Fair week is over and Hayley's Mint Jelly..... Won best sweet spread! KS State Fair or Bust! September, here we come...

Mint Jelly, Anyone?

Last year, Rand brought home lots of mint plants and (go figure?) planted them.  Those plants are very happy and healthy in our front garden.  See?  In spite of the drought, those mint plants are doing incredibly well.

Well, Hayley and I decided to put those plants to work making something useful (and sweet).  So, we made an executive decision that those plants would be better used to make Mint Jelly....

First, pick the mint leaves.  Chop them and add water.

Bring water to a boil.  Turn off heat and allow to sit.  Pour into cheesecloth and drain.

Measure prepared mint solution (my term - the recipe is much more technical)  and add sugar, etc.  

Of course, there may be a little food coloring and some lemon juice added somewhere in there, as well....  Perhaps some liquid pectin, too.  Like I said, the recipe was much more technical.  Who needs all those technicalities, anyway?

Pour into jars.  Place lid and seal.  Put in canner.

The hard part.  Waiting for the water to boil....

The best part.  Taste testing....

Random Gal says the Mint Jelly is Awesome Sauce.  The other two aren't so sure.  Either way, it was fun to make watch Hayley make it.

The difference that copper makes...

I promised a long time ago that I would post the pics of Joyous before and after copper.  I posted some before pics, and will repost them now - but the after pics of that gorgeous girl are amazing!  I am excited to share these with you.

Oat Bucket Farm Almond Joy.  We ran out of copper before she received her dose with the rest of the herd in January/ February.  This is what she looked like the day the new order of copper arrived.  Note the faded coat.

See how the hair at the tip of her tail is frizzy?  This is called "fish-tail" and is another symptom of copper deficiency.

Never get low on copper.  Your goaties will look like the above - their coats will fade and turn color, (sometimes orange) and their tails will get a severe case of the frizzies - kind of like a perm gone bad!

These pictures were taken earlier this week (late June).  Joy was given copper in late April/ early May and then given a "booster" dose of copper when the other girls received their scheduled dose around June 4.  Note the difference in her coat and her true color.

I definitely learned my lesson about running short on copper boluses.  The transformation from my orange, frizzy-haired bad-perm Joyous to this sleek and lovely, healthy girl is amazing.  Better go check my stock of boluses now - I think it is time to order again!

Fun Times at Crossroads Hive....

Is it tomorrow already?  It came way too early!  Maybe I don't love Tomorrow so much after all!

Must have caffeine before we start.

'Tis the fuel of men!

Got up too early.  We have to wait until it is 60* to go into the hives....  Dad-gum!! I could have slept another ten minutes....

The way cool way to feed weak hives...  Put a hive body around feeders with sugar water.  I am very excited about the ice cream carton tops underneath.  My own addition.  They will catch any drips and put the water into the edge so that my bees don't drown.  (In theory, anyway....)

My wonderful husband brushing bees off of the frame of brood that we are stealing from hive #14 for hive #11....  It is a very soft bristled brush and they are going right back into their own hive.  Love the pattern on this frame.  See the "U"?

Do you see the queen?  If I took the right picture from the camera, she is here...

Breakfast?  Yum, yum!

Bees having breakfast.  Give me Hotcakes and Sausage any day!

Hives all settled and ready for manufacturing HONEY!

Purple Plum Jam, anyone?

The PB brothers chowing down on milk!  Blu is the one with his best face forward...

Flower.  Waiting for milking.

Sleek and shiny Monkey.  Copper makes a world of difference in this girl.

Beautiful OBF Almond Joy.  See the line of darker brown?  That is her true color.  More signs of copper making a difference.  Slowly but surely.  She is one stunning girl!

Quisi's gorgeous girls, Charm and Dream.  I love these two.

Flower's babies, Wild Thyme and English Rose.  Two peas in a pod!  Just like Momma!

The Silver Skipper.

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He is friendly!  Definitely one of the best bucklings we have had here.  Very proud of him and his brother!

The Random Gal says that this needs a wrap up sentence and a signature.  So, Predictable Tin Mom says - milk, honey and pork are good and good for you.  Eat up, kiddos.  (Does that work, Heather?) PS:  Plum Jam is good, too.

~The Tin Mom

Little Orphan Annie has nothing on me....

Wow, things have been crazy busy! Rand and I re-queened hive #11 last Monday. That hive did not look strong at all. We plan to take some brood from hive #14 tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't too late to give the new queen a chance. We probably should have done that last week, but needed to talk to our mentor first. Heather should help me post my thousand words (pictures) tomorrow. It was difficult to take good pics with the gloves on, but I do have a few. I plan to take some more tomorrow... Our super awesome mentor gave me a secret to make sure that the strong hives don't steal sugar water from the weaker ones - so we can stop feeding all but the weakest hives. Rand will be very happy, since he has been stung four times giving those strong and mean stinkers water.... I plan to take pics of how to feed weak hives tomorrow as well... The goaties are doing great. We are getting several gallons of milk twice each day. Quisi is being milked only in the evening and is producing a gallon a day! The Pork-Butts, Red, White, and Blue are getting fat and happy on all of the goatie milk we have left over for them! there are pics of the PBs on my camera, waiting to be posted tomorrow. Copper had made an enormous difference in our goatie girls. I have several thousand words for Heather to post on that, as well. It is amazing what some yogurt and copper rods can do!O Okay. It is late and I am getting cranky and tired (standard operating procedure, just ask the children) so I will sign off now and post some wonderful pics tomorrow... Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow, you're only a day away.... Ps. This is not Random Gal. This is Predictable Mom.

Guess who's BAAAAACKKK????

Well, the hiatus is over.  It was wonderful.  But, of course, a hiatus must have a tribute to those who make it possible...  A husband who loves to stay home and a neighbor who will trade goat milking now for goat milking later.  Having both is wonderful.

The children and I had a short vacation.  While we were gone, Rand worked on hives.  He got up every morning at 6:30 to feed our bees, he put together the supers, and he painted.  Our wonderful neighbor and her children arrived at 8:00 to milk the goats in the morning, and came back in the evening to do it all over again.

The bees are doing fairly well.  We added a second hive body to several, and #14 even graduated to a super (which means HONEY for US).  #11 needs a new queen.  She is ordered and will arrive next Friday.  Next Wednesday, Rand & I get to go in and kill the current queen.  Yuck.   Two hives have workers laying (didn't know that was possible - but my super duper wonderful Daddy came up last week and helped us go through our hives.  He gave us a great education.  So, basically, we have two hives that are dead.  Yuck yuck.  But, better than I expected - from what I understand, stats are 1 in 3 don't make it.  We are at 2.5 out of 15 - so better than 1 in 5...)

Goats are doing great.  Milk and more milk...  My girls are so wonderful.  Monks is getting a stinky attitude on the stand, so has placed herself as last to be milked.  But, the others are wonderful and so much fun....

We finally got our piggies - pork chops for dinner this fall!  Hooray!  The three little pigs arrived a week ago today.  Rand named them the Pork Butt Brothers.  Red, White, and Blu.  And yes, their names are appropriate....  Suddenly, we are short on milk.  And, the milk in freezer is quickly decreasing (hooray).

Okay.

Well.  That is it for around here.  Going to post pics of Joyous before and after copper.  Monks is already looking too good....  Looking forward to the fair.

I will make Heather show you all the pics, 'cause those paint a thousand words - and I can't paint.  Since she says it has to happen now, then she will do it (now) I guess.....

Temporary Hiatus

Like we post regularly anyway...