Wow, brave soul, are you sure you really want to milk a pygmy goat? Have you ever tried this? It might be helpful to find someone with a milking pygmy doe and try it. I'm not trying to be flip but Pygmy teats are REALLY tiny. You also won't be getting much milk, I'm thinking cupfuls at best. Nigerian dwarf goats aren't much bigger than pygmys but are supposed to have bigger udders and are referred to as backyard milkers. You can't get a goat to lactate unless it has been bred. You can buy a goat already in milk that has kidded. Goats can be milked continuously for years if they are pretty heavy milkers to begin with. I milked one of my Oberhasli's continuously for 4 years, and got a gallon a day consistently. But, if a goat is a light milker, when they go into heat during their breeding season, their milk volume decreases and if it gets too low, they start to dry off in anticipation of breeding. To find a buck, you can look up the pygmy goat national registry to find one hopefully in your area. Usually the county extension office in your area can put you onto someone who has pygmy goats or maybe nigerians and a buck as well. I assume you want a pygmy because a dairy goat wouldn't be allowed in the city. You might want to check out Nigerians or see if anyone in you area has one you can see before you buy. Good Luck. Bonnie

Well, to be honest, M&P soaps are not the same as real, natural handmade soap. You don't know what is in it or if the glycerin has been removed, and chemicals added for hardening, sudsing, etc. I teach soap making and have receips and directions for making it from scratch, yourself, using a blender. It's not difficult but it does take weeks to set. To say a soap is made with goat's milk, you may have to actually make the soap with goat's milk. However, you can always say it's so and so soap with goat's milk added. As for how much to use, how big is the block of M&P soap that you are using for this?

As nonrepresentative specimens, it's interesting that Cnetter's spouse and I enjoy leaves snatched in passing. Participation on an herb tea thread in the herb forum a few months ago ran something like 7 to 1 in favor of the male gender. I asked a rhetorical why and the guys promptly clammed up. As far as snatching things tho', I'm also very inclined to snatch brassica leaves and various weeds. Don't think I'd especially like to smell like 'em, however. Mints are fine, I seem to prefer spearmint but we now have about 10 different choices in the yard. But for tea, I generally avoid the true mints. Broad sections of the yard are of little use to me, anymore. Chamomile is really fine but the flavor seems like apple - maybe an "unusual" kind of apple. And yes, for 20 years or so, I was a tobacco abuser. Cigarettes were always the handiest but I wasn't choosy. At various times, pipes and chewing tobacco also made there way into my hands (and mouth :o(. Besides a decent tobacco, the flavor I was most interested in for the pipe was apple and I usually had a slice in the pouch. Licorice was the choice for a nasty tobacco mouthful of something to spit. Never went much for the menthol nor wintergreen and such. That was my brother's orientation but, then again, he didn't spit - swallowed instead . . . oh, lord! . . . I think he's finally off the dope. Nothing like cancer surgery to wake a person up a little. In a century or 2, I'm hoping to essentially BE loam. Right now, rolling around under this searing Summer sun has kept the moss off me. digitS'

I've used all kinds of milk products (powdered whole milk, powdered non-fat dry milk, whey-based milk substitute, raw goat milk, homogenized goat milk, homogenized cow milk, low-fat, 2%, whole....) for making kefir. I've been making kefir for around 7-years. I have some fermenting on my kitchen counter as I type, and made 2-cups of it yesterday. What I find is that the lower the fat, the more whey you get, instead of curd. But whey is good too. I use the whey for making whey lemonade, which is one of the most refreshing drinks when it's hot outside. I'm on the fence when it comes to homogenized and raw milk products - even though I'm a big fan of "Nourishing Traditions". I think getting the beneficial bacteria from kefir outweighs WHAT you make it in. I didn't have a problem with raw goat milk, other than I was afraid I'd contract some horrible bacteria from the family's filthy kitchen than I was about using raw dairy products. The "odd" taste must be what they are feeding the goats. To make kefir easy-to-swallow, which even my picky hubby likes, we use it as a morning smoothie. I use a Hamilton Beach Malt-Maker for mixing. The stainless steel cup for the malt-maker has 3 markings on the side. I put kefir up to the first mark (2/3-cup), 100% fruit juice of choice (grape, orange, pomegranate/blueberry is a favorite....and the strong flavor of it would probably mask any "farm" flavor of the goat milk), to the top mark (about 1-1/3-cup - so a 1:2 ratio (or to taste). We also add flaxmeal and a supplement powder, and give it a whirr... If that doesn't work, how about making water kefir - which takes different kefir grains than dairy kefir? Or fermenting fruit juice with the kefir grains? How about taking the drained kefir cheese and adding strong flavors (spices, onion, horseradish) and making a vegetable dip out of it. Mix kefir cheese with guacamole.... Go to Dom's Kefir Insite for more information. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Fermented Treasures