So..what did YOU do yesterday?

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Anntann

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I spent the day at a medieval town gathering! There was armoured combat:
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Axe and knife throwing competitions:
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People lopping off the heads of the enemy from horseback!:
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There were also archers, bakers, wonderful merchants tempting me with goodies, weavers, needle workers, and many classes to take :) It was a GORGEOUS day at the site. We had a wonderful steak dinner, and then spent 5 hours getting home. Bunny chores done, I fell into bed about 1am and slept like the proverbial log.

Just wanted to share!
 
Well that was a lot more exciting than my day, Ann! :D

We did our usual yard sale and not much else. Our weather has turned hot and sunny again and it's making me lazy. We went to a yard sale this morning and I scored a huge aloe vera plant, a good-quality stainless steel Dutch oven, a book on Amish folk medicine, a vintage tin, a hoe and a pair of pruning shears. Total cost $7.00.

I am making rillettes de porc today. It's a kind of French country meat spread. Pork slowly cooked in its own fat (had to add some lard) seasoned with various herbs and spices. Traditionally it was spread on bagettes or crusty bread. My sis (who lived in France for 12 years) calls it "French peanut butter".

This is considered in North America to be a very unhealthy food. But it fits in perfectly with a low-carbohydrate diet. Zero carbs, delicious and very satisfying. It keeps for weeks in the fridge... not that it will last that long.

You can make rillettes with duck, rabbit and many other meats or a combination thereof. Duck or goose fat are particularly good for making rillettes because of their low melting temperatures and rich flavour.

People used to make pork rillettes out of all the scraps on pig butchering day. Maybe we should raise a pig or two next year.
 
ooooOOOOOOooooooo... We went to a Renaissance Faire a year and a half ago, and that was so much fun! So I know you had a great time! :)

What did I do? I had an allergy attack. :razz2: So I spent the day on the computer making some of my final curriculum decisions for this school year, and buying some used grammar books. At least I could get something constructive done.
 
I went to the corn festival!

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Caelin got a ballon, which came off and flew away

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There was a treasure hunt

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and Tristan got held by people all day, so he was happy!

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Wow :) So many wonderful things to do on a warm, summer Saturday! Everything makes me want to say "Can I come and play?" or in maggie's case "when's dinner!" I must try the pork thingies. French Peanut butter, eh?

Mike is out at the farm having his OWN cornfest today :) The Golden Bantam I planted late is perfectly ripe, and he phoned a bit ago to tell me he was STUFFED. Hopefully he'll remember to bring some home!
 
The rillettes (pronounced something like ree-ette) turned out well. Another time I will use a little less salt and a bit more spice, but that's just tweaking. Three pounds of meat plus 3/4 pound of lard made about 36 fl. oz. The crockpot makes the whole process painless... no need to watch it to make sure it's not going too hard.

And zero carbs! :bouncy:
 
The Golden Bantam I planted late is perfectly ripe,

I had to do a double take when I read that.

one of my son's favourite books is one about a field of cabbages that actually was a field of CATS that needed to be picked when they started to meow (called FARM FRESH CATS).

So when I read that you planted a golden bantam I was thinking...why on earth did she plant a chicken?!?!?!?!?!?!? and how on earth does she know that it's perfectly ripe??!?!?!?!?!?
 
:rotfl: Well now.. you know... :lol: if you plant them deep enough, you can harvest the wings at about 16 weeks! You know they're ripe when the comb goes bright red and flops over :D But you have to plant them feet DOWN...otherwise they run off!
 
Ooo, I love Renaissance Faires. When we had the one in Milton, I spent every weekend at it, performing as a Morris Dancer. It moved to Hamilton for a couple of years, and I took a young goat with me one year. She loved it too - all the attention! We discovered that little goats like to eat roses. One merchant had scattered rose petals in front of his booth and she managed to hoover up about half of them before we realized. Then one of the "rose girls" started saving up petals and small roses for her. Sara quite happily ate those, then jumped up and snatched the rose that she had tucked in her bodice. :p When I was performing, I would leave her with a friend at his booth. Came back to collect her one time, and the two of them were "dancing" - doing capers, of course! :lol:

Let's see, what did I do Saturday?

Got up at 4 am and milked cows. Came home, did my chores. Drove an hour to London to pick up a goat kid. Came home, milked goats, fed rabbits, made supper, went to bed.
 
Yep, once a day. :D

I dam raise most of my kids, so if I need milk, I separate the kids from the does at night and milk in the morning. The does I'm milking now all had buck kids, so they have to be weaned earlier. They're not heavy producers so I've got them down to just once a day. If you have a heavy-milking doe, that's not so easy to do but it can be done later in their lactation. I've left the doe kids on the mothers for now, as I don't need all the milk.

Goats are awesome! Maddening at times, frustrating, but when they come running to see you and give you goat kisses, you forgive them. And bottle babies are the best. :) I've had bottle kids walking down the street in downtown Toronto, several times. You get some funny looks, but most city people are just thrilled to see them.

This is Sara at the Ren Faire:

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Two words are just a tease, Half Caper. Not fair. Please tell us more! They sure are cute!

I'd love to have goats but I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge. Are Nigerian Dwarfs any use for dairy? Or would you just get enough to put in your coffee?
 
They are a miniature dairy breed, but they don't produce gallons of milk. A good one will give about 2 litres a day, but most might give 1/2 a litre. The teat size tends to be small, too, although some have decent-sized ones.

I have a Nigerian/Saanen doe that gives me a litre a day, just milking once a day. I'm sure if I milked her twice a day, she'd give me more.

Nigie milk is very rich and high in butterfat. :)

But, really, you don't need a huge amount of space even for the "big" girls. At our old place, we had a 25'x75' enclosure for 2 NDs and four full-sized goats, as well as some geese, ducks and chickens. You have to feed more hay, of course.
 
Sounds very do-able for most people. I'd likely need two ND's... Brian and David go through a lot of milk in coffee, tea, cereal... and I love my yogourt and cheese. I love to just drink milk too, but on a low-carb diet that is out of the question. But a constant source of good goat cheese and yogourt would be heavenly. :)

How expensive is it to keep a couple of goats? I figure we spend $20-25 a week on dairy. Could we break even, do you think? (I'm already sold on the health and flavour benefits.)
 
You pretty much have to have two goats anyway. They're herd animals and need the company. Also, if you stagger their breeding, you've always got one in milk (that's the theory, anyway!).

A bale of good alfalfa hay will run you about $4.00 - that would last two NDs at least a week, maybe more. A 50 lb bag of goat feed is about $12-15. That will last you way more than a month. Double that for full-size goats. They do love shrubs and trees (and flowers and vegetables) so you'll need to have good fences. We pull large weeds and throw them in to the goats - they love those. Also, around here, banana peels are treats to be fought over.
 

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