The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

Category: goats (Page 7 of 9)

Ice Cream!

September 8, 2010 / / 3 Comments

I like ice cream! Sadly, the stuff you buy in the store has a lot of junk in it. But really, what is ice cream? In its most basic form, it’s simply soft-frozen milk. Well, it just so happens we have milk coming from our goats! And so, we found a very simple ice cream making recipe using plastic bags, and thought we’d try it. We just needed some ice, rock salt (to super cool the milk), and some flavoring.

For our version of the recipe, we put a pint of chilled goat milk in a plastic quart-sized resealable bag, with 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, and this time also some chocolate chip cookie dough chunks, and sealed the bag:

Goat Milk Ice Cream Mixture in Quart Freezer Bag

Then we filled a gallon freezer resealable bag about 1/3 full with ice, and added 6 tablespoons of rock salt:

Rock Salt and Ice in Freezer Bag for Goat Milk Ice Cream

And we put the quart bag with the milk mixture in the gallon bag, and sealed that:

Goat Milk Ice Cream Mixture Gallon Freezer Bag with Ice and Rock Salt

And then started shaking. We usually put a towel around it because it’s very cold:

Shaking Up the Goat Milk Ice Cream Mixture

We shook it a couple of minutes longer than the recommended 5 minutes, as it seems to help things freeze better. Et voila! Ice cream!

Here it is frozen in the bag, just after taking it out of the ice and salt:

Frozen Goat Milk Ice Cream Mixture

And then in the bowl:

Goat Milk Ice Cream in the Bowl

And then in our tummies!

Goat Milk Ice Cream Mixture in Our Tummies

While this is something of a luxury, it’s nice to be able to luxuriate generally from the provisions of the land, and in a much more healthy way. As always, we thank the Lord for His provisions!

— David

Hens and Hannah

August 18, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Hens

Our chicken flock has been dwindling over time, due mostly to them just getting sick or dying, or getting crittered; and so we’ve been looking to find some adult hens or were planning on buying some chicks to get raising while it’s still Summer hot here, since the chicks would not have feathers yet and would hopefully be able to make it without special heating. But, the Lord granted we find someone from the local town selling her hens for a fairly good price; and we jumped on it.

We ended up with a Buffy (Buff Orpington), a Rhode Island Red, two Game Hens, and a chick that one of the game hens was raising. Before we had a kennel for the dogs, we had kept them in our chicken pen area, which was our staging area for chickens we would raise that were too large for the chicken mini tractor but too young to be with the main flock. Sadly, the dogs had pretty much torn up the fencing; but I was able to add some chicken wire and do a little repair work and get it at least workable for the new chickens:

New Laying Hens Summer 2010
New Game Hen and Chick Summer 2010

Soon we hope to start putting them in with the main flock at night so that the main chicken tractor will become their home.

Hannah

We’ve also been looking to sell most of our goat bucks; and in someone responding to our ad about them, initially wanted to trade a buck of theirs for one of ours, as I had also indicated in the ad that I was willing to do so for our outbreeding purposes. Well, by the time we communicated further about it, they had sold all of their bucks. But I thought, maybe they have a dairy doe they would trade one or more of our bucks for; and so I asked; and they were indeed willing to trade their supposedly pregnant Lamancha-Saanen doe for our pure Nubian buck Donny.

Here is the link to the blog post we did on Donny when he was first born.

And here he is now:

Pure Nubian Goat Buck Donny

And here is our new doe Hannah. I’m pretty sure they disbudded the horns; and Lamanchas have the tiny ears, although hers are really small:

New Lamancha-Saanen Goat Doe Hannah

We thank God for His provisions of the new chickens and goat, and pray He grant them to serve their purposes here in bringing forth sustenance.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids “Desi” and “Lucy”

August 10, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Our goat Minnie (see Minnie in the middle of this blog post when she was first born) didn’t get pregnant when she was with our buck Eastwood during the Winter (Eastwood died during that time). And so, we borrowed a buck from our neighbor Chris, a Spanish billy (see him at the top of this blog post); and lo and behold, new kids!

Please meet Desi and Lucy (we named them that because Desi Arnaz was kind of Spanish-ish 🙂 ):

New Goat Kids Desi and Lucy

Here they are just shortly after birth:


And here they are today, three weeks later:


We are grateful to the Lord for the increase of the herd.

— David

Goat Shed Redesign

August 3, 2010 / / 5 Comments

In my initial design for our goat sheds, I wanted to be able to enclose the goats in the shed if necessary for protection, especially for when a doe might have new kids; but I wanted to be able to have the door completely out of the way during the hot months to allow as much breeze in while offering shade. And so, I made the front door completely removable. Well, that became somewhat difficult in having to pick up the door and maneuver it into place. Also, strong winds would blow the sheds over backwards, so we strapped them to a ground hook. Over time though, I thought of a different way to accomplish the same thing while keeping the current general design of the sheds but making it easier to manipulate the doors.

So the idea would be to have the entire door on a hinge while having another smaller door cut out of the big door, allowing the main door to be closed while a portion of it remained open to allow for the goats to move in and out. This would allow for the shed to be more enclosed when it is cold, or completely when necessary, and would also allow the entire door to be completely open during the hotter days, as before.

Here are the shed and door originally designed:

Original Goat Shed
Original Goat Shed Door

I cut off a part of the big door:

Goat Shed Redesign Cut Off Small Door

Added the missing piece of the frame onto the smaller door:

Goat Shed Redesign Small Door New Frame Piece

And attached the hinges, joining it back to the main door:

Goat Shed Redesign Small Door Reattached with Hinges

I attached 8″ hinges to the shed, using 1 5/8″ deck screws through #8 washers, the hinges, the siding, and into 2×4 blocks behind the siding. I then did similarly to the door, making sure it was raised up 1/4″ so the door frame doesn’t sit completely on the shed frame, making it difficult to close:

Got Shed Redesign Main Door Hinges

Here are the 2×4 blocks:

Goat Shed Redesign Back Blocks to Hold Hinge Screws

I then installed a 2×4 the width of the shed just above the door frame on top, to keep the top of the door from pushing in:

Goat Shed Redesign Large Door Frame

And then I installed two bolt latches, top and bottom, to the door frame. The bottom one uses the latch receptacle provided with the hardware; the top latch latches straight into the 2×4 above it:

Goat Shed Redesign Main Door Top Bolt Latch
Goat Shed Redesign Main Door Bottom Bolt Latch

Finally, I added a small hook and eye latch to the little door to be able to keep it held open; and installed a larger one to the side of the shed to keep the larger door latched. I drilled appropriately sized pilot holes for each before attaching the latches; and also, for the main door, I had to put a 2×4 block behind the hook latch that was attached to the siding:

Goat Shed Redesign Small Door Hook and Eye Latch
Goat Shed Redesign Main Door Hook and Eye Latch

Here the shed is completely closed:

Goat Shed Redesign Both Doors Closed

Here it is with the small door open only:

Goat Shed Redesign Main Door Closed, Small Door Open

And here it is completely open:

Goat Shed Redesign, Main Door Open

This redesign has made things much easier to handle when dealing with the sheds in various types of weather. We’re thankful to the Lord for granting us the land, goats, sheds, and ideas to be able to husband animals, we pray, for His glory.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids “Bert” and “Ernie”

May 6, 2010 / / 0 Comments

And again, God graciously granted two more kids to be born to one of our nannies. This time it’s Winnie, with Shatner being the sire; and they produced two little bucks.

Please say hello to Bert (on the left) and Ernie (on the right):

New Nubian LaMancha Goat Kids Bert and Ernie

And here’s their moving picture (with not a lot of movement 🙂 ). This was about a week ago. Also, by this time, we had 17 goats total:


We thought we’d also include a video of all the goat kids being more active. I mention they sit around all day; actually, they sort of only do that for the first several days, but then are old enough to keep up eating with the herd throughout the day, although they are more active in the morning and at night. The video’s a little long, but there are some fun parts throughout it. And, you’ll get to see how Bert and Ernie’s faces look almost exactly alike:


As always, we are, and may we ever be, thankful to the Lord for all of His provisions; and we pray He grant us wisdom and guidance in the care and use of these animals, for His glory.

— David

 

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids “Rhett” and “Scarlett”

April 30, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Once again, the Lord graciously granted new kids to be born to one of our goats Betsy, who’s full Nubian; and with our full Nubian billy Shatner, the kids are full Nubian as well.

And here they are: please meet Rhett (on the right) and Scarlett (on the left):

Nubian Nanny Goat Betsy with New Kids Rhett and Scarlett
New Nubian Kids Rhett and Scarlett

Here is some live-action resting 🙂 . And actually, as of this video, we had 15 goats:


We are again very grateful to God for allowing us these provisions, and pray these kids become productive members of the herd.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kid “Woodrow”

April 23, 2010 / / 1 Comment

A few months ago we did a blog post about our goat kids graduation, where we put all the does with the bucks we had planned for them, the first generation offspring does to be with a buck for the first time. Well, a couple of days ago, the Lord graciously granted our first second generation kid, a buck, to our Nubian doe Marie. His sire was Eastwood, who I recently mentioned had died during the winter. But, he apparently helped bring along Marie’s first kid; and in honor of him, we’re calling the new kid “Woodrow.”

He has his father’s colors; and he sure seemed large for a new-born; but I have a feeling we’re used to twins and triplets, who probably end up a little smaller than a single kid might, although I can’t be sure. It appears he’s doing pretty well:

Nubian Doe Marie and Her New Nubian-Alpine Kid Woodrow

Here he is in action. The whining goat in the background is Pammy, who recently gave birth as well:


We are thankful once again to God for His graces and mercies in granting this healthy new provision to us.

— David

 

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