Meatballs
1 lb venison
1/2 C. Chopped Onion
1/4 C. Milk
1 C. Crushed Crackers
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Pepper
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbs. Soy Sauce
Mix all ingredients together and form 2 inch
meatballs and put in a square baking dish.
Sweet Barbecue Sauce
1 C. Ketchup
1 C. Brown Sugar
1/4 C. vinegar
1/2 Tbs . Mustard
1/2 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 Tbs. Soy Sauce
Mix all ingredients together and pour over
meatballs. Bake at 350 for 1 hour basting
occasionally. Serve over white rice.
* I am not a big fan of the taste of venison alone. You won't catch me eating a deer meat hamburger. Call me picky but I just can't get past that slightly gamey taste. That said, I do really like these meatballs. They are a bit sweet and I can't taste the gamey deer flavor at all with this recipe!
This is a picture of my absolute two favorite guys on the farm, my husband Jamey and my favorite dog Dreyfus. Who is enjoying a belly rub in this picture. Dreyfus is a Great Pyrenees and one of our livestock guardian dogs. He is a very special fellow. We try not to go overboard with the attention to our working dogs as not to distract from their bond with the goats, but Dreyfus has always been able to balance getting his attention and a belly rub and then going back to his goats on his own. Jamey is pretty awesome too, we met my first year in high school and have been together ever since. He has an amazing sense of humor and is pretty special too.
Note: I do things a little bit backwards from many. Most of the time you would want to mix your lye/water solution first as it gets very hot and takes some time to cool down. However, I use goat's milk instead of water and I make sure it is VERY cold, in fact I put it in the freezer ahead of time until it gets just "slushy". So I don't end up with dark brown, "cooked" goat's milk. For this reason my lye/milk solution does not get nearly as hot as if you were using water & it cools fairly quickly, so I actually start heating my oils up first.
Step. 2 Weigh all your liquid & solid oils and pour into a large stainless steel pot that is on the stove burner. Use a spatula to scrape all the solid oils into the pot. Turn the burner on low, to start warming your oils and melting the solid ones, ensure solid oils are completely melted.
Step 3. While my oils are warming up I weigh my lye for my recipe. You should have your gloves and goggles on before this step. Note: Red Devil lye can no longer be found at hardware stores, I now buy it in larger amounts in bulk online and I put what I need for a few recipes at a time into the smaller Red Devil lye container I had from the past for ease of use. And yes, between the pea yellow- green counters and funky, retro brown, 70's wallpaper..I do know I have a beautiful kitchen, it is why I bought the place really... but please save your compliments on my decor...lets concentrate on our soap batch here. ;-)
Step 4 Carefully and slowly add your lye to your goat's milk. Never reverse the process by adding your liquid to your lye, always add the lye to the liquid. When using milk make sure it is very cold, I put mine in the freezer to get it slightly slushy first. This keeps the milk from getting over-heated. Stir until the lye is completely dissolved.
Step 5. By this time my oils have completely melted and usually heated up to 130 degrees or so. I turn the burner off on the stove. I give the oils a gentle stir then monitor the temperature of both my oils and the lye solution until both are about 110 degrees. At that time I then slowly and carefully pour my lye solution into my pot with my oils and stir it for several minutes anyway. Remember to put any equipment with raw soap or lye solution in the sink for safety and easy clean up later.
Step 7. You will notice that the mixture will change and become thicker as you continue stirring. Continue until your mixture reaches trace stage. Tracing looks like a slightly thickened custard. It will support a drop, or your stir marks for several seconds. This isn't the best picture but if you look close you can see we are just starting to get a trace as it supports lines and drops of mixture from the end of my stick blender. Now is the time to add any Essential oils, or other additives such as poppy seeds or oatmeal if you want too. (Oatmeal will be too rough if you don't blend it up some first). If you add colorants, make sure they are compatible with the cold process soap method first. I hand stir these additives in then give it a quick blend with my stick blender for a few seconds to ensure they are well blended through the entire mixture.
Step 8. Once that is done I pour my raw soap into my molds, using a spatula to scrape every bit of it I can get out of the pot.
Step 9. You can use plastic wrap over your soap to prevent the ashen appearance it can get on top, but it doesn't hurt anything, it just detracts from the appearance of the soap. It can also be cut off later on too.
You are probably wondering what these young goats did to get put in goat jail in the first place. Actually they didn't do anything, but since the bucks have been out in the different big pastures with our adult does for breeding, these young ladies had to be removed from the big goat pastures and penned up for their own good. That is because these are 9 month old doelings, the equivalent of teenage girls and in the same regard just because they are capable of getting pregnant and having kids, does not mean that they should until they are older. So goatie jail is birth control on our goat farm but before you start feeling too bad for them, "jail" is a large and comfortable 32'x36' pen with two shelters, comfy beds and all the hay they can eat.
Still, teenagers being what teenagers are they would much rather be out in the big pasture where the party was going on. I tried to explain to them that they could end up pregnant but they didn't care. They have all been hanging at the fence, wagging their little tails and dreamily looking out to the big pasture and to Joker the buck like he is the Brad Pitt of the goat world. Teenage hormones...better put two locks on that gate!
Be patient girls, the bucks will go back to their bachelor pad this weekend and you can go back out to the big pasture with your mothers. You girls will have to wait to start dating until this summer, when you are a little bit older, larger and more mature, then come fall you will have your own kids. Let's hope they don't run you as ragged as you did your own mothers!
I have a bad case of it and I have been counting the days until the grass turns green again and the weather warms up. There is just something about everything being brown and cold that gives me a serious case of the blahs, I just am not a winter person...never have been. It does not help that I am seriously cold blooded and all it takes is a good, icy wind to get me to shaking like a stressed out Chihuahua and envying the geese flying south. Lucky ducks. Now Spring..that is my time of year! How do I love Spring, oh let me count the ways. Spring just seems to be the time of year when everything is coming back to life! The grass turns green, the sound of the leaves on the trees rustling with a warm breeze and the colorful flowers that brightens the spring day. My favorite part of springtime on the farm is the gift of new life...animal babies! It is a time of excitement and expectations, kidding time is my Christmas!
This was my husband taking her down to the car so we could go. I made a mental note that I really...really need to wash the car and suspenders might make a good birthday gift for my husband. I know, it is easy to joke about those without enough butt to hold their pants up when unfortunately I have always had more than enough butt to keep my own pants up...lucky me....eh..moving on...I don't think Bayla quite realizes where she is going yet.
Now she does! I think it is safe to say this is the moment she realized she might be going back to the vet. Poor girl! And in my defense I must point out we DO live on a gravel road, the dust is horrible and red cars show all that dust....or maybe at this point it would be easier to say all that dust shows some red car.
"Well, as long as I am in the car I might as well enjoy the ride, but I am still a little worried where we might be going!" It is 20 miles to the vet clinic, I did my best to keep Bayla calm and sooth her nerves, for some reason the windows being down even a crack made her more nervous and upset so we kept them up for her, but she was still nervous and when Bayla is nervous she gets gas, bad..cover your nose up with your shirt, eye watering gas. I did not know this until yesterday but I won't be forgetting it anytime soon. It was a long 20 mile drive with the windows up.
This is Bayla, very happy to be back home on the farm! We tried to reward Bayla's good behavior with a rare treat of a plain McDonald's cheeseburger when we were in town, but she didn't want it there or when we got home, maybe she read the nutrition information on their food. She got some fresh chicken later that evening and her father, Dreyfus got her cheeseburger. Dreyfus is our senior livestock guardian dog, he is an intelligent, experienced dog that has been around the block a few times and he is wise enough to know never to turn a cheeseburger down. Dreyfus savored his cheeseburger prize and Bayla rejoiced in being back home and back with her beloved goats and now the car needs aired out and washed.
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Easy Chevon Enchiladas1 lb. ground Chevon (goat meat)
1 small onion (chopped)
1 large can red sauce(enchilada sauce)
12 oz. package shredded cheddar cheese
1 (10 count) package 9" soft tortillas
Brown meat, with onions on medium
heat, drain and add half of red sauce and
half of cheese, mix well. Spread some red
sauce in bottom of 13 x 9 glass baking dish
(just enough to cover bottom)[if metal pan is
used, grease pan]
Lay out one tortilla and put about 3 Tbs of
mixture in center, roll up and place in dish.
Repeat until all mixture, and tortillas are
used.
Spread remaining sauce over enchiladas
and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake in preheated oven @ 375 for 25 min
*Hamburger can of course be substituted for the ground chevon. Spanish rice on the side goes very well with this dish.
Maybe you have housework to do or a tedious computer project to finish, but you are in the mood to procrastinate, let me help you. Here are three pointless but fun online sheep games to pass the time.
The Rules:
Newborn Great Pyrenees Puppies
The update on Bayla is she is home from the vet and everything seems to be OK. She came home from the vet clinic yesterday a little sore but in good spirits. The vet sent home some pain pills to give her once a day and instructions to keep her in the house for an additional 24 hours. Bayla is an outside dog that has always stayed with our goat herd so I figured we were in for a long and interesting night, but I have to report Bayla's stay in the house has been rather...not interesting, she has been the perfect, well-mannered lady in the house. There has not been a single accident to report, nor a single item chewed, no food stolen off the counter even though it was right there tempting her at eye level or even a coffee table cleared with her big wagging tail.
Today one of our four livestock guardian dogs is at the vet's clinic to be spayed. This would be my good girl, Bayla. She is a Great Pyrenees that was born and raised on our farm, her mother Abby and her father Dreyfus is also livestock guardians on our farm. Hopefully I will be able to pick her up before they close today, I have been worrying about her all morning. The vet said we could only bring her home today if she was awake enough, apparently they have a broken leg coming in today and will have to work her surgery around that so they might not get to her until the afternoon. If she is awake enough they will let us bring her home, but they were adamant that it was only on the condition she stays in the house for one day after surgery, otherwise she will have to stay there for an extra day.
Most births go very well and there is little assistance needed, problems are quite rare but can happen so it is always a good idea to keep a close eye on does that are close to kidding.
We raise Boer goats and we expect our does to be good mothers who raise their own kids and they are all fantastic mothers; so other than to treat the umbilical cords and help dry a kid in cold weather, I interfere as little as possible. There typically isn’t much for me to do except watch the event, which I never get tired of doing. These are the supplies in my kidding kit, but keep in mind that breeders differ on what supplies and procedures they use. Weather, CAE prevention in dairy goats and other factors play a role in procedures and supplies needed for each farm. This is just the kidding kit that we use and what works well for us on our farm.
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Always handle any goat, but especially bred does with care and in a manner that will not stress them.
Give your pregnant does their CD/T vaccination boosters 4 weeks before they kid to protect the mother and assure she passes those good antibodies on to her newborns. This is also a good time to check her for anemia, usually caused by worms. Pull down the lower eyelid & make sure it is a healthy dark pink color, not pale or white. An anemic goat may not produce milk like she should at kidding.
It is a very good idea to have frozen colostrum on hand for an emergency because it is absolutely imperative that the newborn kids get colostrum as soon after birth as possible. It contains the antibodies needed to help keep the newborn kid healthy. It is a good idea to milk out a little colostrum from a doe that has recently kidded after her kids have nursed, then freeze it in an ice cube tray and store the cubes in ziplock bags in the freezer for future emergency use.
After the kids are born, make sure the doe’s teats are not plugged so the kids can get their colostrum.
Give the doe some warm water with some molasses in it after she kids for extra energy and to help replace fluids, she will relish it.
Do not feed a severely chilled kid, warm them up first because a chilled kid cannot digest milk and will not want to nurse.
If you do have to go in to assist, it is a good idea to treat that doe with a round of Penicillin to prevent infection.
The doe should pass her afterbirth with-in 12 hours of kidding, if she does not a vet should be consulted. NEVER pull the afterbirth out of a doe as this can result in serious damage to the doe, let her expel it naturally.
Deworm the doe the day after she kids; this is a time when worms can get out of hand because of stress and hormonal changes that result in a dramatic rise in worm eggs.
And last but not least, take some pictures and enjoy the event, it is the best and most exciting part of raising goats!
*The picture is of one of my Boer does "Nifty" kidding last June. She had a single buckling. She was a first time mother at the time, but you can see she knew just what to do and is a very attentive and great mother.
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