Growing and Sewing...

Medical bucket

2010-03-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

This is a fabulous bucket! My husband bought the 3 gallon bucket and the cover from Lowes. I know Home Depot also sells them. It has many pockets and pouches, and can hold so many things! I have all the medications, sanitizers, any supply you can imagine, needed for kidding in here.

I also keep supplies for blood draw, a stethescope, balling gun, dewormer, pepto bismal, drench gun... I have other supplies in the house and barn but this is a great bucket! I have places that are safe, clean and dry in the barn to leave it in or can carry it to the house. I was using a small tool bag with a square bottom. It was similar to a medical bag, but it was hard for me to find things in. I end up dumping it! This bucket is a perfect fix for that.

Oh the GSE red cap bottle? Grapefruit seed extract, great for pretty much any illness in the world for humans or animals. Some people say it prevents coccidiosis in chickens by putting it in their water. I intend to give it kids to help prevent the same thing, and I do put it in my chicken and duck water. Oh and we take it internally, I just dont take it straight. You are supposed to dilute it in something like juice or water.

The Softest Thing I Ever Felt

2010-03-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

1 day old baby goats! After they are all cleaned off and before they really get their legs about them and start rolling around in the dirt. They are the softest things ever! I almost want to make a coat out of them. But that would be too "Cruella Devil-ish".

Just Enough

2010-03-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

My favorite doe Marmalade came to me post freshening 3 or so days with barely enough milk to feed her single (fairly large) buck kid. Over the course of a few days she came in to milk really well and it was never an issue.

Fast forward to this kidding season. Molly, my 1 year old first freshener, has one single doe kid with an udder that barely looks like an udder. Fawn barely seemed to be getting enough and I was in a bit of a dilemma. Do I give her a bottle and take her away from Molly for good? Completely, more than likely, destroying any chance she may be dam raised? While I can't say for sure a kid would be confused by both a man made nipple and a dam's teat if I were to try to just supplement her, I didn't want to take that chance. I also didn't want to raise her on the bottle as a single doe kid because at some point I'd have to reintroduce her to the herd and it's important to me that a kid has a mama to "protect" them and teach them.

Last night while I had FD on the stand with her grain, Molly wasn't paying too much attention to little Fawn so I scooped her up and was going to cuddle her while FD finished up. I wondered if Fawn would nurse from FD. With a little bit of force feeding, so to speak. SHE DID. Fawn nursed from FD and FD let her! I doubt under any other circumstances (i.e. being out in the pasture or pen) that FD would allow such a thing, but being in the confinement of the stand while somewhat preoccupied she didn't mind a bit. Er, at least didn't appear to mind.

FD's kids are nearly 7 weeks old. They are locked up at night away from FD and during the day they pretty much suck her dry so FD had little to spare for little Fawn so I brought Granite back in who has enough to spare for a small army...a little forcing on my part upon Fawn and she sucked and sucked and sucked for what seems like ever! I could almost hear her saying "JACKPOT!".

It was amazing, truly. I was in awe sitting there watching this baby who did not belong to either of these does eat like she hasn't eaten before. I cannot tell you how good I felt about this.

I figure that if she can take all Molly has throughout the day and gets 2 good meals in the morning and evening, everything should be alright! She didn't seem to be confused by all the different sized and shaped teats and while this may prove (or may not) that she probably wouldn't have a problem with both man made nipple and teat, this way seems so much more natural, and something about it seems to satisfying. She can continue to stay on Molly, hopefully requiring more and more from her which I hope brings her into milk better, still be allowed to nurse from a real goat and not a bottle, and get just enough.

I'm posting this at the request of Jo. I didn't think that it was information worth sharing. Actually, I didn't give it a second thought. It is extra work, I admit that. Perhaps not as much as bottle feeding, perhaps more. It would almost be easy to give in and bottle feed, or at least part of me feels that way. But part of me felt compelled to leave Fawn on Molly too. I know there is no better way to bring Molly into milk better if there is even the slightest possibility she will. I feel there is no better way to raise kids than on their dam and when it's not possible, hopefully supplementing from other does may be the answer.

Don't get me wrong, I am not totally opposed to bottle feeding so much that I would allow a kid to starve and I am not so stuck on dam raising that I wouldn't take on a bottle baby of my own. But, for now, a little bit from a few different does should be just enough to bring this baby up.

Wordless Wednesday: HELLO from Isabella

2010-03-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots and lots of spots continued...

2010-02-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

3 days old and the weather is just splendid. So nice, in fact, it was a lovely day to head out to the pasture!

"Mea"- Check out those lovely ears! One should be so lucky to have ears such as those :o). And the spots? Oh Dear, I am IN LOVE!

Marmalade Bring Mea Dream

"Andy"- And this poor handsome fellow was disbudded today...at THREE DAYS OLD! Lemme tell ya, this kid was born with nubs! I was worried to wait this long but I don't think they've gotten much, if any, bigger in 3 days so it was fine. Well, fine to wait that is. Fine to be burned I'm sure he would disagree.

Marmalade Mr. Sandman

And had I put them in their birth order (or at least I think it was their birth order since I wasn't actually there) their names are Mr. Sandman Bring Mea Dream. This year is sort of a song lyrics year. Well, that and the fact they were born so darned early in the morning I could only wish the Sandman was bringing me a dream!

Lots and Lots and Lots of Spots!

2010-02-26T04:32:00.000-08:00

Granite freshened this morning at 3 AM with twin spotted kids! A little boy and a little girl. I'm tired but thrilled! Photos to come later when it A. is light out, B. is warm out, and C. I get another hour of sleep putting me at a grand total of 4 for the night :o)!

Copasure

2010-02-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

Copasure capsules are an appropriate way to deliver extra copper to your goats system. I have several goats who suffer from copper deficiency. I cant seem to keep it under control, their coats are rough and dull and their tails will bald if I do not keep up with their copper treatments. They respond well to the copper in these capsules.

I divide them up by spilling them out on a plate. Some sites suggest dividing them into 5 capsules, but I do 6. I would rather give more often than give too much at once. I use a bolus gun to give these to the goats, and I am filling 00 capsules. The big red capsule is for a cow! They spill out easily and simple to put back into the smaller capsule.

I store them in a plastic bag with the empty red capsule until I am ready to use them. I do this to make sure no one gets confused as to what the substance in the capsules are, although it truly looks like pencil lead! Nothing else that we have in capsules looks like pencil lead... I was out of 00 capsules, so I dumped so out of date herbal capsules and reused those.

Seeds

2010-02-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

This is a nice seed site, I like to buy heirloom seeds because I can harvest my own seeds this way. I don't want to re-buy seeds yearly, its more sufficient to just harvest! I bought seeds from here last yr and did again this year to add to my stock. The site is bountiful gardens and they have a wonderful selection! They ship rather quickly and the rates are not bad.
Now for orchard plants, trees and bushes we are using Stark Brothers this year. We have used other places in the past and not been as pleased as our friends are with Starks. I ordered a wide variety of things here and now we have to get our orchard fenced! I will do a post on that shortly, we have to split our 4 acre field so that the goats can continue to use part of it and the other half can have a garden, greenhouse and orchard that will be unmolested by marauding goats!
We will be building a greenhouse this year, one that will have a thermal mass wall. This is to prevent the greenhouse from freezing or overheating and hopefully it will be the year around greenhouse I have dreamed of! We tried a kit greenhouse, which is very successful in some areas but not here. Its too windy and too cold.
Happy gardening folks!

Drawing Blood

2010-02-12T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, as usual I come in from this ordeal stinking and tired BUT feeling very successful AND proud.

Did I mention I stink? We drew blood from 4 of the goats today. Granite and Molly were not old enough at our last draw back in Oct. and while I have full faith they are clean, to be 100% certain I wanted to draw and send off results before Granite kids in just a few weeks. Oh, and the bucks were a bit too young as well so we did that today too. That's the main reason I stink. Everyone was really well behaved even the boys which is QUITE surprising.

I am not a vet, God knows. This is just how we pull blood. This is intended as an educational post only.

We use 1 1/2" 18-20 guage needle(s) (I really like the 20 gauge), at least one for each goat but I order in bulk so always have extras if a needle gets dull. I have 5-10 ML Vacutainer(s) for each sample and a 5-10 ml syringes for EACH goat. We use a new one for EACH animal, common sense there.

Now, I don't recommend this for everyone. If in doubt, get your vet out. But, since we're the kinda people who will do it ourselves if at all possible, well, that and the fact that Jeremiah was sorda trained at this kinda thing during our military days, I figure it can't be that hard. HA, yeah, can't be that hard. It's not really hard but does take nerve (for some) and perseverance!

A good shaver to get down to the skin is important, some kleenex and rubbing alcohol. Oh, and courage!

I don't have step by step photos. It's difficult when you're just trying to get the blood drawn, let alone stopping to take photos.

It always seems that the goats who I think will give us the most problems are the easiest to do. So, my advice, start with your wildest one. Well no, that's not really my advice. I start with whoever is closest to catch. We put them in the milk stand with a little grain to keep them occupied while we shave their neck and try to find the vein. Normally, they run out of gain WAY before I am even ready so we have someone standing on the stand with the goat holding their head upwards, normally this keeps them pretty calm. It helps to get a better view of the vein this way too.

Every time I do this I end up shaving the first goat's neck practically from top to bottom forgetting where the vein is! Sometimes, they aren't in the normal location and are higher up the side of the neck.

I use a finger or two to feel around the esophagus upwards towards the top of the neck. Most times the vein is just below the skin between the esophagus and where the "meat" on the neck starts, but not always, I have a few where it's about an inch up after the "meat" starts. I actually prefer it there, it's a much easier stick as the vein doesn't sink into the hollow. It helps to put pressure on the area and the vein normally will bulge right out. I have proven time and time again this can take practice.

Granite's here falls in the "hollow between the esophagus and "neck meat" catagory. I was pulling the needle away from her neck just a bit to show you the vein. I didn't have any more hands to put pressure on the vein so it would bulge out.

I clean the area with rubbing alcohol and I am ready! Their hide is TOUGH! Some more tough than others. I will admit to being a pansy the first time I did this not wanting to "hurt" the goat. Well dangit, no matter what, being poked with a needle doesn't feel good so I just distance myself from that part. I will say that of the goats we've done, even the bucks, no one flailed about. They wanted to move a bit but properly restrained we didn't worry.

Properly restrained is a matter of preference. Oddly enough, had I been able to keep John Henry's ear out of my way, I could have held his head up with one hand and done all the other work with the other. BUT, this is one time I will admit that goats with short ears would be SO much easier to do!

Anyway, slowly with pressure I insert the needle into the goat. It works well when I can continue to hold a finger or two with the non needle jabbing hand below the vein so it continues to bulge so I know where it is. Then I work my needle in. Unfortunately, this can take practice. We've tried 18 gauge needles like recommended by most and they just don't work for us.

We're careful not to skim along the top of the vien, puncture the esophagus (which technically would be somewhat difficult to do. I know there will be someone to say, it's not hard to do. But in my personal opinion if you know you are through the skin, the vein does not take a bunch of jabbing to get into.) Hitting it can be a challenge though. Skimming over the top happens, going through it happens but once I've hit it I get blood into the needle and syringe without having to pull back I'm usually there. If I don't get blood but feel I am "in", I pull back on the syringe plunger ever so lightly and see if the blood comes with it. If it doesn't there will be suction in the syringe and trying to pull back will be next to impossible. Sometimes I have to take the needle out and try again. I hate doing it but I ~~try~~ to stay calm. Anyway, once I pull back on the syringe plunger and blood flows nicely with it I fill my syringe. Viola.

Before I pull my needle out I get my kleenex ready to put over the wound and PHEW, I'm done!

This morning it took us over an hour to do 4 goats. We're not professional by any stretch of the imagination. Sometimes it takes a while to find the vein and other times we blow the vein. As is the case while I was trying to do John Henry this morning. Poor guy! I really screwed that up!

Now I need to print out my paperwork and get these in the mail to send off to be tested. I'll have my results in a week!

Winter Spring Sewing

2010-02-06T06:31:00.000-08:00

Kinda late in the year I admit. I had plans to make this for Rachel way back before Christmas. Poor girl has 2 coats/jackets, both of which are getting a bit too small and one of which isn't all that appropriate for the weather we've been having in the 40's. She has a rain jacket that is lightly lined and wind breakers but nothing really really warm!

I am IN LOVE with the way this came out. I wish I had one of my own in fact! I will be making another though just because I have this thing about how long it takes me the first go around that I simply must do better on my time and now that I know how it all goes together I simply must do it again so that I won't waste all that knowledge, or something like that. It's strange, I'll admit. On top of that it would be cute made from so many different things and I envision lady bug applique on the back for some reason! I had wanted to line it in a cotton knit but my cotton watermelon knit hasn't come in yet. As it is (since I am a stickler for things that match) there isn't too much in her wardrobe that this will actually go with so I suppose it's a bit uni-functional but who cares, it's still stinkin' cute!

The inner is flannel and while I do love flannel, I do NOT love that it pills. However, being as how this is a jacket and it is not washed nearly as much as say, pajamas or a cloth diaper, she should get a lot of wear out of it.

I used a pattern (gasp) which is something I don't do often. And I had wanted to make it bigger than the size 6 on the pattern but fortunately I didn't have enough fabric because as it is, this thing will fit her for probably 3 years!

The outer is a soft dark brown medium size cord, the inner of course is flannel.

The pattern, McCalls something or other (maybe I'll do another post on the actual progress in sewing of this coat) had it made from fleece and it was unlined and since I don't recall making a lined coat specifically ever I had to think on things as I went to make sure I did it right. In the end it wasn't very hard. It did take me the better part of the day starting and stopping for life and ALL the top stitching required. I don't think I have ever done so much top stitching in my life, on one item that is. BUT, it is JUST darling!

The quick version of it is that I basically made the jacket twice, once in cord, once in flannel, pinned right sides together and stitched, turned right side out and viola, adorableness! The sleeves received a hem, an iron and a topstitching together once the whole thing was turned right side out. It still needs front bottons or toggles or something. I don't have any buttons big enough and I dread sewing the button holes because along the front there is a whole nother layer of cord and interfacing in the center because I didn't exactly know if the flannel would have been enough to stabilize it. In the end I have decided it would have been but hindsight is 20/20. This is reversible too. Rachel was not too happy with the fact the cute flannel side could not be worn on the outside when she first saw me putting it together but in the end I did succeed at making it reversible, which wasn't difficult, I just didn't know at the point I was at when I said I would see if I actually could do it...my brain wasn't allowing me to think that far ahead.

Progress

2010-02-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

Maybe the initial ~~plan~~ threat is short lived but the USDA has announced it's dropping the current (former) NAIS plan!

You can read more about it here.

Blurps

2010-02-04T20:35:00.001-08:00

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

Warm Stall

2010-02-02T06:14:00.000-08:00

My goats choose to sleep in this barn, we provided them with a sleeping barn that had 4 walls, but they turned up their noses at it. This is what we call the 3 sided barn, or feed barn. The grain bowls and hay feeder are in here, and the back side is the hay room. As they chose to sleep here no matter what we did, we built them a bedroom!

This is Lillith, entering the sleep stall. They appreciate it very much, we built it on a day that was -20 and windy with blowing snow. Its very sturdy, 1/2 " plyboard on a 2x4 frame and cement nailed to the floor and screwed to the wall.

I think they stay in this barn just in case the hay room magically opens one day... No seriously, I think they love it because its sunny and they want to sleep in the same place their food is. The barn has a northern and eastern wall which is where the wind comes from so they are well sheltered in here, all the same the stall seemed best earlier in the winter when just stepping outside made our insides feel frozen!

Sick Chickens

2010-02-02T05:38:00.001-08:00

I think chickens must have something in common with people. We had some very cold days here and the chickens selected to stay in their barn. They have a large barn and barn yard, and a heated/insulated room within the barn. Its heated only by a heat lamp, which prevents their water from freezing but its quite warm in comparison.
As soon as the temperature reached 20 degrees, they were all out in the mucky muddy melting snow and crud, literally. Their feet were constantly yucky, and yet I hated to trap them up. As the ground dried out, so did they.
Consequently, like humans, they got sick. We so often get sick when the weather turns warm because we turn out quickly to enjoy it and shed too many of our layers. My chickens, one by one, had runny eyes and noses and some of their eyes were crusty and swollen from this. I did lose 2 of them, but not since I medicated them. I purchased a jar of teramyacin and crushed 1/2 pill and put it in their water daily. I went down three times a day to help the sickly ones to the water, they would drink if I took them to it but otherwise kind of sat around quietly breathing. Nothing more. I could hear how congested they were, and some of them couldn't see.
After 3 days, there are a few stuffy nostrils left, but that's about it. All eyes are clear and clean, and noses are no longer shedding green.
Granted, I worry more when a goat is sick than when it is a chicken. I do like my chickens, but they are not my friends like a goat is. Also, they cost a lot less! I know that sounds so callused but its simply the truth about livestock. However, we do go through almost 5 dozen eggs some months, I would love it if all of my chickens were in prime health so that I can have THEIR eggs.
That being said, be sure to feed your chickens good dry layer feed, we keep ours in a huge air tight barrel. Its best to put their feed and water in a feeder/waterer that they cannot poop in or climb in. They do like to have free choice grit and oyster shells, this helps digestion and egg shell strength. Its also good for them to have clean wood chips, monthly is enough around here to muck out their room because they range the entire north barn and chicken yard which is quite large. They can be well socialized, my kids carry them around. This makes it easy to put them up for safety at night, my children taught them to follow us to the call "bird, bird, bird" and they come right in for an evening snack of cracked corn which they all love.
I am sure other people raise chickens differently, but this way works for us. So if you are having any sick chickens try some antibiotic (if you know for sure they need it, don't just hand it out...) and if they are listless, try some extra space! Happy chickens make good layers.

Dear God...

2010-02-01T08:47:00.001-08:00

Dear God..

Can I tell you how much I love electric fences??? I know it's probably not something that most people talk to you about often, if at all, but I did want to write and say a big thank you.

You probably already know why I love electric fences, I mean, you are omniscient and all but I'll say it out loud anyway so I can feel doubly thankful.

When we first put electric fencing up for the goats I fell instantaneous in love. I know you know I cannot stand to see animals suffer so it's not the fact they are getting zapped, per say, that makes my love affair with electric fencing so intoxicating. It's the fact that with one little wire animals stay away and you can string it up like Christmas lights and with one charger and a solar panel you have electricity where normally there wouldn't be any. I love that concept!

You see, Jeremiah and I installed new 5 foot tall field fencing for the neighbor. Her goats kept getting out of the old broken down fencing they used to have. You know those younger goats jumped right over that new 5 foot high fencing? I mean, right over without a running start! Can you believe that? Of course you can, that was a silly question. Anyway, our poor neighbor was at a loss for what to do about her darned goats. I don't know if it was her or Jeremiah that mentioned electric fencing, not that it matters much, but she thought the whole fence would be electrified. That would be amazing but probably more dangerous than anything else. Although they do make that "New Zealand" portable fencing that is all electrified but that's a whole other topic there.

Anyway so Jeremiah and I, as you know, went up there yesterday and while I ~~burned~~ disbudded baby goats, he installed the wire and can I tell you how amazing it was? Instantaneously as soon as we flipped the switch on that wire they touched it their first and last time! The cows even got it too and every time a new animal would come and get zapped I'd smile, the neighbor would laugh hysterically. I hope that's not cruel. I know it doesn't hurt because as you well know I've gotten my fair share of zaps but thankfully I don't think those goats will be jumping the fence any longer.

We were chasing another neighbor's Emu on Saturday. I don't want to chase goats all over the countryside!

I hate cows by the way. Her Dexter cow charged me not once but twice! The neighbor says they are docile. Yeah, whatever! I told that cow I'd put her on a plate if she wasn't careful. In my opinion that's the best place for a cow. Truth me told I am now afraid of cows. The kids were playing in the pasture where that cow was while I was disbudding goats and I was afraid for them and yelled at them to go find their Daddy. I felt bad for yelling at them but I envisioned a raging cow scratching the dirt and snorting smoke from its nose. And while those are bulls that normally do that, this cow may as well have been a bull in my opinion!

Anyway, thanks for electricity!

Love,
Amanda

Unpleasantries: Disbudding

2010-01-29T05:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the big day, the day I dread about having goats. It was disbudding day! For anyone not familiar with this udderly horrible required (around here) chore, it means taking a hot iron to a kids (or calves or lambs) head and burning the horn nubbies so their horns don't grow.

I thought about taking photos but the burning itself requires two of us. Well, it doesn't really. I have done neighbor's goats alone I am a wimp when it comes to my own kids. I got as far as shaving Chloe's head and renigged and asked my husband to come help.

I've used a Rhinehart x40 before but I have been happier with the Rhinehart x50. It requires so much less burning time = less of all the unfun stuff mainly because it gets so much hotter.

This year we did it a bit earlier than I have done. The girls were 7 days old yesterday and their nubs were like "hard pimples" as someone explained it. I am hoping this gives us a better burn without the growth that can happen (called scurs) if you don't get a good burn or wait too long before you disbud, etc. I don't want to have to go back and reburn any spots, that's never fun. These kids can't and won't have scurs if I can help it. I won't be here in town today to do it and last year I did the neighbor's doe kid whom I thought may have been a little young but turns out she had the best head of the bunch!

All in all it went well. If you're reading this and have never don it but plan to and are apprehensive, it gets easier. That probably sounds sick and twisted and of no consolation when it's your first, or your second, or third :o). But in all truthfulness, even my animal loving daughter who hates to see anything hurt or suffering or butchered knows it's for the best. She won't watch, but she also doesn't try to hide my iron either. My best advice, once you've committed, DON'T TURN BACK ESPECIALLY if you're just about to do the deed by putting hot iron to head and especially not once the iron is on the head. No point in getting a crappy burn once you're at the fiery altar since you've already burnt the kid anyway by walking away and saying you can't do it. You can do it! Take it from me, the wimp who was thrown arm first into a laboring doe, burnt my first kid days after I bought him, milked ill mannered never been touched before there by a human murder in her eyes doe ALL in my first year.

Best to just not think about the poor kid otherwise you may not be able to go through with it. They'll survive and if you're reading this after reading about 100 other sites giving you a pep talk, I promise they will not think ill of you after about 2 minutes, they will not hold it against you for the rest of their lives, more than likely they will be fine, and they will be jumping and playing within minutes no worse for the wear.

Another word of advice, shave their head around those nubs first. It's bad enough you're getting a face full of burnt skin, to have the added pleasure of burnt hair smoke is just not pleasant. Plus too, you can see the nubs easier.

When you go to place the hot iron to head, besides being committed (!), the iron will sort of "fall" right into place on the head around the horn buds if you're worried about positioning it just so. I also advise not to wait too late to do this! I have waited too long and ended up burning the poor kid and he still got horns!

I place a towel on the ground both for me to place my knees on and a place for the kid. I tuck said kids legs underneath kid and then place kid between my legs. Course, if you have a holding box this is a one person job but this works fine for us and a friend of mine does this alone in this position only she has the kids head against the top of her thigh. I don't think I could trust myself not to brush something with the fiery hot iron. I'm kinda bad with hot things. If I do it along (on other people's kids) I position them the same I am just holding them with one hand and holding the iron with the other.

Anyway, the kids head is put down chin to the towel. I wear leather gloves. Between my index fingers and thumbs, they form a diamond pattern over the kids head at the crown making the buds visible with space in between for safety from the iron. I recommend LEATHER gloves, I have been touched by the iron before and thankfully my glove was the only thing burnt. Hey, maybe an "Ove glove" would work :o). I use thumbs on the top of the head behind the buds at the back of the kid's skull and my other fingers are holding the kids nose down. Use enough pressure that the kid cannot move but not so much you suffocate them. As it is my fingers are off of its nose. The same holds true for the leg straddle, enough pressure to hold them tight, not too much they cannot breath. MAKE SURE you have a good hold before you start swinging the iron around, please.

My husband and I do a 4 count with the X50 and normally get a copper ring every time. YOU DO NOT WANT TO PRESS INTO the kids head. Just set it on there and the pressure from the weight of the iron itself is all you need. We turn our iron for the 4 count, some people rock it but that means the iron is coming off of the skull in some places and that just doesn't give you a consistent burn. There are times if the iron isn't at the perfect angle that you get a spot that didn't get it long enough, if we don't feel we got a good enough ring we'll go back to that/those spot(s) and do just a 2 second. If you're the holder, you're the counter too. Well, I mean, you don't have to be but it works well this way. As long as you trust your partner, the burner, this usually works out well. The holder doesn't have to look until the iron is off but the holder DOES have to be a good counter (if that's the holder's job that is). Nothing sucks more than to have a counter who A. doesn't count (forgetting their job and wrenching their face on top of it.) or B. counts 1,2,3,4 so quickly that in real time it was really only a nano-second. Again, no point in doing this unless you are going to do it right. If you need to, do a 1 one thousand 2 one thousand, etc. Don't rush.

Pull the iron off, KEEP THE KID RESTRAINED and look at it. Yes, the kid may be screaming, yes the kid wants up and away from you horrible people but keep it down. If the ring looks good, copper all the way around, let up on the kids head and let him/her catch her breath. Talk gently to it assuring him/her that it's okay, assuring them you're not really wicked all the time, etc.

If the copper ring is not all the way around, go at it again for another 2 count in that/those spot(s). If you're using another iron, you'll have to adjust times. More than likely for longer.

I do not spray anything on them, I do not use a cold pack, nothing. The wound is clean and cauterized. We don't wait long before the burn on the other side repeating everything. If all looks good, I send them back to mama and they nurse for a bit to feel better and then they are jumping and gitty and back to their old selves. All in all, providing you get in there and just do it, it takes less than a minute from taking them from the dam, shaving their crowns, situating, burning, inspecting and sending them on their way.

I will check in a couple weeks to see if any growth is happening and go back and reburn. Sick I know, but if you've never seen/dealt with a goat with horrible scurs you're lucky.

Viola, how to ~~burn~~ disbud a kid.

Amanda

Double Quadruple Wide

2010-01-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

Check Isabella out! She's my last doe due towards the end of March!!! She's huge! Granted, she is a food hog and shares the "herd queen" position and gets maybe a tsp. of grain a day just to keep her accustomed to getting on the stand every day but yikes, I won't even guesstimate how many kids she has in there!

Why does she look lopsided? Her right side is taken up mostly by her growing uterus, the left side is mostly stomach and as you can see, her stomach is FULL after gorging on yummy green grass and weeds. She's an older doe (nearly 7) so her muscles aren't as tight as say, a 2 year old like Bonnie (see below photo).

Wordless Wednesday: One of my favorite things!

2010-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on feeding kids

2010-01-26T15:06:00.001-08:00

I've been toying with the idea of bottle-feeding Granite's kids. While this goes against pretty much everything I believe in IF the doe is healthy (and disease free), the kids are healthy and there is a dam to feed the kids, I have still been considering it.

I bought her at about 12 weeks old. The breeder said she handled both her and her half brother John Henry a lot. Well, I seriously have to wonder what she considered handled because I know how a handled goat acts and neither she nor John Henry have that same level of trust in humans and desire to be around them. She's just plain skiddish and I hate that about her. She has gotten somewhat better over the past couple of months. I don't think I will have a problem at all milking her. I get her into the milk stand every day and her tendencies to want to fly off of it at the drop of a hat are waning. But she still will not allow me to approach her like the other goats, she's wary. Occasionally she'll come up to be but any sudden moves and forget about it. Freedoe is skiddish especially around the children, not so much with me but she's sees me every day and if the kids are around her kids she doesn't have much choice other than to stay. My main goal is to get Freedoe's girls used to us so that this is not a cycle. I can really appreciate goats that have been handled a lot since birth.

That brings me to my point though with Granite. While Granite is fully willing to come to you when you have grain and I can more than likely milk her without a problem, I absolutely do not want her teaching her kids her behavior! Handling a kid is one thing when the dam is fine around you, handling them with their dam is skiddish is somewhat of another thing. When they are tiny and a few days old, it's easy to pick them right up but when they are about 5-6 days old, they can really scoot!

So, I will ponder this for a while more and see if she doesn't come around a little more before she freshens.

Boy am I hoping I get some spotted kids out of her! I was really hoping for spotted kids out of John Henry and while it's still a possibility, he doesn't throw spotted kids 100% of the time which was proven by Chloe and Granite. They seem to lean more towards his white belt around the middle.

Anyway...

Moving

2010-01-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

As much as I like to keep things simple, my herd info will have to move to keep things more organized so while I will have one more blog to deal with, it should keep this one cleaner and more geared towards its original intent. So, if you're so inclined, hop on over to the HERD BLOG.

Coming up...how to make a kid rug!

A lot of work for a great reward!

2010-01-21T19:50:00.000-08:00

UPDATE 1/22. After re-reading this post I blame the fact that I was udderly exhausted for the poor grammar, run ons, incorrect (if not missing entirely) commas and all that fun stuff. I've fixed it some but I'm tired again tonight too, lol.

Original:
I think I posted sometime this morning...maybe.

After waiting a good portion of the day on Freedoe, she FINALLY gave birth with assistance this afternoon around 2- triplet girls!

I find it peculiar that animals can turn their labor on and off. Goats are no exception. I put the other does out of the sleeping stall this morning to eat leaving Freedoe in there alone to labor. She wasn't at all upset about this like I thought she would be. She's a bit shy and standoffish so I thought she may have a problem being alone but she didn't. I watched and watched and finally she started to get serious about pushing around 10. I called the kids from the house and they came out. As soon as she saw them it was like bam, I've changed my mind, no kids today, labor is stopping right now and I am going to go about my daily routine. I sent the kids up to the house and she continued on again, laboring with a bit of pushing.

It was cold today, in the 40's. I was quite happy in the milk shed in 59 degrees with the space heater peaking through the jarred door between the two but there was a major chill in the air and it was raining...again!

I thought, despite the weather, that maybe she would be happier outside- natural instinct sort of to be out in the open or at least not cooped up- so I opened the stall door and she went out...looked like she wanted to try to get UNDER the feeder but that wasn't happening. She stood concentrating for a long while in the fallen hay while the others went about their business. I think at one point she tried pushing outside again but finally I decided enough was enough and I put her back in the stall.

I came up to the house round about 11:30 to make the kids lunch- tuna sandwiches. I went out to check her and nothing. I came back up and the kids and I played a few games of Candy Land. I went out to check her again and nothing. DANGIT, I was somewhat worried at this point thinking there was a kid laying the wrong way and her pushing was for not and/or that they would drown while she labored and pushed away but also had it in the back of my mind that she was doing what's natural. Finally I gloved and lubed up and went in far enough to get past her cervix which was totally open. She was not happy about this but I couldn't feel anything besides softness, nothing like a kids side or nose or legs, etc, just a bubble, which broke and then all hell broke loose! I had opened the flood gates and immediately she began pushing. It didn't take her too long to get one head out but as soon as I saw a nose and no hooves I knew there was a problem. They normally can't deliver like that.

This is exactly how it was . I learned my lesson last year when I had two coming out head first with one foot each a the same time that A. you need to be prepared (which I was with knowledge last year but minus the shoulder length gloves. This year I had both!) and B. diving into it head first is the ONLY way to learn even. So, with gloves arm and lubed up and I slowly went in. By this point the whole head had been delivered. I remember telling myself to stay calm and go slow. I pushed the head back in just slightly, felt down along side the neck and shoulder and was able to pull a foot forward and viola (!), a baby! A skinny itty bitty baby. I checked to see gender while cleaning it off...hooray a girl!

Out pops another, I check to see gender while I am cleaning the first. HOORAY another girl!

Mama's already calling for them and I am reaching for the camera and here comes another!!! Unfortunately this doe kid was severely deformed in the face. I had Jeremiah put her down. I won't go into too much detail about her other than the fact we did what nature would have eventually done cruelly.

Kids are both great, sucking colostrum about 45 minutes after they were born. I made rugs for them this AM and they worked okay and would work better when/if they are bigger but this evening I took an old pair of Rachel's sweat pants about size 5. The ankle hole elastic is the perfect size for newborn baby Nubians! I cut the legs off, put some holes in them for their front legs and you've got a perfect little sweater.

Mama is doing well, passed one afterbirth this evening around 5 and when I was checking on her she was eating it, yummy. I took the remainder and threw it out. I would throw it on the compost heap but I already scooped it into a plastic bag. The stall is clean with all new bedding. It's going to be cold tonight but they should all be okay out there.

So, that's been my day. I've been running on about 6 hours of fitful sleep for the past 48 hours and I am BEAT! It amazes me that here I am, plan kiddings, plan breedings, I am here for births and I am the one who has trouble yet the neighbor up the road doesn't do any of that and in fact has TRIPLET surprises this morning that my husband found when he went up there to string some fencing for her! Today now as I revise this on Friday evening, I saw her new babies and they are a few days old, bouncing around, not BRAND new babies. How do you go a few days without knowing you have 3 new goats!?

All in all it was a very long tiring day and I am beat! I am going to bed. Goodnight.

Amanda

Anticipation WITH SOME UPDATES

2010-01-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

9:32 AM UPDATE:

We have some laboring action so shouldn't be long now. A few hours or less.

UPDATE: Thursday, 4:15 AM
Good morning, a very tired good morning. Freedoe's udder was filling super fast last night, still had some ligaments but I told Jeremiah I thought we should take shifts going out to check her. He stays up late anyway so checked her at 10 and midnight. I closed two of the gates inside the doe's stall to make the 6x6 area wanting to keep a portion clean for her to kid in. I'll show photos of our partitioned doe's stall later but basically we have 6 foot round aluminum gates from the hardware store, we weld a cattle panel to it so kids can't get through and hang them in the stall to partition it. This year we hung two off opposites wall to split it in half basically and the third opposite of those walls so I can made 2 pens. They aren't big of course (one being larger than the other) but when it's time to separate babies it's really quite ingenious! And, when not in use or the stall needs cleaning every morning, the gates swing up against the wall(s).

Closing off this one 6x6" area though meant that she and Molly stayed the night outside I guess laying on the wasted hay up against the feeder. There would have been plenty of room for all of them in an L shape but I guess they were fine outside. My main concern is Freedoe still being a bit skiddish taking off into the pasture and have the kids in the pitch black! I am a grown woman but I am still afraid to go out into the dark alone and if she took off, I'm sorry but she'd be on her own. I thought about shutting them all up inside the stall by sliding the door shut but decided not to, they would have been uphappy and Isabella and PJ are both very pushy and with everyone (hopefully) pregnant, I don't need anyone to abort.

I left the light on in the stall and it's not freezing by any stretch so I am sure they were perfectly happy outside. The first time Jeremiah went out he said they were all laying down but Freedoe and so I went out at 10 too because he said she was standing alone with back arched (stretching maybe?) but when I went out they were all at the feeder outside munching. My alarm woke me at 2:45 am and I was tired so slept until 3:30 and round about t I went out and that's when I saw Freedoe and Molly outside. I stood Freedoe up and took her inside and we have goo! Ligaments are gone and her udder isn't tight but is still filling, quite nicely too. I locked her and Bonnie up with 2 flakes of hay in half of the stall, gave the rest of the girls feed in their feeder (3 hours early for breakfast albeit but whatever, they were happy), hung a water bucket on the gate and came inside to lay down a while.

Jeremiah hasn't been affected too much. Me, I am tired but I do expect babies today! She's happily eating so we're still not quite there and it could still be hours. Will keep you posted. Going to lay down now, it's only half after 4 am.

UPDATE: 7:45 PM
I don't know if I mentioned or not that I was up at 2 AM this morning to check on the does. Still pregnant :o). Only checked on them a few times today, it was storming so badly an she was happily munching nearly all day. Went out with Rachel to check them again this evening and Freedoe's udder has evened out almost, if not completely, all the way and is getting really full but still not tight and still no babies and ligaments are still there, barely, but still there. I took a photo of her udder this evening at feeding time. Check below for the before and after. I will suggest to Jeremiah that we take shifts getting up and checking tonight. This is one I just don't want to miss. To be extra sure I would still like to keep an eye on her tonight and since I am not one to sleep in the barn, going out to check is the next best thing.

So, if you'll remember her udder looked like this on December 27th.

And this evening like this...

P.S. I had started out with intentions of giving her a pre-birth hair cut which has already partially grown back as you can see towards the top of her udder. All that goo sticks pretty well. In the end, I opted out. Eventually it'll all come off.

11:43 AM

I've decided. I've decided Freedoe is going to wait until Saturday to kid. No joke, they can hold on. I think animals have an innate knowledge about weather. Horses, if they can, will foal during the stormiest, wildest night at the latest hour. Goats on the other hand, statistics have shown that they will wait as long as possible (or not wait) for the warmest day within a given time frame at the warmest part of the day to kid. This isn't a general rule of course but most goats will kid in the later afternoon on the warmest day they can wait for. In the dead of a mid-west winter obviously this isn't always possible of course but anyway...

Freedoe has had soft ligaments for days now. I don't always like to go by them since I had a doe whose came and gone the last 2 moths of her pregnancy. She started making her udder about 6 weeks prior and was big as a house for the last 9 weeks and because we bought her bred and the seller just said she was bred when we got her for about 8 weeks I was thinking any day now only to be waiting another 8 weeks :o).

At any rate, our weather has been wild, worse than wild in fact and today is probably the worst of it. I sure hope so anyway. The winds are reaching in excess of 65 MPH according to our little weather station that may actually no longer be attached to it's pole but may just be flying around other there somewhere still reporting back.

Saturday the storms are supposed to be done and besides some clouds will be the first nice day we've had in what seems like weeks and weeks and weeks. So, we'll see what happens but I am not banking on a baby by Friday.

I had better get this posted before our power goes out and I loose internet. The lights have been waning all morning.

No baby(ies) to report as of yet.

Nearly There

2010-01-19T20:19:00.000-08:00

Freedoe is 150 days today, technically she was due today although she was bred 2 different days on like a Monday and Wednesday so we're still very much in the normal zone for still about another week. Her ligaments have softened quite a bit the past 2 days, she hasn't hollowed out at all and today her udder didn't look much different than it has though this afternoon at feeding time she was looking a bit fuller but not tight at all, she's also looking a lot more swollen in the hind end so we're close. Jeremiah has been saying for the past 2 days she'll go tomorrow, he could be right! I'm debating setting the alarm for 1 AM and checking on her again. For one I don't want to miss the first kidding of the year like last year and for two, she's a first freshener and while she is a bigger doe and while I don't anticipate any problems, I still want to be there.

Today we got the stall sectioned off like last year. This is a new stall, the boys have the "old" goat house in the back pasture and the girls came up front to the stall connected to the new milk room. I love these 6 foot metal gates, they are wonderful for sectioning for kidding pens and separation pens (I'll post photos once I find the cord for the camera I was using). It's super nice to be able to swing them up against the wall to clean the entire stall and since I do that at least once a day (with the EXTREME rain we've been having I've been cleaning every time I go out. And for the past 4 days that's been 4-5 times a day.) It's also nice to have 3 seperate areas...one for now for new mama and baby(ies), eventually for separating dam and kids overnight.

Last year we started separating kids from dams anywhere between 2-4 weeks, just at night and I take the morning milk for us. I found it so much less stressful when they could all see each other and I really like doing it at night as opposed to separating during the day because they spend most of the night sleeping so that's that much less time they are worrying about where each other is, plus too, they aren't doing a lot of eating at night.

I checked on all the girls just now before I turn in and there's not much change...still laying about chewing cud settling in for the night...so, we just wait...tick tock tick tock...

Kidding Supply Box

2010-01-16T21:57:00.000-08:00

I'll add to this as I think of it but specifically this is what I carry in my supply box. I use a medium size plastic tote (28 gallon size) with a snapping lid. It's waterproof, light weight, holds everything I need and I can sit on it when ~~things are boring~~ I am tired and it's wet on the ground. I do have smaller plastic box within that with a snapping lid to keep the loose stuff in order.

In the larger tote I carry OB gloves (shoulder length gloves) and old clean towels or shirts. Last year I was caught without them and being inside a goat without gloves tore me up pretty badly. Not only that but sanitation is an issue of course too, more for me than the goat, but still, they are cheap enough to have on hand JUST IN CASE.

A run down of everything I'll revise if I happen to check mine and see something I've missed, most of this fits into the smaller tote which is carried within the bigger one...

OB Gloves (shoulder length)
Latex gloves
lubricant (KY Jelly, Mineral Oil, etc.)
Stehesope
Weak kid syringe with tube (I have had to use the syringe before but am wary to tube. If in the event you need to feed by syringe, keep the kids head up as they would nurse naturally to prevent milk going down incorrectly.)
floss (for tying off umbilical cords that may be too short)
7% iodine solution (for dipping cords)
dixie cups (for dipping cords and for milking colostrum into in case kids are too weak to nurse)
karo syrup (for diluting in warm water after a doe freshens)
nail clippers (in case you haven't been keeping your nails short and need to go in)
small nail scrubbing brush
bar soap
kleenex (for cleaning things like thermometer and scissors)
towels, old shirts for cleaning kids
thermometer (if your medical supply kit won't be close by)
print out of correct kid positions (nothing like having it if in the event you need it!
Bulb syringe (for getting mucous out of kid if they are having a hard time)
Selenium and Vit. E gel (for floppy kids if you won't have your medical supply kit isn't close by)
Stainless steel surgical scissors for cutting cords if necessary (some people will say you can tear it with you fingernails. I have tried to no avail, scissors are much easier!)
rubbing alcohol (for disinfecting stuff like scissors and thermometer)

Baby Watch 2010

2010-01-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

For us here at Herd Marmalade, we're officially on baby watch! Freedoe is due in a mere 3 days and boy are we excited to be gearing up for the first new babies of the year!

As I posted earlier, she was quite uneven with her udder but I think things are evening out much to my relief. More and more these days she's finding it hard to get around and just wants to feed her face and really has been enjoying the extra attention she's been getting lately. Still has not filled anywhere near complete yet but that can happen within a matter of hours (or even afterwards) but still keeping an eye on her. Haven't checked her ligaments but may tomorrow while she's on the stand. She's had discharge on and off for about 2 1/2 weeks now.

It's almost as amazing to feel kids within a doe as it is to be a mother carrying her own child and feel their movements. She is grain fed on the stand every morning and is quite used to having her udder felt and her body gone over. I am a firm believer that taking the time before a doe kids well in advance of freshening really helps to get them accustomed to being used to the hullabaloo after freshening. Freedoe is quite comfortable so I expect when it comes time for milking, she'll act like an old pro.

Along the lines of feeling kids move, I was questioning if Granite's breeding took. The Nubians of mine are not at all hard to tell when they are in heat. Because I visually confirmed each and every breeding and because none of them cycled after their breeding I assumed for months they were. And while I still feel they are all bred there is still that little voice who makes me question. The questioning was only for 2 of them but because I felt little tiny movements from the right side of Granite today, I can safely finally assure myself that she is indeed bred.

It's amazing to me how different different does can look while pregnant. Freedoe seems to be carrying all over, though at this point since there is so little room left, all over is all that's left :o). Isabella is a bit overweight. When her milk production was going down because of the extended length of her lactation I wasn't cutting back on the grain as much as I should have and because she's a bit of a hog at the feeder, she's put on some weight and picked up some saddle bags too. She looks like she's about to freshen any day when in reality she's my last in late March so she's been cut off save for just a few tiny specks of grain just to keep the routine going for.

Bonnie tends to carry width wise while PJ carries more towards her lower belly. Those who carry lower in their belly are the ones who make me question.

At any rate, my package from the livestock store came in so my kidding bag has been replenished with everything I need and not a moment too soon might I add. I'll post the contents of it later on. For now it's off to bed while dreaming sweet dreams of brand new babies!

Highway Robbery

2010-01-09T22:06:00.000-08:00

I belong to an online goat group in which we talk about everything under the sun pertaining to goats.

Just recently someone had posted a topic regarding pricing for goats and wanted to know what a fair price to pay for a doe kid and a doe in milk.

I won't go too far into all the answers other than to say that so many factors play into what to charge for any goat including, but not limited to, location, age, health, breed, milk output, pedigree, etc. etc. etc.

One of the latest responses was from someone who said $300 for a kid was outrageous. While she didn't elaborate to say if the kids were registered, from good stock, healthy, etc. It did strike a cord in me because I've had too many people try to talk me down in price for a good goat and I, quite frankly, am sick of it.

The following was not meant to blast this person personally, but merely to inform people who may not know otherwise exactly what goes into a goat.

"...I for one am offended when people say $300 is absurd. Don't take this the wrong way, it is not directed specifically at you. You, of course, are very much untitled to your opinion and you may have meant the kids were you talking about specifically weren't worth $300. But for those who think $300 for a good goat kid is outrageous consider this ...

I am here twice a day every single day. For a few weeks out of the year I do not milk but I am still here every day twice a day to at least feed, and many times I check on my goats more than a few times a day many times it's just to spend a few minutes with them. I am out with my goats everyday at 6 AM in the rain and heat and cold and fog and dark. I clean stalls everyday, I grain each and every single doe individually every single day. I attend every single birth and for a week before the doe's due date and every day until she kids after her due date I am checking on each doe numerous times. If the kid(s) needs supplementing I supplement. I play with the kids, my kids spend time playing with kids. I spend time grooming and pulling blood and shipping it off to be tested and keep track of costs for the month. I contact hay growers and check out their hay and drive an hour to get hay every 6 weeks to A. save a little money cutting out the middle man and B. to get the best hay I can. I drive an hour to buy said hay then I spend 45 minutes helping load the trailer at the growers and then spend an hour driving back home and another 45 minutes helping my husband unload hay I just loaded. I spend hours and hours researching this that and the other pertaining to goats. If nothing else the mere fact I am here twice a day EVERYDAY to milk should be worth $300 for a single kid. I pay ADGA member dues and a due for a herd name and fill out paperwork for kids and tattoo and castrate and deworm and all the other things that go along with goat keeping including, but not limited to, sitting up for days and nights with a sick animal doing every last thing to save it. For people that do nothing more than throw a goat a flake a hay once a day is worth a lot especially this day and age when people are so darned busy they don't even bother to know where the heck a single bit of their food comes from let alone stick around home to FEED an animal on schedule, every day. Not to mention the fact that there is advertising the kid, possibly photoing the kid, potential feed for the kid between weaning and sale, appraisal fees, etc.

The reasons, of course, that I do this for my goats are completely by choice. I choose to keep the goats and there are things that I give up because of this like vacation and sleep and time with my children, among many other things BUT just because it is my choice does not mean that the healthy animals I raise shouldn't be worth every single penny (and probably more) than what I ask. Granted, my family and I gain a lot in return and I am not speaking financially (because God knows I don't make anywhere near what I should just like my job as a stay at home Mom) but still, the work I put in I am nowhere near paid back for in terms of money by the sale of kids even when they are priced as they are.

So, to say that $300 for a kid is outrageous for any kid, I am sure you can at least partially understand how much it may have taken to put that kid up for sale.

I, for one, am sick and tired of people offering me far less than what my kids are worth because it is their nature to ALWAYS offer less or saying that the economy is bad so I should take less or being told "ain't no goat is worth that" like last Spring..."

So, there's my soap box for the evening. Reminds me of a post I did on my diaper website pertaining to people who think $15 is a lot for a cloth diaper.

It's not just the diaper, at the VERY least it's the YEARS I've put into perfecting my art to make that one diaper that makes it worth, well, more than anyone could afford. Just like the time I've spent raising my goats makes their kids worth more than, well, the ignorant people are willing to pay willingly.

Amanda

Ending and Beginning

2010-01-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the milking season and how ironic that it's nearly also the beginning too!

I've been drying the girls off fairly slowly which is strange because I hadn't really planned on going the longer route. I had planned on doing a 10 day strictly no milking, then strip and then not milk again and see how that went but it just didn't work out that way.

Bonnie has been the easiest. I went down to milking just once a day in the early morning and boy was it weird not to have to go back out at 6:30 at night again! Habit made me say to myself every evening that it was almost time to go out and then I would realize I didn't have to.

We were out of town for a couple of days at my cousin's doing some remodeling over New Years but after Christmas I went down to once a day, then skipped a day an a half so by the time we left I was down to every other day, milked just before we left and then milked when we got home. PJ as not too happy and was quite full but Bonnie didn't have too much to give. Isabella was about half way in between but she's been lactating 2 months longer than the other girls so I'm not surprised.

We're days away from baby watch and I'm almost gitty with anticipation! Freedoe is due the 19th (I know it says the 20th to the right over there) but the due date calendar I was using was written a few years back and didn't have leap year thrown in so really she's due a day earlier than I had originally realized.

Herd Site Finally Up

2009-12-30T19:57:00.001-08:00

If you're so inclined to check out the herd site, I have managed to get it together.

www.herdmarmalade.webs.com

Amanda

Uneven

2009-12-27T17:07:00.000-08:00

I am not too happy with the way Freedoe's udder is turning out. There's still time for her to even out. She's due Jan. 20 so I'm keeping a close eye on her and hoping that just before she freshens she fills more evenly. If not, as the other girls freshen, I'll be selling her.

Excited to see new babies though, it's been long enough!

Waste Not Want Not

2009-12-27T16:59:00.000-08:00

You may remember this feeder. While nice and all, the girls were wasting a lot with it because they'd pull out huge chunks through the head holes. But it gave me another idea to try and that is one with a trough that extends farther out to create yet one more area to catch the hay before it falls on the ground. Once it falls, forget it. Unless goats are absolutely starving they won 't touch it there normally.

At any rate, Jeremiah and I made this one up and thus far, there has been very very little waste.

I was worried the trough would stick out too far and they'd end up jumping into it to reach the hay in the rack but it's just perfect! Kids and smaller goats may have a problem but even the youngest at 9 months uses it fine.

Raising kids from Jo

2009-12-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Once again, its easier to post than to comment! I have 2 kids that I purchased from a breeder in Topeka, Ks. I bought 3 at the time, knowing they were all bottle babies. They were all 2 wks old and the seller insisted they had colostrum from their own mothers, then he takes them away and feeds them with a caprine bucket 2 x a day after they are a few days old.

The 3rd baby died recently, he seemed to be of poor health from birth and I didnt know any better at the time. Now I would know he wasnt well and I wouldnt have sold this goat.

Of the 3, none of the goats have grown well. The 2 remaining are incredibly small and runty, they do not seem to grow well. They have plenty of minerals, grain, good hay, have had pasture for much of their lives to snack on as well. I do not believe that the man gave them colostrum, I cannot prove this. He also didnt feed them more than 2x a day for the first few wks, this isnt what a growing kid needs. A growing kid with the dam eats many times a day. I think even if you bottle fed a greater number of times a day, it is no substitute for dam raising.

I wouldnt buy bottle babies again that had been pulled from their dam. I will bottle feed a kid if a dam is unable but that would be the only time I would. I have met socialized dam raised goats multiple times, I have also met wild bottle kids. If you feed them from a bottle and do nothing else, and then ignore them once they are on hay you will still have a wild baby

Again if it is your only option, then do the best you can to feed them goats milk and dont feed them only twice a day until they are a bit older. You will need to warm milk and offer it every 4 hours at first. I think a bottle baby can be healthy, Amanda has had this experience. I still think dam raised is best, and most especially they need their dams colostrum.

On a more personal note, I think it is cruel to take a kid away for no good reason and have both mama and kid on the same property, even in the same barn and not be together. I know they are livestock, not humans. But animal mamas love their babies and have a desire to raise them. They will do a good job in most cases, natural is often best.

Raising Kids

2009-12-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting conversation with a gal today who raises mini-Manchas.

Somehow we got to talking about testing for diseases which lead to bottle raising vs. dam raising. I've been meaning to talk about this for while in regards to my own beliefs about it.

Bottle raising goat kids goes against everything that I believe to be right. First of all, for those of you reading this who are not aware, there are people who whisk newborn goat kids away from their dams at birth. They do not allow the newborns to nurse, they do not allow the dam to lick their baby or nurse their baby. They raise their kids on heat treated colostrum and bottle raise with either pasteurized goat's milk or worse yet, cow's milk! And not that I think feeding cow's milk to a goat kid is the ultimate sin, when that's all there is, by all means and I don't look down on those who take part in this practice. But to artificially raise kids on cow's milk when there's goat's milk available, well that's ridicules.

I do believe there are certain circumstances in which this is necessary (i.e. disease). Don't get me wrong, I would not allow a CAE+ doe to raise her own kids. However, if my goats time and time again test negative for CAE and CL it's criminal, in my personal opinion, to bottle raise babies!

I may or may not have written before about bottle raised vs. dam raised kids as far as imprinting goes. I've had both (though the bottle raised baby I purchased at the very end of her bottle requirements and thank goodness because that's a lot of work that I don't have time for.) I will ultimately say, in my experience, dam raised kids who are played with, loved on and handled daily from the minute they are born by humans will be just as loving (and more than likely less needy) as those who were bottle raised. As for my bottle raised babies they are a little too in my face, too needy. They are very affectionate yes, but they tip the scale at being more annoying than fun to be around compared to my dam raised kids. If my buck from this past spring isn't proof positive that you can get a loving goat from dam raised and human handled then I'm not real sure what to call his lap goat personality!

So, with that said, dam raising on healthy clean does and human imprinting in a more natural way is my personal choice for rearing kids the right way.

Copper

2009-12-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

Rather than commenting on Amanda's post, I am leaving my own experience as a post since we share the blog and all! I have 2 goats that have had a lot of problems with copper. One of them is a mostly black nubian doeling, she has had a lot of growth problems this last yr and seems to be stunted.

I deworm my goats with herbs, and havent had to use chemicals much. I believe that my little black doeling, Scout, must have been copper deficient and perhaps this caused her to have a heavier worm load and poor growth. Her back flanks on both sides, turned orange. This happened after she had an enteric bacteria which caused a lot of diarhea for her and honestly it seemed to have bleached her color. The black fading to orangy color occured only where she had dry feces. I believe now I was incorrect. I gave her a bolus dose of copper, copasure, and have top dressed her feed as Amanda did. All of my goats have free choice minerals but she needed more. Her color is fine now, but I fear the growth stunting is permanent.

The next goat in the copper drama, is Jezebel. She is a saanen/nubian cross, it is firstly not pretty. She is the ugliest goat I have seen in my life, she has bug eyes and half mast ears. Clearly the saanens have larger eye cavities, and nubians of course have flappy ears! Looks aside, she was white. Then she turned copper, I thought this was due to copper deficiency. I have now decided, as copper didnt fix the problem, that she is turning darker. With a nubian mama, she has the genetics to be darker. Instead, she came to me solid white. She appeared to have pink eye this summer and when treatment made no difference, Amanda suggested copper deficiency. She was correct! Extra copper has returned her eyes to almost normal, but her coat continues to darken. She is suffering from copper defiency possibly because she is a dark goat, we just didnt know it yet.

I do use copasure if it looks necessary, and I think we will do that for our bucks. They continually dump their minerals, and I feel they will be lacking. I do have a dark colored buck. The copasure boluses are for cows, I divide them into very small amounts in 00 gel caps and use a drench gun with water in it to dose the goats I feel need this.

Skin Deep

2009-12-05T08:34:00.000-08:00

This is PJ . I have posted this photo before and am not so inclined this minute to look back on approximately when it was taken but it was some time this past summer. There's no nice way of saying that when I bought PJ in April she looked like crap. By the end of summer her coat was thick and shiny and she was at a good weight.

She had a hard kidding in April so it was by no fault of her previous owner that she looked as she did. No doubt she would have turned out like this (photo above) if I had gotten her or not, she was on the mend it just took a lot of time and effort.

Unfortunately she has turned out to be, compared to my other girls, somewhat of a hard keeper. Up until just recently she looked fantastic. She bred well in October but then shortly after, she lost some weight and her coat went from thick and slick to dry and course along her spine and down her sides practically overnight!

I wormed her with Ivermectin and upped her dry mineral mix by top dressing her grain and put her back on the conditioner that I had used in the Spring that contains, among other things, B12 to boost her appetite. The decline hastened but did not halt nor turn around. One day after I was done milking but before she was done with her grain, I ran my hands through her hair and realized something I had forgotten! On the surface she looks brown but she has dark roots! She needs more copper than my brown goats who are doing just fine with the loose mineral mix! Dangit, how could I have forgotten? Isabella and Prince Charming are the exact same way. If Isabella and Prince Charming don't get supplemental copper in addition to what they eat from the loose minerals, they "rust", their coat turns very dry and overall their condition declines.

I have read and reread and researched so much about goats and copper. I am in no way giving advice to anyone as to how to (or how to not) dose your goats. Thus far I have somewhat experimented (some may say foolishly). I have read a lot, A LOT, about copper and types (bolus vs. loose) and dosing and signs of toxicity and how to reverse toxidity (toxicity?) and just signs of deficiency overall. I don't think I have ever just gone and done things haphazardly with my goats. I read everything available (and consult where applicable) before proceeding with any type of "treatment".

What that said, copper sulfate has really worked for me and mine. Just as soon as I realized the fact that PJ is really much darker skin deep than she appears, I immediately started her on copper sulfate and within days, LITERALLY, there has been transformation! Unfortunately, she proves to decline quickly and lost some weight do to, what I can only assume, was a worm overload in part (due to deficiency) and deficiency in general.

Why is the dark coloration of so much importance? Well, from what I've read in more than a few places about goats and humans too, that people who have darker complexions need something like 6 times the amount of copper than lighter complexioned people do. This has proven time and time again to be true for some in my herd. Isabella, PJ, and Prince Charming all decline in condition without supplemental copper. Molly, who is very dark as well, had not followed that rule. However, Molly has not had the demand of kidding, producing milk or being in rut placed on her as yet. After she freshens in the spring it may prove to be a different story.

I am somewhat worried that PJ, during the last month and a half, lost so much copper she absorbed her pregnancy. She did not cycle again after she was bred in October but she is not filling out like I think she should. Because she has not cycled I can only assume one of two things, that indeed she is still bred but looks thinnish due to the weight loss the past month and a half or that she did indeed absorb the pregnancy and the copper deficiency has lead to some temporary fertility problems which is why she has not cycled again.

Either way, I will watch her closely and with her huge improvements over the past 2 weeks I expect her to make headway in the weight department as she has been.

I also plan to dry her off earlier than I had planned beginning this weekend more than likely. But that brings up another point and that is that when her milk production went down in Mid-Oct (and her only being 6 months into her lactation) I should have known. But I'll know better next time and be able to follow the signs more closely.

Some information that's par for the course, I was reading something recently about copper boluses that it was proven that correct copper levels in goats reduces worm load. A book I have on natural goat care says the same thing so since this past spring I have been using copper to aid in making things as natural as possible for my goats and thus far, chemical worming has been non-existent because it was not needed until just recently with PJ.

So, here's to hoping she's still bred and that I can get her back to 100% quickly. She's definitely on the mend and I hope that drying her off will take the excess stress off her body so that, if she is bred, can continue to grow the pregnancy or that if she has indeed absorbed the pregnancy, that she'll begin to cycle before the breeding season is over. As it happens, I will breed to her a different buck if that is indeed the case as I changed my mind about who I bred her too. Obviously if she's still bred that's water under the bridge but if I have another shot (or one of my smelly bucks has another shot) Prince Charming will find himself "getting lucky".

Leads and leashes

2009-12-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

Okay so its a soap box of mine. For me, this is an exceptional way to take care of a lot of goat problems. Its a cheap solution, if you have a basic sewing machine and can do a straight stitch you can make these. I ordered clips in bulk and a 300 yd role of military strength polypropelene webbing and I made many lengths of leads, leashes, however you call them. They are all double clipped, one at each end. I have three in this photo, there are 3 small bucks in this pen. They stink and they try to "date" us and we are not impressed, we clip them to the fence with these 3 homemade leads and they are stuck while we clean out their pen, clean water dishes, make repairs to dammaged fences... The back of the feeder to the right of the photo as well as the feeder not in the photo are held up to the fence with a lead as well. The big blue barrel is the buck grain, the girls cannot get it open so even if they could push it over (its too full right now) they cant eat it.

This is what you have to do to keep the bucks in, does out. We shimmed up this gate and put a 2x2 on the ground just inside so it cannot be pounded in. The gate only opens out, the webbing is strong and we wrap it and clip it to both gates. It is the only way we have found to keep everyone where they belong! You can see Ynot's (big buck) feeder knocked over, I didnt clip it. Its nice to use the leads because they can be pulled off to move a goat, or we can move the feeder. They otherwise knock their food over, the girls feeder is long and heavy but the bucks have smaller ones.

One of the does grain buckets, we screw rubber buckets to the wall studs and put clips on there to clip the girls in each am for their grain. We fenced in our feedbarn so we can close up the gates and the girls have to stay out while we unload hay into the hay room. I made use of this strip of cattle panel for a couple of extra buckets. These clips have been invaluable, its the only way I have found to make sure each goat gets her grain and herbs without taking them one by one into the milk shed.

The girls

2009-11-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

Granite (spotted doe), Freedoe (brown doe), Bonnie (brown doe with
white belly band), Isabella (black doe)

Molly

Grain storage

2009-11-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

We found these food grade barrels on craigs list in our local area. We had to do a 90 mile drive but picked up a number of good finds from CL in one evening so the trip was worth it! These barrels all had food of some sort, one had sausage and it was smelly... We cleaned them with bleach and Charlie's Natural cleaner and they smell new!

We buy a ton of grain at one time, most colleges that have an agricultural department will mix grain for you. The price is about the same as the feed store, but the ag dept insists it is a better quality mix. Our vet, who owns her own goat herd, endorses them as well. Buying a ton of grain is simpler than buying weekly, but how to store it? This was our solution. There are other containers that would work well, but we like these because they are water, pest AND goat resistant. The goats cannot get into the hay room, but you know goats. They may figure out how!

We store chicken grain in the north barn in one of these, once again the goats can climb it but they cannot open or move it. It is in a corner so that it cant be pushed over either. The bucks pen doesn't have a good spot for me to store grain, so I put one of these at an outer corner filled with grain. The lid unscrews and I can feed them straight from it daily. Rain and snow do not affect them, no leaking can occur.

We paid 20 $ each for these, once again they had to be cleaned but it was worth the savings. The cheapest I have found these same barrels before shipping online is 85 $ each. These will last for years to come and will save us time and trouble!

Free choice hay

2009-11-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

Goats waste hay. There is no way around this. They will waste more or less depending on how much of the hay they like. If they pick through for alfalfa flowers and leave the stems, you may need to find more flowery alfalfa. I have heard from goat experts, that the 3rd and 4th cut of alfalfa is a goats favorite. From my own experience, no more hay is wasted when offering free choice, than when I parcel out a certain number of flakes.

This may not be true for everyones goats. I used to say I cannot afford to offer free choice. So I gave the amount the books told me to give, which I do not think was a poor choice. However, my goats and chickens are up earlier than I am. I give free choice water, so I tried free choice hay. I top off the feeder every few days and I always rotate with a clean pitchfork first. The uneaten hay gets moved to the side to be heaped up on top so no hay is old. They get a feeder full of brome hay which my goats love. It has good protien and they waste it less than they do alfalfa. I toss out a half a bale of alfalfa into their feeder about once a wk as a treat for the girls. The boys get a flake daily of alfalfa per buck, because my bucks are slow growers and this helps. The boys have free choice brome as well.

The waste is simply not greater, I go through the same amount of hay and chicken feed weekly this way as I did when giving out a certain number of flakes. My feeders all hold well more than a days worth and they are out of the weather either by lid or barn roof.

I know this isnt possible for everyone, but in my experience you wont have more waste. So if you want the extra 30 min to lie in bed, or would like to finish a cup of coffee without hearing from your goats you can give this a try.

The extra hay on the floor is their waste. In the summer, I sweep daily. In the winter, I do not. It is warmer for them and they simply do not poop in the feed barn as much in the winter. They spend a lot of time in the pasture, the rest of the goat yard and their sleep barn. Our fall/winter weather is wet a lot, and when the weather is wet, the poop wont sweep out. It smears out... Ewww. So it smells badly unless I pressure wash daily, so instead we take out the waste about once a month. These pictures were taken about 2 days before we cleaned it, but honestly I like it better when the waste hay is down. My boots stay cleaner, their hooves stay cleaner and there isnt any odor. The heat of summer dries their feces and urine so the barn sweeps clean daily, but in the winter that isnt so for Kansas.

I will blog our new chicken house and feeding system later. The feeding system for the chickens is wonderful, as chickens are super early risers!

Artificial Insemination

2009-11-21T10:01:00.001-08:00

More and more lately I have been thinking about artificial insemination. Not for myself mind you, for the goats.

Anyway, the whole buck thing I am really back and forth on. They smell and they are obnoxious this time of year and they are extra mouths to feed and just too much for me personally to handle and there are times when I need help with them and Jeremiah cannot be here to do that. Granted, having the luxury of three bucks has been really nice in some respects but in others not so much. They are taking up quite a large portion of property and a really nice shelter that could otherwise be housing for does. One of them is just super wild, the other two are perfect angels, as far as bucks go of course and once they come out rut they will calm down considerably.

I get any bucks out of John Henry, I think I've 100% decided to sell him in the Spring possibly sooner as I am fairly sure all the does he's covered have settled. I cannot deal with his antics and he is a direct result of breeders not spending enough time with the kids when they are young and impressionable. He's still less than a year old but I cannot imagine him at 250 lbs. acting the way he does and I don't have the time to spend with him nor the gumption to get him where I want him.

On top of that, the really good bucks are retained by good breeders. If they weren't good they wouldn't be retained of course. And if they are for sale, they are expensive and not that semen and the whole A.I. set up isn't, (it is!). More and more I am realizing my life is going in so many different directions. It's chaotic and cluttered and I need to declutter! Maybe spending the money and learning the techniques would help me but then again, maybe I am adding more head ache :o).

A.I. would open a lot of possibilities and granted, it may be an expensive up front proposition for the equipment and I've read over and over you should have an experienced person teach you and not that I am taking that lightly at all but I think it's something we could learn to do.

I have a friend who has done it in the past so I may look into having her teach me.

A.I. would open up a larger possibility of different lines as well. I mean, obviously. I wouldn't have to keep 10 bucks to get 10 different lines and some of the best lines have semen available. So, again, it's definitely something I am looking into. We'll see what next year has in store.

Fow now, today, it's a serious possibility!

Chorus Cream Line

2009-11-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a little experiment to see about where the butterfat content stood in my girls milk. I don't separate milk anymore. Actually, I never did although I did weigh it individually after each milking but it all went into the same "pot", so to speak. At any rate, this milk has been sitting for about 2 weeks. LOOK AT THAT CREAM!!! HOLY COW! This is a half gallon mason, 2 quarts worth and there is a quart of cream on top. Do you see the cream line?

It's all just a horse and pony show anyway

2009-11-01T20:58:00.000-08:00

That's what I used to think!

This post may go in many different directions. I haven't got it all mapped out yet in my head but I did want to post a few things about my personal philosophy on goats.

I started out not knowing a darn thing about goats. Jeremiah and I had discussed possibly getting a goat. Our daughter, Rachel, would be starting school in the near future. Me: grew up in the big city, had never had the opportunity to join 4-H. Her: being as country as we could possibly make her, was a good candidate to join 4H or FFA or whatever group was out there that I never could join. Okay, so yeah, let's get a goat.

Let me tell you, it's not just that simple! Our first goat we WON at a silent auction at a charity dinner for wild fire victims! Yeah, $25 and we were the proud owner of a "La Mancha Dairy Goat". What does that mean? Well, we thought we had won ourselves a girl goat. We could take her home and add another animal to our menagerie.

Yeah, that's not really how it was! Come to find out, the people who put the silent auction together failed to mention that the "LaMancha Dairy Goat" was actually a INTACT BUCK and that we could have him castrated if we wished but we couldn't even take our new "pet" home until we had at least another goat because goats have very strong herding instincts and nothing short of another goat would do as a companion. OKAY THEN, our next thought, what on God's green earth were we going to do with a BUCK?? My husband starts calling local butchers!

I hop on Craigslist and find someone, anyone, who could sell us a girl and fast! Before we know it we have 4 goats (3 does & 1 buck) and things are grand.

Well no, not really. Since that (fateful???) night when we won that buck I jump on the internet and start researching everything having to do with goats. Ask my husband just how much I know.

At some point I decided I wanted to be CAE and CL free. I absolutely will not go as far as bottle raising kids who's dams come back CAE negative, despite the chances of false negatives, or imprinting on kids (which I'll talk more on later). BUT, I would go as far as selling a CAE or CL + doe immediately no matter how much I love her. Same can be said for bucks too, but this time of year even the friendliest guys do not have a very special place in my heart because, let's face it, they are gross and they stink this time of year.

Okay, so being CAE and CL free is important to me. I belong to a few dairy goat groups online and the subject is one I try to avoid like, well, like CL and CAE. Most people who know anything about it are either on one side of the fence or the other, there is very little black & white about it and God forbid you mention one side of the fence or the other because you may just have cyber stones thrown at you until you bleed to death. But, being free of disease to the best of my ability is where I stand based on my own research, and believe you'n'me, I've done a lot.

I am not a scientist or a vet. I don't know it all about these diseases. When it all comes down to it, I may know very little BUT I do know I have read probably every piece of literature available online and in books and have talked to a lot of different people and I know that for me personally, it's something I would prefer to be free of.

Wether or not it's really as big a deal as some make it out to be it's not for me! Why? Well because I know there are people who care A LOT about being disease free (an idiotic thought or not) and for me knowing to keep goats who are + for either CAE or CL (or both) and then to take these diseased animals to show or sell is just not right! I (try) to follow the golden rule. You know the one don't you? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I would be beyond pissed if someone knowingly had diseased animals, took them to show (or sold them to me) and my goat caught it. As for CL, the main route of transmission is the puss from an abscess. Or at least that's what nearly all the research has lead me to believe. Well okay, at shows there are supposed to be vets there who check for that sort of thing (I think) so the likelihood of having a goat with a draining abscess is probably small, at least in the dairy goat circuit but still...

For the backyard farmer, I still think it's important. Why? Well because. It's NOT just a horse and pony show. I used to think that, I really did. The important thing was that my does were bred, any buck would do, and that I had my milk. It's sort of two fold-disease and the horse and pony show of it all. NO, I do not think that CAE and CL will be eliminated. Why? Well because as long as there is just one person who doesn't care or doesn't think it's a big deal, it will always remain. And since it has not been proven to be transmittable to humans (like Brucellosis, etc.) then there's no point in any higher authority stepping in. I have read that CL may be transmitted but the likelihood from what I understand is small and non-life threatening unlike Brucellosis and Johne's.

I don't want an animal who may pass on a disease that cripples (CAE) nor do I want an animal that breaks out in an abscess in which the contents are extremely contagious and something that I have to quarantine, drain, and then burn anything that had anything to do with the drainage. It's a lot of hassle! Not only that but it's stressful for the animal. So, you ask, why would I ever think of selling an animal who tested positive instead of culling (slaughtering culling)? It goes back to the fact that in my personal opinion it will not be eradicated and I will not destroy an animal who may indeed live out the rest of her life without an abscess or flare up with someone who does not care about CL (or CAE).

As for the hose and pony show of it? Well, no one ever said you had to show so there's a lot of stereotypes in thinking that all breeders show for the glory. That's not entirely true. I'm in it for a lot of reasons. For one, I find great pleasure in researching the background of animals, looking at them with a scrupulous eye and breeding for a good quality animal. Granted, I am nowhere near a big breeder nor do I have the years and years of experience that so many of them do. But, I'm here to learn and my learning started with educating myself and making a decision that was right for me about breeding up and keeping a disease free herd.

Good breeding is important. It's not just to win championship status. It's not just some person's ideal of what a perfect goat should be. Well okay, maybe a little but the truth of it all is that showing and breeding quality goats all comes down to building a goat that will stand up to what it was designed to do- produce milk and babies and be healthy (in the dairy goat world). A doe with a crappy udder isn't going to stand up to years of milking and raising babies. In fact, she may suffer greatly because of a crappy udder or bag legs or whatever. So why on earth would you breed a goat with a crappy udder or legs to any old buck just so you can have milk? Well, for some people, the milk is more important than anything else. Okay fine, but if there is even the slightest possibility of breeding up, why wouldn't you do it? If all your breeding for is milk and the kids go for meat, then it's really not all entirely important who you breed with/to. But on the same token, if meat is part of the end goal, growth is also something important to take into consideration. A scrawny goat is still one you have to feed. May as well be feeding something that you're going to benefit from the most by having a strong healthy animal.

So, when it all comes down to it strong healthy disease free happy animals is not only humane, it's beneficial in more ways than one. Testing goats for disease is cheap insurance in my personal opinion and breeding as good quality as possible isn't as expensive as you may think it to be. It can be, don't get me wrong, but it's what right and Lord knows I pray to do right on a daily basis. I fail miserably some days, but my heart has good intentions.

Please don't misinterpret what I am saying to mean you should go out and find one of the best breeders and spend a fortune on semen or buck service or to buy the buck yourself, what I am saying is if you have the opportunity to use/buy or otherwise nice animals, you'd be silly not to.

As for how to ensure quality? Well, I sorda learned the hard way. I bought 4 goats I knew nothing about. Then I bought a doe I knew a lot about, spent a little bit more but got better quality in return and from there gained a wealth of knowledge. My advice is to ask the person you plan to buy from (if you will be keeping a disease free herd) if they test. If they don't (and it's me) I wouldn't say another thing, I'd walk away. If they do test and I've not dealt with them before, ask to see paperwork (which doesn't always ensure but it is a small bit of insurance). If it's an animal you really want, you're fairly sure they are disease free and have the space available to quarantine them while you test, go for it. If you don't have the space and are really serious about being disease free, take your chances I guess.

You can get quality grade animals from people who test if you don't care much about registration. It's a bit harder here because a lot of people, as I said, don't care or don't know better (or both). But there are people who raise registered animals who DO care, do test and even go as far as raising CAE prevention kids (more on that later too.) So, start by asking.

Cover up ugly

2009-10-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

Before

A spiffy new cover that any car seat sitter can be proud of.

Afta

Wordless Wednesday: When life hands you apples

2009-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Find the "recipe" here.

And they called it puppy goaty love

2009-09-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've been somewhat lamenting to Jo the past couple of weeks about Granite not coming into season as early as I would have liked. She's plenty big enough (and just old enough at 7 months) to breed so I was hoping she would start cycling last month and be ready to breed this month with a few cycles under her belt, so to speak. September kept slipping away and nothing from her.

Yesterday Molly was quite lovey dovey and being as how she's a bottle baby she's already that way anyway so her lovey dovey act was getting about as annoying as Isabella's obnoxious bleating! I finally put her out with Prince Charming and she just wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted her girlfriends back.

Yesterday evening at milking time Granite started in with her obsessive bleating and this morning I told her to shut up and gave her to Oreo. Nice right? Oh believe you 'n' me, she was happy about it!

4 weeks ago when I put Freedoe out with Price Charming, Oreo was happily muching grass on the other side of the buck pasture (with a fence and gate in between). John Henry on the other hand was at the gate wanting a piece of...well, the action. So I figured Oreo may not be ready in time for any of my girls, which was fine. He is still quite young.

Well, never you fear! Oreo and Granite were more than happy to meat each others aquaintence and there was no hi's, hello's, or how are you's prior to...well, the act. SO, providing this was a successful breeding, we should have some nice babies from them come, em, 2/25/10 on or about. For two first timers, they didn't waste any time!

So far, Violet and Freedoe have shown no signs of heat so I assume they settled. I am thrilled about that. We'll see what happens with Molly, she may or may not settle. I didn't actually see anything besides her wanting to get away from that stinky old buck. Not that I blame her, the boys these days are just...there are no words for a rutty buck. I'd get an updated photo of the bucks but I risk my camera's lense being etched from the smell and grossness that is rutty buck x 3. They are becoming thin too. I am upping their caloric intake but they just aren't very interested in eating much. Their sole attention these days is, politely, girl goats.

Kidding season should begin Jan. 10 here. I have tried very hard to schedule breedings and kiddings around year round milk plus kids being old enough to breed next Fall and the little girls being old enough to breed this season so it's been a very fine line. I'm sure the milk output for at least a month will be very minute with drying off and kidding plus waiting to seperate kids at night, but, as it stands, the schedule will work fairly good.

A gag is in order

2009-09-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned before, breeding season is in full swing. If I had known Isabella would be this annoying, this loud, this irritating, I would have bred her first. Ever heard a Nubian in heat? OMG! I just mentioned to my husband that I am going to kill me some goat!!!!! I can hear her all the way from the house, it's darn near a constant MAAAAAAAAAAAA MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MAAAAAAAAAAAA. I want to choke her!

Seriously, this time next year if I haven't eaten her first or sold her for the pure pleasure of knowing I will not have to go through this again, she will be the first to breed, by the time she kids the season should be over with and I should never have to deal with this insanity again!

I am not breeding her yet. I wanted to wait until October so that she and Violet can be 2 months apart. I have fought the strong urge to just throw her out with Oreo and let her have her way with him, or visa versa because I just cannot take this, I just want her to SHUT UP! I don't know how much longer this can go on, it's day 2. Yesterday we weren't here, THANKFULLY!

Anyone have a good goat gag pattern!!?!? If she only reacted the way I do to Benadryl, I can give her a heaping spoon of that and she can sleep through all this madness.

Raw

2009-09-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Went out to feed the bucks early this afternoon. I try to check on everyone half way through the day. Sometimes I'll throw a flake of hay in for the girls as a mid-day snack. Decided to go out and give the boys their dinner too so I wouldn't have to walk out again this evening.

The other day I noticed Prince Charming's front legs were raw on the back side from his arm pits down to below his knee. I thought now, what in the world could be causing that and it didn't take me too long to long to realize that urine probably isn't all that great when left on the skin. Of course it's not, that's what causes a lot of diaper rash!

If you don't know intact male goat behavior, it's probably best you don't. Or maybe you really want to. In that case, they are just DISGUSTING! They aren't too bad much of the year, but about this time in the Northern Hemisphere goats, deer and many animals alike go into rut. The days get shorter and it's time to breed. Bucks take this opportunity to be as rank as possible (to us humans). Just the other day when taking one of my does out to breed, I was PEED on by Prince Charming. Oh, he thought he was God's gift to both of us. He put his front feet up on the gate which allowed him the best shot and we were covered. I debated throwing him on the Bar-B for it!

So, along with urinating everywhere, they like to drink their own urine and they are quite the contortionists I tell you! They can literally do what I call the goat fellatio move. Yes, most can get their own penis' in their mouth! On top of pleasing themselves orally, they will drink their urine and spray it all over their beards, face and front legs. Talk about natural cologne! On top of that they just naturally stink from scent glands on top of their heads and when people say that goats stink, it's usually the smell of the buck they are referring to.

Have a buck and doe in milk near each other? Wonder why your milk may taste 'goaty' or 'bucky'? Try moving your doe farther away and see if that helps. A bucks scent can literally taint a does milk even through her udder. NO JOKE! I've had some awful goat's milk and it's because the owner of the doe had her buck way too close. The milk literally tasted like a buck smelled and let me tell you, their smell literally gives me a massive head ache. I cannot stand it. Fortunately, my guys are still somewhat young which I am assuming makes them smell less terrible, or maybe it's because it's early in the season. At any rate, they aren't too horrible...yet.

Buck + rut = clothespin on nose

And so it begins for 2009...

2009-09-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

Surely as I can smell Fall in the air some mornings on my way out to milk, my does have started to come into season. This is a very exciting time of the year for goat owners, or at least I think so.

Fair season is almost over here in Northern California. I'll be visiting the Auburn Fair Grounds for the judging portion of the Gold County Fair on Sunday for the goat show.

Violet, Isabella and PJ all had a really good cycle towards the end of July but they'd be kidding about Christmas and I surely don't want to be attending any births on Christmas or New Years so I waited a couple weeks on Violet and bred her to Prince Charming. Unfortunately Violet is not registered. I have been himming and hawing about getting her registered which, from what I understand, takes some photos and a written statement from both myself and another member of the ADGA. I just don't know that I want to do all that though. She's a great producer, has a great temperment, kids super easily and quickly, her mammary could use a bit of help so I am hoping with the breeding this year, any doelings should be better. In 2 generations though if bred to registered bucks, those kids could be registered so basically that is what I am holding her and Isabella (my other non-registered doe). For now, they are great milkers, I have worked hard on them and Violet especially is my pet. I try not to get too attached, but Violet holds a special place in my heart.

You can see the breeding list to the right. So far, Freedoe and Violet have both been bred. Neither has come back into heat (still have a few days to go for Freedoe officially), Violet should have by now if not bred so that's a good sign for an approx. Jan 10, 2010 kidding! Hopefully Freedoe settled the first time too. That'd make me really satisfied as she was not bred last fall. I'm excited to see what she does her first time fresh.

Now that we've successfully finished splitting the buck pasture into two, breeding should be a bit easier. I still have some electric wire to run but that's not a biggy. Today I am working on cleaning up the milk parlor. It wasn't so much a mess, there were just things that hadn't been put away since its completion. So, back out I go.

I'll have photos later of the new fencing in the buck pasture as I am positive everyone needs to know how to install and stretch a fence the Harmon way.

Peeling

2009-08-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

I hated using eggs from our chickens to make hard boiled eggs so I'd always buy eggs from the store (gross I know) to make anything with hard boiled eggs. That is, until TODAY. I was lamenting to Jo the other day that I got so little from my hard boiled eggs after I had finished peeling them since fresh eggs do not peel well. The whites would stick so badly to the shell. She mentioned her son, Tad, peels them while still warm. Why didn't I think of that!?

So, today I got the urge to make some egg salad for lunch and whatdayaknow, peeling warm worked...not a single bit of frustration or white left on the shell. Thanks Tad! Am I the last person on earth to know this trick??? If not, I'm posting it so the rest of us frustrated fresh egg peelers out there can get some relief (and a decent amount of egg left).

Feeding Many Goats

2009-08-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is my newest triumph as part of the "make life easier" endeavor. I made a small feeder for a couple of goats to eat from, and will make more of those as needed but this is for my does. I have 10 does/doelings and they will all eat together in the feed barn this winter both for hay and grain.

I used 2x4s and made the lower rectangle larger than the upper because goats knock things over. The larger bottom gives extra stability. The back, front and side slats can be eaten from. The front go back at at angle and join up the the middle support on the floor. They have less waste from triangular feeders I have learned.

Most of the feeder was made of 2x4s, 2x2s and 1x2s but as I was running low on supplies, I used the leftover pieces of a screen door here on this side, they were already in strips so I cut them to length.

This feeder can hold 4 small bales of hay, though I probably wont use that much at once as I am here daily. It will be nice in the winter when the does are not milking to know I can sleep in one day!

I will build at least 1 more of these to avoid bullying while feeding. This will of course occur, but in less force when there is more eating space.

The time to make this was aproximately 3 hours and the cost, well I am not sure. I spent 83 $ at the lumber yard and I have more than half left over- I bought for other projects as well. I could count up the 2x4s here and give a closer price... Either way its much cheaper than ready made feeders and it will feed a lot at once!

Feeding Frenzy

2009-08-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

This feeder has been working rather well for us for the past few months now. Our first attempt was put in the back pasture. And while it is great for full size goats, my (less than one year old) bucks like to sleep in it and poop in it and that does not work out to sanitary feeders!

I've made the girl's feeder a bit smaller both in height and space between vertical rungs. For the life of me I cannot find the site I used as a prototype, not that it matters because mine has been changed quite a bit.

I had some treated 4x4's laying around in 4 foot increments, used those as the legs so the feeder wouldn't have to be put up on blocks which would prevent moisture wicking.
Because I didn't have to purchase the 4x4's, this only cost $12.00, perhaps less as I didn't have to use all the 2x4's I bought. oh and the bottom of the original design had slats for the "floor" of the feeder. We used plywood and unless you have a scrap sitting around, that'll cost a bit but if you make a few feeders, the cost will be distributed. We ended up ripping the 2x4's we had to make the vertical slats. The original called for 2x4 verticals and that, to me, was overkill.

It has been so long since we made this that I can't recall exactly the measurements but that's not so important really.

The original was used to hold whole bales. I don't use whole bales, I feed twice daily.

If I'm so inclined maybe someday I'll write a materials list. Wish I would have done it when I built it since I cannot even remember now what we used. The little girls (Molly and Granite) and one of my yearling does (Freedoe) can get into the feeder and do when the big girls are being greedy but I can easily get 7 does around this feeder without a problem.

BUT, if you're handy and a visual learner + can improvise a bit, you can probably make it just as we did, by just sittin' down and doin' it.

Making Milking Easier

2009-08-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Startin' 'em early!

2009-08-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here's Molly (black roan) and Granite (spotty) in the milk stand vieing for the grain! I didn't teach them this. Every morning they push their way into the milk shed ahead of some of the milking girls and fight each other for their fair share on the stand. I take this opportunity to run my hands over their bodies and around their udder area to get them used to being milking does for the future.

Herbal Dewormer

2009-07-09T14:39:00.001-07:00

Sorry no pictures to go along with this, maybe Amanda will have some or I can find some later that show a wormy looking goat... Worms can be a problem for all livestock, there are many types and an overload can make your goat very sick. There are also skin problems from parasites such as lice and fleas. I am still working on remedies for that and will post once I solve that naturally. For now, here is my herbal worming formula, feel free to make your own! I buy all of my herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs.

I use all equal parts of this and administer in grain though you can blend it or get the ingredients powdered and drench with water.

Black walnut leaf
Meadowsweet
Quassia Bark
Hyssop
Fennel seed
Fenugreek seed

You can also add psyllium husk but I do not add equal parts of that, I use about 8 parts of the other listed herbs and 1-2 parts psyllium because it is a laxative and I do not want to cause diarhea.

I add in wormwood for my bucks and give neem freely when they are not breeding. Neem has been shown as an effective birth control for some men (not all so dont trust this as your entire family planning plan!) and so it is suggested to not give it to bucks unless they are not breeding. Give aproximately 5 wks after the last time you give neem before you want to breed.

Genetian root is supposed to be helpful in worming formulas, I do give this to a poor looking goat. It is expensive though so I do not give it full time. All of these herbs are under 9 $ a pound and a pound goes a long way. I do buy 1 lb of each for my goats use at a time and I cant tell you yet how long this will last, that will depend on the number of goats you own.

Give each goat a toddlers handfull amt-maybe 1/4 cup, every wk in grain or drench. If you have a wormy goat, or if you bring in a new goat into your herd I suggest giving every day for 7 days. I do not give wkly, I simply mix a months worth of grain with a months worth of wormer and feed each goat a small amt of grain daily so they get a small amt every feeding.

So far this has been very effective. I had fecals done on my milking doe a couple of months ago and she was parasite free on this herbal program. I do give this to baby goats as well.

Homemade tethers

2009-07-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

These are tethers and lead ropes. I looked in the feedstore for these and they were over 20 $ for a 6 ft nylon lead. I need many many more feet than that! So I spent 70$ for 300 ft of military standard polypropelene webbing 1" and 25 swivel snap clips. These are nice bc they swivel around with the goat as does the goats collar preventing them from getting so tangled up.

20 foot long tethers, I use 2 at a time clipped together to give 40 ft. If needed I will do 3. I sometimes need 20 ft and its easier to keep that amt untangled. I use the 3 ft leads with a clip on each end for either leading, or clipping a goat to a specific spot at the fence so that each goat gets her own grain while I am in the milk shed. This prevents goats climbing into the open milk shed window, and it allows the girl who gets bullied to actually have her grain and herbs.

I put the boys out on these especially bc their yard is in the middle of a 3 acre field, full of good un cut hay. This makes my food bill lower! The girls are in a 2 acre area of their own forage but I cant put boys and girls together. These tethers keep my bucks from being too close to my does and still save me feed money. I saved hundreds of dollars by making these myself and wouldnt have bought this many otherwise. I made 1 long and 1 short per goat plus a few extra for the new goats I am about to buy...Now my life is easier, and I saved money.

The Cheese Stands Alone

2009-06-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

Adventures in cheese making 101-

We have too much goat's milk! When you've got a lot of milk, it's time to make cheese. I personally haven't made too much to be honest. This is a fairly easy recipe that doesn't call for rennet, just vinegar.

I take my extra milk (anywhere from at least a gallon to 4 or 5) and put it in a stainless steel pot. I use my soup pot. Heat it to boiling (some recipes call for only 189 degrees but I have NOT found this to make large enough curds), once it boils, ad a glug of vinegar. How much is a glug? Well, enough to separate your curds. Start with a decent glug per gallon. I used plain white vinegar but white wine or herb infused would nice too. Use your imagination! You should see the whey separate from the curds right away, or visa versa. Turn off the heat. At this point I add some salt and my fresh herbs (basil, teragon and thyme is VERY yummy!) then pour into a tea towel lined colander over another stainless steal pot almost as big as the one you used to heat the milk. You'll notice at this point the amount of cheese you get to the amount of milk you used is minuscule BUT it's worth it! Let the whey drain for a bit by hanging up your towel with the cheese inside and eat warm or cold. I like it on wheat thins!

It's got the consistency of mozzarella without the stretch. Not what I think of when I think "normal" cheese, but good nonetheless!

And we're done!

2009-03-31T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hannah delivered her 2 precious babies Saturday. And what an easy delivery it was. The kids are HUGE! I didn't weigh them but they were as big at birth as Pat and Patty were at 12 days old! WOW! They were appropriately named Sampson and Delilah in keeping biblical with Hannah.

Unfortunately there is some bad news. Hannah came to us with only one teat and no real explanation of exactly what happened other than the fact her previous owners paid a pretty penny to have the bad one removed. I was lead to believe she was stepped on and I may never find out but her "good" side isn't all that great either. The kids both got a great helping of colostrum but when I put Hannah up into the stand to milk some colostrum for freezing purposes, I wasn't getting a hole lot! I think I've come to the conclusion that her "good" side isn't very good at all. There is so much scar tissue covering the lower portion of her udder that it's just impossible to fill up the teat normally. For now the kids are able to get enough by suction but as for a milking goat, she will never be one I don't think unless I am gifted with a milking machine, but even then, I am still have to check the kids a few times daily to assure they are getting enough to eat. So far so good.

I don't know that there is a lesson to be learned here. It's shame because Hannah would have made an excellent milker, in the production aspect anyway! Most Nubians aren't known for the quantity but quantity which is normally pretty high in butterfat. Marmalade's is! But Hannah, I'm fairly sure she would have been a gallon a day milker. At any rate, I'm sure we'll be trying to place her once the babies are weaned, if they can make it that long on her milk alone. J and I have discussed other options which include bottle feeding or selling them as bottle babies for someone else to do it. There are people who want to raise goats on the bottle strictly. This goes against my personal views about it but if necessary, I will intervene with these kids. Hannah is a fine mama and she makes nice kids! I'm not too thrilled with the ears, they are 50% Nubian and 50% La Mancha and I would have bet you money that the Nubian long ears would be dominant over the La Mancha gopher or elf ear but I've proven 4 times now that the long ears have not won out :o).

I will say though, that buck sure threw some beautiful coloring!!!

At any rate, if you'd like to check out the slideshow of the big event, click HERE.

Delilah in the foreground

Delilah

Strapping young Sampson

Green Cleaning

2009-03-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ingredient list for my cleaning solution for udders and teats:

1 cup neem leaf herb (mountain rose herbs is where I buy this from)
1/2 gal glass jar
almost 1/2 gal of boiling water
1/3 cup cheap vodka

Put the 1 cup neem leaf into the glass jar and pour the boiling water over the leaves. I stir until all leaves well covered with the boiling water and I let it steep for 12-15 minutes until it takes on a dark tea color.

I use the wire strainer to strain the herb out but you can use a piece of cheesecloth (pictured) or a cloth made from birdseye cotton fabric or diaper gauze fabric.

I used the clean milk bucket to pour the jar over, just because it was available. You can strain it into any container large enough to hold the liquid. Then I press the herb with a spoon to get the essence out. The herb leftover is dumped into the compost bucket.

I pour it back into the half gallon jar and add the vodka. This is very cheap vodka that I keep on hand for herbal tinctures. Vodka is antibacterial, it keeps the tea from going bad. Otherwise I would have to make this tea every 2-3 days. The vodka also keeps the mix from freezing. I chose the amount of vodka by the amt of slush in the jar the first morning I tried this mix. It let me know 1/4 cup vodka wasn't enough! Depending on how cold your milk shed gets, you may need to add more vodka.

I pour this tea into the little applesauce cup, wet a clean cloth with it, dip the teats in the cup, scrub the teats and udders with clean damp cloth then milk the first stream of milk from each side into the cup. The cup goes under the milk stand until I am done and the cloth goes into a wet bag (below).

Brown wet bag is dirty cloths and cups, blue wet bag is clean ones. I have about 40 cloths and 30 dipping cups, when the brown bag is full it comes back to the house with me to have the cups and cloths cleaned and I bring down a new jar of tea as the one runs low and bring it back when empty.

I milk off the first stream because if there is going to be any bacteria left at the end of the teat, it will come out with this. I dump the 2 cups out the back window here and then put the cups into the brown bag. I have enough cloths and cups to clean and dry every day for 2 goats for 2 wks so I don't do a lot of extra work to use reusable. I don't want to use throw away cups or cloths for cleaning as it defeats a portion of my self sufficient purpose.

The neem leaf is antibacterial and has great cleaning quality and its healthy for skin and internal. I don't have to worry if a goat gets into the jar and drinks some (it tastes bad!). Neem leaf is cheap and it doesn't take much to make the tea.

I had to buy applesauce in these little cups which wasn't cheap, but the kids enjoyed it. I don't ever have to buy new cups, the cloths and wet bags are reusable, the tea jar, all of it is free now-never run out of Dixie cups or paper towels. The neem costs about 4 $ a pound and a pound is the big bag pictured. It lasts for a very long time. The vodka is about 10 $ per bottle and will last more than a yr. Reusing glass containers makes homesteading cheaper. Glass and stainless steel are best to milk into and store milk in because they cannot harbor bacteria like plastic can.

Difficult St. Patrick's Day Delivery!

2009-03-21T09:25:00.001-07:00

My first time freshener Snow White delivered twins on Tuesday, 1 doeling and 1 buckling. I wanted to be here in case there were complications. Not only was she a first timer, but really, things can be difficult no matter how many times they've kidded before.

Snow White was showing signs of early labor Tuesday morning when I went out to feed. I do not use the ligament method to tell when they may deliver, it hasn't proven successful for me. I use intuition and I just plain pay attention. Snow White wasn't off her feed but was being very vocal which isn't unusual but she wouldn't shut up and Tuesday was her due date anyway so I had been watching her closely. Her udder was tight and this is somewhat of an indication delivery is close. Her udder had been filling for a few weeks prior but this was a different type of full. About 10 AM she was wandering away from the rest of goats, up and down trying to get comfortable. By 11 she had some opaque white discharge and by twelve thirty she was in obvious labor. Some signs of this were concentration and visible muscle contractions.

By twelve forty five I had my birthing kit ready. At some point I will share a list of what this should include. Mine wasn't complete and I wasn't 100% ready because I didn't have soap and my nails weren't trimmed short! At twelve forty five about she had delivered a head and a hoof, she continued to push but nothing was delivering and I knew there were problems. The baby should have slipped right out.

This is SO not what I wanted to have happen for my first attending delivery!

I cut my nails quickly, scrubbed up with water and soap up to my shoulder and lathered myself in betadine and gently went in with straight fingers and a somewhat cupped hand. I could feel two heads and I don't even know how many hooves! At one point there was one complete head, 1 nose and 3 hooves out of the birth canal. The ONLY option is to push them back in and straighten things out. This process seemed to take forever. I know I prayed at some point for some help!

Snow White was flat out on the ground screaming but when you're the person doing the business, you kind of don't even hear that part. You do, but it's background noise, or at least was for me. I kept looking down seeing this poor kid's head out and I kept thinking, surely it's dead. But every now and again I would see an eye move and I would think, I still have time! I still didn't have a good idea of exactly what was what. I didn't know whose hooves were whose and trying to slide down one kids shoulder to unhook a leg is difficult. Finally I just pushed everyone back in and started over. Snow White appreciated none of this but it was either this or I lost everyone.

It wasn't but a second after I finally got everyone back in that I guess things got straightened out and Patrick popped out right into my hands and then Patricia right behind him. Patrica looked wonderful, ready to get up the second she was out. Patrick on the other hand was limp. I could hold him in the middle of his body with one hand and he'd flop over both sides of it. I thought for sure we'd loose him but after about 45 minutes of vigerous rubbing some REALLY important colostrum and some sunshine, I was forcing him to his s feet to walk. He's fine today!

Snow White, however, was NOT fine. We ended up having to take a sheet, make a sling out of it to get her up onto a trailer and into a barn stall. The vet gave us some steroids, dexamethasone sodium phosphate, for the swelling and to helped any nerves that may have been pinched. Also gave her penicillin (which you can get at most feed stores) for any infection from me having to go in. I am sure a nerve may have been pinched with all the stuff in the birth canal. Her back right leg wouldn't work properly for her to walk right. She would only get up if forced on Wednesday but didn't have the strength to stand but for a minute or two and wasn't putting any weight on her back legs, she was completely balancing on her front.

I had to milk her by hand on Tuesday after the birth to get the kids the important colostrum. I milked into a small jar, used a large syringe without the needle to put it down the kids mouth. It's SO important they get this within the first hour! And make sure if you are having to hand feed it you keep their heads up high like they would do nursing regularly because liquid needs to go down their throat correctly or it can go into their lungs or first stomach where it should not be.

So anyway, I spent some of Tuesday face down in dirt and "other" trying to get these babies out. At one point I called a friend because I wanted to make sure pushing them back in when a head was already out was okay to do, which it was. And really, it's the ONLY thing to do.

From what I can gather, both babies were head first, Patricia (second born) also had both feet first which is normal. Patrick was head and one foot first and in that case normally you need to go in and bring the other foot forward in order for the kid to deliver.

We still have one doe to go, Hannah, and she's as big as an ark. This will be her forth kidding so I am hoping to be here and be ONLY an onlooker for this one. She's due a week from today and has is showing early signs of delivery so I will be keeping a pretty close eye on her.

I have debated on what photos to show of this delivery. It's very educational actually so will say nothing more than if you have peering eyes you'd prefer not to see, are squeamish or grossed out by this sort of thing, please don't go any further. I don't think I will show all of them so if you want to see everything I've got, you can check out the slide show here.

In the "heat of the moment" I couldn't very well snap any photos of my arm up inside poor Snow White, please forgive me if the photos just stop and then start again with two healthy babies :o).

She has some slight discharge. It's was actually opaque white but she had been laying in the dirt so it has dirt stuck to it. I had tried to lead her out into the grass but she only wanted to be up against the goat house. A few days prior up until she had some brownish light discharge which was the mocus plus. This was discharge that I believe lubricates the birth canal for delivery. If you will notice, her udder is "tight" and full. This was my major sign with both Violet and Snow White that delivery was close at hand. I noticed both the morning of so figured delivery would be within 12 hours. That's Daisy and Rosey looking on on the right and Violet playing doula :o).

This is what her udder looked like 4 days prior. It's filling but it's not tight. She also started looking very hollowed out in her hip area. Normally, up near her spine would be all filled in like Hannah over to the right. Hannah no longer looks like this as she is a week away from delivery. The time in which this happens varies from goat to goat. Violet didn't "hollow out" until the morning of delivery.

My 2 1/2 year old son was there the entire time helping his mama by getting things. Here is Snow White who just cannot get comfortable.

Here she is staring into space concentrating and pushing.

This is the bag of water. It had not broken yet.

The bag broke (wetness on the ground) and there is more white discharge.

More discharge and Snow White trying to get into a good pushing position.

Here's a close up of the nose and if you click on this photo and enlarge it you can see a tiny white hoof to the side of the nose. This ended up NOT being this kid's hoof!

A really close up photo.

And then I realized there was trouble and that's when the photo taking stopped and I had to step in. Unfortunately Drew isn't old enough to take photos yet of anything but the sky and ground so the next one is about 45 minutes post delivery. Snow White has a piece of PVC taped across her horns because she got her head stuck. I will band her to remove her horns a few weeks from now.

2 healthy La Mancha (with elf ears)/Nubian/Boer babies!

Amanda

Kid Feeding Technique

2009-03-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

Unlike Amanda, I don't have a plethora of kids dropping on my property, thus we drove to Topeka and bought 3 from a guy who sells them as soon as they are born. They were only a couple of wks old and I brought them home and stored them in my garage! We started out feeding them with baby lamb nipples purchased from the local feed store, these screw onto the top of a 20 oz soda pop bottle. As they got bigger and ate more roughly, this became difficult. We moved them to the barn and built them a windbreak, hung heat lamps and hung their bottles. This is an efficient way to feed a small number of kids, if you have a larger number I would buy a bucket from caprine supply and it has 10 nipples. These bottles and metal holders were purchased there as well.

This is a scrap of 2x4, though you could use 1x4 or 1x6, just a scrap of something that you can put the pieces of ripped 2x4 on the back of. If you have extra ply board scraps around, cut it into pieces to create a hanging block and 2 back pieces to screw into the wall.

I used a miter saw to cut the pieces to size, I had longer pieces of 2x4 and some ripped pieces that were on sale at Lowe's because they were imperfect and I bought quite a few. The long stripes of wood are often useful around here!

When I hung them on the wall, I used large screws and forced them in. I recommend drilling pilot holes and using smaller screws, long but not very thick because the thicker screws split my ripped pieces that I secured them to the barn wall with. Still very effective, but will take the back pieces off and put new ones on when these babies are weaned.

Very easy way to hang bottles for feeding! This saved us a lot of time, we are now able to do the other chores while the babies eat, then we take the bottles up to the house for cleaning/refill next time. If it is below 30 I often left them there if babies still eating rather than waiting in the cold. The bottles were cold all night so I could refill them in the morning from the milk bucket for a day or 2 before bringing bottles up to scrub them.

Babies will wean themselves even if they are not on mama, you may have to help them along a bit, Amanda will be able to tell you more about that soon as she has several babies with mamas. These babies of mine are weaning themselves and freely eating hay, a bit of grain, forage and drinking well from a bucket and were born Jan 26 and 28. When they begin leaving some milk, you know to put less next time.

Baby oh baby!

2009-03-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Here's Hannah. She's my 4 year old purebred Nubian who is due March 26th according to calculations. Looking at her, you'd think she was carrying 15 kids!

I wanted to show you what a 3rd time freshener looks like 2 weeks from her due date.

You'll notice in dairy breeds that their right and left sides will look lopsided or asymmetrical. This is because their rumen (stomach) takes up the majority of their left side, while their uterus is mainly on their right.

She is finding it harder and harder to get around. She hummms a lot when laying down. I noticed my sweet Violet doing this as well starting at about 4 weeks before delivery. I'm guessing it's because there's so little room left for breathing they have to lumber just to get the air in and out.

Amanda

Do you have a kicky milker?

2009-03-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

If you can sew, you can save both money and milk!

Hubby and I made this goat hobble as a joint effort. He welded up the metal rings, though you could use some chain used to hang lamps or plants from the ceiling, just make sure it's strong, and I sewed the straps. We had a ratchet strap break and he saved the strapping. It came in handy for this project!

Unfortunately, I cannot get either of my milking goats to stand still long enough to get it on! On top of that, my otherwise docile Violet about has a fit in the milk stand bucking and throwing herself off the stand. I've resorted to some alternative milking methods until I can get her calm enough to stand nicely.

However, if you've got a milker who just likes to kick, occasionally or otherwise, this would probably work well for you!

You can purchase these online from a few places, Caprine Supply carries them along with PBS Livestock. I can't vouch for the ease of use of either of these but mine was based off of the one from PBS Livestock with the velcro.

There are a couple of tricks. Most people don't know to put the hobble on above the back knees mainly because for horses and cows, you put them above their feet. If you've ever squeezed above the back knee on a goat, it almost has a paralyzing effect. Quite funny actually! It does not however stop them moving at the hip and this was where my problem was with my sweet Violet. Second trick, you want this SNUG, not cutting off circulation but not loose either, you're trying to pinch the ligament in the leg and not just make it difficult for them to kick one leg at a time.

I'll try to give you a run down on what I've done here. These measurements are for a full size goat, if you have something smaller, you'll have to play around with measurements. I have Nubians.

First" I took a piece of 1" nylon strapping that was about 8-9 inches long. I inserted them into the rings and sewed down the ends meeting in the center around the edges and then in an "x". You end up with the middle section about 4 inches in length. (you want something sturdy and non-stretchy for this.)

Then for the straps that go around the leg these pieces are about 8-9 inches long. Insert them through the ring and sew from one side to the other back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. If you want one more for good measure, have at it.

Then for the velcro. I used Touchtape hook and loop velcro because that's what I have on hand from diaper making. I really thought 9 inches was going to be too short so I added my hook (scratchy part) extended over the end but 9 inches ended up being too long actually with the extension! So if you want the velcro to be longer than the strap, make your strap shorter than 9 inches. If you don't want it hanging off, make it about 9 inches. The hook is about 1 1/2- 2" long.

Then the loop (soft part). I just cut off about 3 total inches and sewed it on fairly close to the ring. Really, it just depends on how big your goat is. Measurements are a bit hard and I had to redo this twice to get it right. Fortunately it's a pretty quick project if you just have the stuff!

"Threading" the goat hobble is a bit tricky, practice with this part BEFORE trying to put it on your goat. Because more than likley, you'll just get one shot! If you thread it the wrong way, your velcro won't meet up.

One goat hobble with close up photos for you to make yourselt at home! Figuring out how to make it wasn't such a big deal, but I wish I had photos that were close ups, but I suppose that's the hobble makers secret :o).

I've had a couple of other tips that people have given me to deal with kickers. One lady I spoke with uses bailing twine (the plastic kind) doubled over and then looped around the leg above the knee, strung over her knee and she steps on it on the back side. I have not found this works for me. Someone else suggested taking a squirt bottle with warm water in it. Every time your goat acts up, spray her in the face. Goats HATE water, at least mine do! I won't vouch for this method, but goats have proven to me to be pretty intelligent animals and quick learners and no amount of yelling, scolding or dumping milk on their heads (YES I'VE DONE IT!) will not make much of a difference, it may even even impact the milking negatively.

I can honestly say that I have spent a few mornings crying over spilt milk.

I have come in exhausted after an HOUR trying to milk just one goat and have had nothing to show for it. Know this, my best advice is to expect it to be difficult. Unless you have a dream milker, the first timers and even veteran milkers may give you problems. Don't expect it to go off without a hitch, you may be disappointed. It has taken me weeks of work with both of my current milkers.

My Marmalade is just about a perfect milker (in my opinion). She does get a little irritated if I am not finished before her grain runs out but she's slowly learning she will not go until I am finished and the more she fusses, the longer she has to stand there. I will say DO NOT LET your goats get away with anything. Remember, I said they were quick learners, if you give up because they start to fuss, well then, expect not to get a lot of milk because you will have them down at every little tantrum and just like a child, they will train YOU.

Your patients will be rewarded!

Milking a goat

2009-03-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

This is a our milk stand, its a bit too long in the back to milk from the back comfortably but that is a good way to milk a goat. If not from the back though, the goats right side is best. Milk stand has wood at the front that can easily close in the goats head, this should be done with a rope or chain at the top. I use a small chair to sit on, but I can sit on the stand next to the goat.

The milk pail is stainless steel, unlike plastic it does not harbor bacteria. Its best to not use a plastic bucket for milking especially in the summer unless you are able to clean it right after pouring the milk from it. The milk is covered with cheesecloth, this can be washed and reused though diaper gauze works better for reusing. The cheesecloth is held on by a piece of elastic sewn in a ring.

The feed bucket hangs on the front of the milk stand. I give my goats a half of a coffee can of grain in this feed bucket while I milk, the grain is stored in air and water tight bin. I mix their herbal dewormers into the grain so they get a small healthy amount daily.

Once again this can be done from the back and my grandfather says that is how you are SUPPOSED to milk a goat but I have been doing it from the side. Tad milks from the back when I let him milk, he will do one side while I do the other from the side. He isn't fast enough to do both in a timely manner!

Milking isn't difficult but you do have to know the technique. You close off the teat filled with milk with your thumb and one finger and squeeze the milk out with the fingers below. Then you let up and allow to refill.

If your goat has mastitis tendencies in one side, it could be because your are right or left hand dominant. Make sure you milk strongly on both sides, or alternate your hands and teats so each teat gets your strong hand. Eventually both hands will be very strong from the milking. Also feed poke root to a goat with mastitis, but remember poke is poisonous to humans!

Amanda and I both use dipping and cleaning techniques, I will share mine when I get pictures of my cups and wet bag set up and will give the recipe for my dip. I am sure she will share her morning cleaning routine as well! There are many right ways, you need to find the one that works best for you.

Jo

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

2009-03-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

In an ongoing effort to save money and be greener, I did a spin off for my own recipe for dishwasher soap, all the other ones I had come across had way too much salt in it. We have pure H20 here- it isn't had, it isn't soft. It's just literally water so I cannot say if this will or won't work for anyone with hard or soft water. But I will say, it works for us beautifully!

2 cups of borax (can be found on the laundry detergent aisle of almost any grocery store, Walmart, Target, etc.)
2 cups of baking soda (I buy mine in bulk section at my grocery store but it's cheap enough to buy it by the box or bag too).
1 cup of salt (sea salt, table, whatever)

Throw it all in a zip lock or container and shake it up. Use about 2-3 Tbs. per load. You can substitute plain white vinegar for your (EXPENSIVE) rinse agent too!

Oh, and I don't rinse ~~at all~~ much and haven't had any "stuck ons" yet!

Amanda

Intro from Ks

2009-03-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

We are Ks homesteaders and my friend Amanda and I have decided to start a blog to share our homesteading days. We moved to Ks in May, 2008 and we own a 6 acre piece of prairie just outside of a tiny town. I want to provide helpful information for other homesteaders, either those just starting out like us or those who are always willing to learn more!
My children are Nathalie(6) and Tad(8). They are homeschooled and are in grades 1 and 2. They learn a lot living out here and many of my pictures and posts will include them working side by side with me.
My husband is a soldier in the US Army and is currently deployed. He will be home sometime next fall. Before leaving for his deployment, he did many things on our land to make homesteading possible for 2 children and myself! He fixed many barn roofs and walls, patched doors and set up chicken roosts. We worked together for 4 wonderful months before he left.
I have a small home business selling baby and family cloth items. I will do posts on pattern making, clothes making, diaper and other green product making. You are welcome to email me for any questions you think I may be able to answer on sewing or homesteading! To aprise yourself of our lives outside of homesteading, check out my other blog.
We own 5 goats at this time, 4 chickens and 2 guineas. The guineas and chickens both eat a lot of bugs, and of course chickens lay eggs so we get protein along with pest control! Two of our goats, Nona and Pepsi are milk producing. They are 2 and 3 yrs old and will be bred later this yr by our 2 new bucks, Vladimir and Chiva. Our new little doeling, Scout, will wait until she is a bit older!
We have an all green household and would like to have more self sufficiency with each passing year. We are going to be putting our garden in within the next two weeks and will have fruits, vegetables, animal feed and herbs. I am a training herbalist and would like to be able to forage for my own herbs!
Save us as a favorite and come back often for information, photos, funny stories and helpful homestead facts and ideas!

Amanda in California

2009-03-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

We'll skip past all the fluffy stuff into my adult life...

Short background: I grew up in Los Angeles and have always known I'd be more at home on the farm than in the city! I am NOT a city girl. I met my husband of 6 1/2 years while he was stationed at Fort Irwin in Southern California. We married when I was 21 and lived happily ever after. Not quite, there's more and this is where it gets detailed :o).

The long shortened version: The September 11, 2001 terror attacks happened before we were married. I remember waking up that morning and thinking, I will not see my fiance for a long LOOOOOONG time now that this has happened, which is why we put a rush on the wedding. And that wasn't my only thought of course, but just one that directly pertained to ME. June 15, 2002-wedding day, glorious, Big Bear Lake (California), tulips and wildflowers, white dress, class A's, carriage, LOVE!

We move to Barstow and I will say nothing more than I hope I never have to live there again. Then comes the "D" word and anyone military knows it's quite near profanity, DEPLOYMENT. He's being deployed in the summer of 2003. We decide to try to conceive in March of '03. I hadn't wanted to start a family so young. I wanted to continue with school but as it was, March '03, first month we are pregnant, we don't like to wait around :o)! We find out later that summer after hours spent getting gear ready, mentally, emotionally and psychically preparring for deployment, he's not going! I can tell you personally it's a joyous and stressful situation all at once.

January, 2 weeks late, our first daughter Rachel (from here on out, R) comes into the world after 52 hours of induced labor and a c-section with partial anesthesia later! Yeah, that's the way to do a first delivery. Two weeks after she was born, hubby (Jeremiah. From here on out, J) comes down on orders again, but by the grace of God, and a really good soldier, he stays because he just had a baby, someone else goes in his place.

We hadn't planned to reenlist but our plans were to follow my Mom an Step-Dad to Northern California to live and their place, the homestead, wasn't finished yet. Re-elisted for "needs of the Army" for two years and move to Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas. We buy our first house, a foreclosure fixer, live blissfully with a lot of field training and not seeing him very often! I think about this time I meet Jo. We're a pair, as perfect as two friends can be I think. She may think differently :o). We've never met in "real" life, talk daily since the day we met I think on the internet. Share joys and sorrows, trials and tribulations, etc. etc. etc.

R turns 18 months old summer of '05, we discuss having another baby, we fly to Houston for my older brother's wedding, drive back to West Virgina (J's home) and get pregnant (that's the SHORT end of it :o), have a miscarriage, get pregnant again shortly thereafter with Drew (A.K.A. Andrew, from now on D). Continue to fix up the fixer upper and by the time I am 8 months along, it's CRUNCH time and I spend a weekend in my 8th month of pregnancy pouring a concrete patio which was a change from the 6th month in which I spent hauling 12 tons of rock landscaping for our front yard.

May 12, 2006 D makes his grand entrance by c-section. We're elated. Hadn't known he was a boy and J was OVERJOYED. Not that he didn't love little girls, but I know very few men who don't want a boy! I highly recommend being surprised at the birth, never would have thought that until we had a unwilling participant at the ultrasounds. Three weeks after his birth our house sells, and by the first of July we're having movers come and by July 3rd, we're on the road headed back to California, 2 kids, 2 cats, a dog and 2 vehicles in the HOT Southwestern sun, F-U-N.

Now, we're settled in a small little town in Northern California flanked by the Sierra Nevada's and "the valley". We're still a little unsettled. J is currently a full time student at Sac. State (CSUS). We'll go where the job takes us but until then, we're here.

J- has his teaching credentials, an A.A. in both welding and drafting and would have gone on to get his automotive degree but by the end of this summer ('09) will have his Bachelors in Vocational Ed. He's the Mr. Fix it of EVERYTHING and currently holds umpteen welding certs and is relentlessly looking for a teaching job either at high school level or community college as a welding instructor. Can I tell you how hard that has been to come by??? Phew, the trials there, I won't even go into. We are tested daily on that front. He's a country boy, hardworking, gun shootin', animal huntin', ethical, honest, wife adorin', kid lovin' good man and I am incredibly beyond lucky to have him by my side. We've gone through the wringer both individually and as a couple through our somewhat short time together but through it all, he we are and we love and adore eachother beyond words.

R- currently 5 in preschool. I believe in homeschooling but right now, it's not the best option for us. I do mini-school at home enforcing reading, witting and arithmetic and some other cool stuff thrown in for fun like the real history, gardening, sewing, living, loving and respect. R loves coloring, playing princess and dolls, playing with baby brother, legos, sand castles, ladybugs, swinging, did everything early so that makes her a genius (!) and I could go on and on.

D-currently 2 1/2 and ALL boy! Loves dirt, goats, the word fart and poop, swinging, running, winning, tricycles, ROCKS(!), laughing, hugging, kissing, sneakiness, joking, lallygagging, "doing it himself" and all around being a laid back daddy do-a-like with a bit of terrible two's and whining thrown in just to keep us on our feet! He is also a genius as well :o).

Me (no current photo, was planning on borrowing Nicole Kidman's even though I look nothing like her :o)- well, I sew, and tend to my littles of both human variety and goats alike. I have been sewing since age 7. I made cloth diapers for my kids, endless frilly stuff for R, quilts, yadda yadda yadda. I'm fairly new to goats, J and I had talked about it for a long while, if you want to read more on that you can see my intro to goats on my other blog here. And you'll find all sorts of family stuff there about what goes on in my day to day life.

We have 7 goats, started backwards with a buck and did the whole kidding thing and now we're on the milking thing. Still waiting for 2 goats to kid and will try to get some photos of that unless they are like my sweet Violet who went from practically normal to 2 doelings in less than an hour and a half! Missed the whole thing!

But, for now, Jo and I have decided to start this blog, and she may have already mentioned this, as a way to get fun informative information out about things we are PASSIONATE about like gardening, goats, sewing, rearing and all around self-sustainability.

My personal opinion is that it doesn't require a whole lot to help the earth and/or yourself. Little everyday things can move you towards these goals and our blog is to show you how. We're doing things from the start, and I'll speak for myself here to say that I am NO expert. I do things mostly by trail and error with some information found from different sources here and there. The internet, experience, neighborly and friendly advice, books and instincts have all been great sources of information for me. I love to share what I have learned and this will be my place to do so.

And since it's way past milking time, it's time to find my kids on the homestead and get some work done!