This was taken on another stormy Kansas evening. The first and second picture were taken only 15 minutes apart. It’s amazing how the sky transforms so fast. I took the first picture then needed to charge my camera to take any more. So, I missed all the stages in between these two. The first one looks like a Microsoft screen saver or stationary, not a real sky! As with the last ones, I didn’t do any enhancing to these photos.

I think the clouds looked like summer peaches.

Fifteen minutes later, right before sunset.

Please note recent website updates. Our “Around The Farm Blog” is now moved to the sidebar. Hopefully since you are here, you found it!

We added a new section called The Sale Barn where we will have things for sale that don’t fall into the category of goat kid or puppy…so check that out. We will be adding things to it in the near future and will put a link on the sidebar as well. For now, the link is under “Barnyard” at the top.

Our Barnyard animal pictures are updated now as well. That includes our entire menagerie besides the goats and dogs. So, go gander around there!

“Past Puppy” photos in Miniatures, Standards and Brussels are ALL updated and current with every puppy that has been born here with a place on our website. So, when you have a chance, browse those puppies. Many are clickable to updated photos of the puppies in their new homes. Those are always fun to see!

We have updated our goat section and put all the pictures of our “other” goats up. We have expanded our herd beyond Nigerian’s this spring. So, have a look at our other goats!

I have been busy updating and fixing. I discovered our Guestbook has been down for months and didn’t know it. So, hopefully that will be up and running again soon. We changed servers and apparently some data didn’t get transferred.

Thanks for reading!

During the past week or so we have had our two Toggenberg does kid. We have two doelings and one buckling! Pictures of them HERE!

For now, we have to figure out what to do with all that milk! I have the kids on their mommas from morning until bed time. Then we lock the kids up away from the mother’s and in the morning we milk and then give the does their kids back. I have milked the past two mornings and have gotten 1/2-3/4 a gallon of milk so far. I imagine the milk will increase a little still and we would get more if we pulled the kids or milked twice a day. But for now, this is a nice compromise of not having to bottle feed AND still getting milk. Milking once a day is not as big a burden on our schedule as well.

So, today with an extra 3/4 gallon of milk from this morning and milk already in the refrigerator, we decided to make some Panir cheese. This is a very simple goat milk cheese that you can flavor with herbs, garlic, or just salt. You can even blend it in a food processor and make it like cream cheese. You can store it in brine and it’s like feta. You can press it into a block, slice it up and use it like tofu and it will take on the flavor of whatever dish it’s cooked in. I hear it’s particularly good in curries. It should be slightly sweet and plain with no seasonings added. Today we are going to season ours to compliment spaghetti.

This recipe is nice because you can just make cheese with whatever amount of milk you have and it’s not touchy as to amounts of things. So you can fly by the seat of your pants. That’s my kind of recipe!

In our case we started with 3/4 a gallon. Add the milk to a pot- anything but aluminum! Put a thermometer in and start heating the milk. Stir often, heat slowly, and use a decent quality pot so you don’t scorch your milk. It’s nice if you have a lovely milk maiden to help with the stirring.

Heat the milk to 183-185 degrees and hold it there for 10 minutes. This is where your thermometer is handy. I even turned the heat off for a few minutes and re-lit the burner on low to hold the temperature.

If you have a milk maiden as I do, you are free to set up your strainer lined with cheesecloth. I set mine over another pot to catch the whey. Some people let the whey go down the drain, but whey can be used in bread making, in place of water for pasta or rice, or simply can be fed to chickens. Chickens love it. I figure I may as well let the chickens have it than waste it.

Once the milk has been heated for 10 minutes at 183-185, add about 1/2 cup of vinegar per 1 gallon of milk and stir briefly. The vinegar should quickly curdle the milk. If it does not, add more vinegar until it does. Once it starts to curdle, stop stirring and leave it be so you don’t break up the curds.

The curds should separate out and float in a greenish-white liquid, which is the whey. Let your curdled mixture sit for another 10 minutes and work. I even leave my heat on low to keep it warm while it curdles. It seems to make more curds that way.

When the 10 minutes or more passes, carefully pour your curds and whey into your cheesecloth lined strainer. The curds will be really spongy and big if you didn’t stir too much. In these pictures, I stirred too much so they looked like cottage cheese.

Now you can tie up the cheesecloth with a shoelace or cord and hang it to drip for a few hours. I just tied mine to my cabinet handle and left it dripping over the pot it was strained into.

At any point after it’s hung for awhile you can add herbs, fresh garlic or any other seasoning that strikes your fancy. Today since I was thinking Italian, I added a mixture that included 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp sage, 1/4 tsp oregano and 1/2 tsp basil.

After you add the herbs you can decide if you want it harder and dryer (hang it longer) or wetter and drier, (take it down and put it into a container and refrigerate it). You can choose to just hang it like I did, or you can press it into forms or molds to get a desired shape. This particular Panir would be good on crackers, crumbled onto a salad, melted on top of pizza, lasagna or spaghetti. It’s so easy- anyone can make it! One gallon makes about 8 oz. of cheese.

P.S. This was added after the fact. This was my first batch of Panir. It turned out good, but it wasn’t as creamy as it could be because I stirred too much and broke up the curds. I also decided adding the herbs and salt to the milk in the beginning made a more flavorful cheese than adding it after it curds. This way the herbs cook into the cheese. You have to add more salt than you might think to a gallon of milk because a lot of it runs out with the whey. I added 3-4 tsp and that was not too much. I would add about 4 tsp of herbs and garlic too if you want an herbed cheese. Anyway- this recipe can be played with to get your desired results. Our first batch was crumbly and good for adding to the top of salads and pasta. Our second batch that we didn’t stir so much turned out softer and spreadable. It’s a fun cheese to make, easy to play around with and a great science project for kids- so have fun with it!

So, now you can go find a local farmer, buy some milk, and make your own Panir! There are farmers everywhere- use REALMILK.COM to locate one near you!

Or, better yet- go get your own goat!

I am not sure how to categorize what I have for you today….but that’s ok. Does life ever fall neatly into categories?

I wanted to tell you about this turtle we came upon the other day. This teenage girl ran her car off our road and into our fence. When we went to see what damage was done, Jacob saw this water turtle in the pasture. As soon as the car situation was taken care of, we soon realized this turtle was very much hard at work digging a hole.

We surmised correctly that she was making a nest for a clutch of eggs. There were four oblong leathery eggs laid in her perfect cylindrical hole. These were laid about 20 yards from our pond and the momma turtle quickly disappeared back into our pond where I imagine she is living right now.

Before the turtle left, she carefully filled the hole and patted it shut with mud. The odd thing is the ground was not muddy that day. We aren’t sure if she made the mud by regurgitating water on the dirt or peeing on it, but it was dry when she started out. We want to keep an eye on the nest and maybe put a cage over it before we expect that it might hatch so we can see the babies. I expect they’ll be little more than 1 inch across as hatchlings. Hopefully I’ll have pictures of them then!

This little doeling is our newest addition to the herd. I’d say after this spring, we definitely now have a herd. Isn’t she pretty? She is a mini-Toggenberg.

Willy is always good for comic relief. He may often be a source of much grief, but it’s always balanced with plenty of laughs. He has begged and begged for me to buy him nun-chucks. If you knew Willy, you would know I have no business even considering buying him nun-chucks. He does enough damage in this world without the help of a weapon. The other thing unique to Willy is that he is very resourceful and inventive, and he will ALWAYS find ways to make things work. These nun-chucks were made by Willy with bypass loppers, tree limbs, jute string and a power drill. They look like they could certainly hurt someone too. I guess this is what you would call Hillbilly Nun-Chucks.

This picture was taken after I looked out my kitchen window and saw Willy dragging a bag of dog poo to the dumpster. It took both hands, which meant he had no way to pinch his nose. So, rather than bear with the stink, he rummaged around in the garage until he found himself a clothespin. I have no idea where he found the clothespin myself!

This side shot taken just for giggles. The is what I saw from my window and he was unaware I was looking…and laughing out loud. This kid is a crack up.

This kid is a crack up, too.