This is the incubator. It's one of the most popular brands available and basically it's a stryofoam box with a heater inside. The eggs sit on a wire mesh over a plastic tray that you put water into troughs to provide humidity. There are two viewing ports on the top so you can check the temperature by way of a thermometer that sits on top of the eggs while they're incubating. Then, when they're hatching, you can check to see if there's pipping or if the chicks have hatched.

First chick that hatched. This pic was taken through the observation port (that's why the picture quality is so poor) since the incubator isn't supposed to be opened except once every 24 hours once the hatch has begun (and then just quickly to remove hatched chicks). This is so that the eggs aren't chilled and the humidity doesn't drop. So far we've had three chicks hatch. We've removed two to the brooder. :)

An egg that has pipped. See the crack? The "O" drawn on the egg is for reference when turning the egg while incubating.

And finally, the dried chick moved to the brooder. They're so tiny!

This one is here because I found it on the camera while getting the chick pictures. Yes, we have a spoiled cat. ;)

We have chicks pipping! Pipping means to break through the shell. One pipped last night and is hatching this morning. Three more eggs pipped this morning. Hopefully we'll have fuzzy little chicks by this afternoon. :)

I'll post pictures this afternoon.

I cleaned up in the basement a little today and found a box of my costume stuff. I pulled it out and started dressing the girls up and of course I had to take pictures. :)

Sisters traveling to exotic locations.

Amanda striking a pose as a bellydancer in a purple costume!

Beth modeling a purple sari and choli.

It started to rain today and it was really coming down. We had a veritable water spout coming down off the second floor and Samson decided it was a good playmate. :)

Today's flavor: Chevre This is the type of cheese that most people think of when they hear "goat cheese." It's an unripened cheese that's similar to cream cheese and comes either plain or flavored with herbs and spices. It's really easy to make, too. I'll probably be making a lot of this type of cheese since it freezes well. Just next time, I'll have to try and NOT to splash the whey all over the kitchen floor.

Some pictures:

Our first good wheel of Cheddar. We finally got the cooking of the curd just right and this has turned out better than our first two attempts.

Making cottage cheese. Haven't figured this one out yet. It tastes like cottage cheese, but it's got more the consistancy of Ricotta--which is strange because Ricotta is a whey cheese.

Samson trying to get the very last crumbs out of a bag of dog treats. Silly doggie.

All three felines frog-watching through the screen door. Jessie (middle) is going to go all kersplode-head.

Lenore and Finnian walking away from the basement door. Taken from the deck.

Devine and one of her kids standing on the wall.

The goats enjoying a salad bar from a dogwood tree.

Goat Logo Made a logo for our herd. Now I just have to have something to put it on...

It's a pseudo-Celtic design based on something similar to a horse design that I found. Actually, it's probably more Pictish than Celtic, but I like how it came out.

It's been quite busy the last few weeks. Months, actually. Everything happens at once, it seems.


The latest news is that school is almost out. Amanda was honored as being in the top 10% of her class and her teachers were raving about her. And Elizabeth. Both did really well in school this year, which is a relief, considering that they started a new school.

Kaitlynn did just a well. She's passed the school year with a 4.0 average (or close to it). She recently got her driver's license and is now driving all over the place. Well, not really, but we are letting her go to the grocery store for things. And she's driven to the range early on Saturdays to pull targets.

The goats have been giving us a tremendous amount of milk. We have weaned the two kids we had and now I'm milking Annabelle and Lenore twice a day and we're up to our eyeballs in milk. And as if that wasn't enough, we went and bought another doe. She's got two kids: A doeling and a buckling (who got wethered before we bought her) so now our goat count is up to 8. When we go for a walk, it really is a sight to see.

To preserve some of that milk, Bill and I have started to make cheese. We've made a couple of wheels of cheddar and I've made yogurt a couple of times. The yogurt made from goat's milk is absolutely delicious. Bill isn't crazy about yogurt, but he and the kids think it's really great.

One of the byproducts of making cheese is that there's always quite a bit of whey leftover from the curding process and I'm trying to find things to do with *that*, too. One of the things I've tried is something a friend of mine, lemonwitch suggested: A whey cheese called "mystost." It's a Norwegian dessert cheese made from cooking the liquid off the whey and turning the solids into a fudge-like substance that has a strange sweet-salty taste. It's good; I like it on toast for breakfast. :)




Just thought I'd show a couple pics of what we've done to our basement. One side is the milkstand and the feed bins and the other is the sink. It's a nice little arrangement. And everyday, twice a day, we have goats in our basement.

We're also up to our eyeballs in eggs. I thought chickens weren't supposed to start laying regularly until they were quite older, but ours apparently got the hang of it right away. 22 hend = approx 22 eggs a day. We're getting pretty tired of deviled eggs. We're trying other things like pickled eggs and freezing them. We also ordered an incubator and are going to try to hatch out some chicks. Put in the first batch of eggs today. We should have chicks on or about June 5. I'll keep you posted.



A friend of mine sent me these kites. Originally, the green/purple one was going to be for Amanda and the other one was going to be for me (I was just going to hang it up for show) but when they came while Amanda was in Chicago, Beth saw them and went "Oh, cool! Who are these for?" I caved and let her have the other one. They've been out flying them and they're just gorgeous. Thanks, Zanne. :)

That's all for today. More later.