Blurps

It's raining...again. Our rain-less days and some times sunny skies have been replaced by a storm that is supposed to bring major wind tonight and rain for the next 3 days, J-O-Y. The girls did get a few really nice days in the pasture gorging themselves and laying by the rocks in the sunshine. The boys have their pasture all the time and I really doubt they enjoy sitting in the stall while the rain comes down but I can assure you they are much happier to be in there than out in the rain.

You know when it start to sprinkle. If a goat has a shelter they will run for it like their life depended on it. Goats hate rain. Well mine do anyway.

The girls are all fat and happy, all except for Freedoe that is who will from now on be referred to as FD. She's been keeping weight on well since freshening. She is loosing a bit no doubt by being overly anal protective about her kids and their whereabouts instead of focused on eating. For the first week and a half I was locking her up in the back portion of the sleeping stall with a whole flake of alfalfa for herself at night but that time has come to an end.

She gets her grain daily on the stand in the morning and her kids are left in the sleeping stall to play. She isn't thrilled about that but she does seem to be relaxing a bit with them out of her sight.

She's giving me almost half a gallon a day over and above what the kids are taking in the morning. I am not separating nightly yet. I am not convinced they are eating hay like I would like them to be enough to separate at night and for them to have no milk in the morning but basically since about 3 days post freshening I've been milking her to almost empty after the kids have eaten and have been pleasantly surprised with her output! Someone on one of my goat groups mentioned doing this and her production has gone up. Like, no duh!

She milks really really well. I'm pleasantly surprised actually being as how she is still somewhat skiddish around anyone other than me, especially the children. They move too fast for her and it scares her. I am really happy that I spent the time with her before she freshened getting her in the stand daily. I do feel it has really helped her be comfortable up there. I haven't had one single kick from her, not even an inkling even when she's done with her grain before I am milking. She's a lot like Bonnie in that respect, she has quickly won my heart over. Lat summer I was ready to get rid of her because I was tired of tricking her to get her near, glad I held on and worked with her more. She's a real pretty doe with nice confirmation and a sweet face. I just love her.

Her teats are stretching well, udder is soft and she lets down her milk well when asked, amazing. It's nice to have mason jars of milk in the fridge again!

FD's udder is really quite nice, probably the best on the property. I'm anxious to see PJ's 2nd fresh udder! Granite is growing quite the nice little udder too and Molly, well, she's about 4 weeks from freshening and there's not even the hint of one so we'll just have to wait and see.

6 weeks in between births is far too long to wait :o). Next year I will do it a bit differently I think and not have so much time in between. But once the end of February rolls around, I should have babies about once a week and be curing that they are coming too quickly :o).

I think I have decided that I will be for sure selling Miss Chloe (FD's new doe kid). I can't keep them all. For now I am holding onto Loli and won't let Chloe go of course until after she's weaned.

Isabella too, I think my be leaving after she freshens. I have been very back and forth on her and ultimately she's not fitting in with my program. She's a great milk doe but like the rest of my life, I need to simplify and things have to be cut. She'll make someone a really nice dairy animal! I am anxious to see how many kids she's carrying though and I may keep a doe kid of hers, if she has any. Between her milk production and John Henry's pedigree, any doe kids should be fantastic producers! In her place I have been looking for a registered doe who's either bred or newly freshened. It would be silly to sell all of my milking stock and replace it with doe kids who can't be bred until next year!

I had started writing this to say I went out to open the sliding door to the sleeping barn for the girls this evening and realized they had already let themselves in, which was fine. The little girls were curled up in the corner behind Ma. Everyone reluctantly got up when I walked in and both little girls walked over and put their front feet up on me to be held. It's so stinkin' cute! Loli especially is the apple of my eye and I tend to think if I had an udder I'd be her favorite over her own mama :o). The kids pick her up a lot and so she's becoming so super friendly. She's the smaller of the two and friendlier and it's a vicious cycle really. I told Rachel she needs to dote on Chloe more.

More and more I have been thinking about doing LA (Linear Appraisal). It's really quite expensive but I have found someone nearby who is going to be a host who will let me come up. At least I think she will. I haven't formerly asked yet but I intend to once I figure out if this is something that will really help. I mean, I know it will help but anyway, whole other story.

The boys entrance to their pasture and up against their stall was just layered in old nasty waste hay. Oh it was just awful and I hated going out there to feed hoping that A. I could walk on my toes long enough to get in and out without the back of my pants that were a bit too long touch even the slightest bit of sloshy gross and disgusting urine and feces slurry that was on the ground
and B. neither of the boys decided to get fresh and touch me with their hooves that had said gross and disgusting urine and feces slurry on them. The other day I got brave, locked them in the back pasture and took the tractor out all by my lonesome to scraped all that nastiness into a big pile and scooped it all up and put it on the compost pile. Boy did it look nice afterward and I can walk in the gate and not have to stand and walk on my tip toes. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow after 12+ hours of rain.

Rachel woke up early with me this morning and helped me with the goats at 6:00 AM before school. It was nice to have the company. It's usually just me and them and the darkness. She says she wants me to wake her up early tomorrow morning too. I told her this morning she could probably feel someone's stomach and feel babies kicking but I think everyone was asleep inside. Oh wait, no, Bonnie's kid(s) finally woke up and Rachel happened to have her hand just in the right spot. It's really amazing to feel kids inside a doe. Almost as cool as your own kids inside.

My wager is that Bonnie is carrying 3 kids. Isabella, Lord, I hate to guess. Poor Dear probably has a gaggle! Molly I am thinking probably a singleton, I'd be surprised if it were more. PJ threw triplets (as did Bonnie) their first freshening and while PJ is carrying lower instead of side to side (like Bonnie), she still doesn't seem to me to be carrying more than 2. I could be completely wrong of course. These are just guesses after all. Granite I'm not so sure about. It's so bizarre to see how things unfold different with different goats...just like humans they vary doe to doe. FD seemed to be huge all over but especially side to side very early on. She was older of course than Granite and Molly are right now so maybe just looked bigger overall for that reason but Granite seems pretty compact. I know both Molly and Granite are bred, I have felt movement but how many will be the biggy. I do so hope for at least a doe kid from Granite, a spotted doe kid would be wonderful and I would surely keep it! She was bred to a buck with great mammary attachment in his genetics. In fact, PJ was his dam! So with her great milk production and his great mammary, I can't wait to see her doe kids.

Amanda