Monday, May 31, 2010

warm weather!

Well, time for an update. Yesterday (Sunday) I wiped myself out moving over 200 bales of hay (with help, of course) and then going swimming. Below are some photos from the past few days.


The goats are watching something very closely. . .

the new pig. My brother got a boar to breed his guilt (the boar is the red one).

the new trailer of hay. . .

the pond,

peas in the garden,

tiny cucumber plants! Cucumber plants grow SOO fast, it's crazy. I "inspected" the bigger plants earlier today and found several *tiny* cucumbers growing, yay! I think it'll be a week or so by the time we get cucumbers, Mom thinks it'll be longer. . . we'll see who's right ;).

Today I made an udder balm/salve for the does. First, I chopped up some fresh peppermint leaves (the recipe called for them to be dried or wilted, but they weren't, and it called for a few other things that I didn't have so just left them out).

a chopped up comfrey leaf,

then I covered it in olive oil, added a few drops of tea tree oil, and put it on low heat for a few hours.

I then strained the herbs out and added enough bees wax for it to be thick. The way to check if there is enough bees wax is to dip a metal spoon in the mixture and then put it in the freezer for a few minutes. If it comes out how you like it, good. If not, add more olive oil or more bees wax as needed.

The finished product. . . probably will use it on some of the does' udders tomorrow!

Well, lots of photos, but I don't have much else to say! Anyone looking for some nice milkers. . . I have a few and know of others for sale.

Have a good night!

Suriyah

3 comments:

Candi said...

Hello!
I found your blog by accident not to long ago and have enjoyed your posts. What do you use the udder balm for?? I know peppermint helps with mastitis, but wasn't sure about the comfrey.

Teresa said...

I love the picture of all the goats together. You have a very nice looking herd. I like seeing a recipe for an udder balm as I am going to start milking in a few days.

Suriyah said...

Hmm. . . I am just seeing all these comments now, something must be up with blogger or my email.

Patient Acres - the udder balm is just to keep their udders nice and soft. We had a doe that had some cuts/sores on her teats and they were really hard to clear up (since it was right where we milked her!). It was also really dry around the teat and had this hard-dry type of feeling.
Well, after using the balm I made a few times, it is SO MUCH softer. I had tried all different kinds of (store bought) udder balms and nothing really worked. But this stuff really did work.

Suriyah
sf@goodgoats.net