Midget Whites moved outside today. Old digs getting too crowded!

This is ironic given that I did a talk on butterfly gardening yesterday at Hagerman and tried to raise everybody's worm tolerance level....but when it's a moral dilemma to have to choose between the facinating sphinx moth which mimics a hummingbird and my cherokee purple tomatoes!

Eggzzzzzzz

Supper now please?

Maggie waits patiently for milking time...unlike some of the others!

lost one bourban red turkey chick this morning....died of unknown causes

Aaaagh....velociraptor!

Turkey update: all 20 plus 9 chicken chicks are doing great. Their accomodations were upgraded todat and they are no longer in their rubbermaid brooder.

Turnip harvest

All done with labaneh. Tomorrow will be the cracker test.

Garlic scapes and onion florets which I will chop up and roll the goat cheese in.

Found these Indian Blanket ar the front of the property. It means that the honey flow should be starting now and the bees will stop taking the feed I give hem. Gallardia makes GREAT honey!

One and a half hours and six gallons of milk later, I am finally done milking by hand. the little first time freshener with a HUGE bag and teeny tiny teats, didn' t think hand milking was right at all and I am up to my elbows in mud grom her trying to scrape me off with her back feet. Overall it was less stressful this way, but unfortunately much more difficult keeping the milk clean as opposed to using a closed system milking machine.

The kitties forgot to wipe their feet before comin into the barn!

Dog dish rain gauge! The real one says we got 1 and 9/10ths inches today. I've got my mud boots back on to do this evening's milking....which is going to be by hand since the machine seems to be kaput.

What are these? A dandelion species? Why won't the bees work them?

Field full of sort of dandelions

Test

Biggest egg haul yet...12 eggs from 15 hens.

One gallon of goat's milk yogurt made four 8 oz rolls of labaneh cream cheese. These are ready to be rolled in some herbs and black pepper to make a cracker spread...or to stuff jalapenos for the grill!

Making cheese

Yogurt

Seperated milk tonight for the first time this season. Cleaning equipment is a big pain and you have to do it when the milk is warm, but its the only way to get cream from goats milk which will not seperate on its own. Got 2 cups of cream and 3 gallons of milk from my 3 Nubians and 1 Nubian/Saanen cross doe. I have to have cream to start buttermilk to make feta.

Got the pretiest turquoise ring from eldest daughter Beth...antique store had a very catchy name!

3.5 gallons of yogurt.

Making yogurt today in preparation to make Labaneh cheese tomorrow.

Happy Mother's Day from Savannah...the perfect gift for the sarcastic gardening Mother!

" If you wouldn't mind waiting just a minute, I'll have your eggs right out."

Refilling feeders for the second time since we brought new hives home. The furthest east colony is the strongest and has been draining their feeder the fastest. I need to go to Dadant and get some foundation for cut comb honey for this hive.

Cleaning out pens ths morn. No loss yet...still 20 turkeys and 9 brahma chicks.

Omg! Youngest daughter Jessie slipped on shoes in the garage and thought there was straw in one, but no it was this guy. She wore them all the way to the barn too!

We got squash!

Brought home some buff Brahma chicks because supposedly they will teach the turkey chicks how to eat and not die. So far so good! I am expecting some attrition, but if not I may have extra turkeys for sale come Thanksgiving!

Turkeys

Bourbon Red on left, Midget White on right.

Dipping each beak in water

20 turkeys came today via the USPS. Amazingly enough...all made it...10 Bourbon Red and 10 Midget Whites.

Planting sweet potato slips today...and prob tomorrow too :)

Hubby was cooking and came out to the garden to show me a double yolk egg...neat.

Why is that spinach named Beauregard?

Gorgeous double rainbows. We could see the entire arch of one...but it wouldn't fit into the pic! The colors were so vibrant and you could pick out each one - even the violet.

Rainbow!

Most of the bees went inside when the cold front came through. No real rain yet.

Filtering last night's milking so I can make cheese later this week. Mozarella requires the milk to be at least 3 days old or else it won't set curds.

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End of a long day...bottle feeding baby goats in my bee suit.

Can you spot the queen? Out of 4 boxes, Paul found 2 and I found 2. Looks like a good year for bees...lots of brood and eggs. Will have to go ahead and add supers on two boxes when we get home so the queen will have room to lay. On the best box I am going to do cut comb again this year.

Where's the queen???

I found the queens in the first two boxes, and Paul found them in the last two. Not that we are competitive or anything!

Opening up the new boxes to remove the feeders, add two frames, find the queen and check for brood and eggs.

In Josephine picking up 4 nucs of bees tonight.

"Urban Gardener Vegetable" my a**!!! That's one expensive pepper plant at home depot! Doesn't even identify what kind of pepper it is?!

Hyacinth is for sale

Good goat, good pedigree, just not one of my heaviest producers. Her production level is about average production level for a Nubian and her milk has a high butterfat content and will make good cheese.