Nelson's Nest

07/18/2024

We are always trying to find new and fun ways to use the goat milk and this project has been several weeks coming. Not going to lie this was an intimidating process initially but with two rounds behind us we feel much more confident. The curing process takes 4-6 weeks so we just now have our first batch ready to go. Thanks to our sweet guests for buying half the batch already! We will be making these on the regular and formulating other scents as we go. We are so excited to have these available soon! Please watch our upcoming posts as we have more available. Happy Hump day!

05/11/2024

We are getting “nanny” out and about into the big pasture. I feel like she is a little overwhelmed by all the grazing options lol. As you can see we only have one little baby by her side. We unfortunately lost her little doe during her disbudding by the Vet. We have been so sad about the situation but we are trying to enjoy what we have left which is nanny and this sweet little chill buck. Nanny has the best personality and so does this little guy. We are so lucky to have gotten her to add to our homestead. We know and miss her very much but we are so thankful they decided to let her come to our homestead.

05/02/2024

So this may have happened very impromptu after work today….

04/21/2024

Just hanging with the goats for a few this evening! Jack-Jack was the highlight with his “dog sitting”. Happy Saturday!

04/19/2024

We did a little more experimenting this week. We collected cream off the top of our oldest milk that had settled for about 3 days. We ended up with about a pint of cream and it was enough to make this single stick of butter. We had been told that the butter may be more tangy but we found it to be surprisingly mild. We used the kitchen aid mixer just like we did with cows cream and it worked just the same. A good salting and it was ready to go. So excited to have another product from our goats milk.

04/13/2024

What a difference a month makes!

01/10/2024

Em and I are trying so hard to be more diligent this year about providing for our family. This right here is a big part of that! Willow and Ava are fully sustaining our milk supply. We get about a quart a day and have stopped buying milk from the grocery store. Two dairy goats providing for a family of 6! We are so thankful for this and knowing where this food source is coming from.

12/20/2023

We added a new addition to the homestead last week. This is Ms. Ava from ! We have been getting her settled in all the while dealing with these cold temps. Our goal here is to create teams of girls that keep us in milk year round. This girl is a great pairing with Willow who was already in milk after having quadruplets. Ms. Ava also easily kids unassisted. She has been warming up to us and does better every day on the stand. Welcome to the herd! 🐐

10/23/2023

Yesterday was a very satisfying day. We have been in a withdrawal period from giving the goats antibiotics for the pink eye and we were finally done. I (Kevin) have been practice milking the last week and getting Willow and Zinnia back in routine. I was also getting myself in routine as Emily did all the milking in the past. Steep learning curve but I’m making it. This is a very rewarding process as we taste tested the milk this morning after it was nice and chilled. So delicious for the milk drinkers! Hopefully this milking period we get to try new things. If you have any goats milk foods you have tried please let us know.

08/24/2023

These newest pullets are really laying the green magic!

05/14/2023

This is the one we call “mama”….even me! She hears that name an endless number of times in a day. What she puts in to that name is the special gift we all get to experience. She loves me and her babies without any conditions. Even in the hardest moments she has the softest touch and clarity. She is the calm when everyone else slides into the darkness of the world. She loves us so deeply and selflessly. I couldn’t imagine what our days or lives would be like without her in it. We love you and appreciate all you do for us and this life we have created. Happy Mother’s Day! ❤️

05/12/2023

Caught this little pullet just before dark. She is a backcross pullet from our olive eggers and she is just beautiful. This is why I love having splash color genetics in the flock. We get these deep dark blues and look at her lacing. Can’t wait to see her egg color in a few more months! I love this first picture too. Our bedroom overlooks some of our raised beds and the growout area. I often sit and watch the young birds and stare at the garden just like my daughter is doing in the background❤️.

04/13/2023

Welcome Stella to the family! We have talked about getting an LGD for a year and never could make the move. The discussion came up again and we wanted to have more security from predators. Let the training/socialization begin!

04/11/2023

Lots of adventures so far this year! Some planned and some not. We hope we can keep pushing hard and learning this year. It’s amazing to look back and see how far we’ve come in a couple of years! Growing this farm feels just right.

03/21/2023

Banderas is a very interesting man! We love having him here on the farm.

45 Likes, 4 Comments - Nelson’s Nest () on Instagram: "Banderas is truly the “most interesting man” in our lives! We love this dude. Cat-like behavi..."

03/21/2023

02/20/2023

This little girl is only a day old but she is redemption for one of our OG does Ellie. Ellie had twins a year and a half ago and it was a tough delivery and only our second here on the farm. We ended up having to pull the babies and Ellie was in shock. She rejected her babies and they ended up being bottle babies. We wanted to give her another chance at being a mother and see if it was the traumatic birth or just that she wasn’t geared towards mothering. Last night we were up until almost 3 am with her and another long delivery. THINGS got hairy. The baby came out head first and was stuck in the canal. We had to assist and pull again. Ellie was so tired but almost immediately took to licking her baby and calling to her. So far the baby is nursing well and gaining strength. We are so happy with this experience. Every birth here gives us experience and lessons. Hard or easy we are always learning. We have decided not to breed Ellie anymore after this just due to anatomy restrictions and the risk doesn’t outweigh the potential. We are very proud of her though and are thankful God gave us another opportunity to see his creation play out.

02/16/2023

Today is a good day…36 yr’s of growth and change brings me to here! A beautiful wife, three beautiful children, and an appreciation of simplicity amongst the haze of busyness! This feed room is a perfect place to appreciate God’s blessing. It has all my people in one place, new baby chicks from the feed store, barrels full of feed that get turned into eggs and milk, and fresh hay from our own property. The richness of this life has no listing price!

02/02/2023

Look at our beautiful girl! If you are a fan of #1883 we have our very own ! She is fierce and hangs with the boys like no other. Five minutes later she is inside putting on makeup at her vanity. We envy her strength and boldness. She is showing off her chicken wrangling abilities and modeling the latest Olive Egger and Ameraucana models. We love these and all their daily adeventures.

12/27/2022

I’ve been sharing pictures over of our new loves and thought I’de make sure our followers over here knew how we are growing. Our fence was completed in early December giving us more acreage for pasture and that of course meant we needed more critters. Angela came through again for us and sat us up with the “sisters” group…Willow, Linden, and Cypress plus our bonus boy Banderas! We couldn’t be happier to add these guys to the farm. They will be part of the greeter program for the cabin and our does will start kidding in February which means fresh raw milk again! Banderas will also be the bodyguard for the herd and keep an eye out for predators.

10/11/2022

These youngsters have me some kind of excited!

10/09/2022

Came home from church to these two beauties today. They are from our grow out pen. They are both from BC1 pullets. After that first initial cross you start only getting about 50 percent who lay a darker olive when bred back to the dark brown egg layer. I still really love the brown egg though! We are still waiting on several members of this group to start laying so stay tuned! Very happy with the results so far. If you have any questions we are happy to share our knowledge with you. Happy Sunday!

10/02/2022

We have been waiting for months to see how this breeding would turn out and we got our fist taste this evening. This is one of our BC1’s from our spring breedings. The mother was an F1 olive egger and the father our welsummer. Our goal was to get a deeper Olive with speckles and we are very happy with this first egg. We are so hopeful to get more of these colorings in the following month as these pullets start laying.