Good Goats: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

We are 4 does less now. . . early Sunday morning I got up and milked Bridget and Willa. Then loaded them two and Princess and Toasty into the trailer. My cousin met a lady in Missouri that drove all the way from Indiana. Thank you Heather for giving the girls a great home! You can visit Heavenly Springs Farm's website here.

That means two does less on the milk stand also, so we are now milking 18 does, twice a day.

BUT pretty soon, a couple more! Northwest Goats Lil' Prissy and her grade granddaughter, Good Goats Baby Ruth are due in August. Prissy is due the 1st and Baby is due the 7th. I was out in the pasture the other evening with the camera, so got some photos :).

Baby,

Prissy,

the dirty llamas by the pond (dirty because they go in the pond, and the white girl *really* likes to be sprayed with the hose!),

Rhia standing on a little hill,

Journey,

Grandma Maggie - she is doing great!

Honey Bun,

and a picture of Winnie,

I don't think I've mentioned it in my blog yet, but over a month ago Rosie (Grandma Maggie's daughter) hurt one of her front legs. I thought it was her foot, but it was completely fine. We were keeping her off the pasture in with the baby animals, but it was just getting worse and worse. She used to put weight on it but then it got so bad that she was holding it up and not putting *any* weight on it at all.

We put her in one of the stalls hoping rest would help her heal. After checking it out more, it is obviously her knee - she must have twisted it or something, and it really bothered her when we'd mess with it.

So, after trying some things (I was supplementing her with a lot of stuff), nothing helped. I talked to my cousin and he said to put DMSO and Furazone cream on it, wrap plastic wrap around it (to create some heat) and then vet wrap. Worth a try, right? Saturday evening we put it on, but when she laid down the bandage came off... so Sunday night we did it again and wrapped it really well. It is suppose to say on for 12 hours, so this morning I unwrapped it. I don't want to say it helped and it really isn't but, I really think it is helping as later last night and this morning she is actually putting some weight on it and standing up a LOT more than she was. So I'm hoping this works!

Anyway. . . a few more pictures before I get off here. . .

this morning I picked 10 cucumbers from our garden,

this is a garlic top/flower,

and this is an onion top. I think they may be walking onions.

Have a good day!

Suriyah

Thursday, June 24, 2010

A fawn

WELL there was a bit of excitement in the pasture this morning. We were done milking and had gone over to our friend's house (who lives right next door) to look at her goat. On the way back, we saw a tiny little fawn in the pasture! It was hot from running around. It's mother had obviously abandoned it. . . poor thing! So, we decided to catch it, which wasn't too hard. We were going to take it and call a wild animal rescue or something, but our friend said she was going to keep it! So now she has a little fawn. . . and it is a doe :).

Life is never dull!

I don't think I ever said what we ended up naming our new young llama boy. We named him "Larry" :). He is adjusting so well and lives with the baby goats and puppy. . . they're a great little herd!

I forgot to mention in my last post that we got ANOTHER dog! Last week we were told that someone had a year old LGD who they needed to find a home for (the owner was in the hospital and the goats had been sold). So we thought, why not?!? Her name is "Winnie", she is a year old Great Pyrenees/Border Collie mix, spayed, etc. She is huge for a year old too. I don't have any pictures of her right now. . . will have to work on that.
For for the first several days, things were a bit rough as the goats were scared of her, she was nervous in a new place. . . but I think things are going to work out.

One of the giant sunflowers in the garden finally opened up! Most of them are about 8 feet tall!

some more flowers ;),

and a picture of the pond that the llamas and dogs really like during this hot weather!

Have a great day!

Suriyah

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

the past few days in a few photos

Well, life has been busy as usual. Sunday (in the heat!) we grabbed a few of the new sheep and wormed them, trimmed hooves and shaved anyone that had too much wool still. It went pretty smooth, for the most part :).

two sheep!

an ewe with a ponytail :)!

I just realized the other day that we have 2 does due in about 5-6 weeks! Yay! They are both Nubians. Prissy is bred to Wyatt, a Mini Nubian buck. And Baby (grade Nubian) is bred to Ace, the Boer.

Baby is HUGE though! This picture doesn't show it all too well, but she is huge.

This is Berry, our Nigerian Dwarf buck. I think he gets the award for being the "Fattest Goat"!

We are finally getting produce from the garden! We've picked 12 cucumbers between yesterday and today, and tons of jalepenios already. Praise the Lord!

Goodnight!

Suriyah

Friday, June 18, 2010

New sheep, shearing, blueberries

Yesterday we were given 16 sheep and a potbelly pig! I didn't go pick them up, but some of my family did. Sheep aren't really "my" thing, but I have to admit that some of these lambs are pretty cute! There are a couple of rams, several adult ewes, a wether and several young lambs.

so cute!

and "Dora" the potbelly pig. . . NOT very cute to say the least!

We've been picking blueberries at a local farm fairly often. Yum!

This morning we sheared the last llama, Salty. She broke out of the chute that we had made and sheared the other llama in. So, we brought her back to the stalls and put her in a little area so she couldn't move all that much, except her hind end - and she danced around a lot the whole time. She wasn't very happy about it and tried to kick and spit at us a few times, but we got it done and I'm glad it is DONE! It's definitely not the prettiest haircut, but it'll do.

me telling her to NOT spit at me!

Almost done. I don't think we got a pic of her all the way finished.

Here's Peppercorn with her new haircut that we gave her the other day. She behaved MUCH better than Salty!

That's it for now. Have a great weekend!

Suriyah

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

busy!

Been real busy! To make it easy. . .

Friday evening we went to the local livestock auction, as usual (for hogs... normally). A few female llamas went through and one had a baby of her. The mom was sold and it seemed like nobody wanted the baby. So of course, we felt sorry and bought him!

We got him home and put him in a stall. He seemed so small! But after talking to the llama experts, they said he is probably about 7 months old and old enough to be weaned. Poor guy though!

Monday morning we sheared him. I ordered new blades for the clippers I had got and they worked GREAT! He didn't like it much, of course, but was pretty calm by the time we were done. This morning we also sheared our brown female llama, Peppercorn - and the clippers worked great again and made the job MUCH faster. It only took about 30 minutes to do her. I don't think we got any pics of her done haircut - will have to get those later.

our new little guy the night we got him home and BEFORE a haircut,

getting his haircut!

looking much better with his haircut! Now keep in mind, this was the first llama I had ever sheared, so it isn't the prettiest :)!

Saturday we had a birthday party/hoedown for my brother's 18th birthday! It turned out good and I was so tired by the end of the night! Then Sunday we went swimming. . .

Sunday evening we also got our new LGD puppy. He is SO TINY and cute. He is 75% Anatolian and 25% Great Pyrenees. He is only 6 weeks old, a bit young, but some things came up and we had to get them sooner (our friend got one of his brothers). The guy we got him from has some of the best LGDs and guarantees his dogs to work. So we'll see! He is hanging out with our bottle babies and we are going to keep our new llama with them, so they become a little herd.

His name is Armor,