The Crazy Goat Lady: Happy Farm Days....

The Crazy Goat Lady: Happy Farm Days....: 17 goats now.... but selling all the Alpines so I can concentrate on the Nigerian dairy herd. I am just so impressed with these little goats...

Back Again! but in a new way...

Hi out there! If anyone is still checking in my blog I have started a new blog... thats more fitting to my "lifestyle change" and my new business ventures!

I blogged a few times on the farm blog The Bald Man started but it just never clicked with me to keep blogging on it so I'm off with my own blog again... AND I'm SEWING again. It took awhile to get back into the swing of things but I think I've got it together now. This is Sienna, a beautiful and friendly French Alpine

Anyways, my new blog is http://thecrazygoatladyproducts.blogspot.com/

I will be blogging about sewing projects, farm life and my animals, food preservation, gardening, my goat milk beauty products and recipes to make your own... crochet and probably a few odd things here and there!

And my new farm/buisness website is http://www.thecrazygoatlady.com

My new business is making goat milk soap, lotions and other beauty products made with goat milk... useing milk for beauty products is nothing new.. Cleopatra was said to have bathed in milk daily ... so treat yourslef like royalty and use goat milk on your skin too!

.. my Esthetics training has really helped me with this new business in developing the products. I'm very excited about the products.. I used to spend TONS on skin care in the past.. being an Esthetician I won't just use any old thing on my skin.. I've been testing my products ( and making my family test them!) for months and they are great!!!

Sewing skills are also used in my new accessory line I'm selling!

I'm doing gift sets too.. (keep that in mind when looking for unique Christmas presents)

Above is Melody, Chewbacca, Starbucks

I'm happy to be sewing again... my sewing is just taking a whole new approach.. a more"green" appoach that I'm loving.

BTW: I will be selling my collection of BWOF and Threads magazines if anyone is interested.

Also a well cared for Babylock coverstitch machine and a hardly used TacSew Blindhem for very very good prices...I also have some very very fancy fabrics for sale from Rex's in Miami , Gail K's in ATL and even some designer stuff from Panama City, Panama. ... if interested in anything or all of it let me know... leave a comment, your email and I'll write you with details.

Some of my chickens and my mean rooster (who might end up Thanksgiving dinner if he keeps flogging me!)

So please check out my new blog and website. I'd love to hear from you guys agian. I'm excited to be back on the blog bandwagon!

Take care and God Bless!

Farming doesn't leave time for blogging

Meet Meg! One of my lovely Nubian dairy goats. Twice a day everyday, morning and evening I milk the girls! And its awesome!!! Better than I ever thought it would be.
Now that we are "mostly" settled I am enjoying the farm more and more everyday. There's so much to do! Which makes this life so perfect for me.
As for sewing... well... I have some fabric for curtains picked out! And I'm going to embroidery my bedroom curtains... other than that I don't have much planned... sewing will be become what I mostly do in the winter I think...
As for crocheting.. none of that right now... my weak little hands are building strength to milk the girls! Its no easy thing... but so worth it. Gracie is due anyday now... she is bred to my American Blue buck. She is an American Chinchilla. They are heritage breed rabbits that were bred for meat and their fur. They are now pretty rare since most people who bred for meat breed all white Zealands or Florida whites because they grow super fast. I don't mind waiting an extra month for better meat though.

Guineas, guineas!! I have 22 guinea keets! They are great tick and all bug eaters! They are great "watchers" and will loudly alert you of anyone or anything on your property that isn't supposed to be there. Plus they have tasty eggs if you can find them!

A chicken house is in the works and I have now 4 chicks, but I'm planning to buy layers when the coop is done... maybe 5 to start, then later do some cornish hens for meat. I plan to raise some kind of small game bird for meat to.. most likely quail.
I love eating small individual serving birds for some reason.. they always have super tender meat!

Plans also include ducks and turkeys in the future. And a peacock or 2.. for their beauty and just because I love that loud jungle like noise they make.. I don't plan to have many "non useful" animals on the farm..

I mean we are doing this because we love living like this, but we also want to be self sufficient.. I don't want to buy my veggies from a foreign country with low health standards or a large commercial farm that drown everything with cancer causing chemicals.. plus veggies at the grocery store taste like crap to me . ,.. I want my meat to and dairy to come from well treated, well feed, antibiotic free , happy animals!... but I must have a peacock!

On the more "useful" side... hogs are going to happen!

Also useful... our garden"s"!!!!!!!! My herb garden has started and my vegetable garden will soon follow! I'm even going to plant a garden for the goats!

Here's both the girls, Ginger and Meg! Thanks to them buying dairy is a thing of the past for me... we have fresh milk everyday,, sweet and rich! I make fresh yogurt every week! And I make the BEST tasting Feta and Fromage Blanc cheese ever with their milk!

When my third dairy darling gets here I will have enough milk to hopefully start making some Gouda! My fav! I have a cheese press just waiting... Plus I Love these girls! They are SO fun to have on a homestead! I can't imagine having more enjoyable livestock! Playful, loving! wonderful to be around!!

This is me walking my future Guardian Llama, Lila. Llamas bond with goats and sheep well... if attacked by predators or just chased by your irresponsible neighbors dogs Llamas will protect the herd by trampling the dog if it has to... So Llamas are very useful guards and really pretty

to have around. They also have very nice fur with is sheared once or twice a year and can be spun into yarn... lucky me, my mom is a spinner! With me being a crocheter... well, you know!

How awesome will it be to wear something from my own Llamas fur, that my mom spun and I crocheted! I can't wait. She will be sheared next month before it gets to hot for her.

Lila also likes to hike and will carry things for you! How cute!

I don't know how much I will blog here anymore... I will probably start blogging on mine and the Bald Mans homestead blog. Which seems much more fitting now that we are living our dream!

If we both blog on one blog maybe it won't be so long in between posts. The Bald Man is a busy

farm man these days himself... planting a fruit orchard, large blue berry patch and various things around the farm... cause theres ALWAYS something do to... its wonderful!!

Our farms name.... Gods Blessings Farm

And that it truly is.. I look around everyday and I'm amazed at this beautiful place we live.

Be Blessed!

and feel free to follow the farm adventures on http://homesteadvoyage.blogspot.com

January has flown by...

Alot going on as usual... and no, no sewing to be done with my sewing rooms still all packed up ready to move when everything is all done!
But I have been doing some crocheting... a little bedside rug here... of thick chenille yarn. More and more dish cloths... seriously, if I could stop I would....

and a hat made from suede yarn... the little brim makes it look 'sporty'!

And doing canning, when I have something that needs to be canned. Homemade chicken broth

is a hundred times more flavorful than store bought!

So is homemade mushroom broth!... and alittle Spiced blue berry jam made from some blueberries mom had in her freezer... I love having jars of mushrooms on hand for homemade pizzas!

I waited for months for organic oranges to go on sale... finally! $4 a bag! I wanted to make my own Grand Mariner for Bald man for awhile and since you have to use the zest of the orange they had to be organic, since it took so many they had to be on sale!!! With the left over oranges I made Vin D'orange a French dessert drink and cranberry orange sauce... perfect with duck!

For my birthday weekend... and because we had a timeshare we had to use or loose! we went to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Something fun me and The Bald Man like doing is going to the local wineries... The one below is in Gatlinburg... wonderful Med-Dry wines there!!!!

In Pigeon Forge they have a 'wine trail' thing going on! You go to all three wineries and get a free gift at the last one you visit. We had so much fun... Mountain Valley winery had some nice 'special' limited wines

The Apple Barn winery below had a great limited Cranberry Apple wine we bought...

Hillside Winery,,,, wow!!!! This winery makes Italian style wines and sparking wines (I LOVE bubbles!) All their sparkling wines were awesome!!! We bought some of each one!!! And they had a really nice Pinot!




At the end of our tour we got to cute wine glasses!

And we went to the Lodge iron cookware outlet where I got a huge Iron pizza pan! I love making homemade pizzas and try to have one every week or so.

You'll notice on half the pizza there are no olives... Bald man hates them... I love them!



I eat homemade, well and often!

Since I started my health and fitness kick last December I have never felt better and had more energy.... and I've maintained around 125 without alot of fuss.

Energy is important because I've practically painted the whole double wide myself!!!! Bald Man helped some... he stays busy to! He's not just hanging out or we'd have issues!

Our goat Barn!!!!!! The guy building is almost done... now to get that fencing. Fencing for goats is in some ways more important than the shelter... I mean they need shelter from wind and rain ofcourse...in my case they need a little better shelter because I'm going to put them up at night and not have a guardian animal.
Goats are escape artist... so good strong fencing is a must. I read in one of my goat books this quote: ' A goat spends 23 hours of its day planning its escape and the last hour of the day executing the plan'

Yeah... good strong fencing is a must!


This pic is alittle blurred from the window light... but its our new kitchen cabinets!!! We bought oak unfinished cabinets... we're really trying to spend as little as possible on the double wide so we have more money to put into building the farm... but we did decide spending alittle more money and re doing the kitchen was a must since I cook SO much... and can and will be also making cheeses, yogurts and other dairy products with our goat milk! Yes, a good kitchen is a must for us! For anyone who cooks alot!



The future sewing room is done! And yes, its pink! I have a thing for pink... even though I love working with animals and getting dirty in a garden I'm still such a girly girl!

Thats all for now! We're hoping to start the move in a couple of weeks and be all moved in by the end of the month... thats what we're "hoping" anyways!

Its gets harder and harder to leave the place when we go up to work on it....

Have a blessed week!

Happy Days & Hard Work!

Hope everyone had a fabulous New Years Eve! We had a very nice one... got all dressed up and went to the 5 course dinner event at Chez Liberty... SO GOOD! I even tried a little dish with 'sweetbreads' and had NO ideal what they were... but it was so good after I found out what they were I didn't even care! Now how many people out there know what they are??? Was I alone at not knowing??? Then we Had a bottle of bubbles... And then, I admit, came home at 11 and went to bed! I was asleep before 12!! and it makes me feel like an old fuddy duddy! haha!! But who cares! I was all dressed up in a dress that took me 3 weeks to make with a crochet bolero that took like a month!I love wearing this dress and rarely have an occasion for it.... besides I had to get up early the next morning...

And face things like this...... at our farm to be....

Now this is actually Sunday when my wonderful parents and niece Brittany stopped by to help..

but the day before it was just me and the Bald Man! We got the master bedroom stripped on Saturday... Sunday was dining room day.... Thank Goodness the rest of the rooms are painted!

As big of a disaster our new home looks on the inside right now... the outside makes up for it every time I look out the window.... 2 pictures from our back deck Sunday... it was a beautiful day! Someday soon I will be able to sit on this deck and watch my goats!!!

Everyday is a Blessing from God.... even a day spent stripping wallpaper!!! haha!!!

Hope everyone has a blessed 2011!

A GREAT CHRISTMAS! Part 1

Enjoying one of my favorite presents from Bald Man.. a bolt action .22! Since I've not shot a gun in YEARS this is a perfect gun to start with! Great present!!!

Well, we have been really busy this holiday season... not busy cooking, going to parties, shopping, visiting like most people.. but busy packing... having people lined up to work on our land and the double wide... finding people who can build pole barns, chicken coops, rabbit cages... looking for rabbit breeding stock, visiting the lady I want to buy my dairy goats from, researching the best meat chickens... best layers.... reading, reading, reading all about dairy goats and planning our huge garden!!!!! Patiently awaiting seed catalogs in the mail... drawing out garden plots on the property... drawing out plans for the major kitchen remodel (I gotta have a good kitchen!) and so on and so on!!!

Christmas Eve we kinda took a break from all that and went to my moms for lunch and to open presents... One of my other favorite presents this year was this quilt mom gave me... isn't it soooo pretty!!! Looks like stained glass windows! Yet another fav present was made by my dad... a wooden goat feeder... I'll add a pic of that in my next Christmas post... cause I gotta make two this year! Here's an afghan I crocheted for mom... she liked it so much I even got to take her pic with it... taking pictures of mom is risky business... if you take pictures of her without her permission she won't get you anything for Christmas next year... or birthdays either! Seriously!!!

My son, Brian, sitting by the cable 'yule log' we all laugh at! haha!!

I always try to make Brian something every year... and that can be a challenge with him being a hateful teenager that only likes guitars and his truck. But I made him this T-shirt quilt from a collection of T-shirts his dad bought him from his 'worldly' travels. And he seemed to really love it!
He better... it took so long to make!!! Its looks simple... and it was... just very time consuming!

After we opened presents Christmas eve, we stopped by my Grandmothers then headed out to our farm to be for TARGET PRACTICE! I really liked shooting my little 22! I'm ready for something bigger though.... and a crossbow would be nice...

I think someday I may have as many guns as I do sewing machines!

More later on the stuff I made Bald Man... he was very happy this year!!!

God Bless!! and Praise Him for our Savior! "the reason for the season!!!!"

We have been greatly blessed this year and this Christmas!

ITS OURS!!!!!!!! and other goodies....

The Bald Man and me... out on the town doing a little celebrating! Nights out in Knoxville will be fewer and farther between... and I'll tell you why in a second... First.... I've been crocheting my little hands to the bone.. but with most of the things I've been crocheting are gifts I can't show till after Christmas... But heres a couple of doilies I've done for myself in between presents...

A pineapple doily... I love doilies, they look so elegant and old fashion...

I've been sewing some... again just gifts that can't be shown yet....

But in the kitchen today I roasted a big 'Cinderella' pie pumpkin and made this Pumpkin Chutney... turned out yummy!!! I used a recipe found on Putting up with the Turnbills blog.. you can find their site on the side bar of links I have.

And Pumpkin pie!!! I love real homemade pumpkin pie!!!! And I have so much pumpkin puree leftover I can foresee pumpkin breads, muffins and cookies,, maybe a soup in the next week!

NOW!!! For the BIG NEWS!!! ITS OURS! The land we've been after for months ....

Which will be home to our huge gardens, chickens, goats, ducks... etc!

Its 25 acres in McMinn county (where I'm originally from) this land has everything we were looking for... a creek, woods and pasture... and lots of "extras"...some hills and some flat... there is a double wide on the property now that after we fix it up we will live in until we sell our Knoxville house, then build our little farm house!!

The creek has 2 springs feeding it... heres one of them... just coming right out of the hillside...

The creek is year around which makes it perfect for building ponds that will grow lots of yummy catfish, bluegill and bass!

Future pasture for some of the animals we will have! And a future site for a barn and chicken coop

It has a very nice workshop with electric.... perfect for my workout equipment until we can build a house

This whole area will be a vegetable garden...




Blueberry bushes, gooseberries, blackberries.... plenty of room...

The creek runs through a natural gorge which will make building a very large pond easier.

Its really has everything we were looking for!!! The doublewide is a bonus! and will be great temporary living space until we sell the knox house... which we know in this economy could be awhile... meanwhile... we'll be having barns and fencing built! There's even room for a little fruit orchard! Can't wait to set that up!

We looked at over 30 properties... some raw land that we would have had to spend money on running electric and doing septic systems, digging wells, making driveways.. money that can be used for building up the farm... not with this property... all done...

we also looked at lots of property that had 80 and 100 year old homes that would have had to be gutted! Which would have put us in a bind because remodeling costs a ton and we maybe would have never got the house "right" like so many I've known with fixer uppers....

But like I said... its everything we needed... everything we were looking for. We were so blessed to find the right one that would meet all our needs for building our future farm.

And for a price that was lower than we ever dreamed we would get land for... esp land with so many extras... so so so blessed!!!!

My Bald Man is doing a blog about our "journey" check it out... he's such a funny guy!!!!

http://homesteadvoyage.blogspot.com/

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING!

This post is long and exactly what the title says... its alittle bit of everything I've had going on the last few weeks...
First... my well loved Pfaff Embroidery machine has been getting a workout! $1, $3 and $6 dollar thrift store finds are getting new life!
One of my favorite designs is this skull from Urban Boho... added to these two $1 dollar t shirts!
I'm really starting to love appliques... Here is a hot pink jacket for $3.. I added a pink camo lining in the hood and a design on the front from the same cd..

And the skull again! This one is a reverse applique though...

JEANS!!! How I love them!!!! and I have to say finding thrift store jeans that fit my new size is alot easy than the old size!
The first pair I used design CD Glamour Rocks... ripped the old label and added my little RD...

I also added alot of AB crystals... I guess they are my dress jeans.. haha!

The second pair ... riped the old label again... used the Urban Boho cd again....

You can't see in the pic well but on the lower leg applique theres a little peek a boo skull on one of the flowers...

This top I had forever.. was plain and simple... I added studs, and stenciled the crown and butterflies... AB crystals again....

I also had this plain little jacket for awhile... I added a stretch light blue lining in the hood and a reverse applique from the same fabric on the front... still simple... but no longer boring...

$1 thrift find... from Classic Romance cd by Pfaff.




New boring jean jacket for $1... I'll take it...
and make it fashionable! Useing Glamour Rocks CD again.... I added a few rips and snags.. for the cool worn look, ya know! hahaha!!

Ofcourse AB again.... Love this jacket now!

On the canning front.... the last few weeks I've put up Cumin Pickled Squash, Cran-apple relish, Cran apple Blueberry relish, Pear-cran Chutney and Apple Chutney. All DELICIOUS!







Besides making my Bald Man clothes from time to time I LOVE to cook for him... almost everyday... (one night a week we do try to get out!!!)

Sample meal for the Bald Man: Roasted Butternut Squash soup (homemade, my recipe) sweet potato biscuits (recipe from Mountain Country Cooking) and Spaghetti Squash (from our garden!) with chicken sausage and other veggies (my recipe)





We love fresh food... so the Bald Man is making me some mini hoop houses to cover my fall crops so they will hopefully last longer... so far I'm harvesting Kale and Arugula.. lettuce is almost ready! And Broccoli and cauliflower are one the way.. I hope!!!!

I Love my poodles..... they are so trainable, loving and fun! My red baby is growing fast... 7 months and up to 5lbs! Irish is so sweet! I searched along time for him... he was worth it...





My newest baby..... little chocolate girl, Baby Boo... you can't see well in this pic but she has the prettiest green-amber eyes!

You can kinda see little 2pac in the pic too... he's abit upset in the pic... he's not good at sharing....

I searched along time for a chocolate poodle too! She will be bigger than the boys, which is what I wanted since I do plan to breed her to Irish... she's a 3 generation Chocolate and he's got a very strong red back ground... yep it took awhile for me to find the right ones.... but so, so worth it.. I just can't get enough of them... the Bald man loves'em too... they are just the best dog for the house... no shedding,,, little and they travel well.. most of all they are just so highly trainable!!!

I mean... little 5 lb 2pac (3 and half now) knows over 10 cammands and tricks.. thats alot for any dog.. but esp. a tiny dog! Below is a video of Boo's first night home... she is a feisty little thing! At only 9 weeks old too!!!




Tell next time God Bless!! Enjoy life...