Charlotte's Shave

The hair under Charlotte's udder had been getting really long...And hair growing on the udder can get in the way of milking.  It can also lodge debris or fall into the milk pail.  Yuck!

 

I decided that Charlotte was overdue for a shave.  I dug around in the cupboard and found a cordless beard trimmer tucked away with the haircut kit.  It is possible to purchase clippers intended for animals, however I figured the beard trimmer would do just as well and I had it on hand!  Great!

I was a little nervous about shaving Charlotte.  I thought I might accidentally snip her and cause her to bleed.  Just to make sure that I had the general idea of what to do, I watched this quick YouTube video:

 

 I gave Charlotte her grain and  turned on the clippers.  I made sure to do this job while she was full of milk, as the udder is taunt.  I tried shaving some in the back, but realized I mainly needed to shave in the front of the udder.  The hair was falling like snow! 

 

Ta-Da!  It wasn't so bad after all!  After I shaved her, it was interesting to see how big Charlotte's "pocket" was in the front of her udder.  This isn't necessarily a good characteristic for a goat.  It is best for the udder to be "well attached" in the front in order to hold up that huge udder holding a half gallon or more of milk!  However, since Charlotte is not a show goat, this is not too big of an issue.  She is such a good goat!

Udder-ly Ridiculous!

Goat Advice

Goats are great!  They have fun personalities, produce a wonderful amount of milk, and take up relatively little space.  However, as I have learned over the past several months of goat-keeping, goats can be "finicky!"  They can suddenly exhibit odd ailments or strange behaviors.  It is in these cases that the advice of fellow goat owners is invaluable!

I have been blessed to have several fellow goat-keepers be willing to let me call them and email them about almost any goat issue under the sun  ("help! my goat has worms!" "help! my goat isn't eating!" "help! how do you trim a goat's hooves!").  I am so thankful to have these helpful people as contacts to aid me in this goat adventure.

Along this goat journey, I have also enjoyed reading the Homesteading Today forums.  This forum is a huge wealth of information.  It is quite simple to join and ask a goat-related question or simply read about other people's goat adventures and how they found solutions to their problems!

Speaking of "problems," I am glad to say that Charlotte's worm problem seems to be resolved.  I gave her the herbal wormer several weeks ago.  Her coat is beautifully sleek now and I have not seen any worms in the goat pen for a while!

In today's society where "independence" is loudly proclaimed, it is interesting to be owning an animal that requires dependence on others.  My goats rely on me for their total care, then I rely on others to help me best care for them.  Thank you, blog readers, for joining me on this adventure as well!

See you later...

The Effects of Weaning

I mentioned in my last post that I have been weaning Elly May.  It is amazing how this affects Charlotte!

Without Elly May stealing milk, Charlotte's milk production is skyrocketing!  Yesterday, she produced 10 1/2 total pounds of milk.  That is 5 quarts of milk!  I feel like Charlotte is resolving in her goat brain that she doesn't need to hold back milk for Elly May, so she is letting me have it!  Hurray! In fact, Charlotte is even getting reluctant to even let Elly May nurse.  The down side is that Charlotte is producing so much milk that she is getting a bit thin.

Also, the freezer is getting waaaayyy too full of milk jars!  I have scrounged around the kitchen cupboards and filled every single glass jar.

So, I am planning to turn much of the milk into this:

 Chèvre

My first two batches of Chèvre were flops.  The first batch I had a surge of impatience and I squeezed the cheese to drain the whey instead of letting it drip.   It completely messed up the texture (although it smelled great)!  I won't do that again!  The second batch did not form a curd for some reason.  This is the third trial pictured above.  It is "dripping" this morning, so I hope it turns out!

Update from the Goat Pen

Yep, the goats and I are still around.  However, the goat farmer has been experiencing a whirlwind schedule, which leaves little time for blogging!  Here is an update from the goat pen:

The goats are enjoying frequent scraps from the compost bucket.  Last week, Edna weighed 47 pounds and Elly May weighed 52 pounds!

Edna is now weaned!  Not having to heat up a bottle makes the morning routine go much faster!

I am also trying to wean Elly May.  She is about 15 weeks now, so it is the perfect time to wean.  But look at this picture...She nurses every chance she can get!  Right now, she is separated at night then let out after I milk in the morning.  I pen her up during the day and she takes a "bedtime" sip after the evening milking.  The system is working well.  Without Elly May, Charlotte is producing over 8 pounds (a gallon) of milk a day!

With all of that milk, I am experimenting with some cheeses.  I finally created an excellent curd from the milk.

Here is some feta cheese I made that is aging overnight in a salt-water brine.

I have also been working on getting the goats registered.  I have the paperwork sent in, now I am just waiting for the registrations to be processed!

Until next time...