Long days in the kitchen

Last time I shared my grocery shopping list.  Today I am going to show you what I did with some of that food!  I made sure to put myself in the corner, with the only way out being to cook all the meat that needed cooking :-)  I purchased six packages of chicken roasters.  Each package contains two chickens.  That meant I had to roast 12 birds!  We only had room in the fridge for two, 5# packages of ground beef, so that was all I cooked on Monday as well.  Since I now have a lot more room in my fridge I pulled more ground beef from the freezer to cook up once it thaws.  The past two days have been spent cooking or prepping foods to be cooked.  Yesterday I did some food prep, made sure to stay on top of the dishes, and started putting some soups together.  After spending all day preparing to put soups together I was bummed that I only got two done!  It seemed that nothing was going right yesterday, so I just settled for the two and plan on making a day of it today to get the other soups done. 

I made a new to us soup, the recipe coming from the cookbook that came with my Vitamix.  It's called Thai Pumpkin soup.  I couldn't find the green chilies that I bought for the soup, so it had to be made up without them. But it was a very nice change of taste after eating the same soups for months.  I had my Charlotte Mason study group meeting last night, after the meeting I ran into the store to buy more chilies!  I plan on adding them in today.

I took some pictures of my kitchen day yesterday.  It seems like I should have a lot more pictures :-)  I am not kidding when I say I've spent all the past two days in the kitchen!  I am hoping that today will be the last of the "all days" for a while....at least until next pay day.

 Some almonds and sunflower seeds soaking.  These were put into the dehydrator yesterday afternoon.  I will be shutting off the dehydrators, letting the seeds cool, and put them in their proper containers today.  I forgot to start soaking the pumpkin seeds yesterday.  Oh well, I will get to it today, and they will be ready for the dehydrator tomorrow.

 Not exactly food prep :-)  Although these eggs had to be washed.  Doesn't everyone keep their eggs in pink sand castle buckets?  When I came home from my CM meeting these eggs were all gone.  ALL gone....making pumpkin pancakes.  Ugh. That's ok, since they are not supposed to be eating eggs on stage one, I suppose stage one starts this morning.  And now they won't have any eggs to try to sneak and eat!  I really couldn't think of a better way to stick with the stages then to make sure no other foods are available.

 I used two boxes of pastured butter to make ghee.  I really want to give this intro a hardy try.  I am hoping that my Vitacost order will be in today as it has some of the supplements I wanted to start us on.

 Two of the three pots of broth simmering.  I have more bones in the fridge awaiting their turn. Since I need to be making soups, and lots of them, I needed to save some of my pots for the actual soups.  The two crocks and another large pot are being used for broth making, leaving me with another 3 pots to make soup in.

 Homemade coconut milk being made into kefir.  I plan on having everyone be dairy free in the beginning stages.  The kefir grains will take a dip in regular milk to be refreshed before making more coconut kefir.  Speaking of milk, we were supposed to start milking today.  But, it appears our goats had other plans.  I have my doubts as to how 'white' one of the goats eyelids were, BUT that being said I didn't want to mess around with the possibility that she had worms.  I did deworm all my does right after their birthings, but I know last year we had a major worm problem, so it's possible we might see higher activity again this year.  Not sure as we had such a cold winter (for us).  Anyways, I decided to deworm all the goats at once with a chemical dewormer, and then start them on the herbal dewormer right away.  I just got a fresh package of herbal dewormer yesterday.  I am hoping to keep on top of the herbal variety to stay away from the chemical one as we have to with hold the milk for a few days when using the chemical version.  So we should be starting our milking season this weekend!  Now to get that cheese making kit.....

 I found out that my last batch of sauerkraut was probably fine.  It had a thin white film on top.  It didn't appear to be mold, but I didn't want to take any chances.  Then a handful of days later I found this little chart of sauerkraut anomalies and what is safe to eat and what is not.  White film on top is safe.  So I waited the 28 daysfor it to ferment and threw it all out because I was afraid of the white film!!!  Cry.  Now we start again.  Above I have three cabbages shredded and packed into 5 mason jars.  I will start drinking the juice in a couple of days, even though it won't be ready, but I know the last time I still saw benefits for the kraut juice even though it wasn't fully fermented.  I will let the rest of the jars sit for the 28 days.  You may make out the mesh dehydrator tray I cut to fit into the jar above.  I bought some glass candle holders, but they were just a smidge to large to fit in my jars.  I read of someone cutting up a dehydrator tray and it seems to be doing its intended job of holding the cabbage below the liquid.  This will help to prevent mold.

 Here are four of the nine trays that held my greens.  Starting from the top left and going clockwise: collards, kale, rainbow Swiss chard, and spinach.  I put these through my blender and got:

...this green powder to add to our smoothies.  All nine trays worth are in that mason jar!  I can't wait to try it out!  But it will be a while until we get to that stage :-)  I think next shopping trip I will buy some more greens and do the same with them.  I am bummed though, it appears that the dry greens scratched my blender container.  At least it appears that way.  Anyone have that problem?  They are so crumbly that it seems odd they could actually scratch it! 

Well that is some of what I've been up to these past two days.  I know there's been a lot more things I just didn't take pictures of.  For example the mason jars that I steam sterilized in my oven (for the kraut), or the two pans of squash I roasted (with more to do today), or the other various small steps to food prep like hanging yogurt to drain off the whey, or, or, or :-) 

Off to heat up some soup!

Whole foods for our whole *big* family

Being on GAPS lends to eating whole foods :-)  Actually we've been eating a whole foods diet for some time now, but it had been a slow transition from SAD to whole foods.  I thought I would give you a glimpse of my grocery list.  I would have pictures, except that we had company over when I brought the groceries home and they were ever so kind to help bring it all in.  It was record speed!!  Needless to say I didn't whip out the camera...maybe next shopping trip.

Everyone does their shopping differently.  Some do a weekly shopping, or a once a month shopping (what we used to do), or something in between.  We do two big shopping trips a month.  In between shopping trips there are usually store stops for Jeremiah on his way home from work to pick up something we ran out of, forgot, or to pick up some more fresh veggies/fruit (fresh foods do not last two weeks!). 

The shopping is generally done all in one day.  Sometimes it's broken up between Jeremiah and myself, and sometimes a store needs to be done another day because we ran out of steam :-)  But generally it's done all in one day.  This saves on gas since we don't exactly live close by to any stores.  This also means that shopping takes about 5 to 6 hours to do!  Yes, it makes for some long days.

Here are my lists, in the store order that I shopped.  I tried to group like items together (all meats, veggies, non-food items, etc.).  Our grocery budget has to handle the animal feed as well, so you will see that here.  This month was a bit different as we just got done making a large bulk food order.  Because of this I used some of the money that would have been spent on some food preps to get some bulk herbs and a few add ins for our animals, which I will explain below.

This week I hit the feed stores first, actually the day before we did our food shopping.

Feed store #1
2  80# bags cow feed (used for our goats)
1 50# bag if chicken feed

Feed store #2
1 50# bag of goat feed pellets
1 50# bag of alfalfa cubes
1 50 # bag of black oil sunflower seeds
1 15# of clover seeds
1 pkg vet wrap
1 cat collar
1 cat bowl

I am going to try my hand at sprouting some seeds for our animals to boost their nutrition intake, hence the sunflower seeds and clover seeds.  I checked the prices for Probios, an animal probiotic.  Although the container was large, so was the price...$50!!!  No thank you, I think I will just give them some of our kefir!

Shopping day, our first stop:

Whole Foods
6X 1/2 oz blue glass bottles (for my homeopathy remedies)
children's sinus remedy
3 green cabbages
rainbow swiss chard
in the bulk section:
4# coconut flakes
0.62 # chia seeds
0.42 # green lentils
1# raw pumpkin seeds
0.67# mung beans
0.70# adzuki beans
0.72# mango slices
1/2# dates
.....................
hemp seeds
3 bags of beef marrow bones
small container of chicken livers
2 gallons of whole milk
1 quart plain yogurt
3 1# tubs of local pastured/cultured butter
1 bottle strawberry kombucha
2 fruit leather snacks

I was very excited to see the local pastured butter at the store!  And it didn't cost an arm and a leg :-)  The beans are for sprouting, as we can not eat the beans themselves on GAPS.  I was looking over the packages of sprouting seeds they were selling.  Each bag was only 8oz.  The cheapest price was $7.99!  I was able to get the same seeds (organic) for only $1.99-$2.99 a pound!  On top of that they had some sprouting jar tops that cost $5 a piece.  I went to Michaels and got a sheet of cross stitch mesh for $1 and will probably get at least 8 mesh covers from it!  With the greens I purchased here, and at the following stores I plan on lightly cooking, then dehydrating them.  Afterwards they will take a whirl through my blender and be made into our own homemade green powders to be added to our smoothies.  Raw spinach and kale are high in oxalates, which can actually pull out nutrients from our bodies, and cooking them is supposed to lessen those.

I made a quick trip to Micheals for the mesh and then we hit:

BJ's
5 2# bags of cubed butternut squash
large bag collard greens
large bag spinach
mushrooms
5ct bag zucchini
8ct mini cucumbers
3# bag onions
5# bag carrots
6 bags of chicken fryers (2 chickens per bag)
4 pkg of ground beef (about 5# each pkg)
1 pkg beef bones
bacon (comes with 3 packages)
1 3# jar honey
3 2ct jars of peanut butter
2 3# bags almonds
water (for the van, as we drive around)
diapers
wipes

This was a bit atypical as I would normally be buying stew meat, strawberries (to the tune of 3 6# bags), blueberries and usually cans of tomatoes and some cocoa powder.  Oh, and honey...lots of honey.  But in order for us to do GAPS intro correctly I needed these things to be out of the house!  Too many cheats when we did intro a few weeks ago.  So we are going back and doing things right.  Oh, my, how could I forget the 15-20 bunches of bananas!!!!  Yes, I didn't get those either this time around.  If it's not in the house the kids can't eat it :-)  The money I saved on those items went to some other items I bought online, which I list at the end of my shopping trips.

Our last stop of the day was to:

Walmart
1 pkg adult toothbrushes
2 pkgs kids toothbrushes
2X children's Advil (liquid)
wart remover (of fun!)
4X 5 gallon buckets, with lids
paper
colored pens
6X glass candle holders (I was going to use these as ferment weights, and they didn't fit my jars!)
wire brush (to clean our milking stand with)
tin foil
kleenex
2 bags tortilla chips
salsa (can we say....last hurrah until we start GAPS intro?)
dijon mustard
8 cans 100% pumpkin
2 cans green chilies
4 bags frozen lima beans
2 large bags frozen peas
4 bags frozen green beans
5 bags frozen broccoli
2 bags frozen spinach
1 bag kale

Online I bought:
Molly's herbal dewormer (for our animals)

from Herbalcom:
1 # each of:
spirulina
nettles
dandelion
(these will be used to make a health powder for the goats)

from Vitacost:
probiotic 15-35 (vitacost's brand)
oil of oregano
vitamin C powder
liquid vitamin D
colloidal silver

I made a quick stop to Aldi's another day, and bought 7 avocados. I was going to get apples as well, but they didn't have the ones I was looking for.

Phew!  That's all folks :-)  I will have a post up about my big cooking day I had today.  I wished I had taken pictures, but it was just cooking, cooking, cooking...oh and washing dishes, dishes, dishes!  I should be able to take all that I made and put it together to make a bunch of different soups for the next two weeks.  I have to cook up a bunch of onions, squash and bacon to make it all work out, but I should be able to get that done in the morning, leaving me the afternoon to find as many pots as I can to put together about 5 or 6 different soups.  Tomorrow evening, should I still be awake, I plan on going to my Charlotte Mason homeschool meeting.  That means I had better get to bed already!  Goodnight.

Just some conversations I want to remember

Aubrey has been our little conversationalist lately.  He's been having the SAME conversation with me daily for a couple months now.  It started multiple times a day (think every 10 minutes!) and now it's about every other day.  It is always the same.  Here it is (A=Aubrey, M=Me)

A:  Mouse?
M: Yes, there was  mouse in our house.
A:  Obin? (oven?)
M: Yes, the mouse was under the oven.
A: Dahdee? (daddy?)
M:  Yes, Daddy got the mouse.
A:  Trash?
M:  Yes, Daddy threw the mouse in the trash.
A:  Ah Gon!!! (all gone!!!)

Every. Day. :-)  Apparently the mouse situation had a huge impact on his little life that he feels he needs to talk about it everyday.  Ha, ha.  It is pretty cute. Throw on top of that Jeremiah brought home a dead owl and bird for the kids to look at....and now he tacks on, "Owa? (owl)", M: Yes, daddy got an owl.  A: trash?  M:  Yes, the owl is in the trash.

The other day he really surprised me. We were all sitting around the table during breakfast.  Now, many conversations between the children start with..."Remember?....."  They are typically about to converse about a movie or show they have seen.  Every once in a while it is about a book, or a real life situation.  You know that little kiddos are *really* listening and watching when they repeat you :-)  So the kids are talking amongst themselves and Aubrey pipes up, "Mommy!  Remember?"  I just about dropped what I was eating. Did he just say what I thought he said?  Yup, he did, because he repeated himself :-)  "Mommy!  Remember?"  and he went on to do this funky noise, and hand motions.  I didn't want to burst his bubble by not 'remembering'!  So I just started laughing and telling him that I remembered.  He has decided to bring up this same remembering a few more times these past few days.  Really cute!

I was in the living room reading to Aubrey, and Jed came up to me, showing me a piece of paper. On the paper he had written in large red crayon, "330".  The threes were written backwards, and the zero was more of a square.  He tells me, "This is the number on the scale, three, three, zero."  What?  He had taken a piece of paper into the bathroom and weighed himself, writing the numbers down that he saw!!  I told him that I was pretty sure the scale read, "33.0"  He looks at his paper, and I point to where the decimal is supposed to go.  Then he asks me, "Is it 0.33 or 33.0?"  I told him which it was.  He walks off. About ten minutes later he comes back, looking a bit upset.  He says, "Mommy, the numbers are the same!  Why are the numbers the same?  It's still 33.0."  Ha, ha, ha!!!!  He went back to weigh himself again, thinking the numbers were going to change!  I told him, "I'm sorry buddy, but it takes longer than 10 minutes to gain weight!"

Jedidiah has been doing very well developmentally.  Growth wise, not so much.  But he's writing numbers, all on his own, will scribble lines above drawings and tell me what it says :-).  He has been getting so much better at drawing lately.  He even copied his sisters by making plans for his birthday!  Granted his birthday isn't until the summer, but this kiddo will be prepared.  He drew out what he wanted his cake to look, he even drew bowls of frosting, and which colors they should be.  He drew decorations and even presents!  He had everything in separate boxes on the paper, with the cake in the middle.  Pretty amazing.  For Jed! 

We have a busy weekend ahead. We've ordered some fruit trees and we will need to read up on how to care for them! I'm a bit nervous as it's one thing to kill a small plant that you paid pennies for, compared to the cost of a sapling!  Yikes.  I'll have a more in depth post about what we have going on here. Not a lot, but we are trying to expand here and there.  I should be taking more pictures soon as my camera is in the shop being fixed as I type!!!  Yay!  It will be a year since I've last used it.  I am afraid I will be all thumbs again. I can't wait to start using it again. I suppose I should save my 'happenings post' for when I can put pictures to it :-) 

Some blender love

My new blender arrived right in the middle of a goat giving birth :-)  The UPS driver was quite astounded to be able to pet a newborn goat!  Ha!  This blender was long awaited for.  I've read on my other sites how great the Vitamix performs, and have seen it during demos at Whole Foods.  Talk about blender envy!!!  I kind of wished I took pictures of my old blender, but as soon as I walked in with my new one I threw the old one away ASAP!!  I was done with our blender contents leaking all over the place and the unit constantly shorting out.  We have been using the Vitamix multiple times a day and I am still amazed at how well it works.  My nut milks are now divine!  I have been able to sneak in carrots, avocado and kale into smoothies and not one child has noticed.  Granted they thought the color was off.  I made a strawberry smoothie and they took it for chocolate :-)  But there are no little bits of green or orange like my other blender would have left, giving me away before they even took one sip!

 Oooh, a thrilling red!  Ha, ha.

 The first time I used this machine Aubrey *freaked* out!  It is loud when put into high speed. But now he's getting used to it.  See, he even knows where the tamper goes.

Going to make some nut milk.  In the past when I tried making nut milk and using it in a hot chocolate my whole family would pass it up!!  Last night I made myself some nut milk hot chocolate and everyone wanted a sip.  No biggie I thought, even with 6 sips, I should have enough left...think again!  They all wanted some!!  It really makes a difference in blending with nut milks.

Here I put a large handful of almonds and a large handful of coconut flakes in the blender.

 I add about 4 cups of water.

 This is what it looks like after blending.

 I prefer to use a bowl when I strain the nut milk, but I only had this 1/2 gallon jar on hand.  Funny thing...the white dish cloth you see there are the flour sack ones I get at Walmart.  Almost everytime I use them I am reminded of my grandparents (my Dad's parents).  Years ago they gave me some to take home ( I was on a trip up North visiting). I had ALWAYS used a thicker, smaller towel for dish drying.  I took them home, thinking they were of ill fit use for dishes.  Ha!  How wrong I was!!!  These are hands down the towel we turn to first!  Not only are they great for dish drying, but they make a great cloth to strain nut milks, or to strain yogurt.

 In goes the milk.  I wrap up the towel and twist it slowly to get everything out.

Ta-da!  Nut milk that my kids go goo-goo gaga over :-)

The last of the kids has arrived!

Finally!  The last of the kids has been born!  There is such relief in knowing they've all made it through the kidding.  I feel bad about this last mama though.  I keep asking myself if I interfered too much.  She is a first time goat mama.  She seemed to really be handling the labor very well. She took to licking Moira between contractions, which was pretty funny.  It is so odd to see a hands off goat get all lovey and maternal on you!  When it came time for pushing I was a bit concerned as she seemed to be having weak contractions.  I figured they were kind of like the lull that happens between transition and the actual pushing stage.  That lasted quite some time.  She finally got serious about the pushing.  So far, all of our other goats had pushed only 4 to 6 times before the water sack would bulge out.  From reading I know that you should not worry until the goat has been pushing hard for an hour.  Well, we were going on 45 minutes and there was a dime sized whole at best.  I was getting concerned that there was a malpresentation.  But I waited.  Finally there was a bit of sack.  I felt around (from the outside) to see if I could feel anything that would indicate a body on the other side of her flesh :-)  Nope.  Then the bag popped.  Her back to back contractions stopped for a bit.  A break she really needed.  This was one tired laboring goat.  We gave her some Nutri-Drench.  A minute or so after that the contractions started back up.  She just kept pushing and yelling, with NO body parts presenting.  Was something stuck?  Why oh why is she yelling when there is nothing coming?  We were approaching the one hour mark and nothing was happening. 

I still held off, as I knew with a human birth that the baby has to twist, turn, tuck, whatever to get themselves into the narrow pelvis opening.  Finally we saw the hooves.  We saw them for quite some time, they would move out a bit with a contraction and then go back in.  Repeat said scenario many, many times!  This goat was in pain and letting us all know about it.  I felt just around the opening to see if the head was right there.  I have to say I was a bit nervous about this goat because her, um.....hardware? just seemed a little off.  Even Isabella noticed and asked about it.  So it wasn't my imagination.  At this point, since the head was right there on the other side of the opening, I decided to every so gently stretch the skin.  She did NOT like that.  I was really concerned about that because I was being very gentle, just trying to massage the skin to help it loosen up.  Everything seemed too tight and small.  More and more contractions came and went and the baby's legs are still in the same spot.  By this time we were all getting concerned as Twilight (the mama goat) was really seemingly going down hill, energy wise, fast.  Now, I've had to help quite a few of our first time mamas with just a little massaging, or helping the opening slip over the head.  I did the same thing for her.  Still nothing!  All the girls were getting scared because this really was taking a while and Twilight was not looking good. They were all starting to have those raised/scared voices, asking me a million questions that I didn't have answers to. 

My next level of intervention was to gently pull on one hoof at a time, as per the info on Fias Co. Farm's site.  This baby goat was NOT moving.  Like at all!  I told the girls to be prepared for a still birth because at this point I was just having a really bad feeling about all of this.  I prayed that the Lord would give me direction.  I had been calm up until this point, but now I was starting to freak a bit.  It didn't help that I was starting to get sick, and with that sometimes my emotions get out of whack.  Next, I decide to gently pull on a hoof and at the same time try to massage the opening to go over the head.  Still. Not. Happening.  At this point I had mentally declared that we would never again breed goats ever!  We were going to sell off our herd.  Yes, it was getting pretty hair raising.  I try to tell myself that it is "just" a goat.  But that doesn't work.  She may be a goat, but she is a living creature that was in pain and she was very much visibly afraid.  Moira had been holding her head in her lap this whole time telling her what a good job she was doing, and that she would see her baby soon.  I had visions of having to do some emergency c-section to save the kid.  Ok, so things were not THAT bad....yet.  But in the back of my head I kept thinking through what we would do if this kid really was stuck.  Because this babe was NOT moving, it was stuck in the same spot now for goodness knows how long and for how many contractions, way too many to count.

I supposed it was time to get more aggressive.  So I pulled downwards on the hooves when she pushed.  And I tried pushing the opening over the head.  It is not a good feeling when you are torturing a living creature :-(  She most certainly saw it as torture I can assure you.  Finally there was some movement.  Some.  It was small.  A few more contractions yielded a small nose/ mouth was a wee tongue sticking out!  I thought, ok, let's see what she can do from here.  Nope.  I realized that the head is turned, coming more from the side than from the top, where it is supposed to.  That baby's head would not budge.  Even now, just typing this I can feel the stress wash over me.  I guess you would have had to see her backside to understand that something just wasn't adding up.  So I decided to pull harder.  And FINALLY the head came out.  Oh the relief!!!!!!  I just left her alone to rest a bit.  I could have pulled the whole baby out, but decided she needed a break.  She still had to get the shoulder area, but that would be nothing compared to the head/leg area that had already passed.  There was a small lull in the contractions, but in another three or so the whole baby came out.  I could see there were some small red lines (indicating tearing) on Twilight's opening.  That poor goat could hardly reach over to lick her baby.  We helped her with that.  She was just a good mama.  And that little babe was STRONG.  He was up on his legs in 5 minutes!!!  And walking a minute or two after that!  Wobbly legs, yes, but still, walking!  We had to help Twilight up so that the baby could nurse (we let her rest for quite some time, 30 minutes or so).  When she stood it appeared that it may be possible that she has a deeper tear than just superficial.  I know with a human that there is controversy as to whether you should use stitches or not, I am assuming that some of that could be used for goats?  I'm not sure, but she wasn't bleeding or anything that would make stitches mandatory.  That is why I am still kicking around in my head if I did the right thing to pull hard on the baby.  I certainly can't go back and re-do it. 

It's been quite a few hours since the birth and I know that mama and baby are doing fine.  I suppose that is what matters.  To ward off infection I had squirted some betadine on the area, and Jeremiah has gone out to give her an antibiotic.  I didn't have to 'go in' which would most certainly necessitate an antibiotic, but with the tear/s I didn't want to take a risk.  Jeremiah has checked on her and hasn't reported anything amiss, so I will wait till tomorrow to check her myself. 

Right now I am in bed with a hot water bottle on my tummy, and covered in a couple of blankets.  Getting sleepy.  Plus there's a wee (or not so wee!) sick boy who will want to nurse to sleep.  So if she seems fine I will hold off until tomorrow.  And in the meantime try to allow that sigh of relief that this very busy kidding season is over!  Now on to debudding!!!! Not fun, not fun.

Kefir issues

What is up with my kefir?  Actually, the kefir itself has been amazing.  My current grains were producing an amazing amount of kefir for their wee size.  There wasn't anything wrong with the grains themselves, but something is totally up with each batch of kefir grains meeting an untimely death.  I wrote a wee bit on my last batch of grains.  One was knocked over by Aubrey, another mistaken as spoiled milk (and promptly poured down the drain).  I have a friend who had some extras, and so I was pretty confident that I could keep these guys safe.  Apparently NOT. 

I suppose I need to use those magnetic 'milk helpers' for more than just my *finished* kefir.  Today I was making dinner for a family as they recently had a new baby added to the family.  As is usual....for me....I was running behind.  Not that things like handles coming off pots, or a certain little boy who was trying to *paint* with chocolate and the like had anything to do with running behind. This family has a dairy free daughter. I was making mashed potatoes for them so I made up a small batch of coconut/almond milk to use instead of regular milk.  I pulled out the 'milk' and set it next to the stove.  When I was ready for it, I grabbed 'the' jar and to my surprise I saw a few lumps drop into the potatoes, along with the milk.  What?  Is my new blender not working properly?  Why would there be lumps in my coconut/almond milk?  I saw a lump and grabbed it.  It was soft and squishy, just like...just like?? .....my kefir grains?  OY.  A total 'smack head' moment!!!  I was keeping my kefir jar next to the stove on the left side.  I had some chicken stock simmering and the heat helps the kefir to produce more quickly.  I had put the coco/almond milk on the *right* side of the stove.  In my haste I grabbed the wrong jar.  Boo hoo.  Now I have to find someone with more grains. 

This is such a bummer since we've really been enjoying our kefir smoothies over here.  (I will have to write about my blender soon.)  I suppose I shall use this kefir-less time to try out some amazing sounding avocado recipes.  A couple of years ago, during Aubrey's pregnancy, I became a lover of avocados.  I LOVE them in salads.  I was just drooling over a blog post that has some 25 avocado recipes on it.  Oh yumminess.  I can not wait to try some of them. 

In the meantime I need to come up with some way to keep my kefir grains safe. Any ideas?

When things don't always go smoothly

I have to say I always hate it when I get this odd feeling that something I just read or wrote is about to play out in my life.  Because it's usually a little 'heads up' feeling that I get.  I got that the other day when I was responding to a comment from Sarah, about having a goat birth kit.  Just as I hit the 'publish' button, I got *that* feeling.  I tried to put it behind me.

Fast forward to the following day (which was two days ago as I write), and one of our goats, Honey, started showing signs of labor.  A new friend of ours had asked for us to call her when a goat went into labor as she really wanted to see a kid be born.  So I called her, and she made it in time (the day before she missed a birth by 30 minutes).  I headed out with all the children and our birth kit.  This was Honey's fourth kidding, so we felt confident that she at least knew what was up, and that she would take care of her kids.  Honey was pretty much as huge as a house :-)  We were pretty confident that she was having at least twins, if not triplets.

Pushing started, and about 5 pushes later out comes one big kid.  Wow, maybe she only has twins in there, due to how big the first one was.  We waited, a handful of minutes pass, and she starts to push again.  We see the 'bubble' with hooves in it.  This is good, hooves are supposed to come first.  However, I see that the hooves are not facing the right way...is this kid sunny side up?  Honey pushes, and pushes, and pushes.  This kid is NOT moving.  I try to see if I can help with a head that may be kind of stuck, but I don't feel a lump from the outside.  Oh boy.  I let her push a few more times and still this kid is not moving....at all.  So I reach in to see if the head is at an odd angel.  I don't feel a head, this kid is coming out back feet first.  I don't feel anything else so why, oh why is this kid not moving?  I decide I am going to have to pull on the hooves when Honey has a pushing contraction.  I do so and all of a sudden out pops a head, NEXT to the legs that I am pulling on!!!!  WHAT!?!  I am telling you NOTHING was next to those legs just seconds ago.  We try to push the head in, it won't budge.  I am trying to pull the legs out, they won't budge.  For a few seconds there I thought we were going to loose Honey and these kids.  Finally the breech kid starts moving, but then gets stuck again.  We look to see that the umbilical cord severed.  OY.  So I just pull like mad, because at this point they are all going to die if one of these babies doesn't get OUT. 

In one fell swoop, BOTH kids came out...AT. THE. SAME. TIME.  Can anyone say, "OW!!!!"?  I can assure you Honey did.  The poor thing :-(  The breech kid was very limp.  I didn't know if it was already dead.  I rubbed it vigorously, and it started to cough/sneeze.  I had one of the girls sprint inside to grab a bulb syringe as the kid was too weak to really cough/sneeze out the goop.  To make a very long few minutes shorter, all the kids made it!  One of them had a hard time getting the hang of nursing, but now they are all champs.  There is NO doubt in my mind that Honey and the two kids would have died had we not been there to intervene.  I was able to also give them some much needed Nutri-Drench, which I think really gave the two stuck kids a 'leg up' those first couple of hours post birth.

All I know was that I was praying our other two pregnant goats were not going to go into labor anytime soon.  I was exhausted.  Things have eased up a bit as we purchased a heat lamp.  With the kids, from both triplet mamas being weak, and it being cold here (freezing temps over night), I had the girls taking turns going out each hour to hold the kids to warm them up.  They would go out for 15-20 minutes, then come back in.  An hour later another two girls would go out.  The kids were using up too much energy to try to stay warm.  I knew this would make it difficult for them to grow strong and stay  healthy.  The heat lamps have made a world of difference.  Today it was a nice warm day, and all the kids (7 in all) were out jumping around.  Baby goats are SSSSOOOOO cute playing, jumping, butting heads.  So, so, so cute.

So now we wait.  Two more goat mamas to go.  One a first timer.  That is always nerve wracking as some goat mamas don't have their natural mama instincts kick in like they should after a kid is born.  I am praying that both have an uneventful birth and that both of them will be good mamas.  Pippi, a second time mama, had a bit of a difficult time bonding with her baby last year.  After the first day or two of confinement with her baby, her mama instincts kicked in.  As a matter of fact we were all laughing over remembering how she was always 'loosing' her baby.  She would start maaa'ing for him.  Her maaa'ing would start to esculate.  Then she would walk around frantically, basically yelling/screaming for him. 

Goat birth kit

I was getting up to take some pictures for this post when there was a knock at the window.  Moira called in, "Do you have that birth kit ready?  Looks like Lily is in labor!"  So I got up and did not take any pictures :-)  Instead I got myself outside to see 'where' in the labor she might be.  Around 10:30 this morning Lily had triplets!  Two girls and a boy.  I am glad we where there.  Lily didn't have any problems with the birth process, but one of the little girls did have difficulty getting up to nurse.  She was growing weak, and needed some energy booster and a helping hand to hold her up to the udder.  But I am happy to report, a handful of hours later she is up, nursing and playful.  Phew!

I wrote the other day that I would share what I have in my goat birth kit.  Please, please, note that we are still very much novices at this whole goat thing.  As a matter of fact I had to go to my online goat source, Fias Co. Farm, to get some info on weak kids.  This birth kit is bare bones, but so far has worked out just fine.

This is it.  I have wipes, for wiping things up ;-).  In the blue baggie are a handful of gloves.  Next is a bottle of Goat and Sheep Nutri-Drench, with a small syringe.  This is the first time we've had to use this.  It came in handy for the weak triplet.  The next grouping of items, Antiseptic, dixie cups, dental floss and scissors, are for tying off, cutting and cleaning the umbilical cords.  The large yellow and green tube is a dewormer (Safegaurd).  Female goats need to be dewormed right after the birth since it takes a lot out of them and the worms can get a 'leg up' and over take her.  Last in the picture is the homeopathic remedy, Pulsatilla.  Pulsatilla is known for helping a stalled labor, or to help weak contractions.  I've used this a few times with our goat births, and it really works wonders.  Not pictured are some towels and washcloths.  I had them in a plastic bag.  I put all of these items in the blue tote, the same tote I use for our milking supplies in. 

This was Aubrey trying to help me out :-)  I was laying things out on the table, and he was picking them up and examining them.

See.  Silly boy.

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Help with milk jars

I finally got around to two things on my to-do list.  No, wait, three things.  The first was the goat birth kit.  I will post about that soon.  I can assure you it is very, very minimalist!  I suppose I really need to look into things further to see if I should add to it.  The other two things were to organize the medicine cabinet, and to make up a new system to keep tabs on our milk. 

First, the medicine cabinet.  I can't stand clutter.  Never mind that I live in the midst of clutter.  Oy.  Jeremiah took all the kids with him to run errands a few days ago.  This gave me a good chunk of time to get some things done without all the 'help' given by wee boys.  So some before and afters:

 The dreaded before. 

After. Much better.  Now to try to keep it this way!

The second item completed was to try out a system this milking season to keep our milk in order.  What do I mean?  Well, with two goats in milk we get one and a half gallons of milk a day.  Now, we can run through our share of milk, but sometimes those milk jugs get jumbled up and I don't know which jar is the oldest (and therefore needs to be used up first).  So during one of my blog readings I came across this great idea over at Reformation Acres.  As I pondered if this system would work for our family I thought it best to tweak it a bit for a couple of reasons.  Quinn (at Reformation Acres) uses colored sticker dots. She tapes them to the metal canning jar lids.  She says that she has to re-do them every so often as the tape wears off.  I thought...Me?  Having to re-do something....hmmmm, I can see that falling apart right there!  Hey, I know my weak points!  Secondly the dots are taped to the lid, which means I would have to *search* for the right color lid when it was needed.  Oh, my...that could be a disaster over here!  So I came up with my own system.  Granted I do not know if it is going to work, but I have it at the ready for when we are swimming in milk from all 5 of our female goats. 

I decided to cut out colored circles from paint chips (each color is for each day of the week; Sunday: pink, Monday: red, Tuesday: orange, etc.)  I laminated them and put a magnet on the back.  This way all the magnets (theoretically speaking) will reside on the side of our fridge.  When we bring in our milk on a Monday we will grab the correct colored disk and put it on the lid.  When it comes time to wash the jars I can just take it off with ease and place it back in it's proper space on the fridge (again, theoretically speaking).  Here are my pictures of my future milk tracking system:

The colored magnetized disks at home. 

If anyone counted you would see that I have 8 colors, not 7 (for each day of the week).  The eighth color, brown, is for our yogurt and kefir.  Both can be a bit hard to tell from just looks.  So I have half the disks with the letter 'Y' on it, and the other half with the letter 'K' (y=yogurt, k=kefir).  This will also alert others that a mysterious jar with white stuff in it is my fermenting kefir, and NOT rotten milk to be poured down the drain.  Poor, poor kefir grains.  Aubrey 'killed' my kefir grains that I was using to ferment coconut milk, and a certain someone else 'killed' my regular milk kefir grains.  Thankfully I have a friend who is giving me some more!

The theoretical beauty of the system will be this:  A child sees three milk jars in the fridge.  This child knows we need to drink the oldest milk first.  According to the order of the rainbow colors (we are using pink as number one) they can clearly see that they need to grab the jar with the orange tab. 

See?  Magnetized.  I am a bit concerned that the magnet is on the weak side.  I can see that it may come off as someone is opening a jar.  That could get 'messy'.  Time will tell.


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Let the kidding begin!

Not the joking kind...the baby goat kind :-)  We have one baby goat so far.  It was a first time goat mama that was first up.  She only had one kid in there, but it was a big one since it appears it was from our Nubian goat (she's a dwarf). 

Here is how it all played out (oh, come on now, we all love a good birth story).  It was a Friday, and that means choir for all the girls and then horses for the older two later in the day.  It was also shopping day.  That makes for one very busy day.  Moira went out before choir to feed the goats.  All was well.

After choir Moira and Flannery decided to hang out in the back yard.  It wasn't too long before one of them came knocking on the window (we all know that is much easier than opening a gate and coming into the house).  Moira said that Midnight (our black Nigerian dwarf female) was acting funny.  For those of you who do not have goats and have never been around any, I will tell you that goats have personalities.  Big time.  Midnight can be summed up as a stuck up prissy goat.  No, really.  We have one who is so quiet and gentle, timid almost.  Another who is bossy.  They really are funny creatures.  Anyways, during this goat's pregnancy she has not wanted to be touched.  She pretty much just stayed clear of everyone.  Well, on this day, just hours after acting 'normal' she was following Moira around, maaa'ing and maaa'ing, even trying to climb up in her lap!!!  Clearly, clearly something was up.

That 'something' was *labor*.  We kept watch over her, putting her in the goat barn to give her her own space.  I was rushing around inside putting our goat birth kit together.  It was on my list of to-do's and hadn't gotten around to it...yet!  I finally pulled everything together and went out to see what was happening.  There was Isabella, kneeling on the ground, with Midnight's front feet up on her Isabella's thighs, and Midnight's head lying over Isa's shoulders!  That was a site to see.  I thought Isabella did that, but it was the goat.  The poor thing was scared and in pain.  Not much was happening, just regular labor contractions.  The older two girls were very disappointed when horse time came and they had to leave.  I dropped them off, and went out to check on the goat.  Two of the boys were inside, the baby was out with me, as were the younger two girls.  I observed her for a bit.  After a few contractions she ended up lying down, and with the next contraction she started to push.  So I called all the kiddos over.  Jedidiah did not want to see, so he stayed inside.  It wasn't long (10 pushes or so) before we saw 'something'.  Now, for a 'perfect' birth (is there such a thing?) you should see two little white things come out first.  Those white things are the hooves.  The baby goat should be in a diving position.  As this 'something' was starting to come out I saw that it was a black something and not the white something that it should have been.  Groan.

I was a bit concerned for two reasons.  One, this was a first time mom, and two there was a possibility that the daddy was our larger Nubian and not our male dwarf.  Sure enough, the next contraction brought a wee nose out.  I have to say it was a funny site to see this little nose sticking out, with a wee little tongue trying to wipe the goo off itself.  I believe the best policy in birth (human or otherwise) is to observe *first*.  The idea of 'first do no harm' comes to mind.  Don't try to fix something that's not broke fits too.  But after a handful of contraction, with only about a 1/2 inch more of the baby protruding, and a yelling goat, I thought it was time to help.  I helped by first just putting gentle pressure on the area around the baby's head, to see if I could help *during* a contraction to ease it out of the birth canal. It took much longer than I thought was acceptable.  I was getting very concerned that Midnight was going to be able to pass the shoulder, which is the widest part.  Aubrey was completely freaked out by the goat screaming so Saoirse brought him inside, Jonah stayed out to watch.  I decided to stand back and observe a few contractions to see if she was going to be able to get this babe out on her own.  Not happening.  So I had to "go in".  Yup, just what it sounds like.  I located a leg, that was bent under (making the shoulder area even WIDER!) and took hold of it with a finger.  On the next contraction I pulled as Midnight pushed.  It took just a little bit of pulling and out Popped a baby goat!  Phew! 

With Midnight being so stuck up and prissy, we weren't entirely sure how good of a mama she would be.  But she did great!  She started licking off her baby right away.  Let me tell you, this baby is head strong!  She kept trying to walk over to all of us (by this time Saoirse, Aubrey and Jed joined us) to try to nurse!  I would pick her up and put her up to her mama's side to nurse and she would fight me!  The little rascal.  I sent everyone inside, and I stepped out.  We have half doors on our barn, so I was still able to observe.  It took a little while (30 minutes or so), but she all of a sudden "got it" and has been a nursing champ ever since. 

The baby is a female and she has floppy ears...just like our Nubian.  Oy.  Midnight is being a very attentive mama, which makes our jobs soooo  much easier.  We only have one more first time mama to give birth, and three others who have been through this before.  I've been concerned each night since it's been so cold here.  It took a bit for us to work out where all the goats should sleep so that the new mama and babe keep safe, and that the other mamas have a safe place to give birth in, should they go into labor over night.

Here are a couple of pictures of the new one, named, Muffin:

JUST born.  Still all covered in goo.

Midnight being a good mama and cleaning her off.

 Before cleaning.

 After.  Ha, ha.  Midnight needs to work on those hair combing skills :-)

 Trying to stand for the first time.  Can we say, wobbly?

 This was probably only 20 minutes after birth!  She was sooooo alert and inquisitive.

Finally, nursing on her own.

She is always in motion and this is the only picture that Flannery was able to get of her that was not blurry.

In the kitchen

There is a saying, "Those that fail to plan, plan to fail."  Hmmm, yes, something to consider if you decide to tackle the GAPS diet!  Since we had been on the diet not too long ago I at least had some past experience to grab from.  However, there are those small, or not so small, details that seem to have escaped my memory.  I am thinking it was a matter of preservation :-)  Ha, ha!  Seriously though, how could one forget that "I'M STARVING" stage that all my kids had gone through?  How could I have forgotten that you need to stay 3 meals ahead to keep on top of everything?  Wait, forget 3 meals ahead, think 3 days ahead.  Now I suppose if you have a smaller family you could get by with making the amount of food that I cook in a day.  It may last you 3 days.  But when you  have a larger family?  Oh my.  I am totally used to cooking in "bulk".  But 'bulk' to others is what a regular meal looks like to me. 

All that jumble mumble to say....I did NOT plan ahead for meals.  Now, had we just gone back on full GAPS that would have been possible, though still not recommended.  I put us all on GAPS intro, and that takes a LOT of pre-planning.  We need an insane amount of food to keep up with the demand of 'starving' children.  Anyone who has done such a diet understands this idea of 'starving'.  I am not at all exaggerating when I say that 10 minutes after Every. Single. Meal/Food. my children would be begging for more food.  Not just "Hey, mom, I'm still hungry, can I have something else to eat?" kind of begging.  I am talking all out..."MOM!!! I'm HUNGRY, I am SOOOOOOOO HUNGRY,  I NEED MORE.....(fill in the blank)!!!  MOMMY!!! My tummy, I'm sooo hungry, I need more food!!!!", that kind of begging.  That lasted for 3 to 5 days.  I thought I might die.  Alright, maybe not die, but pretty close to it.  Seven children?  All "starving"?  Ugh.  I was at my wits end!  I was spending ALL day long in the kitchen. 

I have since tried to make up for my lack of planning by making lots and LOTS of food.  Funny thing, sad actually, most of that food has been wiped out!  Oy.  I was not able to get but a days worth of schooling done last week.  This week has been better, but we really need to get back on top of things come next week.  Thankfully the "I'm starving" stage has come to an end.  But I still have a very long list of things that need to be done to keep on top of the food situation.  I really did not like all my thoughts having to revolve around food the first time we went through GAPS, and I have to say I don't like it any better the second time through!  Oh well.  Already I am seeing some changes.  Jed's face rash has subsided.  Not completely gone, but soooooo much better.  Definitely a yeast issue.  The baby is the only one who is handling this well.  His eating experiences were all on GAPS foods. He is just gobbling everything up.  Every one else?  Not so much.  I just keep reminding them that they will feel much better the longer we stick to this. 

Here are just a couple of pictures from my kitchen adventures:

In Blogger fashion, my pictures did not load in order.  Oy.  Here are 3 jars of fruit kvass.  The red ones are made with apples and raspberries.  The yellow one is made with apples, mango and a few cranberries.  The red ones taste good, the mango one?  Not so much.  It has a bitter taste, possibly from the cranberries.  I will have to try it again without the cranberries.  I do not ferment my things on my window sill, I just put them there to get better lighting.  I am actually thinking of making some cozies for my jars as I read that those good bacteria like to multiply in the dark :-)

This was to go after my picture of my sauerkraut.  You'll see below that I was having a hard time getting the cabbage to stay below the liquid line.  So I rigged up this contraption of a cut to fit yogurt top and a medicine cup to keep the cabbage submerged.  With this method I am able to keep the cabbage down, but I can't seem to keep the liquid from bubbling up through the air lock!  So I had to rinse the air locks out and try again.

My dehydrator has been running constantly these days.  Here are some sunflower seeds.  I also soaked and dried some almonds, and currently I have pumpkin seeds dehydrating (after taking a little bath for 24 hours).  Although this is a lot more work, it is supposed to help our bodies to better digest these seeds.

Jedidiah has been a little ham lately. He *insisted* I take a picture of him tasting the seeds.  Excuse his messy face he was just indulging in some smoothie.

See, there are his sisters making more smoothie (Jed is off to the left there).  Smoothies are NOT on intro, but I have a few children who can not make it through intro without great, great difficulty.  Jed is one of those.  I have to say he is handling it much better with the addition of the smoothies and with the help of his growth hormones.  Jedidiah's lack of growth hormones was causing daily cases of hypoglycemia.  Those episodes were happening while on full GAPS (something GAPS is supposed to help with, which alerted us that something bigger was going on in his body).

Looks like Aubrey is following in Jed's smoothie drinking foot steps!  Last night we had an "emergency".  Thankfully I was able to get my brain to work out a solution.  Our current blender decided to take another vacation.  I am not joking when I say that the above girl child freaked out.  No, really, she really freaked out.  I remembered that I had a stick blender we could try to use to make the smoothie she was trying to make.  Phew!  Our new blender can't get here fast enough.

Green and purple sauerkraut fermenting.  You can see that the one jar has it's contents trying to escape.

Some of the almonds that were done dehydrating.

Two pots of stock simmering.  Some days I have 3 pots of broth going!  There can never be enough broth you know. 

On top of these things I've been busy with much more!  Making meatballs, cooking multiple, multiple chickens, deboning said chickens, making yogurt (letting it ferment for the proper GAPS 24 hours), soaking/cooking/dehydrating beans (for future use on full GAPS), and lots and LOTS of dishes.  Oh, the dishes!  We are in serious need of buying more bowls and plates.  Most of ours decided to up and break on us.  We have 8 bowls, and about 11 plates.  We have plenty of forks, but our spoons decided to go missing.  Where are my spoons?  Ugh.  Wash, wash, wash.  Oh, and wash some more. 

Well I need to get up and do some T-Tapp.  I've been very consistent with it.  Then off to accomplish some schooling before a dinner of soup.  I am sure my children are going to cringe at the word "soup" in the future!  Ha, ha!

A new blender

For some, a new blender wouldn't be post worthy :-)  But I am very excited, as are the children!  Funny the things we get excited about.  I should say though, this isn't the normal blender that we get.  Yes, we go through blenders every 18-24 months (No joke!!).  I use my blender daily.  Sometimes multiple times a day.  Presently we are using it about 3 times a day, if not more.  Our current blender has many, many issues.  It is on it's last leg.  Every once in a while, if liquid gets into the wiring (from a hole), it shorts out and can not be used for hours or days at a time. 

I've written before about how I buy things (appliances or other bigger ticket items) on the low end of the scale (performance for example) to  make sure that I will actually use it.  It would be silly to buy a big ticket item, use it a few times, and then have it sit in my cupboard for months at a time.  With my wheat grinder I had a $20 used machine that could only grind 3 cups of flour at a time, with a total of 6 cups to be done before you had to let the machine cool off.  I used that for years before it became evident that I was going to work it into the ground.  So we made the jump to an Electrolux mixer. 

I did the same thing with our camera.  After years of using a good quality camera, and trying to do more with it than was possible, I was able to get a Canon 40D.  I wrote that the one exception was our dehydrator.  I did indeed have a Nesco $35 model from Walmart that I wasn't really using a whole lot.  One reason was because I didn't know what was possible to do with it!  :-)  The other was because I didn't know that the Nesco had accessories, like the mesh screens.  It never accord to me to even look for something like that.  After watching some videos on dehydrating I just *knew* I wanted to dive in.  So I took the dive and got an Excalibur.  I am very thankful that my 'rushed' purchase of the dehydrator was not in error.  I've been using my dehydrator constantly.  There are days where it isn't being used, and then there are days in a row that it is going non stop.  I am actually using my Nesco as well since I have been doing sooooo much with the dehydrator I needed more room.  I will post about that work soon (GAPS related).

All of this to say.......we made the plunge and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new Vitamix blender.  We have all seen this machine in action at the demos that are held in Whole Foods.  My kids have been asking if we can get a blender like that for months now.  I've been eyeing the Vitamix for years now, and now with our 6th..8th?  blender in that many, it was time.  We decided on a red colored model!  Ha, ha.  It will really stick out in my kitchen. 

I want to also add that all my big ticket items, with the exception of the Electrolux, were bought used or refurbished.  And when I say, "I", got them, it was my hubby that did the work of looking and comparing what was out there.

We have been crazy busy over here.  GAPS intro throws a wrench into your life in a big way :-)  All of my time has been spent cooking, preparing, cleaning, repeat.  I didn't think of taking any pictures of some of the things I've been up to, but I will try soon, now that we are getting a wee bit more settled into GAPS. We still have a long way to go since things are still crazy, but we are starting to make progress in the right direction.  It helps too that I don't have 5 children at my feet crying that they are starving!!  No joke that they were crying, complaining, whining, 10 minutes after E.V.E.R.Y. meal/food/snack/etc.  All.  Day.  Long.  That made for some very, very, very long days.  Phew!

Goats and GAPS

Besides the fact that those two things start with the same letter, they have nothing else in common :-)  First the goat.  Come to find out he had tetanus.  And he is still alive.  Though I do think he would be in better shape, or end up in better shape had we figured it out sooner.  Even the vet didn't think he had tetanus, nor my friend who I call on all thing goats.  The poor thing was on his way out, by the time we got the anti-toxin he had labored breathing, lost all control of his limbs and his neck was stiff.  Within an hour of the injection he was trying to stand up, though unable to.  Two more hours after that I came out to the barn to find him standing!  Today, two days later he is out in the yard, eating hay :-)  Unfortunately he is presently blind.  I think he lost his vision hours before we got him the anti-toxin, though, the high level of vitamin B we gave him (as per the vet), causes temporary blindness.  So it is a wait and see kind of thing.  We are just so grateful that he is recovering, and having noticeable gains every few hours.  He is acting like himself more and more. For example he sneezes on you if he doesn't like what you are doing.  He started doing that again.  We have to feed him his water with a large bottle as he can not handle putting his neck down to drink.  I think that has to do with overall muscle weakness, after the muscles were locked up for hours.  The first few days we had to give him multiple injections of medications.  Now we are just down to giving him aspirin twice a day.  On top of that he is drinking more with each bottle, so we don't have to go out there every hour.  This makes doing our next "g" more doable.

GAPS.  It was time.  I've been dragging my feet for many, many reasons.  But after round two of big time illness this winter, I thought it was now or never. I finally got all those chickens deboned, and put the bones into my pressure canner.  I don't cook them with pressure, I just need the pot for its very large size!  And so, last night for dinner, our adventure began.  I thought it was overly dramatic that kiddos awoke feeling aweful already, you know from GAPS.  Um, I don't think so, since it's not like we don't have soup for dinner at normal times.  Anyways, things went downhill from there.  Lots of yuckiness all around.  I am allowing for blueberries and strawberries since I know that a few of my children are not able to deal with a rightful trial of intro.  But, I suppose with all their misery they are going through with those allowances, something is working.  Everyone is *STARVING*.  Ugh.  I really, really forgot about that very inconvenient by product of intro.  I will have to make up a bunch more food to have on hand.  I did NOT go into this well prepared (food wise, since emotionally and mentally I was prepared). 

I was in the kitchen earlier to make up some more soup when the baby dropped a pot on my toe.  Ow.  And, Ow, again.  For a second there I thought he broke it!  It is completely purple and painful, though with the help of some Motrin wallking is fine.  I was really bumming since I've been staying on top of doing my T-Tapp.  I did a 13 day bootcamp, and have been doing the full workout every other day.  On the inbetween days I have been doing the 15 minute routine and the "Hit the Floor" routine.  Today would have been a full workout day, but I decided to forgo it as trying to get my foot into a shoe just didn't seem doable (I didn't try though).  I am hoping I can pick up where I left off.

Troubled

I can finally report that everyone (well, almost everyone) is on the up and up.  I should say that everyone is on the up and up with the horrid upper respiratory bug we had.

So life should start to return to normal.  But instead, it is not.  Unless of course, possible dying animals is normal.  One animal, actually.  Our Nubian male goat.  We are ever so hoping that the items that Jeremiah is away getting right now will help him turn the corner, but at the same time we are preparing our children that he may not live.  At first I was thinking it was this one type of worm.  Still a possibility. It could also be a possibility of tetanus.  Jeremiah is off getting the antitoxin, plus some penicillin.  The vet thought it may very possibly be a vitamin B deficiency.  She's seen goats exhibiting the same symptoms (totally rigid, can't get up, laying on side) hop up and start walking around after 1 to 2 hours of getting some high doses of vitamin B.  I am trying not to get my hopes up. 

Jeremiah is back, so we should know soon if it is vitamin B.  If not pray that the other things work, or that he would pass quickly.  As a precautionary, if he does die we are to get him tested for rabies.  I know I don't have to ask you all to pray about that!!!  Goodness, at least 6 if not all 9 of us would have to go through rabies treatment if that were to be the case.  

I'm so nervous.  I hate to see this poor goat suffer.  We have been doing all we can, even covering him with a blanket and giving him pedialite.  I think the vet asked if we could give him an IV.  Hmmm, that surpasses our comfort level, but at this point, dehydration isn't playing a role.  We can't put him down, one- because there are options that we are still trying, and two- he has to be 'whole' to be tested for rabies.  But this is stressful on all of us.  Yes, we are aware he is a goat, but everything here on our homestead is valued, right down to the cats. 

Before this all happened I was already having a rough few days.  Thankfully I was reminded that a lack of time with the Lord is probably the root cause of my anxiety :-)  Ah, yes.  That has been slacking.  It always seems like a catch 22.  I need the Lord for my days to run (for me to remain at peace, to train my children, to work diligently), but my days right now are crazy, crazy, crazy, and it seems like I don't have any time to spare to spend time with the Lord.  Of course, I've been down this path before and know without a shadow of a doubt that somehow time 'multiplies' when you spend that needed time with the Lord.  It is also hard for me to even focus since I am so anxious.

Most of that anxiety comes from our health...or lack there of  (keeping in mind the ROOT CAUSE of my anxiety really rests with not having peace from the Lord).  Most things are probably very fixable with going back on GAPS.  Cooking for GAPS just seems entirely impossible this time around.  To help with that I put myself in a situation of 'do or die'.  Ok, not really, more like, 'do or loose a whole bunch of money on rotted meat'.  When we went shopping, I had the girls put all 6 chicken roasters in the fridge, not the freezer.  I also had 6 BJ's sized packages of stew meat defrosting in the fridge, to can up.  That people is a good chunk of money.  So the pressure was on.  I managed to cook all 6 chickens, though they wait to be deboned, meat put up, and stock made.  I was also able to can all 6 packages of meat, resulting in 12 quarts of meat.  Would have been 13, but one jar broke in the canner.  Bummer.

Jeremiah was also able to drill holes in 6 of my metal mason jar lids.  He then equipped them with air locks.  These will be used to make our fermented foods.  It was too late last night to start the sauerkraut, but I was able to put together a beet/apple/strawberry kvass.  Regular kvass, to me, is YUCKY.  I am hoping with this combo and with the lack of immense amounts of salt, that this will be doable. 

Besides the health issues, I just have the regular run of the mill anxiety over teotwawki.  Let me first say I am very proud of my husband for all he has been doing in this area.  But that being said, it is very stressful to me as I try to balance home life and prepping for teotwawki.  Too many what if's.  Too many conspiracies, too many real (horrid) truths, too many, too many.  I try to take each day as it comes, trying to make it normal :-)  Ha, ha!  But, when the thoughts of impending doom loom over me it is hard for me to function.  I hate that feeling like our world is about to fall apart at any second.  Again, root cause...see above!  But when simple things happen, like an illness, I start the thoughts rolling..what would we do if we couldn't get to a doctor, what would we do if we didn't have access to a store, what would we do if....Although these can good exercises, they start to control my actions and my responses to my family.

I must go and feed the goats.  Moira is a bit low on energy (we are pretty sure of the cause, but please pray it would resolve quickly) so I thought I would take that over for her.  Jeremiah has come back in from giving our goat the injections, and he says things do NOT look good.  Please pray that the goat can get relief quickly, one way or the other.  Thank you.