Noodleville’s Fowl News

Here’s just a random mish-mashing of all things of the feathered variety around here.

First of all, I gave away 7 chickens. The Silver Laced Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons & 1 Jersey Giant rooster. My mom had a bobcat go on a killing rampage in her chicken coop, killing 27 of her 28 birds. They shot the cat, but all those birds she had raised, and who had just started laying were gone.

My chickens are the most ill treated birds ever. They have no coop, no pen and half of them suffer from a case of species confusion and believe they are dogs… So these were things I had to keep in mind when choosing which birds to give away. The 3 Silver Laced Wyandotte hens were very flighty and couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of staying on my property. The 3 Buff Orpington hens wouldn’t come when called and weren’t people friendly…. And the big Jersey Giant roo was fondly referred to as “The Survivor” as he survived the inappropriate advances of a buck in rut, but carried the battle scars of a naked bum due to being held down and plucked by that goat. He was an outsider…after all, why would the hens want the half naked roo who had been molested by a goat? Now all 7 are happily contained in my mom’s nice coop & run… Jersey roo is the only roo, king of his domain, is growing his feathers back, and with it, his lost self esteem.

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Jackson- The bloody thirsty rooster

Next up, we got rid of Jackson, our former top rooster. Jackson was supposed to be a Light Brahma but obviously wasn’t. He was a small, stringy looking bird with a lot of attitude. He fiercely protected the girls though, so we tolerated him…. Until he turned his temper fits loose on us.

I was attacked a few times and usually gave him a kick, and once beat him off me with a bat. You’d think he would have learned…but NOOOO!



One day, my son was outside & Jackson was stalking him…

Usually Tator turns around and threatens him and that’s that…. This day was different. Tator ran & the blood thirsty beast of a bird loved that!

I’m ashamed to say I failed miserably in my motherly duty that day….. Tator is dashing about in one huge circle, that evil bird right on his heels and the entire time Tator is screaming…. Not several screams…but one very long, extended, solid scream that went on and on like a looped recording…

My gosh it was hilarious!! So funny in fact I could barely help him out due to the giggle fit that had me paralyzed.

I know! I know!! I already said I was ashamed of myself so stop thinking evil thoughts about me!!

I did eventually help him though and caught up to them just as Jackson caught up to him.

That day Jackson went to freezer camp & “Big Red” happily stepped up to the plate as the only roo left.


"Big Red", his girls & the barn cats sharing kitchen scraps.Girls are: Jersey Black Giants, HP Reds, 1 Welsummer, Speckled Sussex, Blue Cochins, 1 Blue Andalusian & Ameraucanas..

 I love Big Red….. He’s watchful & protective of the girls, mellow with people & doesn’t crow non stop like Jackson did. He’ll gently take treats from you, follow you around the yard and round up all the girls for me when I call the chickens. Big Red won’t ever have to worry about a trip to freezer camp.

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Next up a Riccardo update.

I introduced you to Riccardo *here*.

Well since she received her unfortunate name I think it altered her personality. Perhaps she thought she needed to be simply outstanding to help folks see past such a ridiculous name… Either way, this bird is officially a pet. She’ll stay as long as she lives, regardless if she’s productive or not. She comes to her name, likes to sit on your lap and is very, very smart. She averages 6-7 eggs per week too, so that’s not too shabby!

One day, Jasper is carrying on, barking up a storm. I get on to him twice & finally put him in his kennel because he won’t be quiet. Once all is quiet I hear a “Tap-Tap-Tap”…. “Tap-Tap-Tap” on the front door…. Not being able to see anyone through the window at a distance, I assume it’s the neighbor’s kids knocking and I couldn’t see them and that’s why Jasper was barking.

I open the door thinking to find a child and instead find Riccardo!

She cocks her head to the side, reaches out her foot and scratches my pants leg…. This scratching is common and means she wants food. So I go grab her some kitchen scraps, take it to her and she happily leaves to enjoy her snack. 15 minutes later the whole thing repeats and I now have a bird that knocks on the door for food…..

She also went broody on me! She went missing for a few days and I freaked out. Couldn’t find her anywhere… Then one day I found her with this:

　
A big ol’ clutch of eggs… Timing was bad, but I was going to let her have them… Sadly my neighbor's wretched dogs ran her off of it and the eggs got cold so I had to toss them. I really, really, really despise folks who don’t have the decency to contain their dogs.. And this nut has anywhere from 9-12 at a time! Ugh….

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Next up in fowl news, our odd egg find:

Clayton poking the squishy egg to show it's squishiness

It was all squishy and had no shell, just the inner membrane. It was also double yoked. The kids thought it was great… Tator wanted to keep it, Shayla wanted to eat it, but in the end the barn cats got it. Haven’t had one like that since…. They have a good diet, plenty of calcium and such, so I’m assuming that one was just a fluke.

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We had our first real predator threat not too long ago… An owl!

Around 4:00am I hear frantic squawking from the front yard where there’s a door leading to the bedrooms and a covered porch. In the midst of the squawks I hear the “Tap-Tap-Tap” on the door… I jump up, turn the light on and head out with the closest weapon… A broom.

Never underestimate a woman armed with a broom.

All the terrified birds are piling on each other, Riccardo is trying to get inside and just past the porch overhang a big owl has one of my beautiful blue Cochins by the wing and is trying to gain altitude!!! He was about 7ft up in the air when I took after him with the broom… Two solid hits makes him release my Cochin and he hit’s the ground on the other side of the fence… I check on my birds and much to my surprise he comes back!!!

Tough lil booger.

He does another low fly by and once again gets my broom, though this time he was high enough I only managed to give him a swat to the backside.

He goes from telephone pole to tree….flying just out of reach, back and forth, getting closer to the porch each time. We play our game for about 25 minutes, but by this time, I’m cold and tired.

Jasper, excited by the outside commotion, wanted out.

Turned out to be a fabulous plan! He had such a great time chasing that owl back and forth across the yard and after the owl’s first swoop down with Jasper, he discovered that a Great Dane has a pretty impressive leap and was forced to stay higher up to avoid becoming the most delightful chew toy ever. Jasper faithfully chased the bird and watched him until sunrise (though I don’t believe this was done out of loyalty to my chickens, I think he was just having fun, lol)…

I cleaned my poor Cochin’s wing (only a few punctures) and everyone survived the night…. Now they all roost in the barn. Thankfully it only took one night to teach them to bed down somewhere safer than a porch!
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My Blue Andalusian is a hen (she's in the top picture with "Big Red"..small blue bird, big comb, white earlobes)! Couldn't figure it out for some time with her big comb, no noise and no eggs...She is a small bird but lays good sized white eggs, is the most scatter brained bird I’ve ever encountered and she can actually fly. She’s my only white egg layer and for the past month or so we’ve been averaging 4-5 white eggs per week. The kids used to be crazy over the *green eggs*, but since we get 14-20 of those a week now, the new competition is to see who can find the white egg… A real chore since that dumb bird lays them in the most inconvenient places..

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And of course I saved the best for last….and for obvious reasons, this bit once again will feature the famous Riccardo.

My son has this giggle….. When I hear it he’s either 100% tickled to death about something, or he’s doing something he really shouldn’t be doing.

I’m in the kitchen one day and hear "The Giggle"…. So I walk from the kitchen, into the living room and glance out the window to see Clayton trying his best to control his laughter, but he's having such a fit he can barely keep himself upright.

He’s kneeling, holding an apple core in his mouth and Riccardo is jumping up on his knee, taking a bite, and hopping down… Over & over again. I went out and snapped pics really fast, but sadly these were the only two that didn’t come out blurry.

Clayton feeding Riccardo an apple core while holding it in his mouth... Big Red wants some too!

I believe the Ameraucana thinks both of them are nuts...

I asked him what on earth he was doing....

“Feeding Riccardo of course”

Yes, Yes, I see that, but WHY are you feeding her like that?!?!

“It’s funny momma, she likes it”

Okay….but WHY did you start this? When did you start doing this??

“Oh, we always do it and it always makes me laugh… We do it all the time, she really likes bananas! Isn’t it so funny momma??”

Yep honey, it sure is…..

Of course it’s gonna make folks wonder why I don’t give you better things to do so you're not compelled to invent strange ways to feed the chickens, but whatever floats your boat honey!

Silly kid…Silly bird..

The Hay Fairy & Vanishing Youth

Oh yes…there is such a thing as a “Hay Fairy”. In this case, the one I’m referring to as the "Hay Fairy" is my father in law…..though truth be told I’m not sure if he’d happily adopt that title.

We've also had to deal with the "Sex Change Fairy"... THAT lil' fairy is insanely annoying....changing my doe rabbits into bucks, and more recently, my pullets that I paid a pretty penny for, have magically been transformed into roosters (4 girls so far have converted and are now happy, annoying roosters) by that blasted Sex Change Fairy!

ANYWHO....back to the "Hay Fairy"..

On our recent trip to east Texas, my father in law graciously sent home 3 round bales of hay from one of his fields. Honestly not sure what plants are included in these bales as it has some weeds in it, but this hay is pure perfection for goats! This drought has been a horrible thing, hay has been fed year around due to the lack of rain & vegetation and hay prices have sky rocketed. Poor quality coastal square bales (in the 50lb range) are selling for $11.50 a bale, and truth be told I was in a slight panic over how I was going to provide quality forage for my goats and not completely break the bank…So this gift was perfectly timed and I couldn’t be more thankful….Hence the gracious awarding of the title “Hay Fairy”.

Being freshly baled, it smells GREAT and once we rolled the bales into the pens my goats were in hog heaven! I so wish I had my camera handy…Bleuberry stood on her hind legs, leaned into the bale and proceeded to rub all over it and appeared to give it a hug..lol By their reaction you’d think they had never even seen hay before. All the goats took turns rubbing on the bale, burying their faces in it and circling round & round as if to find the most divine place to chow down.

Bleuberry looking for the best bits




Tootsie, Bleuberry & 'Brina in the background

 

 


Ella- "Queen of the Bale" Lilly munching, Tootsie in background

  

Sabrina chowing dow



The girls made short work of theirs and there is barely a moment I don’t see at least one of them eating on it. It’s not unusual to find Lilly or Ella laying on top of the bale while eating..


The boys however have been a bit kinder to their bale if you can believe that! They did the same silly antics as the girls when it first arrived, but the fascination didn’t last long and gave way to the demands and stresses of hormones.

Here’s where that whole “Vanishings Youth” bit comes in on the title…My sweet baby boys, who I’ve spoiled, loved and bottle raised are growing up. It seems just yesterday lil Sambo was in the house watching TV with me…. LOL

Yes, I know that sounds strange, but when we brought him home last minute, his pen was not ready and he lacked a companion, so he lived in the house, diapered and slept in a dog kennel by my bed.


Now that sweet, fuzz ball of an Alpine buck is a “Man Goat” as my daughter so wisely puts it. Beards have grown in, the art of aiming streams of urine is perfecting & necks have doubled in size (see the boys sporting their new "man" collars?)

Houston, my mom’s miniature buck has been in full "pee on the face, stinking to high heaven" rut for quite a while. He was so bad in fact that I had to move the adult chickens from the pen…

Why you ask?

Well Houston’s inappropriate affections earned him the title “The Chicken Rapist” and my poor girls weren’t faring well at all….. Now they have the younger group of chickens who have finally feathered out as their pen mates and thankfully Houston seems to only like mature poultry companions.

Boys enjoying their present from the Hay Fairy

Anywho.. On August 1st, Tootsie, my miniature Alpine doe came into season and so I took dear Houston for a visit. Much to my delight he prefers goats to chickens so I think the future of my birds is looking better.

This was an awkward, but educational experience for the kiddos….. Got to have that dreaded, detailed “Birds & The Bees” talk that I’ve been in quite a panic over for a while now….

They’ve witnessed birth, knew it took a male & female to create babies but this was the first time we’ve ventured into the mechanics of the whole process…..I was blunt, to the point, using all correct terms and sparing no details on questions that made me inwardly squirm.

I really wanted to use the typical cop out stories of storks delivering babies, but dishonesty & foolish stories would not have benefited my kids, so I went with straight faced honesty.

I think I did quite well hiding my embarrassment and though loads of adult content details in regards to human reproduction wasn’t shared (other than “No, grown ups don’t do it like that & men do not pee on their faces to make women like them”) I did get them to understand how male & females create new life..

Or as Shayla happily proclaims “Oh!! Now I know how that baby gets in the tummy!”……

Jerimiah, the coward, simply stated he was happy to miss the whole fiasco.

Back to the boys though…. Houston, after having a raging good time in the morning, and one more visit in the evening was feeling very manly and returned to the buck pen strutting and smelling of GIRLS….. Since that day it’s been nothing but turmoil.

This hit to the hormones has now spread to Tonka & Sam….fights are the norm, though thankfully nothing too serious. Food is being left, ignored and forgotten the feeder and the pitiful calls & cries from the boys are nerve racking.

Did I mention the smell by chance?? Good grief it’s pungent!!! I must watch myself when I enter the pen as that seems to be the signal for the boys to perfume themselves and the streams of urine are horribly accurate….

Being sprayed with goat pee happens more times than I care to admit. I've tried a few different tactics to avoid walking out of their pen carrying the pungent scent of bucks, but so far I haven't had much luck.

Once I gathered multiple tree branches, tossed them over the fence on the opposite side of the pen as the feeder...made a mad dash for the feeder, filled it and ran back out...the only contact I had was to put my hand on Tonka's head to keep him from rubbing on me.. I promptly went inside, washed my hands, and arms for good measure, and yet somehow, despite all of that, my clothes, and even my hair had that "Man Goat" smell.... Ugh...

Sam is highly possessive of me. Thankfully he’s a very gentle buck and very easy to handle, but he worships the ground I walk on…..he must touch me, lick me and never be away from me if I’m in the pen….and heaven help Houston if he tries to get in on the attention.

Tonka, though going through the motions of being a “Man Goat” isn’t as bad as the other two (yet..)…He rarely engages in the quarrels and if they start getting very rough, Tonka calmly gets up and walks in between the battling Sam & Houston to break things up.

Tonka is allowed to get scratches from me and makes room for Sam to have his attention…but both rally together to keep Houston at bay…

I swear I honestly think they are holding a grudge against him since he got to go visit the girls and they didn’t.. lol I think both Tonka & Sam find their virginal states to be humiliating…. Most especially when a little miniature buck, half their size, no longer carries the sad virgin title..

I’m thinking of breeding Blueberry & Sabrina late September or early October and Lilly in November or December. Since Lilly is a mutt herself, I’m thinking of letting Tonka have her for freezer camp kids just so he isn’t left out of all the good parts of being in rut…….After all, the poor guy already gets ragged on for being the lone earless wonder.. I certainly can’t have the other boys taunting him for being an earless virgin for an entire season until I bring home some Lamancha does…

Oh..and this is just for added giggles... One day I heard this blood chilling goaty scream... I dash out of the house as fast as possible thinking the worst.. Perhaps the neighbor's dog got out & has my goats.....A million horrible senerios are coursing through my brain...When I arrive at the pen however I find Tonka like this...Goober broke the potter, and wedged his lil' pea brained head inside of the hole he made...

Don't just stand there snapping pictures...HELP ME!

Vacation at Papa & Momma Jan's..

This may be unbelievable….but I left my home…for DAYS! A rare occurrence to say the least, but understandable when I have critters to tend to, two does in milk who need to be milked twice a day and I live way out in Noodle.

The first outing to visit Papa & Momma Jan’s (hubby’s dad & step mom who live about 4 hours from here) was during the 4th of July weekend and I had no critter sitter. I can’t say the weekend was a total bust though… I did get to watch my neighbors engage in a few alcohol induced stunts that made me certain nature was attempting to clean up the human gene pool by allowing the less intelligent of our species to dispatch themselves in unique & horrifying ways, but alas, they all survived.

The second outing however I got to go and we left the weekend before hubby’s birthday.

I would have been content just to visit and stay close to the house, but the inlaws treated us to a busy day out.

First on the agenda was the Museum of Nature & Science.

We started out watching Sea Rex in the IMAX theater….. Shayla was shocked at the beginning and wanted to know why she was spinning….Clayton was mesmerized, eyes glued to the screen……While Papa & Jerimiah slept!

Then we headed to the Chinasaurs exhibit. My kiddos are fans of Jurassic Park (yea- They root for the dinosaurs..lol) so they loved this. There were several skeletons and a few robotic dinosaurs…

 

A fossilized dinosaur nest & cast.



Here's the children's fossil dig…..huge sandbox loaded with fossil digging equipment and hidden dinosaur bones in need of excavating. I think the kids could have spent hours in there if we let them.

 

We made our rounds through the endless Children's museum.... tell the truth I missed a bunch of pictures in various exhibts, but here's a few I did manage to take without someone stepping in front of the camera..

Not a clue what these tables were called but they had air flowing out of a vent to make the small plasic balls float….Munchkins were pretending to be magicians in control of magical floating balls…

This is one of my favorites! I so wish the picture was better…They had a farm exhibit in the children’s museum and this cow was set up for kids to milk (milked water). Shayla patiently waited her turn…watching a group of children struggle to “milk” the cow with minimal success. Shayla dove in the second there was space, grabbed two teats and went straight to work, displaying perfect milking technique and getting perfect, even streams where the other kiddos only managed the barest drops… She was quite proud of herself to say the least and I didn’t damper her triumph by pointing out that she has real life experience milking..

We made it to the museum around noon…left around 5 and I must say, even though the kids would have happily made more rounds, I was tired!

Then we headed to dinner….a belated birthday dinner for me & a slightly early birthday dinner for Jerimiah. I typically am happy to eat where ever anyone else wants to…typically when we dine out it’s Mexican food or someplace with chicken fried steak. I’m pretty diverse in my food preferences, where as Jerimiah isn’t, so it’s much easier for me to eat what is preferred by the majority….Not really knowing the choices, nor wanting to choose a place others in the group might not like, I said “Anywhere that serves some sort of grilled meat on the menu is fine by me… I just really don’t want anything deep fried or Mexican” This statement I thought, would lead to something like Applebee’s, Texas Roadhouse or perhaps a café or some sort.. Oh no! Where do we end up??

Texas De' Brazil…. An upscale Brazilian Steak House which proved to be a bit overwhelming for the kiddos! Felt slighting out of place in a formal dining setting wearing the demin shorts and sweat that I wore to the museum but other than that I thought it was fabulous!!!!

The salad bar was best of all. Fresh goat cheese, Manchego, quinoa with cranberries, marinated onions, portabello mushrooms, variety of olives, lobster bisque, salami, steamed asparagus with strawberry sauce, fresh buffalo mozzarella, shrimp salad, Brazilian palm of hearts, artisan breads, prosciutto, and of course a selection of typical salad items are just a FEW of the items on the salad bar…. Did I happen to mention that I loved the salad bar??

This sounds amazing I know, but next up is the meat selection. On the table is placed garlic mashed potatoes, sweet fried bananas & Brazilian cheese bread which are meant to “cleanse the palate in between meat selections” as our lovely Brazilian server informed us.

Each person is given a round card. One side is red, the other green. Once you flip you card to green the staff file out with large skewers of grilled meats fresh off the fire and your allowed to choose as much as you’d like. Choices included parmesan pork chops, bacon wrapped grilled chicken, pork ribs, flank steak, leg of lamb, lamb chops, pork loin, Brazilian sausage, pichana, filet mignon, bacon wrapped filet mignon, beef ribs and I think 2 or 3 other selections of which I can’t remember. The lamb chops with mint jelly were AMAZING. Once you’ve had your fill, you flip your card to red to signal the meats to stop and if you survive the first round, flip your card to green, your plates are cleared away and it starts all over again. I don’t think I’ve been that painfully full in my life but I had a great time. Shayla, I discovered has an expensive pallet and enjoyed the exotic selections on the salad bar immensely. Clayton on the other hand was over whelmed, not pleased with the “creepy, strange food” and seemed a bit disgruntled until the meat choices arrived and then he was quite pleased.

I was sorely tempted to take a few pics of the restaurant & the salad bar for my blog….but good manners overruled the urge…..Though I would have loved to take a few pictures (the atmosphere was quite nice) it would have been extremely tacky…

All in all it was a great, relaxing escape…especially for me since I don’t get out much these days & I’m happy mom critter sat for me so I could go.

I know I’ve bombarded y’all with a slew of pictures so far, but I have just a few more of the kiddos that were taken on the 4th of July visit. They went to an alligator farm, which housed a variety of critters and to an aquarium.




Munchkis & Momma Jan feed the sting rays



Oh a lil snippet… I know I’m horribly late posting this but Jeremiah & I celebrated our Anniversary on August 2nd. We started dating August 2001, married a year later and I’m happy we’ve made it this far.. Our first date was an all night fishing trip on the river…The night he proposed to me we were caught up in a tornado & had to hide out in a gas station…..two kids, multiple moves, months apart due to work, a house fire, and multiple health scares later were still here and going strong. He’s the one person who can always make me laugh, always stands by my side no matter the situation and has this uncanny ability to drive me utterly insane at times…But, as mentioned in previous post, he tolerates my insanities as well as I tolerate his..He’s my best friend and I feel quite blessed that I’m able to share my life with him.

The Horrors of "Back to School"

Never a more fitting title.

I hate shopping…. Despise it actually. School supply shopping is the worst of the worst in the shopping category. Sadly, a necessary evil, so I suck it up & get it done……True to my tendency to procrastinate, I wait just a mere weeks before school starts to tackle this task.

I swear every year the cost of this horrid trip escalates. This weekend I had plans to get it all done in one fell swoop, but after gathering the supply list, it seems I have to split this endeavor into two trips. So, this weekend we bought supplies and backpacks. The supply list was long….included things like 2 reams of copy paper per child, new headphones, ziplock bags, paper plates, 6 boxes of crayons per child & chlorox wipes to name a few.

This next weekend after we receive another paycheck, I will be tackling clothes shopping. This is by far the priciest bit of back to school shopping, but this is also the one time a year the kids are restocked in new clothes & shoes. Given both children’s growth spurts, new clothes & shoes are a necessity….I so wish they didn’t grow up so fast….

I’ve already purchased their new boots, so now it’s on to clothing & a new pair of tennis shoes each. In order to buy decent items that will hold up to my kid’s rough and tumble nature, I think were going to buy the first weeks worth of clothing this coming weekend to at least see them through the 1st week of school and then the weekend after the 1st week of school, I’ll shop again, and little by little with each paycheck stock their wardrobes up again. Last year I did it all in one big spree, this year, things are tighter so I’ll be forced to battle shopping crowds a bit more often than I’d prefer… So if you call and I happen to be cranky, do try to understand.

Did I mention I HATE shopping??

In other news, Shayla is excited to see her friends again. Clayton, true to his nature is grumbling about going back to school….he does this every year, and every year runs to tell me how great his first day back was, so I don’t worry too much. He tends to have a doomsdays outlook on everything… EVERYTHING will awful & dramatic… Where as Shayla is a bit more sunny in her disposition and looks forward to just about everything. At least in Clayton’s case he’s almost always wrong…things are never as bad as he thinks they’ll be, so his life is often full of pleasant surprises, lol.

Shayla is going into the 1st grade, Clayton into the 2nd . The 1st grade teacher from last year is not there this year, so I won’t know what to expect for Shayla’s class…. I know Clayton’s 2nd grade teacher and like her quite a bit so I hope it will be a great year.

Clayton, Shayla & one of Shayla's classmates at Shayla's 6th birthday party.

Last year, Clayton’s 1st grade teacher was a bit too heavy on the homework for my taste. We arrive home from school at 4:00pm, have a snack and then Clayton had to start on homework. EVERY DAY he had to write 12 spelling words 3x’s each, do one worksheet (typically math or science), read 15-20 pages in one book and 3 short stories (about 7 pages per story) in another book. This was EVERY DAY with the exception of Fridays….for a 1st grader!!! It got to be so bad that I would have him do the written work, and we would choose one story per night to read together before bed…otherwise every bit of his free time after being in school all day was devoted strictly to homework. So, as mean as it sounds, I’m happy Shayla has a different teacher than he did and hopefully this year will be an improvement upon last year.

Though I am very proud of the work my children did last year in school…both were honor roll students, and neither of them got into the slightest bit of trouble all year long.

What can I say? My kids are just awesome!

Three Cheers For Cajeta!!

Aren’t yall in for a treat!! A double treat in fact…For once in my short blogging career I’m actually going to post something USEFUL instead of my endless babble (shocking eh?)…and of course the second part of this double treat is the Cajeta itself.

What is Cajeta you say??

Well it’s only one of the most divine goodies you can easily whip up in your kitchen.

Cajeta is a Mexican treat traditionally made from goat’s milk (you could use cow‘s milk if no goat‘s milk is available). It’s wonderfully complex, smooth and has an endless variety of uses! It is very similar to caramel, though I swear once you have a taste of Cajeta, caramel toppings from the store will seem bland in comparison. Caramel is mostly sugar based, whereas Cajeta is dairy based. This makes Cajeta not as sweet as caramel and the rich, creamy goat’s milk that is the foundation of Cajeta gives it a rich creaminess that caramel simply can’t touch.

So, lets get started! For the very best Cajeta, try and round up two helpers about like these I found:



Then of course you must start with the goat…Sabrina is the generous milk donor in this instance, though any willing dairy doe will do....give that girl a good scratching and a treat! She deserves it.



Now that you’ve got your fresh goat’s milk & helpers, your ready to begin.

You will need:

A large pot…get a big one as this stuff boils up to quite a big mess otherwise.
Wisk
Measuring Cups

Ingredients:

2 quarts of goat’s milk
2 cups sugar (I prefer to use Raw sugar, but any sugar will do)
1 tablespoon of pure Mexican vanilla extract. (If you have it, 1 plump, split open vanilla bean is great too…. Just don’t use imitation vanilla!)
½ teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of water.

The How To:

In your big pot (don’t use an iron pot), pour in milk, sugar and the vanilla and place over medium heat. Stir regularly until the milk reaches a good simmer and all the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat and add the dissolved baking soda. The kids LOVE this part! It bubbles up quite a bit after adding the dissolved baking soda (here‘s where having a big pot comes in mighty handy).

Let mixture sit for about 5-10 minutes…or for however long it takes for the bubbles to subside. When your bubbles have gone down, return to heat.

Adjust your heat so the mixture is at a brisk simmer, but not boiling. It needs to be simmering well enough that you still see some simmer bubbles while gently stirring.

Cook at this temp and stir regularly until the mixture turns a pale golden color. This is a divine culinary treat, and things of a divine nature take time….so get cozy & stir…. This isn’t a speedy process.

Once you reach that beautiful pale golden hue, you’ll need to stir more frequently. If I say “stir constantly” that sounds exhausting, so I’ll say stir almost constantly. Whatever you do, do NOT let it sit on the bottom of the pot unstirred after it reaches the pale golden color.

Cajeta in stages: #1 Foamy milk after baking soda #2 Pale Golden Color #3 Mixture thickens & darkens



Now the good part is coming. The more it cooks, the more you stir, the darker it gets and the thicker it gets. The constant mixing can get tedious so this is where your helpers come in:

Just look how well they stir! Told ya they were handy..

Once you reach a caramel-brown color, keep on stirring, but at some point in all this stirring, you can test it out. Drop a few drops in a dish of water, if a soft ball forms, the Cajeta is ready. You can also use a candy thermometer and when it reaches about 240° it should be ready…I don’t bother with the thermometer..It’s just one more item to wash afterwards.

Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit. You should have a medium thick sauce. If too thick you can add in hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency you like. If too thin, just return to heat and keep on a stirring until desired thickness has been reached.

This recipe should boil down to about ½ quart - ¾ of a quart of Cajeta. For variety you can also toss in a few sticks of cinnamon in the pot while your cooking and you can also give a generous splash (or two) of your favorite rum…

My kiddos love fruit slices & pretzels dipped in warm Cajeta…

Swirled in yogurt & on top of ice cream.

You can drizzle over cheesecake, brownies and apple pie. For a yummy Fall treat, drizzle over baked butternut squash…

Or if you happen to be impatient like me, you can eat it straight off a spoon!!

When I think ahead I chop up fruit while I’m waiting for the pale golden stage so there is little to no delay in enjoying this amazing treat..

The possibilities are endless!

Happy, Happy Saturday!!!!

Good customer service is such a rare thing these days....

Hubby got me a coveted Kindle 3G for Christmas.... I'm a book junkie & had been lusting after a Kindle since the very first one came out. It was expensive & needed bugs/kinks worked out so I watched Amazon for years just waiting.....Finally! Kindle 3G (which I need out here in Noodle with no WiFi).

Loved my Kindle....Jerimiah even bought me a really cute, super sturdy leather case for it too!

Anywho, I left it on the bed on accident...My munchkins barreled in like bulls in a China shop & my Kindle ended up on the floor & (I suspect) stepped on. The screen was horribly distorted and nothing I did could fix it. Silly to be heart broken over a "thing" but I was almost in tears... I rarely have "special" things for me and after wanting it for so long it killed me that it was broke. Since it wasn't a malfunction, but damage I didn't think I could get it fixed.

Thursday at 4:30pm I called Amazon.... I DREADED this call as last time I spoke to a fella named Ali from India who could not understand me and I couldn't understand him... Thursday though this awesome fella named David answers the phone!!

I respond "My gosh, you have no idea what a relief your voice is!" I think he misunderstood me and replied: "Well you sound cute too..what southern state are you from?"

Ummmmmmmmm.....

Alrighty then, after getting past the chatty part, Mr. David from upstate New York ask me to slide and hold the power switch for 15 seconds...Kindle restarts & is WORSE!

Mr. David says no worries, let me send you an email with return instructions & a prepaid postage label for free return shipping....Then he verified my Kindle model and said the words that made my day:

"Crystal, we're going to ship out a new Kindle, next day air, just return the damaged Kindle in that box with the shipping label I sent to your email."

Color me happy! New Kindle and hardly any wait time to boot!

Friday at 3:00pm my new, fully functional, wonderful Kindle arrives.

This morning my Kindle is fully charged, all my books are back on it and when browsing books on Amazon, I see that some of Jean Plaidy's books are a few bucks cheaper than last time....

Yep, I'm one blissfully happy gal!

Clever Kids Create Unique Entertainment

It’s been hot, insanely dry, miserable…and did I mention HOT?? The kids have a bit of cabin fever to say the least and have been coming up with creative ways to entertain themselves.

They have been bugging us for a pool…..We had one shortly after moving here, lost it when a tornado ripped through Noodle. Bought another one last summer and the wasp plague came. If we didn’t cover the pool there would literally be dead wasp piled inches high on the surface of the water. When we did cover it, we couldn’t swim in it because the moment the cover came off the wasp were swarming…. Ditched the pool. Loved the idea of relief on a hot summer day, but the reality of trying to keep up with it & not be covered in wasp stings was just too much.

We plan on getting another one, hopefully by next summer, but Jerimiah is going to build a screened enclosure for it before we try again.

However, when kid’s wanna swim, they wanna swim!

The result is in the pictures below:



Goats…similar to cats, are NOT fond of uncontained, dangerous water. I’m a wretched person if I soak the ground around the trough and they have to get their feet the slightest bit wet. So you can imagine what they thought of all this nonsense! Humans, IN the water trough….how odd……even worse….they splashed water EVERYWHERE!! And the noise…Oh My…the racket & squeals of delight these drenched lil’ humans made was of cosmic proportions….

Tootsie, Keys, & Lilly promptly moved as far away as possible and stayed there watching this carrying on with wary eyes. Bleuberry, bless her heart is the low man on the totem pole in this herd & prefers the company of humans to goats…So she braved the strangeness in order to be close to her lil people. Took a few drinks, tolerated being splashed & watched the whole fiasco with great interest. She even placed her hoof on the rim of the trough a few times as if she was considering joining them, but would always jerk it away shortly after…





Sabrina, being the herd queen did get herself off her throne to come investigate…..After all it would be unseemly for the lowest ranked herd member to be apart of this and not her. She was hilarious! She stared at the kids…got a drink…stared some more and promptly set about to correct the wrongness of the situation by cleaning Shayla. She would lick her, sniff and lick some more then stand by seeming pleased with the results….Until Shayla dipped under the water once again, then Sabrina was right back to cleaning her crazy human kid.






Odd bit of fun to say the least, but I give my kiddos props for being able to easily find interesting ways to ease their boredom.


Oh and since I mentioned Bleuberry in this post I thought I’d post some promised pictures of her. She was a slight mess when she arrived, but good feeding, proper minerals & a round of copper bolus have set her back on the right track. She is by far the dumbest goat I have ever encountered, but so insanely sweet all flaws are forgiven. She is LOUD, which is so not typical for my Alpines, so I always tell her she needs to be quiet or someone is going to think a Nubian is lurking on these grounds. I can never capture it in the pictures because she is by far the biggest goofball and is very much a “Velcro Goat“, but she is so leggy & at times even elegant when she doesn’t think your looking. She’ll be bred to Sam in the fall for Spring 2012 kids and I can not wait!