Bruce
Herd Master
I was reading that and there was just the top of a picture showing at the bottom of the screen. Figured you had posted the tumor. Nope, bread!
Hopefully Jasmin will heal and live many more years.
Ragdollcatlady's Just a Little Patch of Weeds Farm journal
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Hopefully Jasmin will heal and live many more years.
Sorry about the issues with kitty... I'm not really a cat person at all. I'm just as indifferent to them as they are to me. IOW, if they are friendly, I'm friendly back, otherwise I ignore them. I really do NOT like feral cats though as they are so destructive to the environment and small animals/birds. That is not including dedicated barn cats as they serve a real purpose for the owner. I'm referring to actual feral animals. I thought/think the bread looks good. No idea about its texture/consistency/taste, but sure would be willing to give it a try. 
Mike CHS
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The bread looks great but how was the taste and texture?
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ragdollcatlady
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I was reading that and there was just the top of a picture showing at the bottom of the screen. Figured you had posted the tumor. Nope, bread!
LOL! Sorry bout that! but the bread was really much more appetizing... 
Trust me on that one! The bread was good, still a little dense, (might need one more rising???) but lighter than the last one, flavor was good too. I went easier on the whole wheat to white flour ratio but I miss the flavor of it... just trying to get a feel for a "guessipe" that works... I hardly ever make my stuff the same everytime so a guess-ipe is about as descriptive a word as you get with me I'm afraid.
Anyways, this time I skipped the sugar altogether (after the initial amount in the starter) and since the starter was sour but not too strong, I just tried it. Bread wasn't sour but didn't seem to have the 'sweet' hint that it usually does. But not bad for just my third try baking this way. I ended up lowering the heat and baking covered longer because I really am not too fond of the crust being so dark, I wanted it lighter. In fact I don't even eat bread on a regular basis..... but I like to make it. Maybe I just like the idea of using my beer starter! 
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ragdollcatlady
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My beautiful buck, Backyard Swagger went to his new home today. and He is one of my sweet guys... woulda stayed forever if I could have. I cant say I would even recognize his voice, he used it so infrequently, very quiet. Not a sound the whole drive, walked nice on the leash.... But he will have many more ladies now, so I am happy for him.... and the 4h kids will get some great things from him in their kids so that makes me happy too.
and He is one of my sweet guys... woulda stayed forever if I could have. I cant say I would even recognize his voice, he used it so infrequently, very quiet. Not a sound the whole drive, walked nice on the leash.... But he will have many more ladies now, so I am happy for him.... and the 4h kids will get some great things from him in their kids so that makes me happy too.
babsbag
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What breed is he?
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ragdollcatlady
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Nigi
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
I've finally caught up to the end of your journal!
Mr. Alaska seems like a really sweet nice guy. I would like to point out a few things though.
Moving from a place where you have "summer" for 8 months of the year to a place with "winter" for 8 months of the year is a HUGE change. If you like sunshine and warmth, green grass, non-frozen water, etc Alaska is going to be a hard hard transition. I live in a cold climate, and i do struggle with seasonal depression(seasonal affective disorder) so does DH. There are many studies on it and it is a real thing. Being mostly trapped in your house for many months with a lack of sunshine is very hard on the human brain. Another side effect is a lack of vitamin D from a lack of sun, most all humans who live in a northern climate are lacking vitamin D even with taking some sort of supplement. Lacking viatmin D makes you feel tired a lot, depressed, have bone/back/muscle aches, and get sick and remain sick more.
water - Do not think your going to use water cups, water nipples, hanging waterers, a trough, etc in late fall/winter/early spring. You will have to use bowls, angle sided pails/buckets, or rubberized waters. You will have to water at least twice a day after knocking the ice blocks out of the dishes. If you can afford it you can get the heated troughs or heated buckets but the buying cost and the using cost get expensive for your whole herd. Add the need to bucket water to them everyday while battling the snow, ice and biting wind.
feed - Animals do indeed require more feed in winter. Our herd on drylot in late spring/summer/early fall requires one bale of hay every day and a half. In winter they are lucky if two bales lasts them a day. For grain we go from 3/4C/head a day to maintain weight in summer, that jumps to 2c/head per day in winter and even then if may not be enough to keep weight. In summer we feed shell corn, in winter we have to feed a shell corn/pellet/sweet feed mix. We always have one or two we have to separate and feed extra too or give a high calorie supplement too.
Birthing - You will need to change your birthing schedule to have kids as late in spring as possible or set up kid pens with heat barrels. Even with precautions frostbit ears to the point they lose part of their ears is a real problem. Not finding out your goat has given birth until 45minutes later has more then once ment dead kids because of the cold. Goat kids/lambs in the house is often required to save their life and once they are in the house you can not put them back outside until it is staying above freezing at night because they are acclimated to house temps. You will want some sort of coats for all kids to help them stay warm. We use dog coats, the foaling style...like this https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sherpa-D...aqVhnO4xWVQxbY3WKU9FHEg3cLTiZfwBoCgLYQAvD_BwE
housing - a wider and lower structure is better for the animals to maintain their body heat and help heat the space. You want as few doors to outside as possible and for them to be as small as they can realistically be. Keep big goats with big goats and little goats with little goats because they will pile up in the cold in a dogpile sort of thing and we did have one of our smaller "adult" goats die from being piled on last winter. If you want to make a taller building with a hayloft thats fine but make sure it is full of hay so it helps insulate. Also look into a composting floor, it is a wreck to clean up in spring but it helps a ton to keep the animals warmer. We have used a composting floor(read as not cleaned the barn in cold seasons) every year we have had livestock. When we had a bigger dairy herd we would sit on the ground and gate milk, you could feel the warmth from the ground even at -20.
You have goats going from the desert to the tundra it is going to be a big transition for them for the first year. I'm not saying all these things to make you sad or worried for no reason, just trying to help to cover all the bases and help the transition go smoothly for the goats. One more thing you need to consider is that elderly, ill, always thin, unthrifty, poor hooved, thin coated animals do not do well in the winter months. The move for them will most likely be a death sentence. These types of animals always require more feed, more supplements, more warmth, more care over all and a lot of times they still dont make it thru winter. So really look at your herd and re-home/sell those who fit into any of those categories as hard as that may be.
There are a few benefits, less parasite problems. Heartworms are not something you need to worry about for your pets. Even the goats who don't like people will try to hang out close to you, human=warm.
That's my advice for what it is worth.
P.S. no goats or 5 goats is so not the right answer!
Mr. Alaska seems like a really sweet nice guy. I would like to point out a few things though.
Moving from a place where you have "summer" for 8 months of the year to a place with "winter" for 8 months of the year is a HUGE change. If you like sunshine and warmth, green grass, non-frozen water, etc Alaska is going to be a hard hard transition. I live in a cold climate, and i do struggle with seasonal depression(seasonal affective disorder) so does DH. There are many studies on it and it is a real thing. Being mostly trapped in your house for many months with a lack of sunshine is very hard on the human brain. Another side effect is a lack of vitamin D from a lack of sun, most all humans who live in a northern climate are lacking vitamin D even with taking some sort of supplement. Lacking viatmin D makes you feel tired a lot, depressed, have bone/back/muscle aches, and get sick and remain sick more.
water - Do not think your going to use water cups, water nipples, hanging waterers, a trough, etc in late fall/winter/early spring. You will have to use bowls, angle sided pails/buckets, or rubberized waters. You will have to water at least twice a day after knocking the ice blocks out of the dishes. If you can afford it you can get the heated troughs or heated buckets but the buying cost and the using cost get expensive for your whole herd. Add the need to bucket water to them everyday while battling the snow, ice and biting wind.
feed - Animals do indeed require more feed in winter. Our herd on drylot in late spring/summer/early fall requires one bale of hay every day and a half. In winter they are lucky if two bales lasts them a day. For grain we go from 3/4C/head a day to maintain weight in summer, that jumps to 2c/head per day in winter and even then if may not be enough to keep weight. In summer we feed shell corn, in winter we have to feed a shell corn/pellet/sweet feed mix. We always have one or two we have to separate and feed extra too or give a high calorie supplement too.
Birthing - You will need to change your birthing schedule to have kids as late in spring as possible or set up kid pens with heat barrels. Even with precautions frostbit ears to the point they lose part of their ears is a real problem. Not finding out your goat has given birth until 45minutes later has more then once ment dead kids because of the cold. Goat kids/lambs in the house is often required to save their life and once they are in the house you can not put them back outside until it is staying above freezing at night because they are acclimated to house temps. You will want some sort of coats for all kids to help them stay warm. We use dog coats, the foaling style...like this https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sherpa-D...aqVhnO4xWVQxbY3WKU9FHEg3cLTiZfwBoCgLYQAvD_BwE
housing - a wider and lower structure is better for the animals to maintain their body heat and help heat the space. You want as few doors to outside as possible and for them to be as small as they can realistically be. Keep big goats with big goats and little goats with little goats because they will pile up in the cold in a dogpile sort of thing and we did have one of our smaller "adult" goats die from being piled on last winter. If you want to make a taller building with a hayloft thats fine but make sure it is full of hay so it helps insulate. Also look into a composting floor, it is a wreck to clean up in spring but it helps a ton to keep the animals warmer. We have used a composting floor(read as not cleaned the barn in cold seasons) every year we have had livestock. When we had a bigger dairy herd we would sit on the ground and gate milk, you could feel the warmth from the ground even at -20.
You have goats going from the desert to the tundra it is going to be a big transition for them for the first year. I'm not saying all these things to make you sad or worried for no reason, just trying to help to cover all the bases and help the transition go smoothly for the goats. One more thing you need to consider is that elderly, ill, always thin, unthrifty, poor hooved, thin coated animals do not do well in the winter months. The move for them will most likely be a death sentence. These types of animals always require more feed, more supplements, more warmth, more care over all and a lot of times they still dont make it thru winter. So really look at your herd and re-home/sell those who fit into any of those categories as hard as that may be.
There are a few benefits, less parasite problems. Heartworms are not something you need to worry about for your pets. Even the goats who don't like people will try to hang out close to you, human=warm.
That's my advice for what it is worth.
P.S. no goats or 5 goats is so not the right answer!
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ragdollcatlady
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@misfitmorgan , Thank you so much for your insight! It is exactly the kind of advice I really want and need. I am trying to figure out the best way to try to make this work. Advice from those that have been there and done that is so very valuable! Thank you again for stopping and adding your 2 cents!
Sometimes things are more about simply what one person needs to survive.
Really personal note here... There was a really terrible time many years ago when I was struggling just to open my eyes and make it through any given hour or day. As broken and neglected as I felt inside, I only kept going because I had 4 tiny, precious little people needing everything I had to give and then some, every hour of every day, and one very dear friend that even knowing my ugliest thoughts and the worst things I did, still loved me and believed in me. I know without a doubt that if I wasn't soooo completely tied up with the full time busyness of just being a mom and tending to all 4 kids needs, that I would have given up. I think that just a few more minutes alone in my head and I would have sunk into the darkness therein ... I really and truly believe that someone knew that I needed that exact amount of being busy, being needed so completely, until the very moment my eyes shut, every single night, to keep going. And I desperately needed to know that one person out there loved me for exactly who I was and nothing I did or said ever changed that. I had what I needed, if "just barely." Again, my full fledged membership of the just barely club.... Yes tears fell every day back then, but just enough to let out the worst of the pain, then the rest went back into storage until another time... because it had to, I had babies that needed me. I didn't do it for me, I did it for them, but I did it.
I realize that to some people, most in fact, that my goats are just animals. Some people wont get it. And they don't have to, but they don't get to take away what I need (even if it is just goats). I am strong enough to fight for what I need. Ive had to fight for years for what my babies needed. Now I am ready and capable of fighting for what I need though I hope someday that I wont have to.
And thank you for understanding this. It isn't really about the numbers, it is about my heart and what I need to be healthy and happy.P.S. no goats or 5 goats is so not the right answer!
Sometimes things are more about simply what one person needs to survive.
Really personal note here... There was a really terrible time many years ago when I was struggling just to open my eyes and make it through any given hour or day. As broken and neglected as I felt inside, I only kept going because I had 4 tiny, precious little people needing everything I had to give and then some, every hour of every day, and one very dear friend that even knowing my ugliest thoughts and the worst things I did, still loved me and believed in me. I know without a doubt that if I wasn't soooo completely tied up with the full time busyness of just being a mom and tending to all 4 kids needs, that I would have given up. I think that just a few more minutes alone in my head and I would have sunk into the darkness therein ... I really and truly believe that someone knew that I needed that exact amount of being busy, being needed so completely, until the very moment my eyes shut, every single night, to keep going. And I desperately needed to know that one person out there loved me for exactly who I was and nothing I did or said ever changed that. I had what I needed, if "just barely." Again, my full fledged membership of the just barely club.... Yes tears fell every day back then, but just enough to let out the worst of the pain, then the rest went back into storage until another time... because it had to, I had babies that needed me. I didn't do it for me, I did it for them, but I did it.
I realize that to some people, most in fact, that my goats are just animals. Some people wont get it. And they don't have to, but they don't get to take away what I need (even if it is just goats). I am strong enough to fight for what I need. Ive had to fight for years for what my babies needed. Now I am ready and capable of fighting for what I need though I hope someday that I wont have to.
Bruce
Herd Master
A very moving post RDCL 
