting to look up

I have been sick since last friday over a week ago, finally went to a doctor and right now I am fighting pneumonia and a sinius infection and hoping that the drup levaquin won't give me and of those horrible side affects that i read about on line because I did have something scarry happening but by researching on line discovered i wasn't drinking enough water while on this drug and after consumong a ton of water it took about two hours and I felt better, and this side affect wasn't even listed the urge to pee even after one has just peed and then the lower groing pain, something to do with crystals in my urine but when I started drinking the water things really improved and now I dring a lot more water. that was scarry. But with this sinus and all i have been feeling so energyliss that frightens me more. i have to make myself feed the goats and do the basics. So far this morning I feel better sinuis still feel tight but clear breathing thru both nostrils most of the time but don't seem to get much air thru them. Haven't felt like working on anything , normally its' I want to work on something can't decide what to start and do nothing but think about it. Did get my beads out last night and looked thru a few books for ideas but just didn't start anything. Besides all this I am a procrastinator! Tracie and I sold some goats yesterday no bigs ones but that decision will come once I have all the babies and need to decide who to keep and who to let go. Feed isn't getting any cheaper and if we have a drought like last year they hay will in the ionsphere price wise if they even get to cut it. So far we have had some rain but near enough for the years, GA is 5 inches down don't know what we are and all it did was drizzle and make a mess yesterday. Still no new babies holding out to have them all at one time when I am not here.

Taking pictures at night

I also like taking pictures at night using my flash, but it is hard to get them clear. I also love taking pictures of bunches of flowers with the mixtures of colors and textures.

DISTANT THUNDER

I enjoyed sitting out on the deck last night, lights out and listening to the far off thunder and watching the flash from the lightning, there were a few jagged stearks across the sky. I imagine it took about 20 minutes for the storm to reach us, thank fully we did not get the full force and not enough rain. They are calling for a worse drought this year and we are still trying to recover from the drought of last year. After coming inside I started working on taking pictures of the buttons I am going to post on http://www.etsy.com/ to sell. I really need to keep it up to date but struugle with making the time to take pictures and post. My mugs with goats carved in that I do have sold, along with a few ornamnets. I got three sets of buttons posted last night hooray! I also sold 2 mugs at the pottery Studio hARTWORKS were I make and create all my pottery their web is http://www.hartworks.com/ that is so exciting for me to sell them in the gallery and they had only been there about 2 weeks. last week on my work travels I stopped at Carl Sandburgs farm to eat my lunch and walked up to see the goats and took some pictures. goats are as curious as cats and get into more trouble. Take a look at this goat if that bird house isn't anchored well it will be history!

Fog in the morning

ended up getting up early because my son needed a ride to drill he had a flat tire, after helping him pick up his limber last night, unload it cover it Ialso had to clean out the front seat for him so i was grumbling and lo and behold he went and asked his sister and she took him, I still have to pick him up around 4. I think he mentioned something else I had to do but can't remember what. Hmmm. I like foogy mornings that are so dense you can't see anything but just enough for that ghostly image of trees and buildings to come thru, it also looks neat if the sun tries to peek thru and makes everything glitter and sparkle especially after a heavy due or a light rain that has left the raindrops on the branches. I don't see it often. well time to go down and check the new babies and take care of all the animals.

Whats' happening on the farm

Belle had 2 kids today, a buck and a doe kid. The buck is a creamy white with long legsn and the doe is alot smaller brown with short black socks. They both have long thin ears and seem to be doing ok. I will weight them tomorrow. I am going to change their feed slowly mixing in the new feed with the old. custom mix, mixed for my feed store 13% protein and I will add the shredded beet pulp and sunflower seeds and corn gluten. It has raind on and off all day at times very hard, the barn area is a muddy mess I slipped and fell in the mud getting faith out of the chicken coop were she doesn't belong and breaks into when ever I forget to tie the string at the bottom to keep her out she'd rather eat laying pellets than her own feed go figure. I have 5 more does to kid one is due any time and the others are due in May and June. Rought year for getting them bred i waited to have kids for march and april but they just didn't take and to re breed.Hopefully i'll get more does I am 3 doe kids and 3 buck kids right now.
Had about 2 hours to throw some bowls the first one didn't go well and I turned it into a closed container to make into a hinged pot or an oil lamp. The second try I was able to make a cassarole it looked a little rough, I'll see how it looks on tuesday. Since I didn''t have much time the other pieces from yesterday were way to wet to trim and 2 hours isn't near enough for them to be dry enough to trim so I wrapped them back up and will have to trim another day.

I am working on a series of the photographs in all seasons and the last time I was up there the property is for sale so I am not sure how much longer this path will be there.

Still raining

We needed the rain after the drought last year. I really wish that when it is overcast all day it would rain then and get it over with. Yesterday we had a tornado watch until 1 am. our weather has been worse so I think below us in the state had the worst weather, which is a relief for me, I'll take the rain without the wind. I got up early so I can go get hay, then feed because the hay is in GA. and the feed is local. My feed store has brought in their own custom mix and if the goats like it will save me $6 a bag, I wish he would have done this last fall when one buys more feed thru the fall and winter. I will also have to pick up goats milk at tracies for the bottle babies, I can only use her milk for them since she feeds a medicated feed. I want to start jkeeping the milk I get from faith and rain to make cheese, so maybe with this extra milk I can do that. I hope I can get this all done earlyenough to find some time to get the pottery studio. I am working on trying to get my mugs bigger, larger bowls and I need to make dinner plates. I want to make salt shakers, cassaroles and strat a new mug line but don't have time right now. I started reading a book about boundaries. Very interesting. I have got to remember to sned the reg. paperwork in to the ADGA.

A long week

This has been one long week ! I have been busy traveling for my job trying to sell slabs of granite and othert counter top material. And then try to get to the pottery studio to work on my line of hand thrown carved nubian goat mugs I started selling on etsy a month or so ago. Finally home tonight and beat from a lot of driving. Hope to make it to the studio tomorrow. When I got home I checked to make sure none of my nubian goats had kidded, they shouldn't have but you never know. None have. Made sure the twins whose momma doesn't seem to have enough milk nursed on Faith.