HZ Ranch TX

Happy goats! If you have livestock, you know the summer rush to prepare for winter. It may be 106 degrees today but winter is coming and we are in full prep mode over here. There’s a lot to do to prepare each year for winter for the animals (shelter repairs, hay stock up, grain stock up) and fall/winter is when we do most building and fence repair projects since it’s so hot in the summer. The race is on to get it all done before the first freeze arrives!

According to this math, we have 3 goats 🤣

The goats get spoiled with treats on a hot summer day. Love giving them goodies to enjoy. They surprisingly love the orange peels more than the watermelon.

When cherries go on sale at the grocery store you buy $25 worth and can them up for the winter!! Hoping to get whole canned cherries, cherry preserves, and cherry jelly! This is batch 1 of 4 🤣
Thank goodness for little hands and a loving husband to depit the cherries! 💜

Find the beauty in your day and have a safe, happy 4th of July!

Muffin, Bluey, and Bingo. Our 2 year old daughter loves the cartoon Bluey so we named the 3 new girls after the main characters in the cartoon, these girls are so fun to watch run around and play queen of the hay bale!

Experimenting with milk this morning, trying to make mozzarella cheese with animal rennet! What you see is the curds forming and separating from the whey (yellow liquid). The chickens will get some of the whey and I may attempt to make a bread this afternoon and use it in place of water in the recipe.

New babies!!! Skye had two bucklings 11 days early Tuesday evening. They needed a little extra TLC the first two days but they seem to be okay now, just need them to grow and get stronger. Skye is my favorite and most opinionated girl, she’s a good mama but she yells at us until she’s hoarse because she just wants to be with the rest of the herd. In due time, when her boys are stronger she’ll be able to spend more time with the herd, but how do you explain that to a goat who yells “Maaaaa Maaaaaa”???

We’ve had some rain recently which has been needed and appreciated, the grass is growing and the goats are loving it!
In today’s news, the kids and I scooped off some cream from yesterday’s milk and made butter!!! It’s the little things that make me excited that I have control over now with raising dairy animals to provide a superior product for my family.

Poor garden isn’t sure what to think with this fickle West Texas weather. Goats are sure enjoying the cooler temperatures though!

It’s cold and rainy outside today and Ethel decided she should be a house goat 🤣