Our dear Appalachian State Football team lost tonight to Montana, was very snowy and cold there, but oh well, our Mountaineers had a great year. ******************************************** Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats TootleLu
Pearl Guinea's
Frozen Water Buckets
Girls - Cali, June, Clara
Deets
Deets will be going to live at SonnyAcreFarm, his pedigree is already listed there. SonnyAcreFarm is excited about showing Deets in the ring and we'll certainly have our fingers crossed that he does well.
We've been hunkered down, no snow but in a deep freeze with strong winds. ********************************************** Met the GOG's (Good Ole Gals) on Thursday for our Christmas lunch, we hit the buffet at the Broyhill Inn's Jackson Dining Room. The GOG's are a group of gals who met through our local Humane Societyand somehow we started meeting for lunch monthly, we go to a different restaurant each month. Funny when I think back on the topics of Thursday's conversation, everything from Tiger Woods, urologists, divorce, suicide, doggie coats, and crazy cats. Oh, if we just ruled the world. *********************************************** Speaking of eating, we had a potluck at work today. I got up early this morning and made mac & 7-cheeses (photo - circled in red), it's pretty good especially when it first comes out of the oven. I also sprinkle a few green peas inside and top it with herbed bread crumbs. ***********************************************
********************************************** I had to take Wednesday afternoon off to take Cali to the Farm Vet (an hour one way), she's got a bad eye. Doc Beckworth came out with his magnifying glasses and examined her in the back of the pickup truck, diagosed as some kind of infection, and we're applying oinment 3 X's daily. *********************************************** Looks like our Deets is moving to SonnyAcreFarm, we're trading him for MoonFire to get new bloodlines. We could have used Deets on some line breeding, but since we are fairly inexperienced in goat breeding, we decided maybe it would be better to trade. MoonFire carries a lot of red genes too and we love red goats. I sure hope our other 2 bucks, MilkDud and Cahoot, give MoonFire a positive welcome. The wethers, Sundance and Cubby, get along with anybody. ****** http://fiascofarm.com/goats/breeding.htm The old saying goes: "If it works it's called Line-breeding and if it doesn't, it's called Inbreeding." This saying puts a very complicated subject very simply, but it has some truth in it. "There is no better way to improve your herd than with Line-breeding, BUT there is also no better way to ruin a herd." Line breeding (breeding closely related animals) can quickly improve a herd because the good qualities of the animals get accentuated. BUT the bad qualities are also accentuated. Because of this, you have to think about what you are doing, look at the animals and use your head. You can't just simply go by some arbitrary "rule" like "it's OK be breed grandfather to granddaughter", but look at the individual goats and decide if their particular good traits out weigh the bad traits. ************************************************* Deets
MoonFire
************************************************ The highlight of the weekend will be our Appalachian Stateat Montana in the FCS/1AA Quarterfinals. The Appalachian State Mountaineers are making their fourth semifinal appearance in five years while the Montana Grizzly Bears are in the final four for the third time in five seasons. ASU is 15-0 all-time when playing on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. On the video below, both of these guys think Montana will win. :-(
I'm in the mustard! What a pleasant surprise to receive a big box in the mail from an ole chicken buddy, Matt, that I haven't spoken to in a few years. Matt has been reading my blog, found the mustard at the BigLots in his home town, and sent me 6 jars. Coworkers keep coming in my office asking why I have all this mustard on my desk, I open a jar and have 'em take a whiff, and they're sold. I sure hope Matt saved a jar for himself.
I baked Paula Deen's Spinach Gruyere Puff Pastry pretty good, and easy. However, I may want to add some feta cheese to the top or inside next time, I love the spinach/feta combo. OR, when my girls are in milk again next Spring, I'll add some of my own goat cheese to it. ********************************************* Appalachian_State_University football won, sure looked like they were going to lose though, finally pulled the win out, now they go to Montana and play the Grizzly Bears on Saturday afternoon.
************************************************ We just moved to these 30 acres in May 2009, this will be our first winter here.
************************************************ We bought a portable Frigidaire 70-Pint Dehumidifier. We've been researching them for awhile now. A dehumidifier takes moisture out of the air by sucking in moist air on one side, moving that air over some ice cold tubes that causes the moisture to collect on these tubes and then drip into a bucket or tube, and pushing the dry air out the other. This dry air then mixes with the moist air making it a little drier, which in turn is pulled into the unit to become drier over and over again. The air feels light like when A/C is running.
It's amazing, within a few hours, we watched the indoor humidity levels go down and the temp go up. Will cost us some extra electricity to run the dehumidifier but maybe won't have to use as much propane. It's easier to heat dry air, than air with moisture and you want to keep the humidity at 50% or just below at home, because mold will not grow below 50%. I am a mold/mildew snob, if I walk in somewhere and it smells musty, I just want to cover my nose and walk out. I don't want to take any chances while living here in the 5th-wheel RV. The roof and built-on heated sunroom (the luxurious doghouse) have helped keep us insulated though. ************************************************* Last night, we passed a winter test, was snowy and temps dropped to 20 degrees, but all was well this morning, Mike has done a good job at winterizing us, we were warm and water was running just fine this morning.
If you want to read a beautifully written blog post go to: ColdAntlerFarm this gal writes for my soul **************************************** local weatherman says we'll be getting 2" to 5" of snow starting late tonight through Saturday. We'll hunker down tomorrow and watch Appalachian StateFootball playoff game against Richmond. ************************************** Here's a Hot Chocolate recipe I'll use for tomorrow. 4 cups dried milk 1 1/2 cups sugar/Splenda 1 cup non-dairy coffee creamer 3/4 cup cocoa 1 package instant pudding (chocolate or vanilla)
