HC Farmers Market, dishes, etc

sights from the High Country Farmers Market this past Sunday

goat cheese, and the best I've ever tasted

I surprise myself sometimes. When we moved, I thought I would really miss my electric dishwasher and whined to Mike about it several times. All of a sudden, I just love washing dishes, I find it so relaxing. I use the good-smelling with conditioner liquid. I especially enjoy washing the dishes after I have milked my does and bottle fed Gabbi, and come in and clean up everything.

As far as machinery, the washing/drying combo is just the best. Would never have separate units again. Just Mike and I so we don't need a large capacity washer though like some.

Mike gave MilkDud a summer haircut. First time for giving a goat a haircut and it looks pretty good, Dud's cool anyway.

Mike turned 55 on Sunday and here he is with his parents and SIL's dog, Cain. Inlaws are babysitting for Cain while SIL is gone to the beach.

My blog heading is about homegrown foods and yet here is a store-bought cake. After the Farmers Market on Sunday, I let Mike pick out a cake and some ice cream in the grocery store and then I did cook a meal for his birthday that evening. The store-bought cake was sorta tasty.

three male goats on the their roof.

Mike has been working with Cahoot, trying to get him in a show stance, keeping him brushed.

Showing off Clara's udder again.

Got cucumbers planted in this old cattle feeder.

Although we don't have the severe heat up here that I hear others talking about around the nation, (only low 70's today), we keep plenty of fresh water available for the animals.

while the sun shines

make hay

our trailer sure comes in handy
fresh-cut hay is beautiful


we bought it from a once-upon-a-time dairy

some folks leaving out ahead of us, they bought hay for their pygmy goats. Square bales are harder to find, many bale up the large round ones used for cattle.

stopped in for a cold drink

on the way back home

this evening, my friend Carole came over. At our house you don't get served a mixed-drink cocktail but goats milk.

Mike and I once fostered her dog Luigi so it was nice to see him a again too. We took Luigi in, and then Carole saw him and fell in love with him. Carole and I are Humane Society friends from way back.

I grilled some burgers, sliced some watermelon, and then we toasted with goats milk.

another burn pile

Remember the "Dinky" udder from yesterday? well this is June's udder from this morning.

and Caliente's udder

and now ta-da! Clara's udder

I call her Dinky

and below you see why

that little, mini udder of SweetPea's gives us 1/2 c of milk per day. We don't care, we're not running a business here, and she's family. She had a c-section on Memorial Day and doesn't even recognize that Gabbi is her daughter although Gabbi knows that SweetPea is her Mama. We're still bottle feeding Gabbi store-bought cow and homegrown goats milk.

Goldie, a Salmon Faverolle hen

Caliente gives us 2+ cups of milk each morning. "Dinky" next to her.

Coco is 5 wks old today. She has a bright, pink nose - gotta get a picture of it if she'd hold still. All the kids seem very healthy and energetic and we're learning about preventative measures against illness's which we're taking the precautions. I'm enjoying our goats so much, however, it's much more of a committment healthwise than we knew about going in to it.

and her sister, TootleLu is 5 wks old too

Blogger did it to me again, that photo is upright in my computer. Why have they turned poor ole Franklin on his side?

a Honest Scrap

just a side note - please watch Wynonna's exercise video from 7MSN Ranch

I received the Honest Scrap Award from Gizmo Quilts. I don't know what honest scrap means but thank you, must be a good thing. :-)

I'm to list 10 [honest, I suppose] things about me.

1) I just love homemade things.

2) Been a North Carolina resident all my 53 years. Born and raised in Raleigh, lived in Boone the last 25 years. Followed my folks up here when they semi-retired.
3) Parents are now both deceased and were my best friends. I am an only child and never had maternal instincts for human children (and never got knocked up).

4) Strong maternal instincts for all animals, I've got grizzly-bear-mama mentality about protecting critters. Love photographing my animals.

5) Favorite color is all things red/rose/coral etc.

6) I have several denim jumpers, large front pockets a must, and that's about all I wear with tie-dye tshirts.

7) I rarely wear my wedding ring because I don't care to wear any jewelry. No makeup, no hair dye, no tattoo's, absolutely no panty hose, just not for me.

8) I love reading about strong women in rural life. My hero is Jackie Clay. I just ordered the recommended book by Punkin's Patch - A Country Year. Subscribe to magazines - Mother Earth News, Dairy Goat Journal, Backwoods Home, Countryside, MaryJanesFarm and a few more that don't come to mind at the moment.

9) Although I have a good job away from home, sure wish I could afford to stay home and spend more time with my goats, chickens, dogs, cooking, gardening, reading, walking, doing nothing, etc.

10) I love it when my husband, Mike, and I have days off together, we like to hang out.

and one more

11) I really appreciate reading blogs especially the ones I read regularly, I really enjoy keepin' up with ya. Because I have become quite withdrawn the last few years, just not an outgoing people person, thank you for the companionship, I cherish it more than you'll ever know.

Goat Show, etc

We went to our first goat show and this was a dairy show. On Saturday, we traveled 2 1/2 hrs away to Asheville (actually Arden) to observe and learn. The photo's are of little Nigerians but we saw some XXL goats there, some big girls, wow.

on the left is Carol Lindblom of Kids Corral
in the middle, Rusty Repp of Little Tots Estate
on the right, Duane Lindblom of Kids Corral
our bucks came from Kids Corral
and our does, Clara and June, started out at Little Tots Estate

whew, was 90 degrees over there. We're not used to that kind of heat, we got back in the truck and headed up to our Appalachian hills. They had fans running on all the goats in the pens.

Franklin and the gang were waiting for us back home.

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I had asked the gal, Lisa, that bought our house if she ever was going to get rid of an old refrigerator that we'd like to have it for the barn. She did offer it to us so we picked it up on Sunday. The frig in the barn is for holding eggs, a few drinks, and medical supplies for the goats and birds.

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Some money that was owed to us had been sent to that old address. I was so tickled to open the envelope from a District Attorney's Office and find a partial payment of $1,500! One day, I'll blog about why this guy in the next county over owes us money. The short story is - I made a down payment on a concession trailer, me and some other folks put in orders and down payments, and no of us ever got delivery of anything.

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Lisa is doing a lot of remodeling on the house and had some other stuff sitting outside so we took some old shelves and they went from this -

to this, nest boxes

The inlaws have three great grandchildren. Gracie arrived this month.

Mother inlaw had us all over for Fathers Day dinner, she's a good cook, we always come home stuffed. Now that we live on their property, we just walk down to their house, it's nice. Some relatives after dinner walked up to see all our animals.

hanging out Friday

The breeze caught Caliente's ear. I love photographing her. We've only had her a couple of weeks and she's fitting in well.

We had hamburgers and watermelon for supper. All sunshine today for a change, got up to 79 degrees here with a nice breeze. We both had the day off from work, got some stuff done, ate lunch in town, and relaxed. We're gonna make great retired people. Oh, one day.

All 4 does in one photo, if you can see 'em - Caliente, SweetPea, Clara, and June.

SweetPea, buttin' heads with her Mama, June.

My little bottle-feeding girl, Gabbi. SweetPea's daughter. June's granddaughter. Clara's great granddaughter.

Gabbi and TootleLu.

Like her Mama, SweetPea, Gabbi likes to jump in your lap.

TootleLu, Gypsy, and CoCo

SweetPea. Deets and Sundance buttin' heads.

Like I've said, we're real cozy in the RV. Don't know what winter will bring but we love it right now.

When we were shopping for an RV, a kitchen for me was at the top of the list. I like to cook and we like to eat.

2 1/2hrs away in Asheville, just for the day, (gotta sell eggs on Sunday), we're going to our first goat show tomorrow. Not taking any of our goats, just going to observe and learn. The breeder of our bucks, Kids Corral, will be there showing quite a few of their goats. I think we will be seeing a lot of the top-notch breeders because this is a big show.