Poptart's Goat Cart

I have been working on a cargo ebike in my garage. It started as a regular trike, but I added a 1000 watt motor on the front wheel, and welded a cargo area onto the back. the main goal was to train my baby goat Poptart to ride in the back while she was still small.

Poptart did pretty well learning the bike (goats are good sports). She went on a picnic to the lake, and even rode with me in the big Astoria Regatta Parade where she wore a little princess crown. A cute video of that is on my Instagram Most of the work I did I streamed live on my Twitch stream. Its been a great experience over the last three years to share my goats and projects. So far we've learned welding, concrete, woodworking, lots of cooking and of course making goat milk soap, whick is for sale on my Etsy store. I haven't posted to YouTube reliably in a while, but there are some great videos up there still.

Gluten Free Blackberry Cobbler

That moment when you realize your favorite goat has been eating blackberries out of the bowl as quickly as you have been picking them. Similarly, that moment when your favorite goat girl sees the purple on your chin and says the blackberry service is over. Dang! (Dang!)

I did manage to pick enough blackberries out of reach of my goat Jelly for a nice cobbler.

Gluten Free Blackberry Cobbler

3 cups fresh blackberries
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown rice flour
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup fresh goat milk
1/2 cup goat butter or olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9"x2"deep pie dish with olive oil or coking spray. In a medium bowl, place blackberries and sugar, stirring to mix, and set aside. In another medium bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Place flour mixture into the pie dish and spoon the blackberry mixture over the top. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is well browned. Serve warm or cold. Tastes great with vanilla frozen goat milk yogurt.

Penny Wise Goats

There is a thrift store in Warrenton the next town over named Penny Wise, it supports a mental health charity. The lady who runs the store, named Pat is sweet and teases me about how long and curly my hair is.

Pat sells my soaps in her shop, and in turn I donate two dollars from every soap to her charity. I knew I would have quite a few babies for the year so to help a little more I decided to raffle two of them with the winning ticket drawn on the opening day of Sunday Market.

The tickets went really fast and we noticed the market manager was buying quite a few. It turned out for the best because she won the goats and was happy to win them. So off they went to live in her backyard with a very nice view and be completely spoiled rotten. As it should be.

It was also good news for Pat and the mental health charity because we raised over $400 and still she teases me about my hair.

Elsa's Goats

My original herd of five goats was getting older and not producing as much milk as when they where younger. That"s okay, they've given us a lot of milk and kids and deserve to relax awhile. But, there was still increasing demand for milk and soap.

I talked to my friend Elsa from whom i had gotten my original goats. She said she had too many goats, some of which where ready to freshen, and that she would loan them to me to milk. I thought one would be okay, but when she brought the goat over she brought another five goats!


It was a little crazy at first to have this many goats and even more so when the babies arrived. Once i got organized i finely had enough milk for my costumers.

Sweet Toggenburg does from left to right: Darling, Crinoline, Jenny and Special. And Pudding, also a Toggenburg came a few weeks later.

Chevre Oatmeal Cookies

Before I had a cream separator and could make goat butter, I made lots of recipes with chevre, the soft goat cheese I make in place of butter. This recipe for oatmeal cookies came out really yummy, and since the cheese adds more protein and has less fat than butter, they are secretly healthier. I call them goat-meal cookies, and yes, the goats like them too!

3/4 cup fresh goats chevre soft cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups uncooked quick oats
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup fresh goats milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl combine cheese, oil and sugar. Beat with a hand mixer until smooth, then add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls, and place 2 inches apart on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown at the bottom edge. This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies. For best results, double the recipe because these cookies will go fast!

Upcycled Dress and Jacket from Feed Bags

Feed for my goats and ducks comes in woven polypropylene bags with a cute photo label. During the summer, I sew them into tote bags to sell at the farmers' market. During the winter though they stack up a bit and I can try new things with the extras.

The first project was a party dress made from the Layena chicken chow bags. It took two bags for the full skirt and another bag for the top. Though we did line the top with soft cotton fabric, the seams were still a bit scratchy and the dress is so stiff it stands up by itself!

The next project was a simple zipper jacket made from Purina goat chow bags. It took three bags, though I think an adult jacket would take four. Those goaties better eat up, because I think my mom wants one! I wore this to a downtown art gallery walk and got lots of complements, especially from artists who like to use recycled materials.

It's kind of tricky sewing with these feed bags because once you sew a seam it makes holes in the cute photo label and so the piece is ruined if you make a mistake. Luckily my mom helped a lot, and the patterns were very simple. Another thing is when wearing these feed bag clothes I rattle when I move which attracts all my pets who think I have food for them.

Pumpkin Custard

It's definitely Fall when the pumpkins begin arriving at the grocery store. I love to get a big pumpkin and wedge it in the branches of the huckleberry bush for my goats to pick at and carve. They will nibble holes in the shell and reach in for the seeds. In past years, they would pick at the pumpkin until it fell out of the branches, and that would be the end, as goats don't usually eat things on the ground. Now that the ducks are sharing their pasture, once the pumpkins fall, the ducks are all over it. The ducks love it more, because once they're done with the pumpkin and the bugs come along, they come back for the second course of bugs.

Fall is also when the goats give the richest milk and we have the most butter and cream. The younger ducks that hatched in March are now producing eggs, and they are up to 10 per day. That's more than we can use, so I donate some to the food bank now the farmers market has closed for the year.
I've been making lots of this quick pumpkin custard with pecans to enjoy the eggs and cream.

For The Custard:
2 fresh duck eggs
1 cup goat's milk cream
1 15oz can pumpkin
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

For The Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup melted goat's milk butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix together all the custard ingredients until smooth. Pour into a 2-quart baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the topping ingredients. After the custard has baked for the 30 minutes carefully place the topping on top of the custard, dropping it by little bits as the surface of the custard will still be runny. Let the custard bake for another 30 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes before serving. Make 8 to 10 servings.

Picking Blackberries For Jelly

The blackberries this year held out turning ripe until the last bit of summer. Then it's a race to pick them and preserve them. I'm on the second round of picking blackberries, and I may get one more round in before the misty mornings make them moldy.  Each time, my mom and I pick about 8 quarts of blackberries, which makes 7 cups of juice. I smash those in a wire strainer to take out the seeds. It seems like there is a lot of seed and pulp left over, but it doesn't go to waste. The goats fall over themselves to clean out the bowl. They look like zombies when they are done.

To make the jelly, I start by heating the water in the canner, so it will be ready when the jelly jars are. I put the juice in a medium stockpot, add the juice of two lemons, which is about a half cup of lemon juice, and two boxes of pectin. Once this comes to a boil and the pectin is all dissolved, I add 9 cups of sugar. That sounds like a lot of sugar, but it helps create an acid environment to preserve the fruit.

Once all the sugar dissolves and the jelly returns to a boil, I turn off the heat for a few minutes for the foam to come to the top. I skim off the foam and put the hot jelly into hot clean canning jars with a small ladle. I wipe off the top of each jar to clean of  any drips, otherwise the lid won't completely seal. I dip each metal lid in the boiling hot water in the canner for a few seconds and place on top of the jars, followed by the bands. I put each jar on the rack in the canner which is 2/3 full of boiling hot water. I let the jars boil for 15 minutes, and then lift them out with special tongs made for canning jars.

This recipe makes 6 pint jars of jelly, so after three rounds of picking blackberries, I'll have 18 pint jars of jelly to either sell at the farmers market, or give as gifts. I think this is a pretty good yield starting from six canes this year.

Jezebel's Surprise

Baby goats for this year will be few and far between. Since my usual crew of five dairy goats is getting a bit into the middle-age of four, they are less interested in having more babies. They've given us some pretty awesome kids, and if we just keep milking regularly, they can go several years without having to be bred.

This year it was all about our Toggenburg, Jezebel. In past years she had a little trouble having her babies, which would end up with a visit from the vet. This year she surprised everyone, though, not only by having three babies, but by having them all with very little assistance. What a good goatie!

Jezebel gave us two boys and a girl. I named them Arthur, Merlin, and Tinkerbel. Jezebel usually give a lot of milk, so she'll have no problem feeding all these babies. The only trouble is goats usually have only two babies, and have two teats on their udders. Two seats at the table for three customers means I have to milk Jezebel, then pour her milk into three bottles so there isn't a scuffle.

Cheese Season and Butter Season

My dairy goats have just changed from butter season to cheese season!


The butterfat in their milk changes seasonally. In the Spring, there is lots of milk to feed hungry baby goats, but the butterfat is low. In the Fall, the amount of milk they give is less, but the butterfat content is higher. This changes what we can do with their milk during the year.

In the Spring and Summer, we make lots of fresh chevre cheese, but once the milk becomes very rich in the Fall, the cheese won't set. This is our signal to make as much goat butter as we can and freeze it for later. Once the goats have babies, we start back in with cheese.

Some of our goats are not pregnant this year. If we continue to milk them regularly, they continue to produce milk. In January or so, they suddenly begin to produce lots more milk and their butterfat content drops, as if they had babies. It's always a bit of a surprise.

While butter cookies and buttercream frosting are awesome, I've really been missing my homemade mac and cheese!

The Waiting Game

First, a goatie haiku:

Flopsy is pretty,
but she's as big as a house!
Kids are coming soon.


We are playing the usual early spring waiting game. Some of the goats have stopped giving milk, and some are still giving a little. Goats can give milk for 10 months of the year, but stop the last two months before they have babies again.

We had trouble this year getting everyone bred for spring babies. While some breeding sessions looked convincing, and all the best conditions were met, it seemed like nothing was working. We could have ordered expensive tests to know for sure, or just wait and see. So, we're waiting.

Coco Puff bit her date on the tail, so we're pretty sure there will be no babies from her. Jelly went to see a nice Toggenburg buck twice, but since she's giving more milk, not less, she's probably not bred either.

Ol' Mimzy waited until the last minute of breeding season to show any interest, and saw both a Nubian buck and a Boer buck. She's giving less milk, so that's a good sign, but we won't know more for another month.

Flopsy is simply huge! And, huge early. She went to visit a Nubian buck in October, then insisted she needed to go again in late November. She stopped giving milk as if the earlier session was a success. Maybe she just wanted to say "Hi" on the second visit. When Flopsy is this huge, she is resistant to getting up for anything, and sits under the feeder. The other goats know this and use her as a step stool or pillow.

Betty was our surprise this year. After two years of a cystic condition and no success with bucks, she seems to have gotten better, and had a successful breeding with a very nice Toggenburg buck. She stopped giving her mystery milk, and her sides are starting to show signs of life.

We think Flopsy's babies should arrive in March, followed by Betty's in April, and Mimzy in May. All this waiting and rubbing round tummies.

A Song For Coco Puff

Sometimes our first freshener Coco Puff is naughty and kicks while on the milkstand. We thought up a funny song to help us laugh throuth the battle. We changed the words to "Down By The Station". The tune is used for "Little Bunny Foo Foo" also.

This is for the dairy goats who need to be trained,
whether in California or even up in Maine:
Stand nicely on the milkstand and nibble up your grain!
Kick with your feet and you will be meat
on the bar-be-que!

Down in the milkroom early in the morning,
see the little dairy goats all in a row.
See the tired milkmaids filling all the buckets,
Puff! Puff! Don't kick! Or you'll go!!

Of course this is all for fun. I don't think I could really eat my little Coco Puff!

Peak Week!

Dairy goats usually give milk for about 10 months. The first 2 months, they increase the amount they give, then slowly decrease.

Last week, our high producer Jezebel, has been hitting her peak milk production. Her record so far is 9.2 pounds of milk in one morning, and 15 pounds for the whole day. This equals a little over two gallons per day, and makes about 2 pounds of cheese. Flopsy has been producing well too. She tips the scale at a little over 10 pounds per day, or a gallon and a half, but boasts a magnificent 7% butterfat content. Mimzy and Coco Puff will reach their highest numbers in a another month, and Betty gives just one quart of her mystery milk, but at nice 5% butterfat content.

We couldn't resist taking Jelly's picture after all her hard work! What a good goatie!

Goat Cart Training

Goats are very strong, and of course sure-footed. One of the cool uses for goats around the world is as pack animals, and pulling carts. Here is a fun video of a pet goat pulling a boy in a homemade cart.

In the late 1800's it was very fashionable for children to have fancy carriages pulled by goats in Central Park in New York City. President Harrison even had a goat cart for his children on the White House lawn.

Training should start early, and it does take lots of time and work to get it right. Our baby Nubians, however, have conned us into letting them ride the cart. I think we'll have to start over with some baby Toggenburgs!

If My Goats Were Criminals

To pass time during our milking chores, we make up silly stories about our goats. Each one has a different personality, and it's fun to imagine them in funny situations. Here's what we think each one would do if they were criminals.

Jezebel, our herd queen, is strong and confident. We can see her driving a Hummer through the gates of a top secret military base to steal classified files and the formula for weapons-grade cheese. She could certainly butt her way out through the guards with her adamantium-reinforced skull.

Flopsy is our glamorous fashion goat. We can see her arriving stylishly in a limousine at an after-hours club just after stealing millions in jewels and furs. Everyone would know, but be so mesmerized by her dazzling beauty, they would forget to call the police.

Betty is all about speed. We see her stealing prototype sports cars to race on her private track, just for the rush. She would never be caught, because with her super speed she can never be caught.

Mimzy is our naughty old woman. We can see her loading her pockets with extra bananas at the salad bar and sneaking them all back to her RV. If ever questioned Mimzy has perfected a really pathetic look, that somehow gets her out of everything.

Coco Puff is our super-smart Ninja goat. We see her using Ninja skills to gain impossible entry to a high-tech corporate facility to steal computer codes for video games and iPhone apps, to sell on the black market. She is so clever, no one would be able to tell that she was even there.

I wonder if the goats find all these stores funny, or if they are just amused that we are amused somehow.

How I Became A Goat Girl

When my parents moved to the country, I got to research which animals would be best for our property. I first thought of a pony, but after reading up on goats, I decided they would be a perfect fit.

Luckily we found a goat breeder nearby. We worked very hard building a place for them to live. By the time it was my eighth birthday, I got four baby goats.

My favorite goat is Flopsy, who is the most beautiful Nubian in the world! She has beautiful mahogany fur, makes awesome cocoa and yogurt, and even lets me go for a ride.



My goats are very fun and I have learned a lot from them!