At the closest, they were within then ten feet of the house itself..
I thought I might try and show the difference between the beestlings soft farmers cheese and the sheep milk cheese curds with culture and rennet used.. The first shot it looks pretty much the same but then in the second, you can see that its now clumbing into big old curds, and in the last one, is the nice bowl of salted sheep cheese curds..
Gold Fish..
I forgot how much I like having fish, I had a fish tank in my room for most of my teen years, I never had a heated tank, I never had anything fancy, it was typically feeder gold fish that grew big to fit the space, a few snails, typically at least one clam from the river and that was it, but I always enjoyed seeing them swimming around.
When I moved a bit to much and my last fish died, I didn’t have any for awhile, then when I Was in NWT, I talked DH into a small fish bowl and a pretty fighter fish, it didn’t make the week before I forgot to put it back on its shelf, and left it on the table and scoop went the purrpot, and DH declared us a purrpot house and a no fish house..
So it stayed for many, many years.. and then along came Bright eyes, suddenly this fall, we became the proud owners of a 20 gallon tank, filters, lights, and floating rocks and seems like at least five kinds of different food, and finally I got three little feeder goldfish, the first thing I noticed was how much I liked seeing the color in the tank (even if Dh who picked them did get three that looks all the same with solid colors on them) and then within a day or two, I was so pleased to see what a huge differnce they make in the tank, Bright eyes is a wasteful girl and the little fish love cleaning up her leftovers, which in turn means much less changes of water required, but with the fish added, it does mean extra checks and cleaning of the filters but that’s still alot less work then full tank cleanings and water changes.
I went in for a bit of color, I was thinking male guppies or a fighting fish, but turns out my tank is to cold for the guppies and I didn’t like the looks of any of the fighting fish, I know what a healthy young fish looks like and none of them looked overally healthy and they sure didn’t look young either.
I had planned on feeder fish but they didn’t pass the health check either, sheez, you would think they would not put sick fish on sale..
So I ended up with four more comets and two very pretty parti-color fancy goldfish with the big heads, and four split fan tails, it was a buy one get one sale, so I only paid for three fish and added six more to the tank for a total of eight in there, as one small one was eaten by the turtle..
So after they all adjusted, I added in a bit of places to hide from the turtle to give them the best shot at it, and told her, the little ones, go for it, the bigger pretty ones, leave them alone.. she just blinked her eyes at me.. I think she will do whatever she wants, she typically does, a she rules her tank with her tiny snapping jaws.
What I have been reminded of is that I like having fish in the house, swimming and turning and how excited they get when you feed them, and while I have a number of purrpots that watch them so far, we have had no issues and I hope it stays that way.
Ok, as many of us know, at least here in canada, we have been hit with a good old blast of winter, many folks appear to have issues with the cold, both outside and inside the house..
So lets talk a bit about dealing with the cold, we have been having freezing warnings including one that said exposed skin could freeze in a min flat..
The answer is proper clothing, and layers!!
So first off, please tell me that you have long underwear, right, right!? They now sell good quality ones for thinner folks at Marks, or even canadian tire but for those of us more on the heavy side, look to Mr. Big and Tall, while they don’t carry ladies styles ,the mens will do the job in a pinch..
If you don’t have long underwear a tight fitting leggings or tights under the next layer of thick heavy pants will do in a pinch, ideally you want two layers of pants as well as two layers of tops, one close and tight, but beathable, then comes the scarf or cowl or layers of luceted ropes, I don’t care what you use, I just want a buffer zone that can be used to create a warm air pocket that allows your own body heat to go as needed but filters out the in-coming cold air.
Socks, if you have good quality wool socks or T-Max hot socks, one pair will do, if you only have regular cheap socks from walmart, at least two layers and then next time you have ten dollars to spare, go pick up at least two pair of good qaulity winter socks!
Next comes the touque and then comes outwear (you are most likely thinking. wait a minute farm gal, a touque is outerwear.. It is and itsn’t.. if you are cold in your house, you should have at least one soft comfy touque for indoor use (think a old fashioned night caps) A extra thick heavy touque is outside wear use for sure but that does not make a touque outdoor wear only.
So then comes outer wear, depending on the wind chill, if its calm this can be as simple as a jacket, boots and mitts, but if you have a bitter wind chill factor to add in, then snow pants are a good idea as well as if really bad so are goggles or sunglasses to help protect your eyes. If its cold enough for that, then its time to loose the touque and put on the belclava instead to make sure you are keeping your whole face warm and having a way to help heat the air coming in just a bit before it hits your lungs.
Now if its that cold, ideally you are in a proper winter jacket, which typically will have a fur lined hood.. its not there as a fashion statement folks, its there to help break up the wind, and to create a tunnel of warmed air before it gets to you and you breath it in..
Now assuming you have been out for awhile, you have gotten your chores done and you have headed back into what will feel like a nice warm house, remember that sweat will make you feel chilled as it cools and that is not a good thing.. if your socks are damp, chance them off, if your hair is damp, towel dry and put on your house touque while it dries out, if you have damp sweating underwear, chance into dry warm house cloths all-together, and hang your other garments in such a way as to help them air dry.
Stay warm, Stay Dry, if you do this, it will go a long! way to keeping you healthy..
I was asked when I would be able to do a sheep milking demo or class, and I can and will work on getting a video together for this but till then, I will do a detailed write up to get folks started on their own.
So the first thing you need is a sheep with a good udder and teat size and placement, you can buy this so that you can milk without using your hands and if you had a girl with excellent production but very small teats, it would most likely be the way to go, but if you have teats that are reasonable in size then hand milking is quite possable.
Step one, catch your sheep and put a big old dog collar on her and a smaller one on her lamb, turn her back loose to the flock..
Pick the spot you are going to milk at, now ideally you would have a goat style milking stand, as you can then milk on a stood instead of pretty much sitting on your rear, but I’m going to assume that you are going to want to milk and find out if you like the sheep milk without putting out the funds on a proper stand..
So once you have figured out where you want to milk, you are looking for a quiet out of the way place that you can be alone with your sheep, without other sheep bugging you, if your sheep has a single lamb, then a good size jug with a dog crate in one corner is perfect, either find a place to put a short rope/chain with a clip on it.
Catch your girl and bring her into the area, put down feed for her and while she is busy eating, clip her to the rope and just hang with her.. don’t try and milk her yet, just work on touching her back and flanks while she eats, if she stops eating, back off and wait till she starts again (basicly what I want to teach my girls is, I milk, you get amazing milking ration) you don’t stand and let me milk, you don’t get your ration, that way the sheep feels like she has a choice).
Once she is done eating, just let her stand and if she has a good fight or two with her tie down, just let her do her thing, do not react or pet or try and calm her, that’s her job, to figure out how to relax and calm herself, as soon as she is standing calmly or if she is really wild the first time or two, just not fighting or pulling, unsnap her and consider it a job well done.
So depending on how wild you started with, this can take one or two sessions or it can take a couple days, but when the sheep is running up to the pen door and you, and has figured out that you are the “grain” person, you are ready for the next step, that night after feeding, put in a hay and water and leave her in the pen, go out before bed and put her lamb into the dog crate with a good layer of bedding in the bottom and lock the lamb up, you are going to be doing what is called milk sharing, or once a day milking.
The sheep will have a full bag in the morning to milk, and the lamb will be able to milk all day/evening, this also means that if you need to miss a milking, you can do so with no issues.
So its the next morning, and you bring out her grain, clip her on and you will need a small bucket with warm (very lightly soapy water) with a soft cloth to wash her bag with, and a small steel bowl, now there is not alot of room between my sheeps bag and the floor, and so I personally hold the steel bowl in one hand milk one handed, the best way I can say to learn to be milk is hold your thumb on your non -dominant hand with it pointing downward, and gentley wrap your other thumb and for finger around it and then wave your other fingers downward.., releasing when you get to the top, this allows the milk to flow back in, the slight pressure at the starts of the milk down, keeps the milk from coming back up, and the wave pushes the milk out of the teat, when you get it right, its like a milking pulse, and the milk will come swish, swish, swish in the pail, you can always tell if you are milking right by the sound, as after you get the feel of it, you will not be bending down to see what is happening..
But for now, go ahead and watch and look, at the moment, I don’t much care about aim, but I should make a note of it, once you get the milk coming out, then you will next need to figure out how aim that flow of milk, minor angles can make a big difference on the flow of how fast or easy it will be milk the teat.
Ok, so I am assume at this point, you have a clean bag, milk flowing and you are getting at least some of it in the pail, not just on your hand, the floor and in pretty much every direction and then some.. (if you sheep really does not want to start or let down her milk, give her a couple gentle bumps to get things going, as you know the lambs are not so gentle but we can be and still get the same effect, more on that later)
So it typically can take one to four milking pulls to start a tricky side but once they know what is going on, its more like one or two, ideally and for safety, your first couple swirts of milk should be in a test cup and or in a white cup, check this milk, you should not see any signs of issues, no puss, no blood, no clumbing or strings, give it a swirl around, it should look perfectly normal, once you have the first test clear, then switch to the proper milking pail and milk your sheep out.. once your side is mostly done and the milk flow is slowing down, give your girl a light bumping, it almost always end up giving you a bit more rich very heavy cream at the end if you do this.
Now you can expect some leg kicks, some rear swings and general dancing as the learning curve is going on.. just plan for your first couple milking to be all about learning and not about having that milk for the house, its good for the cats, the chickens or the dog or a pig if you have it, but I assure you, you will not be able to end up with clean milk while learning how to milk/hold the bucket and deal with a fuzzy milker..
Here are the golden rules..
Once a week or so I use bag balm but I have not had a issue with my sheep in this regards, come to think about it though as a hair sheep, I have a very clean underline and bag milking area, you might want to consider trimming out a wool sheep down there to help keep things clean.
Once you let her off leash, she is free to join the other sheep for the day until evening chores when she should come in for a tiny bit of grain or cubes or something that she likes etc.
The milk should be taken to the house and strained and I use glass jars to store mine in and into the back area of the fridge for cooling..
Ok, I hope this helps explains the basic’s.. got questions fire away..
This was just so yum.. as you know I have a good amount of soft yummy farmers sheep cheese to use in different ways and so I had made a fairly cultured aged a couple days salted cheese and thought I would give this a try.. I cooked one off for lunch, for when I do the rest for supper, I will serve with some nice mixed veggies on the side, of course you could serve it in a hamburger bun with the fixings.
Recipe
I can see these lovelys used in a number of ways, yes its a stuffed burger but that does not mean it can only be served in a bun, these would be excellent with mashed and veggies, or with a side salad, or even made tiny and served as snacks, they are good as is, or you could serve them with stirfried veggies like bell peppers and onion and mushrooms on top..
Milking during a major cold snap.. lets just say its BRRRRRRR out there for the past couple days, after battling trying to move a big old horse, a in your face cow and a moving sheepy swirling mass around you to be able to get one single sheep into a pen to milk, my morning and evening milking was getting to the point of taking me 40 min, when the milking itself is only taking ten..
Time to put the thinking cap on, as my milking sheep wants her ration, she comes running when she is called, so the day before the very cold snap hit, I decided to try milking her up by the house, the first day, she held up milk like to tomorrow (she didn’t like the change in her routine at all, in fact she barely even eat her food, and pretty much fussed the whole time, the evening was a bit better but not by much..
The next day, however the lure of the grain called her strongly, but the problem for me was that I could not easily move from side to side like I can on the stand in the barn , so I had to learn how to milk her from the rear as well as under so that I can milk both sides while only being on one side myself, (I am getting better at this each time).
Then I added in wanting to make sure she gets extra fresh warm water at each milking if she wants it , along with the watering in the pasture.
Her mik dropped a bit and is slowly getting back up to where we were, its interesting to me that I get more milk in the morning but I get more cream on the evening milking.
While she really likes her new feed, I don’t feel that its giving the same boost as my milking ration does, and so I am going to switch her over, she also needed a bit of cubes to increase the overall quality of her hay/feed.
The milk is coming in and being strained and then quickly chilled in the fridge, this presents a interesting chance in your cooking habits..
The sheep milk is so rich that if you were going to use milk and butter, you can just use the sheep milk, this is wonderful as it creates rich and full bodied flavours in dish, and in other way’s it pushs my cooking knowledge as I need to modify each meal and how its being made to match up.
We don’t drink much milk in the house, I tend to use it for cooking and or cheese making, when I was milking a couple does, it seemed like I used more of it for critter feed then I ever used for house use, I expect that I will find the same thing when Girl Freshen’s, part of the reason I think raising a second calf makes sense, as while I will be finishing the large black piglets on milk, which will create the best pork ever!
and I intend to clabber lots of milk to feed the chickens, to help reduce the feed costs, but not before I get lots of cheese and butter made up for when she is not producing..
But as I am currently only milking on sheep per day at the moment, it means that I should be able to find a way in house to use it all.
For someone that typically can make 3 liters of milk last a month, to suddenly have liter after liter after liter coming in the house, its different.. but wait till that is gallons..
Now I am putting up the milk as raw milk, and it depends on what is being done with it on if its cooked or not before we are consuming it.
I have to admit that I while I am comfortable doing so with my own milk, I am surprised to realize that I would be a little leary about drinking anything but pastureized milk if I was not in control of the whole process.
What about you, if you milk your own animals, do you drink or use your own milk in raw form or do you heat it? IF? its legal in your state or country, do you buy and consume raw milk? or raw milk products?
Ps, having on and off again internet, so if you don’t hear from me for a bit, or it takes longer to get comments though.. that is why..
I saw on this site, that they had ontario sheep milk icecream..
So I went hunting for recipes and found everything from cooked recipes to raw milk recipes and everything inbetween.. wow, who knew that there was so MANY ways to make a icecream..
So after reading a number of recipes, I decided to go back to basic’s and start with the most simple recipe I could find and then work my way up in the fancy scale..
Then I hit the jackpot and found this wonderful UK site that makes Sheep Milk Icecream..
MAKING ICE CREAM WITH SHEEP’S MILK
Using sheep’s milk has enabled us to develop a unique style of ice cream-making. The richness of the milk and the small-size of the fat globules enable us to make ice cream out of the full-fat milk without the addition of further fats in the form of cream, butter or eggs. The resulting ice cream has a smooth, creamy texture but contains less than 7% fat. This compares with about 12% fat in conventionally-made cow’s milk ice creams. The low level of fat also gives it a deliciously clean and fresh taste in the mouth.
And thought, ok, if they can make it using fresh whole milk and drop all the extra’s that the recipes were calling for because of the kind of milk being used.. then so can I..
I took my 2 pints of fresh chilled day old sheep milk, so rich that it has a spoonable layer of cream on top and mixed it with a scant half cup of sugar and whipped it and put it into the freezer, taking it out and beating it as it began to freezer up on the edges till I was able to get a smooth freeze on it, and some amazing Icecream is the result!!!
So I broke it down into six good size boneless hams, lots of boneless chops, Pork stew meat, a couple good size butterflies that will be made into schnitzel, and a bag of scraps.. and a two huge bones with lots of meat being roasted off in the oven, once its done, I will pull the meat and use it in some pot pies.
Just another Day on the Farm 