​Like dulce de leche, which is made from cow milk, cajeta is the Mexican version made from goat milk.

1/2 gallon Goat milk, raw whole
​2 c Sugar
1 Vanilla bean
​3" stick of Cinnamon
​1 T Water
1 t Baking soda

We've owned dogs since we were first married, and both of us owned dogs before that.  We quite like the Weimaraner breed, but have also owned a Jack Russell terrier, Chihuahua-rat terrier mixes, and before getting married we've lived with English pointers, beagles, terrier mixes, border collie, and mutts.  We've seen some breeds are smarter than others.  Our Jack Russell was extremely smart, troublingly so, and trained very easily.  Our Weimaraners are not as smart, but very interested in pleasing.  This has made them easy to train.  Our dogs live in the house with us with the exception of our guardians (livestock guardian dogs, often called LGDs).

After having owned and trained many dogs, it is apparent these are very different than others, so much so we have come to refer to "the dogs" as one group and "the guardians" as another.  ​They are so different!  And, I'm not being dramatic ... I'm not a dramatic person, but quite the opposite.

​If thinking about getting a livestock guardian dog, please take warnings and advice from others seriously to avoid a bad situation for you and the dog.  Just to say it up front, I do not recommend Akbash dogs as a pet for anyone.  Great Pyrnees might be okay in the right setting with the right family ... might​.

When moving from California to Oregon, we loaded a full-sized moving truck with all of our stuff.  It's always amazing how much we accumulate when we're trying not to.  As we loaded, it became apparent to my husband and those helping us that if society collapsed and all of the toilet paper companies shut their doors, ours was the place to come for such a luxury.  I had over a dozen Costco packages of toilet paper stashed throughout the house ... probably more like two dozen ... my husband would say even more.  It became a joke when packing things tight, "Oh, won't toilet paper fit here?"  And when checking to see if cupboards and closets were empty, "Check to see if there is any toilet paper left."

​All I can say is I am perfectly fine not EVER running out of toilet paper.  But, being prepared is more than that.

When we were first building a house in Oregon on property we planned to homestead, I told Brandon one day that I wanted to try keeping a hive of bees.  He thought it was weird and wasn't really on board.  That doesn't happen very often - we usually endorse each other's weird ideas or at least sit back and see how it goes.

​Shortly after that, it seemed like only days, our future neighbor came by the office and talked with Brandon for a while.  The topic of bees came up.  Apparently, he had a couple of colonies and knew how to make beekeeping not seem so weird, which is funny in hindsight because he could be odd (but nice) sometimes.  Brandon told me he thought it was a good idea, but maybe we should get two colonies.  I was good with that.  In fact, I had already decided I wanted two but thought I'd let him warm up to the idea of one first.

​I want to start by saying that I am not an expert at composting.  We have enough animals that we having a meaningful amount of manure and soiled bedding to compost differently than in a backyard garden.  When we had a garden compost pile, I had a ring made of fencing material and I would toss retired garden plants into the ring.  The idea was to turn it every month or two, and by spring it would be ready to incorporate into the garden.  Rabbit and other vegetarian pet waste could go in it, but no cat or dog waste, and no meat or dairy products.  I've also seen containers that you load and turn, which look nice, but the volume it processes is not a good fit for a small farm or homestead with livestock ... unless you have  a couple dozen of them, I suppose, and lots of time to tend them.

​I've also found information about large-scale composting such as at feedlots and high-density dairies.  I think a small farm or homestead is probably closer to those in that I don't want to do it all by hand, but it's still not the same.  Composting doesn't have to be that complex.  (You can look into the carbon-nitrogen ratio, but it has seemed fairly good for me so far.)  Properly composted livestock waste kills pathogenic microbes, some seeds (but not all), and promotes the growth of soil-building microorganisms.  We currently use a tractor, but with the fencing of our "official" farmyard, we will also use hogs.