Making a home

Today, Easter (Happy Easter!) we finally have a day without rain and snow (it snowed yesterday). So the big shed is going to be cleaned out by the end of the day and Val will know what he needs to do to make it a safe place for little goats to live. The shed is a simple three sided run in facing south that I modified to house my goats two years ago. I built a wall between the open side and the closed side. It has a sliding door that you sometimes find on old barns (really good because it opens even when there is snow on one side and high bedding on the other). The shed is younger than ten years so the door probably came from a much older barn. The goats will live in the closed in area which measures 16 by 8 feet. I need to close the area around the sliding door somehow to prevent little kids from slipping out--there is a space of a few inches which the babies used to escape in the past. I may have to make the shed slightly smaller and put a gate inside that keeps them away from the door.

They can't be out in the pen at night or when I'm gone while they are small because I had two babies get out and one was killed by a neighbor's dog while I was away before. I don't want a repeat of that episode. My solution was to use the smaller shed for the babies after that with it's little covered pen, but it's too rotten to save. So, today (the first day without rain this whole vacation) we will work on the shed. Which has been used to store junk for the past two years! Val told me that I can pick up the goats this Saturday. The pen will be woven wire and one strand of electric.

Getting Ready

We've been getting ready for the babies to come home here on the farm...now that the snow has finally gone. Goats need a shelter that is draft free and that protects them from the rain so I thought I would get the 8 x 10 kidding shed that I used two years ago. It would keep them safe from any predators (it has real doors unlike the other shed which has a hanging door that slides into place--leaving gaps big enough for little kids or worse, coyotes).

I knew that some of the tin had been blown up during a big storm and that the roof would need work one way or the other but what I didn't know is that the wooden floor had rotted and when we pulled it up we found that the braces under the floor were rotten too! The walls are flapping with no sill. This brought the question "do we repair the roof or start over?" It's disappointing beyond words but we decided that we need to start over and build a new kid shed.

Now I will need to make the second shed (20 x 16) ready to house goats. It works well for big goats but it's no good for kids. I've created a plan to make it secure and snug but I still have to leave a large part for the two horses (Belgian draft and welsh pony). At least the floor is dirt. I need to separate the does from the buck and wether...the kid shed had two stalls while the other shed is open to the elements on one side. The horse side.

I am very impatient to have the goats come home. The breeder is putting them on milk replacer this week, so why not? We will figure something out, fix the fence and get a shelter up, even if it's just temporary. The buck won't be able to breed until he's at least two months old so a temporary fix should be safe for now. I will post what we come up with soon!

My first Goats

This guy is Cossayun Starlight Prince, sire of the two does.


The goats for my new herd were born this week at Sweet Spring Farm in New York. I want to toss everything and drive 3 and a half hours to Argyle New York and hold them while they are tiny babies but that probably won't happen. I still have a lot to do to get my barn ready for the goats and the weather is not cooperating. My fence is in need of re-stretching but it's frozen in ice and can't be moved until it thaws. Temperatures have been below freezing and more snow is on the way so I will have to wait. The kids aren't due to be picked up until they are three months old anyway but I am really eager because I've waited almost a year already.

A year ago I found Capri-suds maker of goat-milk soap, on the inter-net. Dot is raising beautiful, purebred Nubians less than three hours away. I contacted Dottie and asked if she had anything left in the way of kids and she didn't. I waited until February to contact her again and she didn't have any kids that weren't spoken for but she told me about Sweet Spring Farm...which isn't much further. Sweet Spring is continuing to breed beautiful Nubian goats from Dottie's bloodlines. Jeff at Sweet Spring sent me a breeding chart and I chose my kids based on milking stars (since he doesn't have pictures of them).

The kids I reserved are a doe from Capri-Dot's SYM Lily-of-Song and Cossayuna CG Starlight Prince. They threw a single doe who is brown with white spots born around the 20th of March. Next came a pair of bucks from Cossayuna Claire-de-Luanne and *B Capri-Dot's Cherished Infinity (Finn), which I get to choose from. I'm excited about this buck because both sides of the breeding have grand-dams's that earned stars.

Here are the two bucks, one standing and the one laying down who looks just like his dad.




Here is Finn as a baby: as you can see, the apple didn't fall far from the tree!



Here is Finn at about a year?? What a good looking buck!


Finally, yesterday another doe was born from Cossayuna PP Kalamata Olivia--who is expected to earn her star (third generation star). Her doe is a beautiful little thing, black with white ears and a mark on her head that looks like the yin-yang symbol. Here she is with her brother (he's the one with all the spots).


So, as you can imagine, I am itching to have these babies come home but I know the start they get with Jeff at Sweet Springs Farm will be invaluable to their future.

History

Here I am at the very start of my new dairy goat herd. Dairy goats aren't new for me...I've had four stabs at it in the past. The first time I ever saw a Nubian goat, I had gone over to my neighbors for some reason and she was standing in the yard with these adorable, frisky, floppy-eared....things. I had no clue what they were...not sheep, not like the goats I was familiar with. I had to ask "This may be a dumb question, but, what are those?" I was instantly hooked. I had my very own pregnant doe and wether within a month. I had a very knowledgeable mentor who took me through goat health basics, milking, CAE prevention, hoof trimming and all those questions new animals bring. This was 1996 so, even though the inter-net existed it was bulletin boards. Most of what I learned I found in books which told me how to make cheese and soap.

Since then, I've had La Manchas, Nubians, Alpine and Oberhasli...all wonderful goats, but each one different. I decided this past fall that I wanted to have Nubian goats again and started looking around. I want to have registered goats so I know what they are (I've had an "I think it's a Nubian" before). I contacted several breeders but they all sold their kids un-weaned and without a milking doe that would be unwise. Dorothy at Capri Suds told me to contact Sweet Spring Farm in Argyle, New York and they told me that they sell their kids after weaning and even have enough genetic diversity to sell a starter herd to me.

So, now I'm waiting for kids to be born on this farm I've never seen, three and a half hours away by car. I am certain it will be worth the trouble and anticipation to do it right this time. With my mistakes, I have the right set of experiences to draw from.

What you will find here : My experiences as a goat keeper, Soap and Cheese Recipes or just good things to do when you are drowning in milk. I don't know the laws governing the sale of cheese and milk so I will be finding that out and posting it here. Please come by when you get a chance and comment if you have input or questions.