Soapy Winter

I did a lot of soapmaking this winter. I've made over 300 pounds of soap so far. Here is some of what I've been working on.

Jasmine with Australian Pink Clay

Black Raspberry Vanilla, a huge favourite.

Oatmeal, Milk & Honey just after molding.

Bay Rum.

Gardenia.

English Roses

Loaf of Lavender.

Violetta

Lemongrass Verbena

I'm thankful that I am milking again as the chest freezer I filled with milk from last season was nearing empty! Time to fill it up again girls! I'll be making as much soap as I can between now and my next round of kids at the end of April. I hope to have a makeshift farm store up and running for this season and I want to fill it with lots of soap.

First Kid of 2013

Hi Dad!

We had the first kid of the year born on our farm yesterday. Bella had a single doeling around 4:30 p.m. It was an easy and quick birth as far as they go. Bella's single girl looks very much like the single buckling that she had the previous year who is named Finley. Jeff came up with the name Fiona which suits her pretty well.

Bella in labour. She got really restless lying down, then standing, then lying again.

Just born. By the look of Bella's eye do you think it hurt!? 

Bella inspecting the goat coat I put on Fiona. It was cold that day. Bella got used to the coat.

Bella is a fantastic mother.

Fiona is a strong and healthy doeling!

Fiona in the house. It was too cold for her to keep those long ears warm so she came inside to warm up.

Getting sleepy. Squirrel loves baby goats. I'm dog-sitting him while my mom is away.

 Despite the temperature dropping and Fiona's ears getting chilled which she should heal from just fine it was a great way to start the kidding season. Bella's been an excellent mother and I don't have to do much to help her with her babies.

All About Soap

One of the best feelings a farmer has is when all of your hard work comes to fruition and you've created something beautiful with what you've nurtured. I get that feeling when I look down at my plate and all of the food I'm about to eat was raised and grown right here on my farm by me. That feeling is doubled with a heavy dose of love when it comes to things I can make from my goat's delicious milk. I'm a very tactile kind of gal and I think I will always prefer pencil and paper to a computer. Soap making gives my hands something creative to do in among all of the work it takes to run a farm. I make soap from scratch with my goat's lovely milk using the cold process method. This season I milked Willow, Sara Lou, and Miss Moon. Here is some of the soap I got to make with their milk. My standard recipe includes the following: Olive Oil, Goat's Milk, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil (sustainably sourced), Shea Butter, and Castor Oil.

Red Currant & Thyme Tea. With thyme infused olive oil and thyme leaves added.

Bay Rum

Oak Barrel Cider with dehydrated kelp for exfoliation.

Maple Syrup made with local maple syrup.

Lavender with ground lavender and buds on top grown by me.

Black Raspberry Vanilla

Ginger Papaya powdered ginger.

Oatmeal Milk and Honey packaged. My bestie did an awesome job designing my labels.

I make plain bars as well.

Oatmeal Milk and Honey. Milk from my girls, and honey and oats from a local farmer.

A selection of the soaps I make.

Here I am in my soap room. 

It doesn't look like much but I'm particularly proud of this bar. It is my Wild Roses Beauty Bar and I will tell you how it came to be in my next post.

Here are the girls who provide the star ingredient in all of my soaps.

Sara Lou: (my favourite)

Sara and her babies.

Willow:

Willow as a first freshener in 2011.

Willow and her triplet boys mid March 2012.

Miss Moon:

Miss Moon and her girl Daphne.

It's good to be a goat!

Goats and Snow

We have snow! For some of my animals it is the first time that they see snow. From the goat herd, Daphne and Cindy Lou have never seen snow before. The goats don't really like snow and you really have to coax them out of their cabin to play outside.

Daphne finds a few sprigs of pine to nibble on.

Clara looking for where all this snow came from. I think she's figured it out.

This isn't a great photo, but I like how you get to see how sweet Willow's eyes are. Her ears look pretty funny here!

Miss Moon doesn't seem to mind the snow. She grows a thick coat of fur for the winter.

I wish I had been recording this moment because it was funny. You see Sara Lou behind Clara? Well she was reaching up to nibble on a pine branch. Just as Clara came into the picture Sara yanked on the branch to break off a few sprigs to eat and dumped snow all over Clara!

Poor Clara! She didn't know what to do with all that snow on her head. I think she regrets coming out of her warm and cozy cabin!

Catch Up: Spring

As I sit here it's snowing. The last time I posted anything, it was also snowing. There was a whole spring and summer in between these two bouts of snow. A lot has happened between then and now. Summers are crazy busy here on my little farm and we had a good four months without the internet. There are some drawbacks to living where I do, one of which is the inability of technology to reach me when the trees have leaves! We had to install a tower that reached above the treeline to ensure our wireless internet signal can make it through our dense bush. I say we, but it was really Jeff and his father since I'm afraid of heights when reached by less than permanent and stable means. For example, I have no problem going up the CN tower and looking down but I won't climb scaffolding.

Anyhow, when I last left you I had my baby Nubian buckling Finley born to Bella and Andy and had just bred three girls to kid in May. Willow, Miss Moon, and Sara Lou all gave birth in the spring. Willow kidded at least two weeks early with triplet bucks in the middle of March. Out of all of my goats Willow is the most dynamic in terms of personality. She goes from super sweet to the most stubborn and forceful critter you've ever met. As it happened, the triplets came early as they sometimes do when they get crowded for space in the womb. As a result they were slow to get going and we lost the smallest of the bunch. Willow is not a tender mother by any means, but with my help she got the hang of motherhood and the remaining two boys grew very well.

Willow and her boys after delivery.

Getting the hang of standing.

We lost this pretty boy who looked most like his momma Willow.

First venture outside.

The next to kid was little Miss Moon right on schedule. She is such a stellar mother that I didn't have to do a thing. She gave birth to buck/doe twins. Her little boy Zippy looks a lot like her, black with bits of white and her girl Daphne takes after her daddy Gerry Jetpack, the most lovely chocolate brown with bits of white. I absolutely adore my tiny little Nigerians. Both Daphne and Zippy have a forever home here on my farm.

Little Daphne stops playing with my string long enough for me to snap a picture.

Daphne's brother didn't have a name for a very long time. I kept referring to him as 'the zippy one' because he was always tearing around at top speed. Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything else before Zippy stuck.

Daphne growing up.

Daphne with her Maa Miss Moon.

Zippy surveying the pigs' handy work.

Zippy looking back at his handsome Pa Gerry Jetpack.

 And then there was Sara. I should fill you in on the history of my relationship with my sweet Sara Lou. You might remember that she was born on the farm I did my farming internship on, and that she was the sweetest friendliest prettiest little goat I had ever seen and that I absolutely adored her and had to have her. She was that way for a while and then slowly she wanted less and less to do with people and I actually couldn't even touch her for almost a year. She wanted no part of being pet or fussed over and continued on this path all throughout her pregnancy. When she went into labour she needed some help getting her first kid out as her doeling presented with one leg back. Her buckling came out very easily in comparison but the experience overall was painful and confusing for her as a first time mother. She basically got up after delivering the second baby and ran away. I followed her to the other end of the pen with her kids in my hand as a sort of offering to her, here they are clean them up! She acted deathly afraid of these tiny little babies as if they were snarling wolves ready to chew on her rump. I tried for an hour to get her to mother her kids, but she wouldn't go near them. It came time that I was concerned for them and took matters into my own hands and milked Sara for her colostrum which those kids desperately needed and bottle fed them. For three days I left the kids in a smallish pen with their mother hoping something in her brain would click and she'd go into mother mode. It never happened. If they wobbled over to where she was in the pen a soundless alarm would go off and Sara went into a panic to get away from them. So Sara Lou's kids became my kids. Her little girl, Cindy Lou is my little darling. I actually cried with joy when I finally got her unstuck and she fell into this world. She was just what I hoped for, unbelievably beautiful and a girl! She takes after her momma with a little less spotting. Her twin brother Brian is mostly black with a white band around his middle.

Sara Lou's kids just hours after being born.

Baby Cindy Lou.

Cindy and Brian enjoying a nice spring day.

I'm sure they were looking for a bottle when I got this photo.

Excellent pose Cindy.

My sweet Sara Lou. I couldn't be mad at her for dumping her kids on me. My theory is that the stress of the birth caused a few signals to cross. Her mothering instincts kicked in, they were just all directed toward me and not her actual babies!

Family portrait.

Here are the fathers of these gorgeous babies.

Gerry Jetpack fathered the Nigerian Dwarf kids: Daphne and Zippy.

Andy fathers all of my Nubian kids. So far: Finley (who he sired when he was only four months old!), Willow's three boys, Cindy and Brian. 

You might remember my winter kid Finley looking like this.

Now he's coming up on his first birthday and he's nearly all grown up. Finley will never be a father as he was wethered as a young buckling. His sole purpose is to just be happy and be his cuddly loving self.

It's not officially spring until new life has been born and that's how our spring began on my little forest farm.