Milking Goat coming home

CM2, our milking nigerian dwarf doe, is ready to come home. (Pic to the right.) This coming Sunday, if we can get the goat house torn down and rebuilt by then.

So last night, after Hubby got home from work and we had dinner (pasta with leftover frozen tomatoes from 2008 harvest and dried onions/garlic), we took a deep breath and started. Hubby used the drill to unscrew some of the millions on screws. The Kid (moving ever so slowly!) took out the hay and took down the tarps. Then we took off the roof and one of the sides.

Made a little progress.

The second pic to the right is the goat pen. Took this morning, just at dawn, so the pic isn't top quality. Sorry. But you get the gist ... we took it apart! Well, a little.

Chicken coops on hold until we get this done. It's time we started making goat-milk yogurt instead of spenting almost $2.00 per yogurt cup for the Kid each day. Hmmm.... and craving some ice cream!

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The pictures to the right are in my green-room / garden-room upstairs. As you can see, my tomato seedlings are VERY ready to be planted outside. We decided, because the soil is so bad, that we'll do mostly container gardening this year while letting the chickens fertilize the fenced-in area this summer. We'll build the raised beds as we have time, and fill with what we muck from the goat pen. At the end of summer, we'll cover with newspaper and hay then plastic bags, and let it percolate during the winter. By early Spring, we'll have black gold!



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Even tho our harvest won't be as big this year as next year (hoping!), I'm in the market for a new dehydrator. A high capacity, with no BPA on the screens/sheets. I've requested an Excalibar catalog, and while I had the rep on the phone, asked about BPA. She emphatically said that NONE of their products have BPA. I said even the screens? She said "none". Good. I was concerned about the screens and the fruit roll-up "tray". Now... assuming I can scrape up the money, I'll probably get a 9-sheet dehydrator.

I don't can much. You know... pickling and making jams, etc. I'm not very good at it. I **am**, however, great at dehydrating. I also make fruit roll-ups altho the Kid doesn't care for them (I know ... probably the only kid in the world). I don't usually blanch beforehand, either. I still have some dried tomatoes from 2008 harvest that show absolutely no signs of moisture or molding, and those I stored only in plastic baggies.

This year forward, I'll be storing in tightly sealed canning jars. I don't need to worry about the BPA in the lids, tho, because the dried food won't be touching the tops. Leave about a 1/2 inch of headspace when filling.

I don't know. Maybe I'll vaccuum-seal in my seal-a-meal the majority of our harvest, and fill the glass jars as needed. Just found this out: ... FoodSaver and Seal-a-Meal vacuum bags are both made by Jarden Consumer Solutions who says that "all of their 5 ply vacuum bags are made from poly nylon plastic. They explained that the bags are a polyethylene/nylon blend and all bags are BPA-free. And they are made without PVC and phthalates as well. This is great news for folks who buy their food in bulk and freeze extras for future use!"

Good!

Storing dried food as opposed to canned or frozen takes a lot less space. Yes, we'll need water to rehydrate, but we have well water so we'll be fine.

Any recommendations from those of you who dehydrate a lot?

Good News About House; BPA toxins in canning

Thanks for the comments. Yes, we got good news late yesterday. We haggled back and forth during the day, but in the end, we all compromised. The house closes on Feb 25, then we're letting the owners have 3 days to pack up and leave. They'll be gone Feb 28 by noon. So we'll be able to move in before our apartment lease completely expires.

I'm glad we did that. We suspect the reason the house was for sale ... short sale ... was that the couple (sellers) is divorcing or otherwise splitting up. And there are very young girls involved. See this picture to the right? I took that the one and only time we saw the house. This is a pic of the kid's bathroom, filled to the brim with little girl clothing. The closet was full too. I hope that they find a place quickly and get the girls settled in.

In addition to the seller's disclosure, we got a copy of the plat map, which tells us we have a tiny bit more land that I thought (guessing at boundary lines from my perusal of mapquest, google-map, yahoomaps, etc.). We also found out that we can't plant every inch like I wanted to because we need to leave room for utility people to access telephone poles at the back of the property. Was told we probably can get by with leaving walking paths, so that will work. I've also decided to change the barn formation, the location of the greenhouse, and taking out the butternut, heartnut, and chestnut trees from our front yard plan. The walnuts, pecans and almonds, plus the beans, peas, lentils and eggs, will give us enough protein and variety. Trying to reduce costs since I just realized we need to buy a refrigerator, and want to install my verandah and greenhouse by the end of the year. Gotta save! Might reduce number of fruit trees too. Maybe. I don't know. We really like fruit.

Hubby wants to add more herbs to our plan. Medicinal herbs, plus I realized I didn't have any oregano. How am I supposed to make spaghetti sauce?!?!

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I was recently reminded that there is BPA (Bisphenol A), found in most canning jar supplies, "tin" cans and jars that our canned goods are in, and even the jars, cups and bottles we use in every day life. Even in baby food jars. It's the lids in jars, and the coating inside the tin cans.

BPA causes cancer and disrupts the endocrine system. The FDA does not limit BPA in food containers. Not good. (Read here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/is-there-bpa-in-your-home-canning.php). Ball, Kerr... most all the canning supplies companies have BPA in their lids.

I found one that does not. Weck Canning (http://www.weckcanning.com/). I just called the number on their website (Tel: 815-356-8440) and was told that the website hadn't been updated yet but that there are no BPAs in their canning supplies. They use mostly glass, including the lids, and the rubber rings don't have the BPA. The only part you need to replace each time you can is just the rubber ring.

Although I dehydrate almost everything, except for storing the applicable fruits, nuts, seeds, carrots, potatoes and squashes ... I really wanted to start making my own pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, jams, and more. I'll start ordering these Weck canning supplies after we get settled into our new place.

We have enough chemicals and toxins in our lives without adding more to our home-grown organic foods.

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Hubby enjoyed the gifts the Kid and I painted at the pottery place. His mom came over with a special hard-to-find pillow for Hubby. Then we four went to the Outback for dinner and dessert. It was a pretty pleasurable evening.

Have a great day! Vikki