my cavier, goat-cheese rigatoni, and sweet boys

my cavier - blackberries


Boones

We stuffed rigatoni with our homemade goat cheese seasoned with garlic, onion, chives, salt and pepper.

To make the goat cheese, the raw milk is warmed to 80 degrees to provide an environment hospitable for bacteria. I add in some buttermilk and a drop of rennet. I found out that the rennet needs to come from a cheesemaking company such as http://www.cheesemaking.com/ New England Cheesemaking Supply, the rennet is better quality and keep it refrigerated.

Topped the rigatoni with a tomato sauce. Was awesome! We lapped it up.

At night, we lock up our poultry and goats. This is the poultry pen.

There's Franklin back there.

another shot of Boones

this is a MaggiDans milker
http://www.maggidans.com/milker.htm

It always breaks my heart when people ask about mean roosters, turkey toms, and bucks. We live in harmony with all our animals. Yes, I've had a couple of roosters that were a little too over protective about their girls, sorta charging behind me, but it never amounted to anything. This is Duffy, a young Wheaten Marans roo. His Daddy, July, was a delight but we found him dead one morning and hopefully Duffy will be like him.

This is Early, a Cuckoo Marans roo, he has never been anything but real sweet and easy. He knows he doesn't have to feel threatened in any way. Like I said, the birds are locked up at night, we have three large security lights on at the barn, Mike checks on everybody before he goes to bed, and our terriers run all night to keep any predators at bay. The dogs are locked in a kennel run during the day and our farm animals free range in fenced areas. So far, so good over here on the 30 acres.

Franklin, our Bourbon Red tom, is such a joy to be around that I get emotional thinking about him. I just love him so dearly. He follows us around and just eats up attention. He doesn't have an aggressive mean bone in his body. He is molting now so doesn't look as stunning as he usually does.

Cahoot and SugarPop. All of 15 our goats are Nigerian Dwarf Dairy.

June

MilkDud, We pet and hug on all our bucks.

Peggy, a Cuckoo Marans hen

SweetPea and the gang

Our old barn is far from pretty but it certainly serves a wonderful purpose for our animals. Mike built wood floors off the ground and the stalls ar extra large, especially useful when the weather is poor. Does - June, Caliente, SweetPea, and Clara. Their daughters are in the stall next door now so we have full udders to milk in the morning.

front of the barn at night

rear of barn at night