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Sabtu, 21 Mei 2016

On The Free Tip

free wooden wine boxes for our CSA
Scavenging has become a way of life for us.  There are so many amazing resources out there people just throw away.  Yes its cliche, one persons trash is anothers treasure...however when you are farming on a shoestring all that "trash" is good as gold.  Perhaps scavenge is not the right word; what we do is more like salvage or glean.  Besides livestock feed, almost all our resources are free.  


leftover Chinese broccoli and bok choy starts from a community garden

From fencing off craigslist, organic seeds from the seed library, wine boxes and pallets for seed flats, straw bales for animal bedding and mulch, vegi starts from the garden club, bamboo cuttings as supplementary feed, truck loads of horse manure from the stables up the street, truck loads of wood mulch from the neighborhood tree trimmer, to more truck loads of pumpkins after Halloween to feed the livestock.  I could go on and on, its all about the FREE stuff.  


timber bamboo cut down by a neighbor, we used to build a trellis for squash

But whats best about all this is that most of these are things we actually need and some are just fun to have or useful materials for our creative endeavors.  We save tons of money recycling and reusing.  The downside?  Sometimes we wait to get that item we really need/want.  (Which makes us think twice about how badly we really need it!)  Or once in a while we bring home something that takes up space until its perfect use is discovered.  


old straw bales we use for animal bedding and mulch

And the upside is that we have the ability to create our farm life with stuff we find while we make choices to spend our hard earned money on other things (or save it!)  Not to mention we can tread lightly as consumers while focusing on producing more of what we need.  It really is a win/win situation.  



van full of left over pumpkins, day after Halloween
What kinds of free stuff do you re-purpose out there?


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Rabu, 18 Mei 2016

The Toxicologist is cooking poison

I am preparing two HUGE articles to be posted pretty soon on The Toxicologist Today. Two articles that
promise excitement, passion, opinionated criticism, critical analysis, appraisal and  possible - yet uncalled for - controversy at points. 

Right now I can only give you a few ideas surrounding these articles I have been taking some time to write:

1 - Is LinkedIn becoming another Facebook?

2 - I am recruiting... an Employer.

I really hope this gets you guys, psyched! Hope I can count on your visit soon.

Cheers.
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The real scientists Eureka


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Are the seeds from bay trees poisonous

On the 5th of February 2016 Viktoria Vukics left me a comment/question in the original bay leaf post from September 7th, 2010:

"Hello there! Thanks for this interesting article. Its so good that someone has cleared up this pseudo-myth on a scientific basis. Theres so often confusion about the uses and safety of herbs. I also heard the bay seeds to be poisonous. Do you think its true? One even sais that its unsafe to crush or press the berries to obtain the fixed oil. I would appreciate your opinion on the matter, Victoria"

I am quite busy these days; it took me a while to be able to find reliable documentation supporting an answer. Here is what I could find with some solid scientific basis.

The bay tree contains small fragrant black (when ripen) shiny olive-like berries of about 1.3 cm long. These are apparently edible as there are anecdotal reports that birds actually love them. Even though historically the berries have been used mainly for medicinal purposes, a lot of the information available on the web regarding how edible or toxic these berries are, comes from popular knowledge. But two very good articles point towards their safety.

The berries of Bay Laurel contain among other essential oils, eugenol, acetyl eugenol, methyl eugenol, terpineol, cineol, geraniol and 1-8-cineole [1] [3]. These are responsible for the attractive spicy aroma in them. Some people report that infusion containing such berries relieve flatulence and can soothe gastric problems. I personally could not find any scientific suggestions on the flatulence part. However, these berries are quite substantially used in the food industry as seasoning and coloring agents for soups, meat, fish, beverages, etc, and even as food preservatives due to their proven antimicrobial potency (capable of inactivating for instance E. coliS. typhimurium and S. aureus [3]) and also showing some potential as insecticide [2].  

In conclusion, the Laurus nobilis berries are a good natural source of anthocyanins; these are non-toxic water-soluble vacuolar pigments that change color depending on pH, and have antioxidant properties. 

With my online research I could not find any documents reporting toxicity associated to the fruits/berries of the Bay laurel tree/plant. If any of you find literature on the toxic/poisonous potential of the L. nobilis berries, please share with us.




[1] Laurus Nobilis, Floridata Plant Encyclopaedia, [http://www.floridata.com/Plants/Lauraceae/Laurus%20nobilis/733], last visited on the 29th of February 2016, last updated on the 24th of February 2005.


[2] Longo, L and Vasapollo, G. (2005). "Anthocyanins from Bay (Laurus nobilis L.) Berries". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 53, pp. 8063-8067. 

[3] Dadalioglu, I. and Evrendilek, G. A. (2004). "Chemical compositions and antibacterial effects of essential oils of Turkish oregano (Origanum minutiflorum), Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis), Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas L.), and Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) on common  foodborne pathogens". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 52, pp. 8255-8260.
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Selasa, 17 Mei 2016

Infinite Uses of the Pallet


It seems to be all about pallets around here.  Why?  They are free, super strong, and weather resistant, plus theyre everywhere.  And for us, it just makes sense to use what we have or what is easily accessible.  

The pallet chicken coop is coming along.  After a bit of a break to work on many other projects, we are returning to finish it up.  We still need to insulate with straw, seal up the walls and paint the exterior.  The chickens dont seem to care about the disarray, they have happily taken up in the shade and even started laying in the empty boxes.


Another recent project is our pallet stanchion with eucalyptus branches that function as the closure.  Ginger doesnt seem to put up a fight.

Our mini green house is made of pallet wood and recycled windows, while the seed flats are just shortened, re-assembled pallet boards.


As for the Warre hives, the top box which is the insulation layer is made from pallet wood while the rest is pine.  


The options for working with this abundant  and durable resource are seemingly endless once you put your imagination to it. Isnt that just about true of anything though? 


Top Photos 
by Lori Eanes
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Senin, 16 Mei 2016

An Insane swaga an Insane Je ne sais quoi

Im pretty sure most of you guys have already heard of Insanity. Insanity is a workout program that you can do at your own place without having to buy any special equipment or even have a huge saloon. All you have to do is buy the DVDs and follow the calendar of exercises for 60 days. I guarantee you, its mental but it does really work for anyone, providing you are a healthy responsible person who eats properly and rests adequately. A friend of mine passed me on the DVDs and I got so involved with Insanity that nowadays when I dont do it I feel something is missing in my life. 

I recently had my first child and the money to put my child in a good nursery in a few months time has got to be saved from "yesterday". UK charges body and soul when a child is in nursery age. I could not maintain a monthly gym payment and save for both my kid stem cell bank monthly direct debit, plus rent, plus car insurance, plus all the normal bills normal human beings are to pay "normally". So, without thinking twice, this DVD made me recognise that there was an option available for those who dont have much money available, but most of all, dont really have the time to spend on traffic jams and busy gyms. 

I tested it once before my kid was born and I loved it, but because of loads of work I had by then, I kind of left it aside. But Insanity kept coming to my head, and my friend enticed me to it once again when lending me the DVDs. Combined with Dietpower (see article here) I have been very fiercely destroying that fat gained over Christmas holidays with anxious munching of sweets and traditional festive food that bombed my weight from 85kg (already a little too much for the likes of me) to 88Kg. Well, I dont consider myself fat at all, nothing like that. I am just a vegetarian sporty dude who likes to be healthy, and entering my 35s makes me want to maintain a certain swaga, a certain enticing je ne sais quoi; I want to be fit to smile and feel good about myself. Ive always did, and thats why I stopped smoking in 2006 after 10 years puffing the nicotine dragon.

Supported by max interval training, working really hard for 3 to 4 minutes and then bringing it down to a 30 seconds cool down, I have been really happy with the results. 40 minutes a day keeps me fit and helps me get to my weight goal, 75Kg on the 01st of July. Then Ill hit the Portuguese beaches and show off my hard-gained body whilst watching the proud look on my wifes face. im already back to 85Kg three weeks after starting.

Insanity tests your limits but also your progression. Every two weeks theres a fit test that helps you understand how well or poorly (I doubt it) youre doing. Want to know my progression, take a look then:


Approximately 90% improvement on the Switch Kicks (build muscle quick), basically maintained the same level for Power Jacks, around 12% improvement on the Power Knees (working knee flexor and extensor muscles), 50% improvement on Power Jumps (working hip extension and knee extension) and Globe Jumps,  ~33% improvement on Suicide Jumps (great muscle builder) and push-up jacks (awesome for building pectoral muscle), and finally 25% improvement on low plank oblique (work internal and external obliques and transverse abdominis). Overall, a great improvement rate considering I only started three weeks ago.

Why dont you try it yourself and let me know how youre doing? If you dislike Insanity there are also several other training programs you can try, for example, P90X (see it here) or the Rock Hard program (find it here). Bare in mind that my first choice lays on Insanity because you need nothing but a bottle of water and a towel to get fit. In the meanwhile check the promotional video I found on the Internet and keep checking for more posts soon in The Toxicologist Todays blog. Cheers!

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Minggu, 15 Mei 2016

The winter prune




Over winter we had around 200 fruit trees to try and prune. Needless to say we FAILED. We had 2 weeks over the winter school holidays to try and get it done. And it rained the first week. But we did succeed in getting the apples and pears completed. It was by far a huge learning curve. Neither of us have pruned fruit trees before so we were out there with the book trying to check we were cutting the right bits off.

After about 5 trees we just started hacking randomly. It was going to be far too much work being so precise. the picture above is just one row of our espaliered apples. Below is the end result of our work. I did most of this with Immali wrapped to me all snuggled and warm and sleeping. I so wish I had a photo pruning with her but I dont.

we left the other half till Spring holidays. But again it rained and we could not find the motivation to get it done.

Next year we need a new plan and a system to get the whole orchard pruned ready for fruiting.



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Jumat, 13 Mei 2016

3 Month Old Baby Carriers part 2 of 4

Well my little miss is 3 months old now, and once again she was the perfect model. She fell asleep by around carrier 3 and then I learnt some trips to swap carriers without putting her down so she didnt wake. This made me realise the only carrier you cannot put an already sleeping baby into is the Britax, I had to wait till she woke to take photos in that one.

Please remember to always follow TICKS guidelines and some common sense.



If you would like to catch up part 1 is here.

There are no stretchy wraps included this round as she is already to heavy for them. She is though heavier than an average 3 month old, so you may get longer use of stretchy/knit carriers than we have.





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Kamis, 12 Mei 2016

Hit the ground running

We have had the joy of moving into Mudflower with tonnes of rotting fruit everywhere, Damo has been out there with shovel and bags collecting it all up in the 40+ degree heat. Very little fruit is left edible, which is just so sad. But there was a plum tree covered in yummy goodness.


Yesterday I collected a bucket full and turned them into some yummy jam and preserves.



Have collected another overflowing bucket full today that is now in the dehydrator and the rest will be turned into some plum sauce and plum chutney. Will share pictures of those results tomorrow.

The recipe I used was:

Recipe for Plum Jam in the Microwave 7/9/01. Bunty.


450 g (1 lb) Plums
Grated rind and juice of 1 small orange
2 1/2 x 15 ml tbsp water
375 g (12 oz) granulated sugar

1. Halve and stone plums, place in a large dish with the water and microwave for 8 - 10 mins on High until tender.
2. Add sugar an stir.
3. Cook on High for 2 mins. Stir.
4. Cook on High for 8 - 10 mins Stirring several times until
setting point is reached.
5. Cool slightly and pot.

I have successfully been making my jam this way since 1982.

From:
http://www.realgardeners.co.uk/archiverecipes/recipe_for_plum_jam_in_the_micro.htm
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Weeds To The Rescue


"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. " 
-Hippocrates


This season has been particularly uncomfortable for allergies.  I, for one, had a couple of weeks of severe symptoms.  I dont suffer from traditional hay fever, but I do occasionally get random allergic reactions to unknown food triggers.  I had not experienced these symptoms in years but recently I had an awful flare up and found myself desperate for relief.  As I lay in bed one morning with my eye lids almost swollen shut, I remembered my friend Cleavers.  After years of experience, I now have a strong tendency to listen to myself. That inner voice in all of us that is so often ignored can be a guiding force of wisdom.  

Cleavers climbing next to the compost bins

So I grabbed a basket and went looking for some fresh specimens of this sticky weed.  Well, it is the perfect time of year around here and I didnt have to look far.  There is a profuse amount of this plant growing all over our property.  Cleavers (Gallium Aparine) is known by different common names; Goosegrass, Stickyweed, and Bedstraw are just a few.  But the way most people know Cleavers is by the way it persistently sticks to your clothing.  My son likes to surprise me by throwing it on my shirt or hair.  


This wonderful weed strengthens lymphatic activity, reduces allergic reactions, eases tender swollen breasts, PMS symptoms, and mild lymph edema.  To harvest, cut the top two-thirds of each plant while it is in flower or setting seeds (the seeds look like burrs).  You can then make a tincture, tea, or my preferred method, fresh green juice. 



To make the fresh juice I gathered a basket full of leafy tops, brought them inside and rinsed them lightly.  At first I attempted to put them through my juicer, but since I do not have a Vita mix, that attempt failed.  Cleavers is way too fibrous for my wimpy machine so out came the Cuisinart blender.  




I added a little water to the plants, enough to get them to turn over and blended until I had a nice even green juice.  Then I strained the mixture and added a couple of juiced apples.  Delicious and very cooling.  I think I drank 2-3 pitchers full.  I just kept making more as it was very calming to my inflamed system.  




So all you gardeners, foragers, and hikers out there, dont think of Cleavers as a nuisance. Harvest some when in season, use it as a spring tonic, and reap the health benefits.  









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Bacterial docking and anchoring to the heart!


I apologise but I cannot indeed remember where exactly I saw this presentation slide for the first time (probably here), so I cannot refer back to the web document I got it from. But I was most intrigued about the concepts of docking and anchoring of bacteria to eukaryotic cells. Concepts I was partially unaware of on its biomolecular nature, but had a mild understanding of what could actually mean physically.

Bacterial adhesion can occur in two major ways:

In a basic primary fashion known as the docking stage and by secondary means known as locking or anchoring.

Docking is reversible and occurs between the bacterial cell surface and the surface of interest where electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions play a role [1].

Anchoring becomes irreversible if no prompt intervention takes place, and involves molecularly-mediated binding between specific adhesins and the compromised surface. This compromised agent subjected to an initial locking will become susceptible to a different range of adhering organisms, thus allowing a pluralised matrix to form in the shape of a biofilm varying in strain identities [1].

Both can lead to serious defense suppression, but the second can get the host death compromised by adding to antimicrobial drug resistance by compromising the glycocalyx (image below).

 [2]


The glycocalyx is a carbohidrate-enriched layer surrounding the outside of many eukaryotic and also prokaryotic cells. It basically reports on the health state of a cell and its disruption means disease! Especially in hyperglycemic subjects, thus diabetic patients are prone to loss of endothelial glycocalyx during accute hyperglicaemia [3].


If you want to know more about it read the articles below:

[1] Dunne, M. (2002). "Baterial adhesion: Seen any good biofilms lately?". Clinical microbiology reviews, 15(2), pp. 155-166.

[2] Rabelink and Zeeuw (2015). "The glycocalyx - linking albuminuria with renal and cardiovascular disease". Nature Reviews Nephrology, advanced online publication.

[3] Nieuwdorp et al., (2006). "Loss of endothelial glycocalyx during acute hyperglicemia coincides with endothelialdysfunction  and coagulation  activation in vivo". Diabetes, 55(2), pp. 480-486.
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The journey of Amiah Grace 40 weeks till birth

Part 2 - The Birth 

(part 1 see here)

Tammie is here, I cannot express how relieved I am to have her here with me. This birth is just going to be be amazing. We just need this baby to come. Lets plan. lets keep busy surely babies like to ruin your plans coming at the most inconvenient times. We shop even go to the next town a whole hour away, we go to the library and Tammie cleans she just keeps cleaning. At first I feel terrible, I didnt ask her to come wanting her to clean my house. I hope she doesnt think that is what I have done. Then I am told some wise words. I realise she is just trying to help me and support me, it is what she wants to do, she wouldnt do it otherwise (I hope these wise words were true).

41 weeks. This is OK, I can do 41 weeks. Tammie is here another week. Immali was born 41+3. But the niggles are there, what am I going to do if she doesnt come. Will I really need an induction, surely I dont babies come when they are ready, 40 weeks is an average not a norm. 40 weeks is not the normal. Normal for me is whenever Ukpik decides to come. I rest in that peace for now. We have a lovely week together. I am growing huge, everything is getting hard. I cannot sleep I cannot sit I cannot walk much. I just plain hurt. I am so very thankful Tammie is here helping keep my house running. I truly hope she doesnt think I am taking advantage of her. She is an absolute blessing.

I am 42 weeks, what am I going to do. Tammie is going home. She cannot stay. I cannot ask her to stay. I want so badly to ask her to stay. But her family misses her, they need her, they now need her more than I do. 2 weeks is a long time for a mumma to be away from her family. I give her my blessing to go, as much as it hurts I know it is the right thing to do. I try to write her a card so she knows how truly grateful I am that she came, How thankful I am for everything she has done. I am not sure I wrote it well. I hope I did. She leaves, I cry.

I sit in my very clean house. I decide I can still do this. God will be with me. I pray almost constantly that my other friend Lusi will be able to come to the birth. I am stressed she will not make it. And then what will I do if I have to transfer, there will be no one to watch the kids. What will I do.....

God reminds me I almost felt him screaming at me, shut up and listen to me. Trust me please just trust me, I have put you here right where I want you. Trust me, have faith, all will be as it should be. Listen to your song. And I did I listened over and over and over. I wiped all other songs off the ipod and stuck Speak, O Lord on repeat.

42 weeks plus 2. 1:30 am. I wake to a sensation, what is that, what could it be. CRAP my waters broke. Theres no towel, why oh why am I not sleeping on a towel I am 42 weeks pregnant what on earth did I think was going to happen. I leap, if you have never seen a 42 week pregnant lady leap out of bed, you probably never will. It is a physically impossible myth. Yet somehow with the cot side-carred, I leaped off the end of the bed. Not one drop of fluid on the bed, not one single one. I am the pregnant ninja woo cha.

I leap, run, waddle. Yes a combo of all 3, try to imagine it. I cant I have no idea how I got to the bathroom before my waters exploded into the toilet. I then spent the next hour sitting in the bathroom with a little fan heater going. Happily keeping Lisa awake so I have someone to chat too, it was so special having her part of the birth even if she was 5 hours away. I wished there was a way to transport her to me. The contractions slowly kicked in and built up. It was time to wake Damo. It was time, it was really time, I was going to meet Ukpik.

I lent over to kiss Damo awake my dreads tickled his face and he woke thinking he was being attacked. Was rather funny for me, I literally wet myself laughing. Been some time since I have been able to scare him so badly. Once he recovered from the shock he got to work setting up and filling the pool for me. He did a great job and it was full in no time.

It is time to call Lusi. I ring her mobile, I ring it again, wake up Lusi I quietly scream as the phone rings. I ring again, no answer. Time to ring the home phone and wake up her 5 kids. Still no answer. Seriously Lusi are you sleeping in earmuffs. The answer machine kicks in, I leave a message along the lines of get your arse out of bed, this baby is coming. Lusi should never camp with me, now I know how deeply she sleeps, oh the tricks I could play.

It was hard to get into my space and also decide if the pool was hot enough, full enough, oh no its too cold now. I was busy contracting while Damo waited for me to give the ok, but he left the cold water running. I didnt know. He tries to top it up but the pump, that pumps the water from the hot water system is busted. It broke during the first fill. He buckets in what he can till it is just warm enough to get in.

4:33am I get into the pool it was great. It didnt give me the space to retreat into myself as much as it did last time. But the movement in the water was lovely. Lusi took over the hot water job, and kept adding kettle after kettle of water till it was hot enough. Every time the water sloshed in it pulled me out of my space. There was no other option that is just what had to be. A full hour she did this till at 5:35am I give her the evil eye to stop.



The next stage just seemed to drag on and on, I could not stop myself fighting the contractions and fighting transition. I knew I had to just relax and allow it all to happen. The fear hit, fear I didnt know I had, what am I doing, Im nuts. Please someone tell me its ok, someone say something, remind me I can do this, remind me it will be over soon. I need someone to speak these words.




Then Igloo woke and wandered in, the offer of watching a movie before 6am was enough to send him running off. Within a minute of Igloo leaving the room I could feel the head ready to be born. He distracted me from my fears and gave me a sense of urgency, I didnt want the kids around, it is time to get this bubba out. Its time to let go and birth this wee bubba. Next contraction I tried not to push, just little pushes trying to let my body do it to try and prevent tearing. The contraction after I thought stuff this it hurts to freaking bad so pushed the head out with all I had. Another contraction and I tried to let my body do the work to birth the body. It didnt so with the next contraction and having had enough of the pain I pushed with whatever I had left and Ukpik was born at 5:50am. The transition that felt like 2 hours was really only 20 minutes.

As I pulled bub up I was sure I saw all the bits that made a boy. I almost announced it was a little boy but didnt. Lusi came running at the sound of crying and all three kids followed. I think Immali woke as Ukpik cried it was very special. Damo or Lusi asked if it was a boy or girl and I thought I would recheck. I looked everywhere for the sac and doddle I thought I had seen but it had fallen off and I had a little girl in my arms. I am not sure I have ever looked at my kids bits so closely. But I just had to be sure I was actually right this time. Lusi even managed to snap a pic of this moment.



I had some no bleed tea and some homeopathics and the placenta was born at 6:10am with the damn membranes once again trailing behind and getting caught in the cervix. Spent the next probably half hour working on extracting the membranes. I was so exhausted but I just kept on pushing and pulling and pushing and pulling and eventually they all popped out. They ripped a few times in the process and I was getting worried I wasnt going to have enough left to pull on. But as God promised it all came and and everything was fine just as it should be. 



I am not sure when we cut the cord, Igloo had the privelege this time. I tied the cord and then Igloo got to cut. He loved it, was such a special moment. I wish I had the thought at the time to get a photo. I had enough of the water, it was starting to get cold, it was icky, butj ust as I was trying to climb out she demanded to be fed. I complied but then got stuck in the pool feeding her for the next I think half hour. Before I had enough and took her off so I could get out and rinse off. We dressed her in her special new nappy and wrapped her in the blanket of love that all my friends made a piece of and spent the day snuggling. Was an all round lovely day. I shed a few tears for Tuktu, I was sad that Tammie was not there. But little Ukpik was perfectly chubby at 4.2kg. It is amazing how babies are born beaming love.



 Kids helping Damo pack away the pool
 First carry in Didymos AHI

She is 10 weeks old now and the song "Speak O Lord" is still our song. When she is especially grizzly I put the song on and sing. She calms down and sleeps. No other song works. It will forever and always have a special place in my heart.
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Selasa, 10 Mei 2016

Lurking in the beauty industry









TAKE ACTION HERE

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Senin, 09 Mei 2016

The Wonder Of It All

You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
-Friedrich Nietzsche


As I stop and observe the outside world around me, I have been acutely aware that my experience is a bit unconventional.  For the last few weeks I have been eating, breathing, and sleeping GOATS.  This was our first year breeding livestock, with four successful litters born on our farm, nine new kids total.  They are so precious it makes all the effort worth while. 



I know what your are thinking...nine babies!  Sounds overwhelming, and some days it has been, but oh every birth was so exciting and exhilarating.  A little bit of chaos is tolerable when you know it is temporary!  It still amazes me how the births were all staggered a few days apart.  This week we witnessed the last two of our does give birth.  


It is extraordinary when you develop a relationship with an animal over time and you become close enough to be able to communicate.  The trust they had in me and the closeness I felt was beyond words.  So perfect that they all came at times when I happened to be working at home.  





We are enjoying the kids for only a few days, as they are all going to new homes.  It has been a priority to keep our goat families intact and not separate Mamas from their young.  We have been very fortunate to find some wonderful people who want to incorporate them into their homesteads. 

Rosemary and her kids
This evening we said goodbye to Bella and her two strapping boys, who are headed up to Napa to live a life of luxury, eating pasture galore.  It was hard to see Bella go since she was our first goat and has been here with us from the beginning of our adventures. 


I decided to keep our lovely doe May Daisy and her beautiful triplet girls.  There is something quite special about the Sable Sanaan/Oberhasli cross and I am looking forward to bonding with her gorgeous kids.  May Daisy is a super milk producer with great teat formation, and a gentle, affectionate temperament, all you could want in a dairy goat.  

Tuppens and her kids
After this weekend I can exhale and focus some attention on the family cow.  I think we all fell in love with the sight and feeling of having a real herd.  There is just something enchanting about seeing them all together, the dance of their hierarchy, their affection and frolicking, their beauty.  I will miss it until next year.  And until then...there is the MILK.  








Select photos by Lori Eanes 

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