Introduction, Brittni - Northern California

[Guest guest]

Name: Brittni

Email: brittniscript@...

state: California

Hello everyone.. I joined this group to connect with other people whom also LOVE

raw milk..

I learnt about raw milk a few years ago. after experiencing some health issues

in 2007, I went into deep health research.. now 3 years later, I have learned

ALOT and still continue to research and seek out what MY perfect diet is. (for

me, the word diet means 'what you eat'.. not a 'weight loss' term.. sure, if

you 'improve your diet' you can loose weight, if it needs to be lost.. but for

the most part, loosing weight isn't the only thing that matters to health!)

My passion as of now is learning to live off the grid & learning how to live

completely off the land and not be dependent on stores..(Eat what you grow, and

grow what you eat!) we as a family are still a long ways off.. but the goal is

at least now in reach, due to our dietary changes and lifestyle changes.

last year we bought 4 ewes (katahdin sheep) for milking and later on we bought a

doe (Nubian goat) in milk. our goats name is summer.. and she gave us LOTS of

milk all through the fall and most of the winter (we had to dry her off in

January, so she could have her babies in April.)

our sheep then had babies in January. and my mother began milking.. WOW do

personalities matter when it comes to milking... one sheep was wonderful on the

stand.. but the other was a complete nut job.. (and the other 2 got returned to

the seller.. LOL) after milking a few times.. we couldn't believe how much, or

shall i say.. how little, milk these girls produced.. then after awhile the one

who was wonderful on the stand, turned on us.. she started worrying about the

babies more.. the babies were then at the weaning age.. so we decided to wean..

LOL... yeah right.. Did you know that katahdin sheep can DRY UP whenever they

want to? hmm.. we didn't.. well she ended up drying up most of the way.. so we

just threw her back to her babies...

after that.. we decided to focus more on our goats.. (we also have 2 dry

yearlings..)

after some thought, this spring we decided to add to our goat herd, one more

milking doe.. a beautiful girl named eye(eye of the storm).. she has a wonderful

personality! and a wonderful udder!

we are keeping the thought in the back of our minds of getting ONE dairy type

sheep and let it run with the katahdins (we are now starting to think of just

using the katahdins as a meat producing herd.. breeding them and getting big ol'

ram lambs for freezer meat.. they are also really good grass mowers.. we will

not have to mow our fields this year.. YAY!)

so anyways.. we now have 2 milking does, 4 kids (2 girls, 2 boys) & 2 dry

yearlings.

2 adult ewes, 2 dry yearling ewes & 3 lamb ewes... and 2 freezer meat ram lambs.

we are raising everything 100% natural and 100% organic (when we can).. we are

using all herbal wormers and herbs for immune building.. we have some pretty

awesome testimonies with how well these herbs are working with our goats &

sheep. (but I won't go there in this intro)

We now make kefir & kefir yogurt with the milk. I have also made cheeses last

year.. I am wanting to try some goat butter.. but we need to have a way over

abundance to do that.. we have made yogurts.. but we rather do that with the

sheep milk, because its so thick and creamy.. (I personally don't like working

with the yogurts anymore.. because the culture always seems to get killed by the

raw milk after a few uses.. i rather do kefir)

I am going to experiment with some kefir cheeses soon... wish me luck! :-D

ok. and the thing said to state how the laws are in my state.. well there was

raw cow milk in the local whole foods. but its gone now..

Raw milk is legal to sell here if you are a grade A or B farm.. which we arn't,

and luckly for us we arn't planning on selling it.. i believe you can do 'goat

shares' or 'cow shares'.. but that isn't an area of expertise for me..

~Brittni