[Goatlover]

I feel like this homesteading lifestyle is at least a partial return to the good old days. It’s a simpler, purer existence, connected to the earth and our food production. It’s finding enjoyment in creating home crafts, and breaking from the hustle-bustle of a high stress society. I love it.

[Goatlover]

My sandy soil in Florida needs help to retain moisture, so I use peat moss mixed in with my compost before planting. Do be careful using horse manure….Grazon can poison your garden and kill all of your plants.

[Goatlover]

After reading through this list of skills, I realize just how far I’ve come in the last decade! Fruits, Vegetables, herbs, permaculture, chickens, turkeys, dairy goats, soap making, essential oils and herbal medicines, canning, dehydrating, fermenting, cheese making, bread making, sewing, seed starting, seed saving, composting, cane syrup making, on and on I go! Praise the Lord for waking me up long ago to the need for a more self sufficient lifestyle. Come Out of Her, My People—I heard it loud and clear.

[Goatlover]

I have no experience with sheep. If it were a goat, I would take their temperature, provide fluids, check their eye lid skin to see if they are anemic; drench them with electrolyte solution, hit them with Jump start paste, and get them to a vet. Hoping you have a good outcome with your critter!!!

[Goatlover]

I always raw pack my green beans for canning. Never heard of blanching them first.

[Goatlover]

I’m a dairy goat woman myself! I’m curious as to why you chose sheep…..like what is their milking capacity? Lactation length? You know milk stuff! LOL

[Goatlover]

I can make about 7 quarts, using two crock pots…

[Goatlover]

I am a Crazy Goat Lady and proud of it! I have a herd of 10 Nigerian Dwarf goats–8 females and 2 males. They are easier for me to handle than full sized goats (I’m over 60). Currently, I am milking 4 once each day. Three are bred for kidding after the first of the year. Milk sales cover the cost of their feed and hay, plus I have enough to make yogurt, kefir, cheese and soap.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Goatlover.

[Goatlover]

Some days I spend 2 or 3 hours there, other days, my feet are in the kitchen ALL day! I’ve given myself the title of Domestic Goddess because of it. LOL It is my workshop, my kingdom if you will. Oftentimes, I will have 3 or 4 things going at a time. Grinding wheat, baking bread, baking dog biscuits, canning my fruits or veggies. I even flake oat groats and make my own granola and culture my own yogurt, kefir, and Kombucha. It’s a busy place!

[Goatlover]

I use those cheap pinwheels, PLUS old CD discs dangling from string AND balloons on string—they move ALL the time and deter the crows. LOL!

[Goatlover]

Just another homesteading grandma, hoping to win that greenhouse!

[Goatlover]

I just started some Kraut today! LOL

[Goatlover]

I knew I had “crossed over” into being a crazy goat lady when I started to LIKE the smell of a buck in rut!

[Goatlover]

Since I have miniature dairy goats (Nigerian Dwarf Breed), I get a quart of milk from a doe in the prime of her lactation. That’s a good bit of milk from a 50 pound animal. Later on, the milk will decrease to about a pint, but I’m okay with that as I keep 2 or 3 does lactating at all times and rotate breeding so each girl gets a rest in between pregnancies. My favorite cheese is Chèvre that I coat in crushed herbs from my garden. It’s an easy cheese to make and is so delicious.

[Goatlover]

As a goat owner, it has been my experience that the flavor of the milk is much better if you give your animals a “sweet feed”. Grass-fed dairy goat milk tastes like grass (yuck!)