random!

Well, as I mentioned last time, the new big barn construction has begun. There have been plenty of set backs with the weather and such. All the holes are dug and the 4 corner polls are put in. Due to an accident the construction has been called off for a few days though, but it should resume soon and Lord willing, soon we will have a big barn!

I think winter weather has finally hit us!

Peppy, the guard llama!

Star,

Mr. Fighter (front) with one of his dam-raised buddies (behind),

Have a good day!!

Suriyah

just a few pics...

Just a few random pictures from the other day...

Grandma goat sporting her brand new coat. . . which she likes very much! It is a very toasty coat!

Have a good day!! Barn building starts today... I'll get pictures of the progress!! Right now the supplies are being unloaded.

Suriyah

Thanksgiving

Here's a late Happy Thanksgiving!!

I really meant to do a post yesterday, but the day was very, very busy! We'd been cooking for a few days, planning a large party. It went very well, and for that and many other things I am very thankful! Here's some pictures of our day (with captions :)).

This was taken after the party was over. Lots of leftovers are on the table. Today, we didn't cook, and still have a lot of leftovers.

Call us weird, but we did not have a turkey for Thanksgiving. Instead, all our meat was home butchered and so we had - 2 large hams, 3 chickens, 1 duck and a venison roast. The guys were in charge of it and they decided to try to do a deep pit roast. It's where you dig a deep pit, start a fire the night before so there are a lot of hot coals, line it with rock/brick, put your meat/onions/apples/etc in oven bags, which are then wrapped in foil. The foil bags are then put into burlap sacks that are damp, and thrown into the deep pit. It is then covered with a lid and dirt on top of the lid. Well, after the meat had been in there 8 hours we decided to take it out. It was not done, and probably because the coals were not hot enough. So we threw the meat into the ovens to finish cooking. It smelled SO good when they opened it up, and the meat after it finished cooking (in the oven) was also very good. Maybe we'll try again next time with a hotter fire ;).

We decorated the house for Thanksgiving with dear friends the night before up until 2am - so much for getting to bed early before the party :).

There was so. much. food. Since there are a lot of food allergies around here, all the food was gluten and cow dairy free. There was also a lot of grain and starch free foods for folks on special diets. It turned out so well and the food was so good!

lots of dessert!

green beans,

jell-o,

pumpkin pie,

sweet potatoes, and much much more.

Again, I don't think we have "normal" Thanksgiving parties ;). We almost always dance on Thanksgiving. . . gotta work off all the food that was just eaten! So without missing a beat, no matter how tired we were, we did sing and dance.

I am so thankful for everything in my life. God has truly blessed me with so much, too much to list, and even if things were not as great, there is still and always will be SO much to be thankful for.

Have a great evening,

Suriyah

Jr. Mint's relatives in our herd

I thought it would be fun to put up all the close relatives of Junior Mint that we currently have in the herd. Of course there are others that we used to have, MANY many kids of his that have been born and sold, and so forth ;).

Junior Mint's one and only sister. She is a half sister to him (same sire). Her name is PawPawNin LaWanda. She has been a very good, consistent milker.

Junior Mint's first daughter that was born here at our place, Good Goats Marshmallow Hug. She is out of a Nubian doe we used to own, The Milky Way Stars.

Good Goats JM Piglet is the same age as Hug, also a Junior Mint daughter. She has been a wonderful milker and a very easy keeper. She is out of Good Goats Vanilla Cream.

Good Goats JM Starlight is a 2 1/2 year old daughter of Junior Mint's. She has very nice type, but due to various things I have not been able to milk her yet. She is bred and due in March of next year. Her dam is Northwest Goats Lil' Prissy.

 Good Goats Junior MoMent is our 4th Junior Mint daughter. She is a super easy keeper and bred for April of next year. Besides her ears, I have been very pleased with her type. Her dam is Dream Weaver's MoReen (hence the name, MoMent "mo-mint").

Good Goats P Snickers is a Junior Mint granddaughter. Her dam is Good Goats Marshmallow Hug (a Jr. Mint daughter) and her sire is Dreamy-Hollow Parker. She is due in March of next year.

And last but not least, Good Goats MHP Pugsy is a Junior Mint grandson. He was born in February of this year, and he is doing just awesome. He's grown very well, and has bred many does this year already. His sire is Dreamy-Hollow's Parker and his dam is Good Goats Marshmallow Hug (he is full sister to Snickers, above, but is a year younger). He definitely got a lot of his "crazy buckyness" from his grandpa ;).

Have a great day!

Suriyah

RIP PawPawNin Junior Mint

Last night we lost PawPawNin Junior Mint, our oldest MiniNubian buck and the buck that we've had for the longest, ever since he was a little kid. He was always a very reliable breeder, threw beautiful babies, was very well mannered, and never had a sick day in his life. He was getting up there in age, for a buck, and I guess since he had always been so "hyper", he wore himself out. I noticed this Fall that he was not being his normal self, come breeding season. He did not breed any does this year, as he really didn't want to. I gave him special treatment, and just within the last week he quickly went downhill and passed away last night. He will certainly be missed. In our herd he is survived by 1 half sister, 4 daughters, 1 granddaughter and 1 grandson.

You can go HERE to see a slideshow with pictures of Junior Mint as a kid and as he grew.

Suriyah

Midnight, Star, Lucy & Sunspot

It's been busy here, as usual. And if you've been reading my blog for some time, you should know that we've been trying to cut back on the number of goats we have with winter quickly approaching. We've sold a lot of goats, but we've also added a good handful to the herd.

The latest additions are the ones below. These does are all unregistered, but the last 2 I may consider registering as Native On Appearance with the ADGA.

This is Midnight. She is some kind of a cross bred dairy/meat doe. She is very, very big. This picture really does not show how big she is. She will be used in the meat goat herd.

This is Star. She is also a big doe, but is still very young. She will also be used in the meat goat herd.

This is Lucy. She is a very big and wide girl, this picture really does not do her justice. She will be used in the Nubian herd.

And last but not least, this is Sunspot. And this is a horrible picture of her, but the only one I have at the moment. She is a very big, beautiful spotted Nubian. She will be used in the Nubian breeding program. She is also very sweet and friendly.

Suriyah

Shepherd's Purse

I was asked by someone to explain a little on Shepherd's purse, why we keep it on hand and how we use it. So, here ya' go!

Shepherd's Purse is an herb used to stop internal bleeding. It grows all over North America but is often overlooked. The tincture can be purchased online at Lucky Vitamin.

We have used it a few times over the years in our livestock.

The most obvious life saving one was when this Boer doe had ringwomb (when their cervix does not dialate naturally and it has to be manually dialated). We had been manually dialating her for a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We made progress enough and she felt the urge to push the kid out. So the kid came out, but since she still was very tight up in there, her cervix tore. She started hemorrhaging very badly. Her gums and eyelids began to go white. I immediately ran for the Shepherd's Purse tincture, and gave her a good couple dropfulls. The hemorrhaging stopped, and within a few minutes she was alert enough to start licking her kid.

We've used it for smaller hemorrhages throughout the years, and it has always worked. Needless to say, given the choice, I will never be without this herb.

Suriyah

Trimming very overgrown hooves

A few weeks ago the neighbor bought a little buck with very overgrown hooves. He obviously had not been taken care of. So, since I am the "goat farrier" in the neighborhood, I trimmed him up. It actually wasn't that bad, except that his front feed were really hard and long, so I had to get out the horse nippers to trim the really long hard stuff off, before I could even trim it with my goat clippers. But, I got him all done and he walked MUCH better afterwards!

before,

I should have worn gloves, my hands stunk for the rest of the day! He was a nasty little buck!

after,

Hope you have a great day! We are getting really dumped on here in Oklahoma. . . everything is very wet and muddy!

Suriyah

Then & Now - "new" doelings

Back in February kidding season was in full-swing. Out of the many kids born, there were 4 doelings - 2 Mini Nubian sisters and 2 Snubian/MiniNubian sisters. They were all bottle babies, and went to a great family home together. Well, time has flown by, the owners kept me up to date on the kids and all was well until recently, when the goats learned how to escape out of their fenced yard and get on the busy road. Not good. With the situation as it was, the family needed to get rid of the girls before they got hit. So, we bought them back. Maybe once they get their fence fixed, they'll get some goats back from us ;). They obviously took very good care of the girls. . . they are very sweet and friendly, and very healthy.

Here's some pictures of them.

The above picture is "Pearl" as a baby when she was here. The below picture is Pearl yesterday when we got back to our place. Her mom is a Snubian and her dad is a MiniNubian. She clearly has her mother's stubborn personality ;). 

Above is "Truffles" as a baby here at our ranch. Below is Truffles last night. She is Pearl's sister.

These are the 2 MiniNubian doelings. Their dam is PawPawNin LaWanda and their sire is Wonderful Farm Shinning Topaz. The smaller one has blue eyes. In the picture above, the one on the left is "Sugar Baby" and the one on the right is "Caramel".

 Sugar Baby

 Caramel

On another note, very early yesterday morning, around 2:30am, a big red Boer doe of our's gave birth to 2 giant red bucklings. She had no problems birthing them, all on her own, and they figured out to nurse all by themselves. Perfect! These boys are very thick little things... will have to get some better pictures soon. They also both have wattles like their mother.

See ya later!

Suriyah