Goats for sale

We have made the difficult decision (tears will be shed) to minimize our goat herd.  Please take a look at the FOR SALE page and spread the word!

What we've been so busy with lately...

Rain brings the flowers and fruits... and MUD, garden is planted and doing well, more baby goats born, building a new chicken house and expanding a flock (a little too much and having to pare it down now), fresh milk every morning, hatching out new baby chicks (see, too many chickens!).  The joys of new life are abundant and precious.  :-)

Lily de Valle 

Jack Sparrow

New goat kids!

Our mini-alpine doe gave birth today with 2 darling kids.  A doeling and a buckling.  They are sweet and bouncy as can be and Daisy is a wonderful mother.  This is her 3rd kidding and we look forward to more fresh milk soon!  The doeling is sold already and the buckling will be listed on the "for sale" page soon.

Our Daisy girl in the milking stand

Not bad for a first freshener that I was lazy about milking.  :-)

I still have to hobble her, little stinker.  She is perfectly content to hop up there and be milked but if I don't hobble her she will kick up a storm.

Black Jack

We picked up our new buck last week!

 Nubian, black and white - great ears.

Doesn't he look like Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars?

I am tempted to change his name!

He will be bred with Annalise this fall for some great kids and yummy, creamy milk!

About the farm today...

 Will took this picture of mom milking.

 Daisy getting milked.

 Our milking stand (Curious is cleaning up the spills).

 Samson chilling in the shade.

 New "easter eggers" are getting big!

Luke and Beau in the new pasture.

Update: heat, weeds, broodies, a deck and goats!

Peas

I haven't updated in a while, sorry about that.  We have had such a strange spring, very cool temps and lots of rain to suddenly very hot temps and dryness.  The garden is doing okay for the lateness at which we planted it, we've harvested a cucumber, a couple handfuls of peas, and are about ready to get some lettuce this next week.  There is still a lot to grow, beans and squashes are doing well.  I planted tomato seeds straight into the garden, and they are slowly but surely coming up.  I've never done that before but by the time I got around to it, it seemed the best option.  I will likely buy a few larger plants to supplement until they get large enough.

Domestic blackberries

The chickens ate all our strawberries this year, I need to get netting over and around that!  The blackberries and raspberries are doing very well and should be ready for harvest in a couple weeks.

Apples

The fruit trees in the orchard seem pretty happy - one apple tree had 5 apples on it (then 1 dropped off), still great for it's first year here.  The other apple tree didn't even flower, but one peach tree did.  The fig plants are doing surprisingly well, I thought I had lost one over the winter but it has surprised me.  The deer have been nibbling a bit on them, but not too bad so far.

Broody girls

"Easter-egger" chicks

We picked up 7 more hens - black austrolorps.  Two of them are very broody and I'm pretty sure that they are going to hatch out some chicks for us in the next few weeks.  The "easter-egger" chicks are doing well and have moved out to the chicken house, though still in their own shelter for their protection.  I need pretty soon to start culling out the hens that aren't laying and the extra roosters.  If I'm feeding them, they need to feed me in one way or the other.  :-)  I've been able to sell several dozen eggs a week successfully which has been nice.

Collected eggs

We sold all of our baby bunnies for the asking price, which was wonderful.  They all found great pet homes and I am happy about that.  I am planning to put my white buck up for sale too and just use the dwarf buck for breeding next year.

Deck in progress

Our deck is finally moving along again!  It now has the base finished and there are 10 boards laying across the top and we can fit 2 chairs out on it.  This makes me very happy!!!  I don't know when the rest of the floor will get down and who knows when it will have rails and steps but I'm excited for what is done so far.  :-)

Daisy saying hello.

Our goats have been doing pretty well.  I need to get out for hoof trimming and am considering summer shaves too, we'll see.  I've never done that before but it may help their comfort through the summer.  Everyone is a joy and lots of fun.  Our new buckling should be coming home the end of July.

New kitty Cassie has settled in quite happily.  She is mostly in the house still but has gone outside a couple of times and enjoyed that.

Samson smiling

Samson and Molly are doing great.  Samson lives with the 2 wethers and he loves his goats.  I look forward to him being old enough to be with all the girls too next spring.  We'll see how he does at kidding. We love them both!

I think that's about it, thought I should update for now while I had a few moments.

Our new buckling

This little guy (the black one) will be coming home in July after his mama weans him.  He is 2 weeks old now.  He will be Annalise's beau and they will get their first date in October.  :-)

 Aren't his ears great?  That's his brother there, if anyone is interested in him - I can put you in touch.

He has not been named yet, but here's his pedigree:

Sire: FLYING FARM BLUE LUMBER JACK

Sire's Dam: POCOMOKE S CAPPUCCINO

Sire's Sire: GOLDTHWAITE FATICUS

Dam: FLYING FARM ITTY BITTY

Dam's Dam: POCOMOKE S DEVORAH

Dam's Sire: GOLDTHWAITE FATICUS

 

New alpine doeling

We picked up this sweety yesterday.  She is 3 weeks old, a bottle baby and a purebred alpine (ADGA registerable).  We found a great deal from a trusted source and are pretty pleased with her.  We will breed her with The General for a fresh 1st generation of mini alpine kids, hoping to get a bit more alpine into the lines.  We have named her Marseille (mahr-sayeh).  Her mother's name was Paris so went for another French city.

Presenting:  Iron-Gate DDDJ Marseille

Sire:  DIXIE-DOES DREAMY JUNO

Sire's Sire:  IRON-ROD THE COLOR OF DREAMS

Sire's Dam:  WAIILATPU WRAL MAIRE

Dam:  DIXIE-DOES SOCRATES PARIS

Dam's Sire:  WAIILATPU WRR SOCRATES

Dam's Dam:  DIXIE-DOES DREAMY MONALISA

We've got milk!

Daisy was a bit more cooperative this morning, even though it was raining and her babies were clamoring for her.  Rose and I milked about 3 cups and no hoof in it, so we were able to drink it ourselves this time.  Everyone agrees that it was yummy!

A walk through the woods

First milking

Rose and I went out to milk Daisy this morning for the first time.  It went - o.k.  She was mad at us for keeping her away from her babies all night, and surprisingly not real happy to have her head stuck in a grain bucket.  However, with Will feeding her hay in handfuls and Rose and I alternately petting/soothing and milking, we managed to get about 2 1/2 cups of milk - which immediately went to the dogs as we also managed to get her hoof in it at some point.  I had told Rose not to expect much on our first try, and honestly it went a little better than anticipated.  Daisy can be a stinker when she wants to be.  With time and practice, it will get better.  :-)

I remembered to take my camera down, but forgot to put the CF card in it - so didn't get pics, but will try again tomorrow.

Daisy is now happily grazing with the prancing sisters, Magnolia and Melantha - little does she know, we'll be doing it all again tomorrow!

Introducing our new doelings...

Realized I had never posted the new kids names...

Melantha was born first and we are so happy with her markings and blue eyes. She is very sweet. Her name means "dark flower". We call her Mel for short.

Magnolia came next and looks much like her mama. She is precious and we call her Maggie.

Both girls are doing wonderfully. They are healthy and happy, so much fun to see bouncing around and playing. Daisy is a wonderful mother and her udder is filled in nicely, we look forward to milking her in a few weeks. We have decided to keep the girls so far, so they are not for sale at this time.

Traumatic experience

We just had a very traumatic experience, having week old kids I am sure you can guess what it involves! Thankfully turned out well in the end... We have a nice farmer friend that has cows and goats and chickens and we asked him to help us with the dehorning of our new kids. We have done it once ourselves before, but it didn't take and we wanted to see someone do it right. He agreed and we took the girls and their mama to his farm (mama so that we could bring kids right back to her to be comforted), only one of the doelings had enough tip to be able to do yet and so my hubby and I went in to watch and 2 of our children said they wanted to be there. We knew what to expect, had looked at pictures, had talked about why it was best and that it would be difficult and painful and smelly. Well, we had brought a box that we built to use for holding the kids but the farmer always had someone hold them so we let him do it how he is used to it. I assumed my hubby would hold her but he had a young helper there who did. They finished the first one and I noticed she had stopped struggling, and they lifted her and she was completely floppy - I rushed my children back out and we stood outside praying and crying. I knew they sometimes fainted but she really looked lifeless. We waited 5 long minutes outside the door not knowing what was happening and then went to the van and told my older daughter who had opted to stay there with the mama and other doeling. I told them I thought she was probably gone or daddy would have come out to tell us that she was okay. We all cried and cried, it was so heart-wrenching! 5 more minutes and my husband walks out with the little doeling who is perfectly fine and has both horns finished and goes right to her mama and nurses. Apparently the young man who had been holding her had never done it before and had his hand covering her nose and she passed out not being able to breathe!!!!! I couldn't believe that hubby hadn't come out and told us as soon as they realized she was fine. Needless to say, he will be holding the next one and the young man learned a lesson too. She had revived as soon as they moved her around and had walked around for a while before they finished the other side and had done fine through that one. It was soooooo scary though, we are still pretty shaken. :-(