Autumn lurgies, argh!

Things have been tough here at Chuckling Goat the past week, and I have that nasty feeling that someone has located my last nerve and has been shredding it with a carefully sharpened fork....slowly! Bleurgh!

Let's see, what all has gone pear-shaped? Well, first my water kefir grains, carefully stashed in the fridge, ready to make coconut water kefir when the labels arrived, have died. At least, some of them have. I've been hovering over the bucket every day, prodding it hopefully, and only a few bubbles come up. where there should be masses, as the water kefir eats the sugar and produces its fermenting magic. Looks like just a few of the grains have rehydrated, and the rest are turning into an un-appealing mush.

 I am so reluctant to admit that they're actually dead, fooling myself that they're just resting, just re-hydrating, checking them every day...but finally have to admit - the water kefir grains are goners!

So I order some more, wait for them to arrive, now they have to spend a week sitting in mineral water and organic sugar to revive them. All this before we can even hope to start on our long-awaited coconut water kefir, which like a mirage, seems to get further away, the more I chase it....aargh....

Then Rich and Benji both come down with some sort of stomach flu-headache-dizziness combo that puts them both out of action and flat on their backs in the lounge. We're so rarely ill on the farm that the menfolk, at least, don't cope very well! (and I'm not doing a great job either, let's be honest...sigh...)

With Rich out of commission I'm doing his bit and mine as well, taking the bins out, doing the school run, doing the morning milking, trying to get fluids down the invalids, rushing to the shop to get them yogurt and crackers when they can finally sit up, and in the meantime trying to put some new labels together in advance of our foray to the Allergy & Free From show, in Liverpool on Oct 26-27. We've never done anything like this before, and I'm frankly terrified out of my wits!

Thank goodness for our wonderful helper Emma, who has been a rock through everything, and her boyfriend Stuart is here helping out as well, so it's not as grim as it might be.

Also on the up-side is our brilliant young  designer, Hanuman, who has stoically and patiently endured all of my rapid-fire and stressed-out instructions, and come up with some gorgeous designs, met every deadline. Top man!

Down-side, we've been selling out of everything lately (well, that bit is good, anyway!) and so have run smack-dab out of the polystyrene that we use to pack the frozen boxes. They can't deliver more until Thursday, meaning that we won't be able to ship out until Monday next week. Double-aaargh!

But Rich now seems to have finally turned the corner and has dragged himself out to milk tonight, bless him, but Benji is still lording it over everyone in his 7-year-old-emperor fashion, dressing gown knotted in lordly style.

At least they both seem to be on the mend, thank goodness. Not sure I could have survived many more days of man flu...

 

Been enjoying the last of the Indian summer here on the farm, cats lazing around in the sun, goats in the far field stuffing themselves so full of grass that they hardly touch their cake when they come in for supper and the evening milking!

Coconut kefir labels just arrived from the printer and they look terrific, can't wait to start making it. I've got to take the water kefir grains out of the fridge, wake them up with a good soak in some dechlorinated water with molasses sugar and bicarb of soda, then put them to work kefir-ing the coconut water! It's our first non-goatsmilk product that we're making on the farm, so fingers crossed, I'm a bit nervous about it...fingers crossed it goes well.

Rich and our lovely helper Emma are in the kitchen at the moment, gutting chickens for roast dinner Sunday night. I'm not a big fan of the process, but when it comes to eating the chicken, I'm as keen as anyone! Rich is good about keeping his chickens, but I prefer my beautiful goats. I can let myself love them, as you don't have to kill them to get the goodness, as you do a chicken or a pig. Just a softie at heart, I guess...don't mind helping with butchering the lambs, but for the chickens without feathers look just a little too much like my dear departed African Grey parrot for my taste...; (

Did a big run of hoof trimming this morning, and dosed all the stock in the top barn with selenium, which is a fantastic mineral. You can see the difference almost immediately, makes the goats incredibly glossy and sleek. It somehow unlocks their ability to get the goodness out of the food. I bet it's just as important for humans...note to self, research selenium...

Got a big crate of plums from the farmers market on Friday, picked some apples from the orchard and made some gorgeous plum and apple jam. Easy to do and fun! Here's the recipe I used: 

Before you begin: carefully wash 4 jam jars and lids, put in the oven at 75 degrees to warm and sterilize. 

Wash and stone 1 lb plums. (skins on) Peel, core and slice 1 lb apples. Chuck all the fruit in a large pan with 1/4 pint water. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add sugar to taste. (We like our jam tart; less sugar means it won't keep as long, but we eat it up pretty quickly anyhow!) Simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it sets. Set= the point at which it develops a skin, if you drop a dollop on a chilled saucer and run your finger through it. 

Spread over fresh-baked bread and watch the kids come running! ; )

All test clear, phew!

Much relief in the barn as the TB and CAE results come in, and everyone is clear! Thank goodness - as we don't actually have to legally test for TB, and do it off our own back, I always find it really scary to wait, knowing that the lives of our lovely girls are at stake. But as we think it's the only responsible and sane thing to do, we grit our teeth and do it every year.

More good news with the microbiology tests for the milk, kefir and our upcoming coconut water kefir - all immaculate! We are regularly tested and spot checked by Environmental Health, but we pay to have our own testing as well done at the public microbiology labs in Carmarthen. Our tests were so clear that the count was less than 2 - which means undetectable. A common count would be 10 to the power of something - so the lab worker told me that he had never seen such a low count. I just smiled  - people who drink raw milk and kefir know that there's no chance bad bugs can live in there! Here's the study that proves it -

We're just waiting now for the labels to come in to start making the coconut water kefir, can't wait!

Goats are enjoying this last minute blast of heat and sun, out basking yesterday as if winter will never come -

Cat Slater!

 This is Cat Slater. Cat Slater is the latest of our barn kittens – a fat little grey sausage he was, all on his own! Somehow he has managed to work out a very privileged lifestyle – he has TWO mummies, both of whom nurse him devotedly. As a result he’s a little pudding of a thing, just now ready to stagger out of the nursery hay bales and  “hang out” with the big cats at the morning milking bowl. Most of our barn cats are ginger or tortoiseshell, so he really stands out – and gets more than his fair share of cuddles, it must be said! See our facebook page for a video of Cat Slater and his two mummies…

Yesterday Angus the vet came to do our annual goat testing. Every year we test all the goats for CAE (Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis, yick!) and TB. We don't have a legal requirement to test for TB, but as we sell the raw milk and give it to our own children, we think it's just sensible to do so, just for due diligence. It is expensive, and of course it's anxious every year, waiting for the results. We've never had a reactor - we would be devastated to have to put one of our lovelies down - so fingers crossed it will be all good news again this year!

Two days ago we had a bit of a scare with Wandi, pictured below:

She went completely off her food, and was stretching and arching her back - too much good rich grass, we reckoned. Goats can bloat just like horses. When a goat goes off her food, it's bad news, because they're normally so greedy! So we know that if one isn't eating, it's real trouble. Anyhow, we dosed Wandi with olive oil and our own kefir, and then a jab from Angus the vet to get her tummy moving again. She was very poorly in the evening, we were really worried about her - she was down, looking miserable, no milk and no interest in supper. Went in the next morning very nervously - and she was up and about, ready for breakfast! Whew! They don't half put you through your paces, animals and children, eh?

September mists on the farm...

Sept 6 2013

Lovely and misty yesterday, the mist billowing in like sheets over the hills, coming in from the ocean. It made me realize how much I had missed the autumn…my favourite season…we had a brilliantly hot and sunny summer, so unusual for us, and great for getting the hay in. But brassy heat doesn’t suit Wales, I think. It’s such a tender, quiet, mysterious place…the delicate mist suits it best. The wooded valleys look ancient, as if the Horned Hunter might burst from the trees any minute, and Merlin come striding down the hill. It’s very untamed, this land, despite having been farmed for such a long time. The landscape out my window is domesticated, with its hedges and patchwork quilt of cultivated fields. But there is a wildness to it too, that is different from the trampled, desiccated land of England, where the life has been squashed out of the ground. Here, the ground still know things….

School has started again, and we’re stapled back to the wheel of the school runs. Joli needs to go to Cardigan by 7. 45, to catch the feeder bus to Preseli, and I love taking her, as it’s the only time we really get to talk. At age fourteen, these little opportunities for chats are valuable. So I get up at five, in order to have some breathing time. It’s the only time I can think and plan, and I love being the only one awake in our old stone farm house, with its foot-thick walls. When she was here, my mother commented how quiet it was at night, our house, it doesn’t creak or rattle like modern houses do. It’s true, what she says, but on certain nights the wind does howl in the chimneys like some lost beast…

So, up at five it is, a load of washing into the washer, kettle on, do some stretches, make tea and whatever beverages I make for the family health. The jar of kefir on the window sill is strained into the blender, mixed with bananas, vanilla and organic sugar for Rich and Benj. Joli has hers unflavoured, as I do – I’ve come to really like the tart taste, oddly!

Then I mix up a litre bottle of “healthy squash” for Rich – I loathe the commercial stuff, all refined sugar and citric acid, and he won’t drink plain water. I hate to think of what it’s doing to his insides. So I worked until I came up with an alternative – I mix 300 g of real juice (he likes the tropical blend, pineapple and orange and grapefruit) with 200 g of kombucha, 4 tabs of stevia, pour it into a litre bottle and fill it to the top with water. It takes like squash, he drinks it without complaint he’s getting the probiotic of the kombucha, the stevia won’t harm him and at least there are no nasty chemicals in it!

I leave it out on the counter for him, along with a jug of herbal tea  – yarrow, agrimony, licorice root and marshmallow root. To make this I put one heaping Tbsp of each into a sauce pan, pour a full kettle of boiling water over it, add a big spoon of manuka honey, and let the whole thing cool down for an hour. Then I strain the liquid off, discard the herbs and pour it into a jug, set that out on the counter as well. The herbal mixture is powerfully anti-inflammatory, and Rich says he notices the difference in his joints if he stops drinking it. I also put out a garlic tablet, a fish oil tablet and a glucosamine tablet for him. He’ll never take them if left to his own devices, and after his operation, I think he needs the ongoing boost. When he comes in from working on the tractor, or tinkering in the engine shed, he’ll drink these goodies happily enough if they’re sitting ready for him.

Then I squeeze fresh orange juice with my beautiful old-fashioned orange juice squeezer – tall and simple, it looks like a work of art. I brought it with me from California, and it’s one of my most cherished possessions – sits on the counter in the farmhouse kitchen next to a heaping bowl of oranges. We get the oranges in boxes from the farmers market, and I get through around seven a day for fresh orange juice!

This I mix half-and-half with kombucha for the kids, and take a glass for each upstairs to wake them up with. I knock on the door, say “Juice mommy!” and go in for cuddles while they drink their juice. They wake up smiling…the best part of my day…