The best part about this whole endeavour is that the ice cream I make is 100% natural without any of the gelatins or preservatives found in store bought ice creams. (the exception of course being the "junk food" variety of ice creams such as cookies n' cream or Skor)  All of my recipes so far for ice cream are literally made with just our milk and then sugar as the base.  Flavours are added from there consisting of a variety of organic fruits and nuts as well as natural extracts.   So far I have made the following flavours;

Maple Walnut, Chocolate Mint, Strawberry, Chocolate, Butterscotch Ripple, Orange, Cherry, Skor, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Cookies N Cream and my personal favourite  - Strawberry Orange Banana! 

I have plans to continue making different varieties but so far I am often making repeat batches as they all get eaten up!

Now that the holidays are over and I am back in school full time it will be
difficult to keep up on all my projects but I will certainly try!  I still have
to jump into the world of making soaps and just yesterday I bought myself a
yogurt maker!  Oh the many wonderful things you can do with goats!

A few weeks back, Geordon stumbled upon a simple milking machine online.  We had been discussing purchasing a milk machine for some time just to simplify milking - especially with a naughty and bad tempered Dixie to milk!  The cost on a milk machine however can often run into the thousands and this is simply not in our budget.  We were so excited when Geordon stumbled upon the "Henry Milker", a small and simply designed milking system that requires no power and works through a simple vaccuum.  How perfect for us!  Especially since it requires no power!  The best part about this machine is that it costs less than $200.  After doing a bit of research into whether or not it will also work on our Nigerians, we were sold!  I have been a little worried about having to try to milk Carmela soon with the tiny teats that Nigerians have.  Now with this milker I can simply let it do all my work for me!  We placed our order and it FINALLY arrived yesterday!  The Henry Milker company is out of a small town in Alaska.  Our milker was delayed at customs for a few days en route but finally made it safe and sound.  Geordon and I tested it briefly last night on Dixie but as I don't regularly milk her at night she didn't have much to offer.  This morning however, I was able to milk her out and save my hands!  For such a moody goat, she didn't seem to mind the teat cups at all and was content to eat her breakfast while I played around with it.  She was even able to lie down while I milked her!  This machine was definately worth it and I am sure it will make life much easier now.  I may even have an opportunity to sleep in and let Geordon milk now!

Here is a video from the www.henrymilker.com website showing how simple this is to use.  What a wonderful idea they had!  We are thrilled to have found it :o)