Summer has Gotten Away

I don't know where the time went, but we had two pool parties one week after the other, then the week after those Jeff had two Navy buddies down for a weekend. We played catch up, gardening, yard work, barn work the next weekend. And here we are going into another weekend. Mead Day Celebration is Saturday in Charlotte. Lance and Beth are coming up for it and Janet and Mike are going with us.

I've been experimenting with different draining times for my Chevre. Also got some Fora Dancia culture and used in in a batch I started a few days ago. It drained in the bag for 9 hours and has a sweet mild taste. It seems like the longer you drain it in the bag, the less acidic it tastes. I've drained from 6.5 hours up to 9 hours. I like it best drained at least 8 hours.

I also made some feta last weekend and it is wonderful. I'm experimenting with that also. I dry salted all of it, then put 1/3 in a container filled with olive oil. It's supposed to keep for a long time in oil. I put 1/3 in a brine solution (1/4 cups kosher salt to 2 cups water) and the rest of it I left dry, wrapped in cheese paper. We've used a little of the brined cheese and it tastes salty, but similar to what you get at the grocery store. You are supposed to age the dry version 5-7 days, so I'll be tasting that today. The brined cheese was great crumbled over salad.

I want to try a pressed cheese next, just a straight farmer cheese. My notes from the cheese class, said to use the same feta recipe, but press it. Before I salted the feta, the cheese had a mild taste similar to some Amish Farmhouse Cheese I bought a while back. So I think the recipe will work for that type of cheese. Gotta save some milk for it. In two days, I ususally have a little over 6 quarts of milk. That's enough for a nice batch of Chevre. The batch I made yesterday came out to 2.25 pounds of cheese from 6 quarts. That's pretty good, actually very good. Normally you estimate 1 pound per gallon.

A friend of mine gave me some figs and I made fig jam which tastes like a cross between peach and strawberries. Picked up some more figs yesterday and will be doing a little jelly today.

Mead and Wine

Sunday was racking day. I hadn't done much with our wines and meads since February. They've been aging in a pantry since then. It was definitely time to rack them, but supposedly mead is more forgiving than wine, so I was hoping my negligence didn't impact anything.

Orange Clove Mead: I started this mead in Jan 2011. The recipe came from Will Kalif's web site The Joy of Mead. He has a recipe link on the main page. I ordered his books back in January and were also pleased with them. They are worth purchasing if you are new at making mead. Anyway, this mead really got neglected since January, I racked it once after the initial transfer to the carboy. So for the most part it's just been aging in the pantry. We tasted it Sunday and it was spectacular!! Not too sweet and it did not have that overpowering alcohol taste you get with some young wines. It was a pretty golden honey color, more orange than yellow. Think honey diluted with water.

Orange Blossom Mead: This mead was started in August of 2010 after we attended a Mead Day Celebration sponsored by Alternative Beverage in Charlotte, NC. The Mead Day this year is scheduled for August 6th. We made this Mead with our friends Janet and Mike. Mike's been making wine for years and he turned us on to it last year. So we came home from Charlotte that day with 12 pounds of Orange Blossom Honey from Florida, mixed it up in the kitchen and divided it between the two of us. Janet and Mike also added pears to part of their portion, so I'm excited to see how their's turns out. Our's tastes really good, sweeter than the orange mead, so this will probably not be my favorite mead. I like them sweet, but not too much, this one is at the edge of being too much. This one cleared to a very pale yellowish color, like a chardonney. But, it's not completely cleared. I've been watching it for months trying to decide if I should intervene. I figured you can't learn by not trying so I racked it and added some Sparkolloid, a clearing agent. Will see what it looks like in a week, and no matter what will bottle it so it can rest for a few weeks before Mead Day!! If you live near Charlotte and are interested in Mead and honey bees, then plan to attend.


By the way, I used White Labs WLP720 Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast in both meads and Wyeast Labs Large Smack Pack. #4184 Sweet Mead in the blackberry wine. I'm very pleased with both, other than the orange blossom mead which is a little too sweet, the other two are at "my" perfect level of sweetness. It's funny how that works. I've tasted all of these wines/meads along the way and thought they weren't sweet at all. But, now that they are aging and finishing, the sweetness is coming out.

Blackberry Wine: This wine also got neglected. I started it in January 2011, racked it in February with my son. It was sort of a diaster, later that night I saw red stuff under the pantry door. We had moved two wine cooler into the pantry that same day and Jeff had plugged them in. I guess the heat and agitation from racking got the yeast going. I had a near explosion in the pantry and barely got the bung off (over the kitchen sink) before the whole thing blew. Had blacberry wine going everywhere. Can't remember exactly what I did, other than unplugging the wine coolers. We had started out with a gallon jug and a 1/2 gallon, when I got finished cleaning everything up and combining them, I was left with a gallon. In July, I wish I hadn't lost that 1/2 gallon. When I opened the carboy to rack, the whole kitchen smelled like blackberries. The wine still tastes young, a little alcoholly, but there is a lingering taste of blackberries on your tongue after drinking it and it is mildly sweet.

Strawberry wines: We had two strawberry wines (actually the first wines we made last years using two different recipes) we've been fooling with them and I racked them every month, multiple times according to stuff I read about wine making. Added stabilizers and sweetners at different points. Racking them as soon as I got a layer of yeast on the bottom of the carboy. Well these taste like crap and after waiting and waiting for them to develop (they are over a year old now) we finally decided to throw them out, so I can use my carboys to make something else.

What did I learn in all this: Leave them alone, wines and meads will do what they are supposed to do "age", just leave them alone.

French Style Goat Cheese and Yogurt

The yogurt, didn't yogurt. Will have to try that one again. But, the cheese was wonderful. I drained it in a bag for 10 hours and then put in the fridge. It turned out just like I wanted it to. Stiffer than cream cheese and it forms nice moist crumbles. Had it on toast with jelly on top for breakfast. Then Jeff and I had it on a salad at dinner last night. The flavor is very mild, no acid or sour taste. Next time I make it, I'm going to take half of it and not drain it as long to see what that's like. From what I've read, can't remember the source, in France this type of cheese is put in a soft goat cheese mold, looks like a 6 ounce tumbler with holes in it. The cheese is served up, still slightly warm, and probably drained for about 1/2 the time I drained mine. They serve it with croissants in the mornings.

I found another recipe for a modified mozzarella on the internet. You make the cheese like you would make mozzarella, but stop and drain it, before the last step in the normal recipes (heating and stretching). Looked good in the pictures.

Fourth of July 2011

We got up at 5:40 AM and started the coffee. Checked e-mail, played a game of solitaire and were in the barn by a little after six. Jeff took care of the equines, while I took care of the baby goats and milked Edna. Got everyone situated and went in the house, got the milk on ice and cleaned/sanitized everything for later tonight. Jeff hauled some brush down to the burn pile. Met him by the truck at 07:00 and we headed to town. He dropped me off at Wal-mart so I could pick up some stuff we needed for dinner (we thawed out some baby back ribs yesterday and I needed some spices to make a new batch of my "rib rub"). He headed to Lowe's to get something, to the gas station to fill up the truck, and also to get a new propane tank for the grill.

While I was at Wal-mart, I saw they had sundresses on sale. Talked to another customer who was looking at the same dresses for a minute. Saw a cute one, ran to the dressing room, put it on over my jeans and figured it was okay, threw it in the cart and headed to the spice section. Was side tracked along the way, looking for a new digital thermometer, finally got to the spice section, when Jeff met up with me. He had that look on his face, "What is taking you so long?" We picked up a few more things and got to the check-out. He left, said "I'll have the truck out front." Of course, today they had to do a price check on the stupid sun-dress. When I finally got to the truck Jeff was getting out and said, "I was coming into find you, I thought you'd been kidnapped by aliens."

Next stop, Vad-Du-Mar Park, Sadie got a short, very short 15 minute walk, while Jeff and I discussed the barn arrangement and whether we should add an open air run in on one side. Headed back home.

For the next several hours, I worked on finishing some cheese I started yesterday and making some yogurt. Then made the new rub for the ribs and got them rubbed down and marinating in the fridge. Jeff was out mowing the back, behind the main pasture, between moving the sprinkler around on the new sod we laid last spring. I stuck a veggie burger in the micro-wave but forgot about it and found it there several hours later.

Jeff finished the back mowing and started in on the dry lot, moved the sprinklers to the garden. I shuffled animals around so they would stay out of his way, then went back in the house and talked to a friend from Missouri (Sherrie) on the phone, called my mom (she's not home) left a message, then started calling the neighborhood people about the pool party at our house on the 16th. It was after 1 pm when I got outside.

Jeff was weed eating by that time and I started working in the garden. The horses were standing at the fence looking at me and I decided they needed some "mommy attention". So I got them up and sprayed them off with the hose, scrubbed off the sweat and salt. Then Jeff turned all the water tanks over for me (3 of them) and I bleached, scrubbed and refilled all of them. Somewhere in here, Jeff put the ribs on the grill on low.

I hate to use the "R" word, but I had some left over from last year and decided to spray it on the crab grass that's coming up in places around the pool. I was sweating so much that my eyes were burning, the water looked pretty inviting. Jumped in the deep end, swam to the shallow end and got out, started spraying again. At least I can say, that yes "On the fourth of July, I got in the pool". Jeff followed soon after and said it was time to relax, I was all for it.

We got in the kitchen and prepped the corn and zucchini for the grill. Jeff jumped in the pool, same thing, in at the deep end and out at the shallow end. So we both "got in the pool" on the Fourth." It was 4:45 by the time the veggies and ribs were done. We figured we had just enough time to scarf down dinner before we needed to do chores around 6 pm.

It was a lovely dinner, sat on the deck, listened and watched as a storm rolled in, thunder, lightening, wind, and at least it was cool. Jeff said he needed a nap, so I cleaned the kitchen and he was in helping in about 10 minutes, Jeff cannot take naps.

At 6 we were in the barn finishing the chores, milking, Jeff cleaned the goat stall while I got the milk on ice and everything prepped for tomorrow AM's milking. Came in showered, finished the cheese I made yesterday. It tastes good. The yogurt didn't turn to yogurt, so will have to try that again. Folded laundry, there's some left to do tomorrow. At 7:30 we locked the goats in the goat stall, came in and collapsed on the couch. We had a three day weekend for the holiday. We have to go back to work tomorrow, so it was time to relax.

Yogurt

I decided to try making some yogurt. I have fresh blueberries that need to be picked and some frozen strawberries, so want to make a little of each and also a honey almond version. I looked at several recipes and like all cheese recipes, it depends on whose you look at. My goal is to come up with my own recipes that work for me and my goats. Have to start somewhere, I sort of created my own and made two different basic versions.

I had 1 full quart jar of milk that was 2 days old and another quart jar that was 3/4 full. I stuck both of them in a stock pot on the stove and heated them to 176 and 180 degrees, respectively. This was a stupid idea, because I needed to rapidly cool the milk. Well you can't rapidly cool milk that's in a glass jar as hot as these were. So I sort of slowly cooled them in the sink over 15 minute period, by adding cold water to the sink full of hot water that came from the stock pot. It worked so we'll see.

I added 1 tsp of pectin to each jar of milk. To the 3/4 jar I added 1/4 cup of Stoney Farm Vanilla yogurt (they didn't have plain at the store, so I figured this is an experiment anyway). To the second jar I added 1 packet of direct set yogurt culture. Shook both of them and put them in a Styrofoam cooler I have. 2 jars fit perfectly in it (it came from a pharmacy, had shipped drugs in it).

The cooler is sitting on the dinning room table. Per Fiasco Farm, don't let it set more than 10 hours, all that will happen is it will get more sour. So planning on checking it at 4 pm, since I started this at 10 and see what it's like. If it turns out good, I'm going divide it all up in 1/3's and add different fruit/honey/almond extract. Jeff loves yogurt!

French Style Goat Cheese

Yesterday I started the first batch of cheese from Edna's milk. I picked a soft goat cheese because it was easy, no molds, no pressing etc. I sanitized my pot on the stove with boiling water and then dumped it in the sink and set my cheese pot in the sink. Heated 6 quarts of milk to 88 degrees, (supposed to be between 72 and 80 depending on whose recipe you look at, but it got ahead of me on the temp) so I cooled it to 78. Added 1 packet of direct set mesophilic culture. Let it set for 5 minutes, then top stirred very slowly and up and down. I added 1 drop calf rennet diluted in 60 mL of spring water, stirred and moved the pot where it wouldn't be disturbed. The room temp was between 69 and 71.

This AM about 5, I lifted the lid, smelled light and buttery with a hint of lemon. Let it go, had to go to the store and do chores. When I got ready to drain the cheese, it was 10:00AM, so the cheese set for 18 hours. It had pulled away from the sides and curds were nice a shiny solids. I used one of my cheese molds to scoop out the curds and drain in a bag. Hung it from the microwave handle over a cake pan. After most of the dripping was done, I moved it, to drip over a bucket and get it out of the way.

I looked a numerous recipes and came up with the formula above based on several. I'm going to let it drain 6-8 hours but can go up to 24 (again depends on whose recipe you look at). I want it to be thicker, so will probably let it go at least 8 hours if not a little longer.

Canning: Beets

Yesterday I canned 10 pints of beets. I've got the process down now after doing it for several years. I wish I had more time, maybe I'll be able to can some salsa in the next week or so. Here's my beet recipe.

3 pounds beets: clean, cut leaves off leaving 1-2 inches of the leaf attached to the beat (keeps them from bleeding while they cook). This will make 5 pint jars.

Cover with water, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes, till tender.

Drain in colander, rinse with cold water and remove skins and leaves, then dice. I make my dices 1 inch or smaller, so it heats adequately in the processing.

In a large sauce pan combine the following ingredients and bring to a boil:

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
4 cups apple cider vinegar
3 tbs pickling spice (I put the spices in a loose leaf tea brewer)

Add the diced beets, simmer 5 minutes.

At this point, use the normal canning procedures: Fill hot jars, leave 1/2 inch head space and process (at sea level) 30 minutes.

There's enough beets left in the garden for us to have some fresh beets a couple times. Going to plant and can more in the fall.

And Everyone Lived Happily Ever After

The bulls are gone, the protective momma donkey is gone, the routine is starting to feel normal (milking, feeding) so it's like a calm has started to settle in. We've been running crazy it seems like since last October (about the time we bought the bulls) and I've got lots of posts to write up about some stuff that happened since Jeff decided to get two cows.

Everyone out in the pasture seems to be getting along pretty well, horses, donkey and goats. Maybe we've finally reached the pinnacle and things will steady out a little bit.

Today I'm going to start saving the milk again for our own use. I've been throwing it out ever since I had to give the goats wormer and a med for coccidiosis. Need to write some posts up about that, we've made a mess of goats and eventually it will be equines, with the way we wormed them. Just like all the people who've taken antibiotics for colds for the last 50 years, we now have super penicillin resistant bugs. The animals have super resistant worms all from rotational worming and treating all goats, not just the ones with the high worm counts. Anyway, I did do fecals before worming them, but that's for another post.

So my milk has been on hold till the meds clear Edna's system (just try finding the appropriate milk withdrawal time (MWT) for specific meds for goats on the internet. You'll find so many conflicts and contradictions, you'll feel like you got tied up in your under-wear). Another post topic!

Anyway, safe milk handling. What is it? I bought two books when we got the goats. I wanted to learn a lot about goats, but I also wanted to find out what the process was for safe milk handling. I don't care whether the goal is to pasteurize or not, just what is the procedure for safe milk handling. Well both books said, "You should safely handle your milk." That's it!!!

So then I go to the internet. Where are the we pages that specifically describe safe handling of milk. It's pretty much like the wormers and MWT for goats.

My best source of information came from Fiasco Farm. The lady should write a book, she's got more goat information that's in line with reality and actually how to do things than the two books I bought. Jeff told me to call her and offer to be her ghost writer and get all that good stuff she has on her web site on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. Another source I found that was pretty good was from a guy that I believe is a retired professor from some university (science department). I can't find the web site now and don't remember his name. Can't believe I didn't save it because he had lot of good tricks to the trade. (Found the web site: David B Fankhauser. He is or was Prof of Bio/Chem at the University of Cinncinnati.)

Anyway based mostly on those two web sites and some other books. I've come up with my own safe milk handling procedure. If that ain't something. I've just caused some other person to get tied up in their under-wear over this and added to the contradictions that abound on the internet.

Tomorrow I will post everything I do to safely handle my milk. I might be wrong, I might be right, but it is what I do. Gotta go milk my goat :)

Stacey

Jeff, The Bull Raiser

For months we been trying to decide what to do with the bulls. Should we send them both to the live stock market, or send one to a butcher? They are really growing now and with it being summer and all the pretty little cows down the road, I've been worrying about the 2 AM phone call..."Your bulls are in my cow pasture..."

The cows have been a learning experience, probably one of those things, we're glad we did it, but probably not the right thing for us. We aren't set up for it, we don't have crowding pens or shuts, they won't fit in our cute little 1970's horse trailer, and they got really big!!

After weighing a lot of negatives and positives, we decided to send them to the auction and not fool with butchering one. They are bulls, and Jeff read lots of info about the effect of testosterone on meat quality and taste, it wasn't worth it to us to spend the money on something that might not be very good.

Jeff arranged for Stacey and Steve (the people who have our momma donkey Claire) to bring their stock trailer up and take the bulls to the auction. This sounded feasible. Jeff got the bulls up in the round pen after he got home from work. We waited for Steve to get here. We planned on putting some feed in the trailer and shooing the bulls into the trailer. Go figure, bulls don't shoo!!

We've watched these bulls for 9 months. We bought them at 6 months of age (about 500 pounds each, now they are around 1200). They play a little, mostly they butt heads and see who can push who across the pasture. The Brahma/Angus cross likes to act brave and shake his head and snort at Jeff when he's on the tractor. But other than that, these bulls move slow and we figured they would shoo.

The last thing they wanted to do was get in a trailer. They ran around the round pen, bucked, pawed the ground, and stomped. Jeff and Steve chased after, blocked, and mostly tried to stay away from them. Jeff kept saying, "This isn't going very well."

I gave Steve a buggy whip and Jeff had a riding crop trying to use them as props to block and direct the bulls (we're set up for horses not cattle). After a lot of stomping and running, we've attracted more attention, the four-legged kind. Lined up along the fence, watching all this commotion were two horses, a donkey, and three goats. The looks on their faces said, "We don't ever want to go where these bulls are going." You can get the image. If we didn't really want to get rid of them, it was quite funny.

Finally we stopped the chasing; it wasn't working. These are pretty calm bulls, they've got fed every day, they get bread and bun treats, they get petted, they've been acclimated to us being around outside all the time, they have horse and donkey friends, and they lay in the grass under the tree watching us fool with the little goats. They have NEVER been chased.

Jeff got the idea to use the round pen as a crowder. He and Steve started bringing in the sides, slowly pushing the bulls to the front, towards the trailer. They ended up with a long shut aimed for the trailer door.

Jeff and I started talking to the bulls. My mom says we have this distinctive "voice" when we're talking to our animals. I'm sure Steve, an experienced stock man and someone we don't know very well, thought we were those goofy kind of people. I can hear him telling his farmer friends, "You should have heard these two people talking to the bulls!" I mean who talks sweetly to bulls. I'm sure we resembled Maureen O'Hara and Juliet Mills, talking and whistling for Vindicator, the bull, in the Jimmy Stewart film, The Rare Breed.

We kept talking to the bulls, like we always do, and they calmed down. With the round pen getting smaller and crowding them, they jumped right up in the trailer. I tried not to think about them ending up in the slaughter house as the trailer pulled out of the drive.

I got a call from Jeff about 40 minutes later, excitement in his voice. He told me the guy at the auction place said multiple times, "Those are the nicest bulls I've seen in a long time, they won't end up at the slaughter house, some farmer will buy them to breed to his heifers."

I'm so proud of my husband! It was a lot of hard work, the learning curve was steep and never ending, yet he ended up raising two bulls destined to father the next Angus steaks you get at the grocery!!!

Oakmoon Farm Goat Husbandry Class

I went to Cynthia Swain's Goat Husbandry Class at Oakmoon Farm in Bakersville NC. I attended her cheese making class last April and learned a lot about cheesemaking. The Goat Husbandry class was wonderful. Learned lots about goat care, some tricks to the trade and got to practice hoof trimming on some of her goats. Thought this was interesting, not sure about the science of it, but she said if you want to be up all night during kidding season then feed your goats at night. If you want the kids born during the daytime then feed the goats in the morning. Goats want to get that last meal before they kid, so they will put off delivery if it's close to feeding time. They start milking their goats once per day (feeding time) in September and they do it in the morning.

Her husband Dewain taught the portion of the class related to fencing and shelters. I told him he should write a book, because his goat stories were hilarious and he had us all laughing. Having lived on a small farm now for 7 years, I can attest to his profound statement. "When you do any sort of project do it permanently from the beginning, rather than temporary with the intention to come back later and make it permanent, because on a farm, temporary becomes permanent."

Tess the Donkey Stands Up to Edna the Goat

I figured this would happen sooner or later. Tess, who has been timid with the goats, decided she'd had enough. She needed to take charge. She was eating her breakfast without causing anyone any trouble, while I was feeding the little girls and getting ready to milk Edna. Edna decided that she didn't want to wait for me to get her breakfast set up on the milk stand and assumed that Tess would be willing to share. Edna has done this before and usually Tess backs up and looks mournfully at me. Not today, she reached over and mouthed Edna's ear. Edna came running to me so I could check out her ear and make sure it was still there. It was, no breaks in the skin, no damage. Edna didn't learn her lesson though and headed back to Tess's feed bucket. This time Tess chased her out of the barn. Edna stood outside an cried at me then finally slunk along the side of the barn wall and jumped on the milk stand.

Later I let the little girls out of their stall and Tess decided she need to try out her new found skill, "goat intimidation".  Nothing really serious, but she found out if she laid her ears back and took a few steps towards the impinging goat, the goat ran away. She seemed quite pleased with herself and tired of it. When I left the barn they were all by the picnic table. Goats on top, Tess at the side. Blue Belle and Daisy grooming and kissing Tess's face.

Alpha Skipper

Skipper has always been the alpha male here at Sadie Lady Farm. He showed our angus bull calfs who was boss when they first arrived. They stay away from him even though they out weigh him now. He's let Sadie know that the pasture's his territory and she's welcome to come it, but don't expect to be my long lost dog friend.

So it was a little surprising tonight. He wasn't sure what to do about the goats. Cathy (Jeff's sister) and her husband Cal are down for the weekend and they went out with us at milking time to see all the animals. It was still a fiasco. We still don't know what we're doing or the best way to go about doing what we don't know how to do. 

So we gave Tess her little bit of horse treat in a far corner of the paddock, Skipper and Peanut got theirs a little closer to the barn. And I started rounding up goats in the barn. Well the goats didn't want to be rounded up. All three of them have come to the conclusion that the horses get better meals than they do (by the way, the horses think the goat kibble is better than the stuff they get). So next thing we know, three goats and one horse, SKIPPER, are eating out of the same feed trough. This goes on for a minute, then Skipper realizes his feed level is rapidly decreasing and it's not all going in his stomach. So he backs up a step and looks at them, like "when did you all show up?" Then he lays his ears back but the goats don't notice it, their too busy eating his dinner. He looks over at me with this expression on his face like "How did this happen? Do I have to put up with this?"

Those soft brown eyes get me every time. I swopped up his feed trough while Jeff wrangled the goats into a stall. I gave Skipper some kind words and a thank you for being such a gentleman with such rude barn mates and a little bit more horse feed, with goat feed dressing!

Animal Shuffling

I locked the goats out of the paddock this am, but by the time Sadie and I walked it was raining.

So had to open the paddock back up. Left the crossbar at the stall door down so they could go in and eat a little, they were all at the hay bin. Later if I get a chance I'll go down and lock them out of there also. Tess is with horses. I know this week is crazy, and all this rain is not cooperating. But next week I think we should put the boys up front in the daytime and lock goats and Tess out of Paddock. I think she will stay with them if she has no one else. Also might just leave boys in front at night for a week. I have a feeling she likes the horses, so there might be nothing we can do about that, though she's perfectly fine with the goats if that's all she has for company.

Sadie just came running in and dove under the computer. Went to look outside to see what was going on. Down pour, saw Skipper racing across the pasture to get under the trees, Tess trotting along behind him. Now all three of them are under the trees, Tess in the middle. I think the boys have been more receptive to a girl than if we had got a gelding. Goats are in the barn, looking out at me, like I should be able to stop the rain.

Multi-Species Farming

I had forgot the horses were in the back when I opened the gates this am. So Tess left and sort of stayed half between them and the run in shed. Just went out to take a look and she was in the paddock, could see the goats lying by the far stall.

Next thing, Skipper peeks his head out, he and Peanut were snoozing in the run in with the goats. So I kicked the whole menagerie out and shut the gates. Skipper seems to like Tess, walks by her without raising a big stink and she was grazing pretty close to him. Blue Belle likes Peanut, she was kissing him and pulling his tail, now they are fighting over the same pieces of grass. Edna is a little ticked that she can't get back in the paddock and Daisy is the one letting me know that Edna is ticked :)