Cheesemaking!

It's beginning to be that time of year again where the milk starts flowing and the cheese is made... one of my favorite times of the year! Made a few batches of Feta this morning.

Lots of photos!

Lots and lots of photos here... enjoy! The kid count is up to 32 kids with 19 doelings and 13 bucklings so far. 

Kid pics!

The only girl of the season... so far. She is out of Northwest Goats Lil' Prissy and Goat Town USA Powerhouse. She had a little rough start in life but is doing great now. Prissy, her mom, is now 10 years old, so a single doeling isn't too bad I'd say ;). Her name is Breathtaker.

 First kid of the season is this little... I mean, big guy. He's a spunky sweet thing and totally reminds me of his dad Heartbreaker (born here last year). He is out of one of our new spotted does Wheeze.

nothin' quite like a spoiled kid

 And the first MiniNubians of the year - two 4th generation boys out of Chicci and Patriot! The little one with white is polled.

 Last but not least this is the 2nd kid that was born this year - a flashy big guy out of our paint Boer doe and our spotted Nubian buck, Heartbreaker. He'll be available when weaned off his mom in April. We call him Primer.

Gotta go! Oh, and a quick note - if you are interested in any of our kids, shoot me an email! All of our kids are being raised on CAE prevention this year as well.

Suriyah

Kidding Season is here!

Just a quick note to say kidding season has started here. Yesterday Wheezee - one of our spotted Nubian does - kidded to a big healthy single buckling who is brown/white spotted. Then a few hours later our big paint Boer doe kidded to another single spotted (blonde/white/black) buckling. Both are out of our spotted Nubian boy from last year - Heartbreaker.

What a way to start kidding season - 2 single boys? Hopefully this isn't a representation of what the rest of the year holds ;). But they were both super easy kiddings and everyone is healthy... I'll take that any day.

Pictures later, Lord willing!

Suriyah

Sad News

I have not blogged for a long time, I know, I'm sorry. Life has been busy as usual. All the does are bred, and kidding should start February 1st. In the meantime, we are enjoying a little "vacation" with chores being so easy - we only have 5 does in milk that we are milking once a day, there are no kids to bottle and feeding is a pretty easy chore. I am enjoying my sleep-in time while it lasts, because the kidding chart is filled which means lots of fun and not much rest in just a few short weeks :).

Today I have some sad news to share with you though. If you have been a follower of my blog I am sure you have seen posts about a little goat named Trauma. She was a single kid born in March of 2012, who was born with a deformity - a crooked neck. From the moment she was born her sweet little face made her so hard to not fall in love with. We named her Trauma, I gave her lots of loving care. She learned how to walk and would come to her name like a puppy. She acted more like a dog than a goat, and was always in the milk room during milking time.

She lived with not too much trouble considering her crooked neck, but always seemed to have a little trouble breathing because of the way her neck was shaped and very often had a runny nose - which was fixed with a little tissue ;). The past few weeks tho she has seemed to not be doing too well. I did what I could but last night I knew it was time for her to go and she passed away laying in the fluffy straw she slept in every night.

Suriyah