Goats

Sometime during the summer of 2013 we decided that we would look into raising goats.  The main purpose was to be able to basically do the clearing and weeding of parts of our property.  I started thinking of other things that I could do to supplement our income now that I am at stay at home mom.  Since, my husband wanted to add goats to the list of things we do, I thought it would be good that we could make goat milk products, soaps and lotions and then venture off from there.  I told him & he followed through with his idea.  So, in August of 2013 we bought our first milking goat, a Nubian mix.  Her name is Edith.

My husband wanted to add more so, we went down to Cameron, MO to add to our small heard and picked up 3 more goats.  We went to pick up a Kiko goat, we named her Cameron and ended up with two more Texmaster goats, a set of twins which we named Penny & Jenny.  Sadly we lost one of them, Penny to an illness.  

Later on we bought to more male goats.  A pure breed Nubian goat named Lyons to breed with our goats. Then we goat a fainting goat, named Fritz.  I was finally able to get the fainting goat I wanted.  He doesn't faint as easily one expects but, we has done so, it is quite funny I have to admit.  I don't have pictures of those two at the moment.  I am mostly like to share more later on as I experience the life of raising goat on our farm.  We have since moved the goats to the barn area for the winter and in hopes that we will be adding to our small heard in the near future.  This is a whole new deal for us.  I hope you will enjoy reading about our experiences with raising animals on the Boyce Family Homestead.  

Quick & Easy Tablet & Smart Phone Holder

This past weekend, I received a message from my nephew wondering what my son was up to and wanted to Skype with him.  So, I need something to hold my Kindle Fire up so that they could video chat and I looked around my living room.  Oddly enough I still had these hanging up.  

We don't do much decorating for the Christmas Season but, I do occasionally hang a few decorations up for the kids.  I had the stocking mantle hanger bought to hang stuff up to display my crocheted items at crafts show and winter markets in the area.  Then, decided to use them for the kids stockings since they were being unused in the house.  Now, it is getting used as something useful for everyday use.  This also good to use in the kitchen when looking at recipes while your are baking or cooking.  I took pictures of my husband's Nexus to share with you guys how I used this as a stand.  He used it while cooking pasta sauce this weekend as well.  I hope to share with you guys the recipe we use one day in the future.

Home Made Lotion

Well, it is the time of year where I suffer from dry itchy skin.  I wanted to give a stab at making my own lotions. We recently purchased 5 goats, this past fall and two of them are milking goats.  I wanted to make a goat milk lotion as we have the goats but, that will have to wait since my milking goats are not producing milk.   So, I am looking forward to all the products that I can make from goat milk.  Soaps, Lotions, Cheese and much more.  So, until then, I thought I would just look and find something from store bought items and see how that worked.  I found a recipe by  Creatively Southern for the Cure for Dry Winter Skin.  

This recipes says that it makes eight 8 ounce wide mouth Ball canning jars.  She made these as gifts which is a good idea but, for myself, I didn't want that much so I cut the recipe in half. Plus I wanted to see if I liked the lotion before I made more of it.   I wanted to know if it really worked on my dry winter skin, especially on my back, one of favorite products is my bear claw back scratcher.  

Here’s what you’ll need for a Large Batch of Lotion or you can do what I did & cut the recipe in half.  I used my weight scale to get the amounts needed.  You can get all these ingredients at Wal-Mart instead of driving around to different stores.  

(8) - 8 ounce wide mouth Ball canning jars 

27 oz. bottle of baby lotion 

7 oz. Aquaphor or generic brand therapeutic ointment.  

(2)-4 oz. containers of Fruit of the Earth Vitamin E cream

8 oz. extra virgin coconut oil (the solidified kind).

This is a simple recipe to follow.   Just mix everything in a large mixing bowl. I used my hand mixer to combine everything until it was smooth and creamy. This can take a while.  Mine still ended up a bit lumpy from the solidified coconut oil, I think if and when I make this recipe that I will put the coconut oil in the microwave a bit.

When everything is smooth and creamy, spoon the mixture over into your jars and that’s it!   I had enough to fill almost two containers that I found around the house.  I have no verdict on whether or not this works for me or not.  I shall update later when I have been using this lotion for some time.  

  

Southern Pecan Pie Muffins

 I love pecan pie and in my immediate family consisting of my husband and two children, I am the only one who will eat pecan pie.  So, in efforts to not having to eat a whole pie by myself, I thought I would give this recipe for Southern Pecan Pie Muffins by the Country Cook  a try that I found the other evening looking through Pinterest.  I will say that I have a long list of pins of recipes that I want to try.  This is one I wanted to try and share with you guys.  

Southern Pecan Pie Muffin & Home Made Yogurt 

So, this morning I had a pecan pie muffin along side my home made yogurt which will be another post when I make more yogurt after I run out and need to make more.  I loved the muffins and I am glad the recipe only makes 9 so I don't have to eat a bunch.  Well, maybe a little sad that it only makes 9 since I could eat more.  One can always double the recipe, right?  These muffins aren't pecan pie but, they are a good substitute.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  Thanks to The Country Cook for posting this recipe.  The only problem I had was that my cupcake liner stuck to the muffin even though as the recipe indicated I sprayed the cupcake liners as well.  I am not sure what happened or what I did wrong.  Oh well.  That prompted me to order some silicone cupcake liners off of Amazon.  

For those who are interested, Here is what you need to do:

PRINTABLE RECIPE

You will need: 

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed (dark or light brown)

1 cup chopped pecans

2 large eggs

11 tbsp. real butter (about 1 1/3 sticks), melted

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.

Place 9 cupcake paper liners into regular muffin pan and spray each of the liners with nonstick cooking spray (this will make 9 muffins).

In a bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and pecans until mixed well.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy 

and then add melted butter. Stir well.

   Combine the egg mixture with the flour mixture. 

Stir until moistened.

Spoon the batter into the cups. You will need to fill them to almost full.  There is no leavening agent (like baking powder or baking soda) in these to make them rise real high. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Fresh out of the oven

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Here is the finished product all nice and pretty and ready for me to eat

What went wrong? The muffin stuck to the liner.  I can say what I was able to eat was very tasty.  

UPDATE:    Use silicone liners, I purchased my Silicone Baking Cups on Amazon.    Muffins stick to the paper liners and not these.  :)  

Hot Caramel Apple Spice Green Tea

Just a quick post this morning that I would like to share with you guys.  I used to work at Starbucks until the Fall of last year when we as a family decided that I would be a full-time stay at home mother to my two children.   Here's a recent picture of them.

Back to the subject at hand. I typically make a Mocha Latte with my at home cappuccino maker every morning to help start my day off but, this morning I was wanting something different.  So, I made my version with a twist to Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice beverage.  I love the flavors but, wanted a little bit of caffeine so I added some Green Tea to my drink.  

Here is what you will need: 

Ingredients: 

• Apple Juice 
• Caramel Sauce (I didn't have any just caramel dip for the kids apples)
• Cinnamon Dolce Syrup (I made a homemade honey version of this syrup)
• Green Tea Bag 
• Whipped Topping 

Directions:  

• Add about 2-4 tsp (to your tastes) of Cinnamon Dolce syrup to your coffee mug & some caramel sauce to the bottom (Starbucks add swirls of it to the whipped topping but, I like to add the flavor to my beverage, it is subtle but, good).  
• Since I have a cappuccino maker at home I steamed my apple juice with the milk frothing wand.  You can always warm up on stove or in the microwave.  
• Add warmed apple juice to your coffee mug and add the green tea bag.  Steep bag for 5 minutes.  
• Top with whipped topping and caramel sauce.   Since I had none, there isn't any in the picture.  

For those who would like to know how to make the Cinnamon Honey Syrup:  

Based on what I have found through research it is a 1 to 1 ratio of water & honey.  I didn't want to make a lot so, I used 1/2 cup of water & 1/2 cup honey plus 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon, you can use cinnamon sticks too but, I didn't have any, I used what I had on hand.  Bring the ingredients to a boil, stir occasionally. Cool and pour into a jar.  This makes an 8 oz. jelly jar. You will want to refrigerate afterwards.