Improvments

 I've made some improvements in my dairy attempts. I successfully made mozzarella. Well it was successful until the stretching part then I am not sure I did it right, but the curd formed just right. Maybe I should ignore my aversion to the microwave and try that version?

I also made chevre. Which I made just right and turned out just right- but nobody liked it much.  Too strong in flavor. I used my successful batch of cultured buttermilk to make the chevre too.

We've also added to our family again:

10 little guinea keets, who are very flighty and so funny to watch.  They boys are getting used to the fact that they aren't quite as easy to catch and tame as the chicks.

In the eyes of the alpacas, this is probably the best improvement:

 

The alpacas came from a farm that was struggling with a mud problem. It was all mud, no grass. They lived on hay. When they got here  the goats had eaten down most of the fenced pasture. So there was some forage but not a lot. And there was a lot of buttercups- which are toxic and they avoid them. Between that, and the fact that they shared the yard with a goat who is fighting a tough case of worms, we decided to throw up a temporary pasture in the front field. We used step in posts, our old soft shelled shelter and a solar electric charger the boys found in brush. Now they have more grass than they know what to do with.

 

For Lakin's birthday he wanted to go to the WNC Nature Center. 

 

It was a nice little place. Bear, fox, wolves, coyotes, otters....

 

It wasn't very busy and nicely set.

I came home with major goat 

and barn envy.

Linked to the Homestead Barn Hop