Dragon's Tongue

 They look like Easter or some women's tea party bean don't they? Pretty in pink I'd say and yes, not every one of these beauty's in the photo is a Dragon Tongue for you bean connoisseurs can see one imposter in there but hey, I'm in a rush to get things done. Looks like the weatherman has changed his mind again and we are forecast today to get not .06 inches of rain but .93 and those temperatures he was warming up must have been wishful thinking because we are back down to freezing for tomorrow night and the next with just 40's in the daytime. Plus that snow forecast they took away is back in a greater measure. He hasn't a clue. 

I was watching our youngest granddaughter all day yesterday, 'she is a cutey paooty', and then of course church activities in the evening for the kiddos who stay here. That means putting the pedal to the medal today on getting the garden stripped, in the rain if necessary.  I figured when I picked these Dragon's Tongue that I had better make shell beans of them. There is no way they will make dried bean stage and they were past the fresh eating phase.

Dragon's Tongue is our children's favorite bean for fresh eating especially just picked from the garden to munch on. When canned it looks kind washed out, blah and not as appetizing as the traditional bean of that is my opinion anyway. I've grown these beans many times but never have I been able to get them to reach the dried bean stage.

So as a last hurrah, I used up the last of my seed and our kids can grow them if they wish since they are all grown up now.

We ate some fresh and then I let the rest of the Dragon's tongue beans go develop to the shell stage. I had three other fresh beans going with two kinds on a trial basis so I wasn't in great need of fresh beans. 

The bean in the photo on the right is fresh stage and the one on the left is shell. 
 

As a shell bean when blanched, they are gorgeous in looks but how will they taste? We shall see as I chose to blanch for 3 minutes and then freeze this time instead of can because there were so few. I've never frozen shell beans. I've never done much of anything with the shell stage. In fact, I'd never even heard of shelled beans until a few years ago. There apparently is a whole different taste to them. Since the dried bean varieties I have chosen can be eaten fresh, shelled, or dried; I may just have to try each variety at all of those stages. You never know what the weather will bring. The Weather Channel said we are going to experience temperatures to 25 degrees lower than normal this week. 

Many believe the weather will become more unpredictable in the years to come. The scriptures foretell of it and it is a no brainer that the earth has weather cycles. We had far more snow in my grandmothers childhood than in mine or my children's. A mini ice age may be around the corner. It has happened before why would it not happen again? Or on the flip side, the earth may experience a global drought. Change is inevitable. I just figure we had better change with it and not get stuck thinking beans can only be eaten dry and green. 

Handling The New Milker

You got her on the milk stand, HURRAY! She's eating her grain, great! You reach for her teats to milk and she squats down. Her udder tucked inside the milk bucket. Surely she can't hold this position for long? She can't so she uses the bucket as a prop and there she remains eating her grain. You stare, wondering how in the world you are going to fit your hands inside and milk her. Actually you won't but then you might have figured that out by now. Been there? Me too, more times than I can count. In my experience of 32 years of milking goats, a few horses, pigs, sheep, and yes - cows, I've learned a few lessons and have some tricks up my sleeve. 

I'll share some of those with you in regards to milking goats. The other species have tricks unique to them but that won't be discussed today. The first tip is to breed your doeling at around 60 or 70 pounds. You want them to kid when after they turn 1. You might think dairy goat yearlings milking for the first time is way too young. Actually for you and for them it is better. It will require a good feed program yes. But having kids at one does not stunt their growth when fed properly. Speak to any National Dairy Show herd owner and they all breed to kid after they turn one - not two. A linear appraisal judge, I believe it was Whiteside (He was awesome and very matter of fact.) ended a debate I had with a couple friends of mine on the subject. The increase in hormones helps physically and mammary wise in their development. The guy should know, he was raised on a goat dairy and has had goats for probably his whole life. Keep in mind I am speaking of dairy goats. I can not speak for the smaller breeds or meat breeds. 

I prefer the smaller size as they are easier to handle. If need be, you can physically lift them on the milking stand. Don't think because they have been on the stand since they were a month old that they will automatically jump up. Their udder fills and all of a sudden it is, 'Oh my, can I really jump up on that stand. It looks so high?' You think I'm being dramatic - oh just wait, you haven't seen drama until you've met a yearling Nubian who's milking for the first time. Be sympathetic, they are like a hormonal teenager, their body has changed and that makes everything so much more emotional and difficult. You WILL have to be patient and yes, you may have to at least lift that now so..... heavy back end up for them. Usually you can get them to put their front feet up and then of course they will want to work there front legs over to where they can eat the grain but not resort to putting the back end up too. Simply stand where they can't reach the grain unless they jump up. It usually works best if you position yourself so they have to mount from the back end of the milking stand. Don't pressure any more than absolutely necessary. It just impedes progress.


You've physically lifted them on the stand, yes!! They are eating their favorite grain, good. Now how do you get around the newby squat. Simple - you don't use a bucket. Instead get a baby bottle or anything similar that you can grip nicely. You grab hold of the baby bottle in one hand and the teat in the other. Then squirt the milk into the bottle. Yes, that means a larger mouth on the bottle is needed. It takes longer but then you can milk almost the whole herd before you get that first time milker done so plan on it. Think ahead of something the girl can eat that isn't all grain like pelleted hay. It could take a while and you don't want to cause tummy scours from an over load of COB. Word of caution milk makes the bottle slippery and you will get some milk on the outside so frequently empty the milk into your milk bucket which is preferably not on the milk stand that she is tap dancing on. With the baby bottle you can still milk to a degree while the tap dance is going on, very important because you have to teach her that the show must go on. Now if it a high stepping  Riverdance leap kind of stepping then a bit of preparatory work is in order first.

Put the milking supplies to the side and simply put your hand on her udder -- firmly. No tickling! Sometimes I run my hand down the hip because they are use to that and then stop on the udder. When she begins to become more comfortable with that, then move your hand a short distance (remember firmly) and then stop with your hand still on her udder. Do NOT take your hand off. If she holds relatively still for a  millisecond then remove your hand. Begin again and when that area is good, move your hand further and further until you are feeling the whole udder. If she can remove your hand by kicking and thrashing then she will do it because it works. Teach her that what works is to hold relatively still and your hand will leave. Slowly keep your hand on her udder longer and longer as she tolerates the touch better. 

Pudge is hardly a Newby but she liked my to lean into her slightly. One could hardly help but not to she was always so pudgy. 

 
Some newbies like you to lean gently into them as it gives them reassurance. 

For safety sake, so the newby does not fall off the other side while their neck is locked into the stanchion, we have a side on our stand. I lean on the doe gently and she leans into the side. This often calms them down. Goats cluster in the corner pressed up against each other and the wall or fence when frightened. I just take a page out of their own play book and use it. When they are relatively calm with this, then move to the next step.

Don't milk, just hold your hand (just one) in the position of milking with your fingers around one teat. Less stimulus for the newby. Then I release my hand when the behavior is positive or in other words they hold still even a short, short time. See a pattern? When the goat begins to tap dance less and hold still more, then I hold my hand a little longer and a little longer as the behavior grows more positive. Speak sweetly to her. Not, "You little piece of ......!" Unless you can say it in the kindest of ways. This is all suppose to be positive. 

You want the milk stand to represent good things like grain, a more comfortable udder, and gentle hands. This reward system does take skill to develop but it works incredibly well. When one hand is excepted reasonably well then move on to using two hands. Be aware that it might be a one hand at a time milking method for a few weeks. My well prepared yearlings are almost all milked one hand at a time for the first week and sometimes two.

Now let's say you can milk her but she still has the occasional kick. Most newbies do for a while. Just put the bucket in back of her legs and squirt to the south end because 99 percent of goats will kick forward with the leg or legs. Occasionally I've had one try and kick with both legs. Yeah, it ends up with an upset heap on the milking stand. Normally they don't do that twice. The whole getting comfortable having you handle intimate parts of their anatomy takes time, weeks of time if preparatory work was not done. If the newby was worked with far in advance of kidding then all this newby behavior is usually over in a week or a little longer with intermittent forgetfulness.

I start training my doelings at this age. Handle the doeling everywhere. Pick up her feet and especially rub in the area of her udder. You aren't milking at this stage just preparing to so don't tug on the teats. 

I sold a yearling this spring with her two male offspring and the buyer is thrilled. He says his grandson is milking her while she stands un-tethered in the middle of the pen. He just thinks she is the most laid back goat he has ever seen. My husband failed to tell him that I trained her to do that. I train ALL my yearlings to do so. If the preparatory work is done, it is quite simple to do. I get the newly kidded doeling up against the fence and press against her. Keep her from moving forward by putting a knee in her way if need be, then shift backwards a bit toward the udder. On rare does I have to tie them to the fence to stop the forward motion. Then I press and milk one baby bottle at a time, milking one side and then the other going back and forth to encourage the let down.  A nice udder massage works wonders to help her let down. I use it on the milk stand also when needed for the young and older does. 

 I searched and searched for pictures of newbies being milked and realized I didn't have any pictures 
and now even this last little doe who kidded this year is gone. I have only a buck and one doe left, both Saanens and the beginning of a new herd.
 
I fill bottles with colostrum and make sure the newborn kids get plenty within the first hour of birth. I don't worry about their nursing until they get on their feet strong. Just takes a few hours. Then either work I teach the kids to suckle or simply leave the kids with the mother and milk her in this un-tethered position multiple times a day. For me it is much easier than keeping milk in the refrigerator and heating it up four times a day.  When newborn I also milk and feed in the middle of the night for 2 to 3 nights initially. Frequent demand stimulates the mother's milk production increasing her supply.

From the time the kids are small, I have them getting on the milking stand with a reward of a small treat. It does not have to be every day but at least a couple times a week. The last few weeks of a yearling does pregnancy, I do not ask her to get on the milking stand. It is hard with the weight of twins or triplets. Yes, most of mine have twins and even the occasional set of triplets.  I do not ask the doe to get on the milking stand for the first three or four days after kidding. They are sore. I milk squatting or kneeling on the ground.  Even though they have been on the stand for a year and their udder handled frequently in the pen and on the stand, they will do some dancing. It is uncomfortable. You nursing and past nursing moms know what I'm talking about. 

Even with all this preparing of the doeling, they will might do the newby squat and dance. This will last for a short while and in comparison very mild to what you would have dealt with had you not prepared her.The last yearling I worked with this year held one leg up the whole time when milked. At least she couldn't dance in that position. It worked for her. It worked for me.By next year I'm sure both feet will be on the ground. I think anyway since I sold her.

Which Way Do You Milk?

Forward Facing Method

I've milked a number of goats over 32 years. Some my own but also a number of goats that were not. In our previous location I was called fairly often to do chores for neighbors. I've also milked not  animals not familiar to me until I latched on to their udders. If it is a horse or cow it can become exciting and needs to be done with skill and caution because of the potentially powerful kick that may follow. With goats, not so big a deal. There is a basic formula and the details the goat will let you know about in a hurry. One friend's goats let me know that were milked from the back while straddling the milk stand. For me pulling the udder backwards in this manner is awkward but who am I to argue. It just makes things more difficult and after all I'm only a brief visitor in their milking cycle.  Besides who wants goats that jump about and spill the milk?

As for me, I preferred the traditional front facing backwards position. You can see I've been doing this for years and years as this was a long time ago in another location. Most of my goats have a preference for this method. In part because the person I occasionally buy goats from using the same traditional milking style. A word of warning, this works great for does fully trained to the milk stand BUT...

But not so good with many new milkers which have a tendency not to keep their feet still. Flies, impatience, and being uncomfortable, all play into the their feet striking forward. Yup, right into the milk pail often ending up spilling the milk or standing in it. I can see you goat owners nodding your heads. We  have all experienced this. I've learned a few training tricks and milking positions that help prevent mishaps, enough for a whole other blog so you'll just have to wait in suspense. 

You can see why the traditional method of milking is the number one of choice among most milkers. The teats are or should be positioned to drain straight down into the pail. 

Yet, I do milk my does in varying positions at different times of the year and at different ages of the doe. During a heavy fly time of the year I put the pail behind the doe and milk into it so that when she kicks it is not liable to spill the milk. No matter what you do in a small operation it seems when fall peeks its head inside the door, the flies come biting with a vengeance. I train my does at a year old when they first freshen to stand in the middle of an open area - untethered - with just a little grain in a pan while I squat on the ground and milk. Most will even stand without the grain. Especially handy when you just want to fill a few baby bottles to feed kid. Warm from the tap is so much easier. And since I feed four times a day when the kids are newborn or especially small it saves time.  It also helps bring in the does milk much faster and at a greater rate of production. 

That is if I don't leave the kids on their mother. Why I leave some kids on their mother and why I bottle feed others is another blog worthy post. 

The third method is a modified version of the backwards facing position. I wrap my left arm around the goats right back leg and my right arm in between the legs. The bucket in the rear. This one is especially for Belle. Though I've modified many of her poor behavioral habits that she had when she arrived, this one is just not going away. She is the most bullheaded goat I've ever worked with. Not a high winding kick, just a low spasmodic kick, just enough to spill the milk. When she is especially bad, I tie the leg upward off the ground so she has to hold still or fall over. 

Other times she gets a "Bell..e!" in a perfect rendition of the Disney step-sisters on Cinderella when they call her to come hither to prepare them for the ball. Hear it? To counteract this angering habit, the pail is in the rear but I'm facing backwards with my arms twined unusually through her legs. The only set back is you have to make sure and not bump her legs and cause a kick. I usually rest my left arm against her right leg, the one that kicks, which helps remind her not to kick and lowers the number of times that she does it. This girl will not stay for much longer.

So.... which way do you milk? And why would be even more enlightening.  

Range Free Eggs

 Aye, me has plenty of blogs to write about and even the pictures too but life is throwing curve balls a mile a minute and I've not the time. So please bear with me. I'm doing me best. Today, a light hearted Irish spirited post. Me husband thought one thing and I another when I put up the sign at the end of our sun room.

I painted me chicken and wrote Range Free Eggs and he quite disagreed. I don't always do things right and maybe he would say quite often but this time I would disagree. I know that most folks write 'Free Range' but me doesn't quite understand. To me Free Range means the land does not cost. So that interpreted means land does not cost - eggs. Is one making a statement that one has free land and eggs too? As you can see I'ze a bit confundered about the whole issue. 

 So me house, me sign. Chicken, (see painted chicken) range free. In other words they roam about the place except at night of coarse or we simply would be feeding the wild beasties. Plus, they give eggs - yummy, tasty, healthy eggs. Once explained like that me husband had to quite agree. It made sense. Or is that just me way of thinking?

Of course you may add your opinion, we all have them and you may have another thought pattern instead.

Experiment With Egyptian Onions

 

When a Colorado friend said that I needed Egyptian Onions. I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. But since her goals are essentially the same as mine, she had my interest. Especially since I've failed miserably a number of times trying to start onions from seeds. Oh I can grow the seeds really well and collect them just fine but all the plants that come up are super spindly. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I've done it four times now. I figure if you are going to make a mistake at least you could make a different one each time so you can learn but  yet make progress. I'm still stuck at ground zero.  That is what made this onion that keeps going on its own sound almost too good to be true. When a friend of my husband, who adores my peanut butter cookies, said he had some and offered a few plants. I figured a trade was in order. His parting words of, "Be careful or they will take over the garden." left me a bit nervous but not detoured. Was this like Spearmint?

 

Rest assured they are not and I've decided I want more, and more, and more of these. They really are yummy! A bit strange since they clone themselves forming multiple onion sets on the top instead of seeds but strange can be good. When the sets are too heavy to hold up, the stalk bends over allowing the new plants to touch the soil and form roots. Thus one plant becomes many more and from this propagation method comes the name walking onion. The top set of tiny onion plants gives this plant the name Top Onion and for others they may know it as Winter Onion because it is good from zone 3, which is us, to those in zone 6 where you can pick this hardy onion all year. I've read that there are differing types of these onions but then not all relatives look alike so I'm not surprised. They do all have the strange propagation method.

 With so few plants, I did not cook with any of the onions until this year mainly due to confusion on the subject. I saw lots of recipes for pickling of the little onion sets on top and learned that you pick them when they are at least a half inch in size. But seriously people, I'm not growing these things for a few tiny little onions on top so I kept researching. Meanwhile, I removed the sets off of the tops of a couple plants like you would the flower bulbs that begin to form on traditional onions. 

As I suspected, the energy in the plant went to the bulbs instead of onion top sets. In fact, they gave up growing top sets of onions all together and the bulb increased in size. Now were talking something I can really use.

How big they will get I'm not sure. Like a kid with a pocket full of candy, I had to sample. Everyone on the Internet I listened to said the onion is a bit zesty. I did not taste that. Maybe it is because we live in zone 3 and heat has a tendency to make things hotter in flavor but these onions just tasted like... onion. Maybe a hair, and only a baby hair stronger but to this onion aholic, it was yum dilly ishush. I cut up a couple bulbs and cooked part of them with potatoes. There is nothing like fried potatoes and onions. They are soul mates.

Now I'm thinking why oh why did I not clip the tops of more of the onions while the sets were just beginning to form? I think I'll pretend it is so I'll have lots and lots of Egyptians Onions to do it to next year and you can bet I will. 

As for the rest of you, you can pick the top sets if you like to pickle but it takes a whole heaping lot to amount to anything, so for me, I'm going for the bottoms. If you are harvesting enough bottoms, you can be sure these onions are not going to take over the garden and how could you not. They are too yummy to let walk away.

While I was eating the bottoms, I tasted the top sets too. One has to compare and after all it is what everyone is talking about. Very mild in flavor like I suspicioned - similar to traditional onion stalks. For me that is what this onion is missing. Good tender stalks. The mature stalks are rather tough and woody. They say you can use these onions in the early spring like bunching onions and the stalks at that stage are tender but alas, I did not. Seems to be alot of that this year.  Maybe next year I'll feel I have enough to use these as spring onions. They should be ready just about the time my stored onions run out or the last few are getting soft. How perfect is that? Thank you dear friend. These are indeed a must have for my garden. 

Goat Teats

Udderly gorgeous - that's Comedy. She earned her Permanent Championship certificate in great part because of her udder. But there is more to a pretty udder when you are the one milking morning and night for 9 to 10 months. In this discussion I want to talk about teats. I've milked long ones, fat ones, skinny ones, and even ones that I had to milk with three fingers which makes it more challenging. 

Hannah, our yearling, had tiny teats when she first freshened. It was a three finger milk job so I left her doelings on her and they stretched them out. Of course my three fingers kept milking her out once a day to make sure she was emptied until the kids did their job. Then I have kept milking as the two doelings have a favorite side emptying one more than the other. Recently I've noticed that Now one teat has become longer than the other. Not quite what I had in mind. I'd say it was the kid's fault but I know better as it has never happened before and I've had dairy goats 33 years. It must be on the bucks side and something genetic. I'm not as familiar with his relatives. I'll blame on him anyway as that sounds as good a reason as any.

I always say, "Pretty is as pretty does." for I've had some goats with pretty udders that were not fun to milk and I'm not talking about their personalities. Leah was just such a goat. That girl had looks but it took all my strength to squeeze milk out of her. Not fun! It seemed like a competition between her keeping it in and my trying to get it out. Milking her took time and all my strength leaving my hands cramping and the end. The problem was orifices that were too small. An orifice is the hole in which milk comes out. You can not imagine how many times I wanted to take a hot needle and poke a bigger hole. Would it have worked? I wondered. But I'm sure Leah would never had let me come near her again.

Too big an orifice hole and the doe is susceptible to mastitis since it leaves a wide open space for bacteria to crawl inside.  Too large a teats in circumference and it is hard to grab a hold of and squeeze. It also makes it hard for kids to put the teat into their tiny mouths to suckle. Too small and the funnel has little area for the milk to pool before coming out and it takes more squeezes.

 

Another thing you can not tell from the show ring is the exact placement of the orifice hole. Orifices are not always placed at the bottom of the teat. If not, you have to turn your wrist so as to aim at the bucket and it takes a bit of practice. Sometimes I get a doe with just one side that goes askew, and sometimes it shoots off in odd directions on both sides. That takes a little finesse. A new doeling does not appreciate your squirting her in the leg or belly until you get the hang of it. Even when you do, you'll still mess up on occasion. I do anyway. 

You don't want a doe with teats too large because it is hard to get a good grip. Too long and they are likely to get caught on fences and rip. So like Goldilocks, "not too big and not too small" is best. It is also a bit of preference. I know people who like larger teats and as for myself I don't. My hands are small. And of course you do not want does with more than two teats. The extra or extras may not function but they might and anyway they are not a genetic trait you want to pass on. These are things one often does not pay attention to when buying a doe but since you have to deal with it so often, it pays to check it out before you hand over the money. For a little more visual reference on correct teat placement, I've added the ADGA sites page on udders. But I'm curious, what do you have in your barnyard? 

  http://adga.org/seeing-a-dairy-goat-by-the-numbers/

Goat Feed Charts

The first chart helped me evaluate goat performance on kidding and milking behavior. This next goat chart I designed is all about feed input and milk output. Grain in particular since we feed hay from large round bales and though I'd like to know how much hay we feed on average, we have no way to weigh wheel barrows of hay so we are concentrating on grain consumption.

In the past, I just fed grain equal to consumption while I was milking - hardly money saving. Goats who ate quickly received more grain than goats that savored their food. Not good for those who easily kept weight on and ate fast consuming lots of grain. Not good for the slow eaters that needed more grain to keep weight on but ate little. Belle does not keep weight on as easily and Comedy, though far larger in size, needs the same amount but is far fatter. So what is the solution? How much grain should I feed? First, I simply measured grain and watched to see how much the two does on average cleaned up in the amount of time it took for me to get them milked. It was one pound. So I fed one pound. BU...T when Belle was just enough slower that that last little bit of milking was done with restless leg syndrome in full force leaving me nervously guarding the milk pail. 

So I tried using a mixture of whole oats and whole wheat mixed in with the COB (rolled corn, oats, and barley). The volume is less because it is heavier but it solved the faster eating problem. I refuse to feed more grain since Belle is already producing two pounds of milk less than Comedy. 

Comedy was doing well with the COB but not increasing in milk production. She was milking eleven pounds before she arrived and the stress dropped her down to five and a half. Now she has dropped even further and quit eating hardly any grain at all. Her milk is dropping fast.That means I need fast action so I hit the internet as I'm wondering if she is getting enough grain. How much grain should a doe get on average for each pound of milk production?
    

 This website gave me an idea. http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/dairy/feed-and-nutrition/feeding-dairy-goats/ If I get there formula correctly then Comedy when milking eleven pounds of milk per milking would need the maximum amount of grain recommended which is four pounds. Wow!! that is a lot of grain and money. Do I really want milk from that much grain? Of course milk from grass is far more healthier for you. I also wondered how much grain has to do with production? Of course you are what you eat whether you are an animal or human.
I looked for another site and this is what I found. 
http://www.milkproduction.com/Library/Scientific-articles/Other-milking-animals/Feeds-and-nutrition//
The site did not answer my question except to tell me that I should be feeding a very uncomfortable amount of grain.The first site even said up to half the feed input. No way am I doing that. Can't afford it and can't believe it is healthy for them.  BUT this site was super helpful in explaining the relationship of feed and production at different times during the does lactation cycle. I'm definitely copying it and studying it further. It is clear that feed changes need to be made in advance of periods throughout lactation because body reserves are being consumed to keep up with milk production. 

But back to solving my problem. This chart will help, maybe not right away but in time for it will show patterns I can learn from and make changes. It has the Current date, does name, how far the doe is in her lactation, type of feed or feeds being fed, how much, and amount of milk produced. Notations can be made for weather and other disturbances since heat and cold do change production amounts as well as changing milking times. I kept records for several weeks and it has helped me make changes to it so it better suites my needs. Things were the same as far as amount of grain and amount of milk production. I realized that doing it every day was not necessary. Several times a week works fine. But when I stopped for a week, or was it two, because of craziness in life, things had greatly changed .... Comedy is only picking at her grain and the milk pail shows it. 

So when we hauled the kitchen garbage to the land fill today, we went shopping for feed. I bought some beet pulp to help with digestion...love the stuff. I bought some pellets that combine grain and alfalfa hay because our present bale of hay is not the best quality. I bought goat pellets. I've never used goat pellets but I thought I'd see what they do. I will mix in the remaining COB also. May be a pain to weigh each of them but what I am presently doing is definitely not working well. Since my greatest successes have been when I mix my own grain combinations then I'm going back to that.

So do you think a chart like this would help you? Any suggestions?