Sometimes Love comes as a surprise.

Prem Goati - our little Love Goat was born on Friday the 7th Feb at Noon.  This is related to The Great Debate    post back in December as to if Poppy was pregnant or not... thinking no, she was taken back for breeding last month.  

So you can imagine my surprise on Friday when Paramjyoti went to give the goats some water and came out yelling like there was a cougar in the yard!   Narayan started yelling. "baby goat mum there's a baby goat!".

It took us 4 hours to get him responsive.  Not sure how long he had been there (maybe as long as 2 hours since we did the watering last) but he was initially bleating, but then quickly got very quiet and non responsive.  We took him back out to his mum to see if she would nudge him into life but at -25 it quickly became apparent that we needed to get him warm and fast.

We put him in a warm bath, submerging his body but keeping his head up.  Dripping some colostrum into his mouth, one drip at a time. (Yes suddenly we also had to learn how to strip and milk mama goat...)

He seemed to go to sleep and although was warm on the outside his mouth was still cold.  So we decided to Kangaroo him.  I stripped from the waste up and got a hot water bottle.  Sandwiched him in between me and the hot water bottle with his head on my heart.  I wrapped us both up in a towel and sat in front of the woodstove...  After about 30 mins of this... he started to make noises and twitch his limbs.

 Meanwhile Paramjyoti was figuring out how to get more colostrum out of Poppy who was in clear distress that her baby was gone.   Too cold to take him back outside he has slept the first 2 nights by the fire and will again tonight.  Spending visits outside with mum,  at -20 - -9 its still too cold to leave him out there for too long.  He was very weak, but on day 2 now, he is starting to get curious about his new world.


Welcome to the Niwas family Prem!

Its a hit!

So 2 months ago we gave making cheddar cheese a go. here is the blog from there.  "say cheese".

So today, to celebrate the arrival of my husbands brother, Alex, from the east coast we decided to dig in and see what its like.  and its AMAZING!

here are a couple of photos... the taste is not too strong. (we opened it up at the minimum time required - so i wouldn't call it "aged")  texture is good,  its flavorful, didnt get any diseases or mould or weird stuff going on.    i say its a huge success!... cant wait for this process to be a constant and normal part of Niwas life.

The Great Debate

So... its up in the air as to wether or not Poppy is pregnant...
With 5 weeks to go, its hard to tell...   if she has 1 kid in there, its pretty standard not to be seeing allot... if theres more than 1, well then,  theres probably none. :(

We can get her bred again, thats no problem... but its 5 months of antisi-pation, and a whole bunch of hay with no milk! (or cheese for that matter).

so... anyone want to take a guess? a bet? a intuitive nuzzel?  do you think she is???

Say Cheese!

Its been a dream, a passion, ok lets be real, an obsession in our family to be able to make really good homemade cheese.  I come from a dairy rich country, New Zealand, where cheese and milk is really good quality, and for the most part fairly affordable.  So coming to north america were "american" plastic cheese is the norm is extremely disappointing.

Eating cheese that is any good in Canada and you will need a small line of credit just to keep up, especially at the rate that we eat it.  So making it, is really one of the only ways we can really guarantee what we are eating.  Over this summer we mastered Mozzarella.  Served with Niwas grown tomatoes, and basil, drizzled with balsamic reduction... it was heaven on a plate.

Yesterday thanks to the great people at the New England Cheese Making Supply Company ,  which I learnt about after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, (Can you imagine lying on a 2 inch mattress in rural India dreaming about the first home grown asparagus of the season?) we decided to jump in and give it a whirl.

So yesterday the parcel arrived.   Everything we will need to make Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Feta, Kefir and Goats Cheese, which is going to be our main cheese come February when Poppy gives birth!

So today is no longer known as Thursday, but cheddar day.  Apparently its going to take about 2 months to be ready,  so come February first, (about the same time the Goats milk will start flowing) we will be ready and waiting to bite into our first Niwas Cheddar Cheese...

Gearing up for the milk...

So this is Poppy.  She and Cedar are the first goats at Niwas.  She's had a bit of a rough start to life and was rescued from a place that was neglecting the heard.  So, understandably she's a bit skittish... but she's a sucker for oats.

It looks like, and we very much hope so, Poppy is with kid, or, by the looks of her maybe even two!

She's going to be due around the first week of February, and i'm already starting to get antsy about the birth.  "They" say that 99% are very smooth, but its always that 1% of births that need help, or intervention for the sake of the mama, and/or the kid.

The wonderful thing though, is that the Homesteading community in the 3 hour radius of where we are, are wonderful, helpful and encouraging to newbies.  It definitely has the vibe, the more free ranging, the better.  So help is a phone call or a Facebook away. (for all its evils, it has its pros)

So come February, Niwas will have its own Goats Milk and Cheese.  Not for sale of course, thats a wild rats nest of legal laws and hoops.  But for personal use...  and to practice making cheese.  All going well though, it is in the 5 year plan to get a small commercial kitchen and legally be able to supply goats cheese from the farm.

But i still cant help but wonder,  what if i don't like the taste! Sounds silly, all this effort, 6 months of tending to this animals every need,  to not even like the product.  But ive never been a big milk drinker, unless its got some sort of chocolate powder in it.  (Silly Cow Drinking Chocolate for example - found at #sproutgrocery) So many people say you cant tell the difference.  But i wonder if its a coke, pepsi thing... cause i can definitely tell the difference.

Time till tell... and ill let you know how it goes.  Do you have any experience with goats milk?