Kidding Season is OVER!

111 days and 78 kids later, and kidding season is over with for the Winter/Spring of 2013. It's been a great year! A bit busy at times, calm at other times, but all those bouncing healthy kids are sure to put a smile on anyones face. It is especially nice to see all that hard work paying off.

The numbers for this year's kidding season are as follows:

35 does kidded

78 kids

40 bucklings

38 doelings

5 singles

19 sets of twins

9 sets of triplets

2 sets of quads

And out of all that, we lost 6 kids total. Not too bad actually considering everyone else was so healthy and spunky.

Sunday night the last two does kidded. We came home and found Paprika (Alpine, below) with a single buckling out. I knew she had more kids in there, but decided to try and get milking done real fast. By then she still hadn't had anymore kids, so I decided to go in and see what was taking her so long. There was a little doeling trying to come out breach - bad girl! Pulled her out and two more bucklings quickly followed, making her kid total to 3 bucks and a doeling. I was quite impressed, despite the fact that 3 were boys (but oh well). 

This little boy was really pretty, but I sold him too quickly and forgot to get "official" pictures of him and quad pics together! Oh well... life will go on without them.

Camo kid!

This big Boer doe was in labor at the same time as Paprika. I had a gut feeling that something was just not right as her labor was not progressing like it should have. Before I pulled Paprika's kids, I felt up in the Boer doe just to see what was going on and felt something that certainly was NOT right. I told her she can wait and finished getting Paprika's kids out.

By then, it was nearly midnight and I was feeling a bit light headed. I talked my Mom into pulling the Boer kid's out, I'd just hold the doe :). So as my wonderful mother usually does, she listened to me, pulled her sleeves up and went to see what was going on. What she found was rather disgusting - a big handful of skin and bones - basically a kid who had stopped growing months ago and was mummified.  Once we got that out of the way, a big healthy doeling came out. A few minutes later, a very large buckling came out, who was kind of stuck because it was only his head. I fished up in there, found a front leg and pulled him out. What happened next was not what I was expecting. I mean, we've kidded hundreds of goats, I've pulled many many kids out, and most of the time things go pretty smoothly, even if the kid has to be pulled.

Well, the doe started bleeding, and bleeding a lot. She was hemorhaging. Not sure why. Thankfully she is a very large doe so could handle loosing a little blood. But it was pouring out. Everyone goes into "panic mode" and tries to find the Shepherd's Purse to stop the bleeding. I tried counter-pressure incase she tore, but it didn't seem to work. Every time I'd move my hand more blood would gush out. We finally found some of the Shepherd's purse tincture and gave it to her. She didn't seem bothered at all that she had just lost a few cups of blood, and was happily licking her newborns. She got up after a few minutes and the bleeding seemed to stop.

It's now been a few days and she hasn't skipped a beat. Thankful for a happy outcome on that freaky accident!

Well, nothing like kidding season going out with a bang! We still have a few bucklings left for sale if anyone is interested. They are nice boys, but it's the end of the year and they need to find a new home. Email me if you're interested - the price will be good.

a little Alpine/LaMancha cross girl... isn't she pretty? She is for sale also.

Joy, one of the Nubian doelings we are keeping this year.

Another Nubian girl we are keeping - she doesn't have a name yet. Any suggestions?

I hope you all have a lovely day!

Suriyah

Patience and Faith, girls from the Dill herd

Last Friday Ellen Dorsey put a post up about a few Nubian/Alpine cross doe kids she had for sale. They caught my eye, and soon I was in the car headed to Dill's-A-Little Goat Ranch. It was nice to finally meet Ellen in person and see her nice place and all her gorgeous goats.

These two girls are sisters. I have a thing about dairy experimental crosses - they're almost always my favorites, hands down. They milk outstanding typically. And there's just something about those funny little ears.

We named them Patience (white one) and Faith (tan one). Their dam is Dill's Aurek's Pink, a beautiful Alpine doe that can be seen on this page at the very bottom. Their sire is Dorsey-Lane BE Ramblin Man. 

Without further ado, here are the sweet little things!

Suriyah

Hello Blog-Land

It's been busy here. The weather was hot. Then cold. Then really wet. Then warm. Now cold and wet again. I think I may get sick from all this weather change! Thankfully most of the animals have been doing just fine through it.

A huge storm came through late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning. Tons of rain, hail, wind and a few tornadoes - thankfully none too close to us. Within just a couple of hours, the roads were washed out, the creeks were overflowing, the dump cart was FULL of water, the damn at the back of the property was washed out (which has stood there for a few years), the fence was down in the back. Thankfully there was not much lasting damage. We were out of power for a day and out of internet for a few days. Everything is back to functioning normally now.

A few days ago I made my annual trip to Goat Town USA - a small Nubian herd in town - to trim her goat's hooves and give her buck a haircut. Her goats are just so nice. The doe in the photo below is Goat Town USA Hazel, the dam to our yearling Nubian buck Goat Town USA Powerhouse, who is out of Pruittville's Challenger. This photo certainly does not do miss Hazel justice. She's a big girl and she's a beauty.

The bottle kids are all growing up. This is one of my favorite kids this year. Her mom is a 50/50 Nubian/Saanen out of Goldthwaite lines, and this doeling is out of our Pruittville buck.

Silly girl.

Isn't this little kitten just darling?

Time to feed babies!

See ya!

Suriyah

Butter & Feta Cheese Making

Yesterday I pulled the cream separator out and figured I would take photos while doing it all. So here it goes...

First, the milk is warmed to about 100 degrees so the cream separates properly.

6 quarts of hot water are run through the separator to warm it up.

The milk is then poured in and separated. I usually separate 4-10 gallons at a time. This time I did 5.

Cream is on the left, low fat milk is coming out on the right.

The milk is low fat and is somewhat of a yellowish color.

The cream is poured into glass jars and put in the fridge overnight to cool. It is much faster to make butter from cold cream than hot cream.

The low fat milk is then turned into Feta cheese. Since it is already warm, I just add the culture and rennet, let it sit. Cut it. Hang it.

The next morning the cream is poured into the food processor. I have found this to be the quickest and easiest way to make butter.

Within about 1 minute of the processor being on, we have butter.

 The butter is poured into a colander lined with plyban (plastic cheesecloth) to drain the buttermilk out. 

It is then rinsed with cold water to get any remained buttermilk out. I rinse it until the water is fairly clear. This will help your butter last longer.

The butter is then salted and pressed so all the remaining liquid comes out. We got about 1 1/2 lbs of butter out of the cream from 5 gallons of milk.

It is then packaged and either put in the fridge for immediate use or the freezer for use later.

The Feta cheese is still aging on the counter. I made 3 gallons of the low fat milk into cheese. The remaining milk I plan to process today. This particular feta only ages on the counter for about 24 hours and is my absolute favorite.

Suriyah

Blondie's Boys

Blondie kidded early this morning to two beautiful kids - they're color is cute, one has blue eyes, their ears are just fabulous like their mother. The only problem is... they are both BOYS! I was sooo hoping for a girl out of her. But, God gave me two healthy, full term boys and for that I will be thankful :).

Suriyah

Sale List

Due to a big sale falling through, we suddenly have a large group of very nice goats available for sale. We have some adult does, some bottle doelings, and a good chunk of bottle bucklings. If you'd like a complete sale list, shoot me an email or give me a call (918-598-4007).

Here's some info and pictures on some of the bucklings.

All are able to be registered with the ADGA. They all come from fabulous milking lines and would make great herd sires. All their moms run on our milk stand and do great.

All are on the bottle but are almost ready to wean. They are almost 8 wks old, are eating food good and can be weaned off the bottle soon.

3 american Alpine bucklings - $75 each
1 purebred Nubian buckling - $75
1 purebred LaMancha buckling - $75
2 Nubian/Alpine bucklings - $50 each

We may be able to make you a package deal if you buy several!

Suriyah