Quinn's Quails

02/06/2025

Ever heard of a seed snail? Seed snails are a great way to do your seed starting. I came across a video of a woman using foam packaging material for her seed snails and thought this was brilliant and I had to try it. I didn’t want to purchase any new materials and I didn’t have any foam packaging laying around, so I’m using what I have - paper grocery bags. I cut open the bags and then folded them in on themselves twice. Pre-soak your seed starting soil and then line your paper with soil. Tightly roll, like a snail! Secure with a rubber band, twine, ribbon, whatever you have! Plant multiple seeds in your snails and watch them grow. You can always add more soil if necessary. When your starters are ready, just unravel and plant! This will be my first year using this method so I am excited to see what works and what I may need to do differently next year. I also used rainwater I collected to soak the soil for added nutrients.

01/21/2025

Today we said goodbye to the remaining 2 of our original 3 chickens that started our homesteading journey, Flora and Peanut. Flora was a beautiful creamy white true Ameraucana, who laid huge blue eggs. Peanut was a very sweet Rhode Island Red who was consistent in her egg laying. We first picked up Flora, Peanut and Hazel in 2021 after tons of research on raising chickens. Turns out raising chickens is the easiest thing in the world and as usual I overthought the whole thing 😆. We lost Hazel early on when Silver, who was an overzealous puppy at the time, attacked her. Needless to say he hasn’t attacked a chicken since and has learned his lesson. We got outed to the HOA, but managed to continue to hide the chickens for 3 years before moving to the farm 😆. Flora and peanut have seen us through many other chickens since and I’m really sad to see them go, but it was their time and I’m glad they went together. They are now buried together underneath this beautiful ponderosa pine.

01/18/2025

Starting the weekend off right by heading out to the pasture to hang with Poppy and the goats.

09/24/2024

Liquid rennet is superior. I’ve been making mozzarella since last year, but it’s always been time consuming and messy because the rennet tablets either didn’t work at all (or barely worked), or I used vinegar which isn’t very effective either. Liquid rennet is the way to go for fresh mozzarella from goat milk. The curds were perfect and the cheese was so easy to stretch and shape. I also finally got some gloves to wear when cheesemaking because you have to dip your hands with the cheese in ridiculously hot water. I will never trust a rennet tablet again!
Rennet is used to coagulate the milk to create cheese. You can use rennet tablets (at your own risk) or liquid rennet from animals or vegetables. Vegetable rennet was the cheapest for liquid so I opted for that and it worked great!

09/22/2024

Oh. My. Gosh. These came out SO FREAKING GOOD!!! These cinnamon sugar braided rolls are so soft and perfectly sweet. Not to mention they are so pretty 😍. 10/10 will absolutely be making this recipe again. Next time I will top with large sugar crystals for a bit more crunch.

09/18/2024

This evening our little Fern got roughed up by Poppy. We cleaned up her wounds but she’s still pretty shook up and sporting a bit of a limp. Poppy, despite her size and despite how well she protects the goats 99% of the time, is still a puppy. On occasion she plays a little rough and this time she got carried away. She will be on the line lead for the next few days to put her in check. Luckily Andrew heard Fern crying out and went to check on her. Fern will be okay, but she’s the runt of the herd and getting lots of love and care.

09/08/2024

After two failed attempts (one of them this morning) at making yogurt from our goat’s milk, we bit the bullet and got a crockpot. We needed something to maintain a consistent and correct temperature because the lowest setting on the stove was too high. We had a ton of milk to burn through so today I also made fresh mozzarella for our diy pizza night tomorrow, and Aria made vanilla pudding and spider cookies. The yogurt *should* be ready by 9:30 tonight. If the crockpot works out, next up is cream cheese ☺️

09/05/2024

Spotlight on Poppy! She’s just out here living her best life 🥰. Poppy will be 10 months later this month and has quickly grown into her role here on the farm. She is a vigilant protector of her goats, bolting into action when needed. We are so grateful to have such a hardworking pup. It’s a good reminder that dogs thrive when given a job, especially the job they were intended to do.

08/03/2024

Ivy fixing his farm truck yesterday evening with this stunning backdrop is one of the many things that makes all the hard work worth it.

04/22/2024

Some of you may have guessed it, we have moved! We recently purchased 10.5 acres in El Dorado County and couldn’t be happier. We have so many plans (expanding our quail aviaries 🐦 , goats 🐐, more chickens 🐓, a livestock guardian dog 🐾, eventually a cow 🐄, and soooo much more) but for now we are just trying to unpack 😅. I can’t wait to share this new adventure with you all. And soon I will need to change our instagram name!

03/30/2024

Big things up ahead for us ☺️

01/04/2024