Some pictures of the goats!

There is not much going on this morning, besides milking goats, feeding, and taking care of all the animals. Here are some pictures of the goats.

Here is Buttermilk and Reata, they are two sisters. Buttermilk and Reata are both 50% boer/50% nubian, and are two of our milkers, and are also three years old.

Here is Topaz. He is our blue-eyed, third generation buckling.

On the right is Rocky, our wether. He is also 50% boer/50% nubian. And on the left is Whatchamacallit, he is also a third generation buckling of ours.

Here is Verona, one of our first generation does.

This is Prissy one of our pure nubian does. Prissy is very nice and calm, she is also one of our great milker.

Here is Aruba, one of our alpine does. Aruba is in milk right now and give us about a gallon and a half once a day. She is also very calm and gentle.

This is Doris another one of our first generation does. Doris is not in milk right now, but when she is she is a great milker.

Have a great day!

~ Haleluyah

My two katahdin ewes!!

Well, last Monday, me, my mom and a couple of my siblings went and traded meat (the meat was for the lady's dogs) for two katahdin ewes. We got one 2 year old ewe and one 3 month old eweling. The eweling is not the lamb to the two year old ewe, we did not get the lamb's mom and we also did not get the ewe's lamb. I named the two year old Ewe Neek (I know that is not how you are suppose to spell unique but that is how I am spelling it for now). The three month old eweling I am naming her Butter Mint (Butter Mint is a kind of candy). Well, here are some pictures that I took when we got them.

Ewe Neek the two year old:

Butter Mint the cute little three month old:

~ Haleluyah

Up on the ranch!!

We have been just hanging out up on the ranch, there has not been much going on. But we did go to the Warren livestock auction in Leech yesterday. We got only one smaller hog because there were hardly any animals there last night.

Well, since my mom, me and my sister have been milking about 22 goats twice a day, we have soo much milk. So we have been separating milk, making butter, cheese, drinking the milk and making other things, that way we can just have some room in the freezer to milk the goats again and put it in the freezer and repeat that every day.

Here are some different pictures:

One of our boer doelings:

Cool picture I thought:

Our ten year old nubian Gramma Maggie:

Have a great day!

~ Haleluyah

The animal ER!!

Well, it has been really nice weather lately. One of our friends had a doe that was due any day. They called us and told us that their goat was having contractions, so we went over to there house. And the does spine was crooked, it was turning into a C shape. The only thing we new was that a crooked spine meant a sideways kid or a malpositioned kid. We gave her some stuff and just waited. On Sunday she had her kids around 2:40 am just fine. She had two little doelings. 

 And Tuesday night a gal called us and needed help splinting a kid's broken leg. Just more experience for us, I guess! First, we put a bunch of cotton (not cotton balls) all around the leg so it was really padded, and then we taped the cotton on. We then had a PVC pipe that was cut in half lengthwise and cut to fit her leg so it went past her hoof a bit, so the pressure would be put above the break. We got pictures of us splinting the kid's leg. The kid was about 1 1/2 months old and broke her leg below the knee.

We filled any gaps in the PVC with more cotton, taped it on, and then wrapped the whole thing in vet wrap.

All done and ready to test,

She seemed to get around with it very well, and even jumped up on a chair right afterward! Hoping it heals well and all!

Well after the kidding event, broken goat leg and all other things that have happen on the ranch up here, I guess that we have become an "Animal ER".

~ Haleluyah 

Our last two does kidded for march

Our last does kidded for March. There is one due in April and the next ones due are not until August and September months. . . at least we will have a few months of rest to build up from all the kiddings. We had Verona (a mini nubian doe) kid in the middle of the night Monday (some were in March). She had no problems kidding. She had two little bucklings. Their dad is Dreamy-Hollow Lando, The dad is a blue eyed and only one of the bucklings has blue eyes. And there mom is PawPaw Nin Verona.

The blue eyed buckling:

And then Buttermilk one of our 50%Boer/50%Nubians was having contractions when I went out to the goat pen so I brought her back and told mom. Then about ten minutes later she started pushing. And the first one was a little stuck but my mom was able to pull it out and it was a big buckling. Then she started pushing again and the second kids head popped out and I grabbed it and pulled it out, and it was a white doeling with a little grey on one of her ears. The buckling was 7 pounds almost 8 pounds, and the doeling was 5 pounds. The sire is Ace, and the dam is Buttermilk. But what is really weared is that the doeling has blue eyes, and blue eyes are not in her line. Also nubians and boers don't usually have blue eyes either, so I don't know were the blue eyes came from (she does not have blue eyes any more).

Right when the bubble popped, we looked down and the paper says "Bubble buster" on it.

Both Buttermilk and Reata her sister are licking off the kids.

The buckling:

The doeling:

Both the kids (the buckling is alot bigger then the doeling)

~ Haleluyah

More does kidding!!

 Well, I have not posted for a long time. But Sunday (March 7th) one of our mini nubian does kidded. The kid was stuck pretty good. She only had one little blonde doeling (that we are keeping). We are calling her Blondie but we will probably be naming her "Blonde Bombshell". The sire to Blondie is SQSW Berry Blast, Berry is our blue eyed Nigerian buck. And, the dam is Urban Acres Blueberry Cream. Blueberry is a beautiful, 1st generation, blue eyed doe.

On Tuesday (March 9th) morning when my Mom went and got the milkers, one of the crossbred meat does had 2 doe kids in the barn! All dry and nursing. The mom is all black, the sire is our Boer buck Ace, and the kids are pure white! She is a great momma also. . . when we went out to get the milkers, all of the does were out of the barn standing quite a ways from it, and when Mom walked in with one of the dogs (Bear) to see what was going on, the doe came running at them! She's calmed down a bit now, but is still a good momma. She is also one of the herd queens. It was suppose to rain, and she would not let any of the other goats come in the barn. . . so mom and me went back out in the barn and made a stall in the barn with two panals and put the doe and her two kids in the stall.

                       

And then after we were done milking the goats when we went out to feed,  we heard a doe yelling in the barn, and one of the Full Blood Boers, Mini Moette, was pushing a kid out. She had a big, cute doeling with a dark brown head and a white spot on her head. . . sire is Ace. She was a first freshener but did not have any problems.

                          

Then Wednesday (March 10th) another one of my brothers boers kidded, she is a first freshener and did not need much help either. She kidded to one little doeling and one little buckling. But sad to say the doeling was not doing good since the beginning and she died Saturday morning (March 13th). The sire is also our big boer buck Ace.

We also had another doe kid late Wednesday night (March 10th). Aruba, one of our Alpine does, kidded. She had two big, beautiful bucklings, and a very easy birth. We were hoping for a doeling, but oh well.  She was bred to a registered Alpine buck before we bought her. We are keeping one of the bucklings (the big brown one).

Aruba (the mom):

The first buckling, the bigger one. He is chololate (it is called lavender) with white, and my Mom wants to keep him, so we are keeping him :) We are also naming him Sir Cadbury DooDooWee.

The other buckling. His coloring is called "cou blanc", 

~ Haleluyah