Our First Batch

My clothes were filthy and my fingers were bloody. I pulled small tumbleweeds of white fur from my beard and let them go in the wind. The left side of my pants were wet from a misguided squirt of milk that had then been licked to death by several different animal species while I had been cleaning up after them. None of it mattered. We were finally making cheese.

Jen and I walked into the hills behind our house (it's almost in the exact middle of the photo) and I told her that I would do the next blog post.

Having never raised livestock or even milked an animal before, I was concerned that our milk quality could suffer. I've since learned that when an animal receives devoted care and a proper diet, nature will do the rest. Wendy is producing over a gallon of fresh, delicious milk a day.

It is essential to remove young goat's horns early in their life, as horns pose a serious health risk for every living being on the farm. While some farmers opt to forgo the brutal task of disbudding, the vast majority agree that far more traumatic experiences often result from keeping horned goats. Daffodil was just disbudded- probably more difficult for us than her. She is quite resilient and jumped out of her stall for the first time right after the vet visit.

Daffodil consumes most of the milk that Wendy produces, so we collect about 70 ounces a day for making cheese. Our first batch of cheese from Wendy's milk was a success.

Why are all of our animals black or white? Maybe we should make oreos instead of cheese...

Running Daff

She's Growing up Fast!

Today Daffodil is two and a half weeks old.  At birth, she weighed eight pounds and could hardly stand, climb or jump.  Now she is fifteen pounds and climbs on everything (including her mom) and sprints back and forth the length of the backyard.  She is healthy and happy and both our vet and a friend with lots of goat experience were impressed by her hearty size and demeanor.

The nights were cold the first week of Daffodil's life.  We
we happy that she prefectly fit in one of Arthur's coats!

So far, she gets along very well with the other animals.  She has only met Bea, Gretel and the little goats through the fence and all seem very intrested in having more of a face to face introduction.  We have decided to wait a few more weeks until they are all housed together so that Daffodil will be big enough to be safe.  Arthur and Betty both enjoy playing with Daffy and they all chase eachother around the yard.  Won't they be surprised in a few months when Daffodil towers over them!

We have also had a real life crash course in goat milking in the last few weeks.  Luckily, Brian is a natural and is able to complete the whole process in only a few minutes.  It takes me far longer because my milking hand gets tired.  I have been assured that after a few months of milking I will have stronger hands than I could ever have imagined!




Brian built a stanchion prefectly measured for Wendy.
She hops on it twice a day with great anticipation of eating her grain.



We are thrilled to have fresh goat milk every day and we can now begin to experiment with the cheese making process!  We made our first batch of chevre the other day.  It was certainly edible but we will have to practice a few more times before we start to share with friends and family.  Brian's next big project is turning the basement into a dairy.  The cheesemaking dream is starting to turn into reality!

Daffodil

It finally happened!  Last night Wendy started to be a bit more vocal and it continued through to this morning.  I left the house for the first time in two days to go to a dentist appointment.  When I was done having my teeth polished, my phone rang.  It was Brian, "Come home, Jen.  She's definitely in labor!"

After only an hour of pushing, Wendy gave birth to a sweet little girl!  She was calm through her heavy labor until the last few pushes when a big healthy kid fell out of the birth canal (she really did fall onto the floor - Wendy pushed her out standing up!)

 

The whole experience was pretty exciting!  I had studied numerous books, websites and journals and was standing by, ready to intervene if necessary.  I have to admit I am now a bit in love with the kidding process and know I will look forward to it every year!

Brian was a bit more traumatized by the whole affair and was incredibly relieved when it was over.  We are both happy that the waiting is over and that sweet little Daffodil is big and healthy.

She is just about the same size as Arthur but skinnier.  We haven't weighed her yet but think she is probably 8 - 10lbs.  Wendy licked her clean for the longest time, close to two  hours!

In all the commotion of the day, we nearly forgot that it is Arthur's 7th birthday!  He got a special birthday treat and spent the afternoon running around with it in his mouth.

Amazing how quickly baby goats learn how to walk. 

And We Wait.

According to the breeder that was Wendy's former owner, she was due to give birth between April 14th and April 23rd.  Today is April 24th and we still have not seen any kids!

There are many indications of pending partuition in goats but the signs vary widely between does.  Common behaviors include becoming vocal and "talking" to their bellies, pawing at the ground to make a nest for birth, stretching, yawning, becoming more or less affectionate toward the goatkeeper and frequently lying down and getting up in an attempt to get comfortable.



Wendy couldn't keep up with all the

weeds in the backyard. Brian helped

her out with the lawnmower today.



Last night I couldn't help but suddenly think that Wendy was exibiting a multitude of behaviors that suggested she was beginning to go into labor.  Suddenly she was yawning and stretching and scratching at her sides like she was uncomfortable.  I was convinced I was seeing a change in behavior.

Brian, who had been keeping watch while I was at work during the week, just shook his head in disagreement.  "Jen" he said, "she looks exactly like she has every single day this week."  Refusing to believe him, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning hoping for the miracle to arrive.  It never did.



I have to admit my feelings of frustration were intense when I woke up early this morning and she remained unchanged.  The only difference we have noticed is a slight softening of her pelvic ligaments which is supposed to occur within 24 hours of delivery. The problem is that we noticed the change 36 hours ago!  So we  wait.

Despite my frustrations with the waiting process, I am thankful that she seems to be doing well otherwise.  She eats lots of alfalfa and grain everyday.  She also drinks plenty of water and enjoys browsing in the backyard.

I am also thankful that the rest of our animals are doing very well.  We still have lots of rain showers but now usually with internittent sunshine. The dogs and little goats are happy to spend some dry time outside.  Yesterday we did hoof trimming and grooming with the little goats and brushing and nail clipping with the dogs.  All of the animals are shedding so much.  Bea's hair is literally coming out in handfulls!   Brian has been busy picking the hairballs off the ground.  If he doesn't get to them first the little goats will eat the hair.  Maia has recently discovered my  hair as a yummy treat and gives it a good pull at every opportunity. 



Bea





Gretel



Although the temperature is still dropping to the 30Fs at night, it is slowly starting to feel more and more like spring.  I had almost forgotten how beautiful the sunsets are from our backyard.







No Kids Yet!

The days roll on and the rain continues.  The more rain we get, the deeper the mud gets and the dirtier the animals become.  Even Betty White is a muddy brown mess.  It is really hard not to get discouraged with the bad weather, especially when the ten day forecast is for rain, rain and more rain!  The only sign of the changing seasons are the blossoms that appeared almost overnight on the pear trees.

For some reason, our neighbors' cows have decided that the very best place to graze in the morning is in our back pasture.  We have a very large hole in our fence (which they no doubt created years ago) that they wander through so they can eat our grass and leave large and soggy cow patties everywhere.  In attempt to preserve the grass and cleanliness of our property, Brian spends his mornings chasing the cows back through the fence.  Yesterday he snapped some photos as he ran them out. 

One of the neighbors cows recently had a calf that had been rejected by its mother.  So every morning, our neighbor has been driving out on his ATV and bottle feeding the calf.  The other morning, the calf got stuck on the opposite side of the fence from the rest of the herd.  Brian went to help it get reconnected with the others and the calf immediately ran up to him.  It was pretty cute.  It is amazing to see the difference in friendliness between bottle fed verses dam reared animals.

Wendy is doing well and has not started to show any signs of impending labor.  She has been eating lots of grain and alfalfa and enjoys browsing in the backyard.  She is still curious about the other animals and tried to make friends with both cats the other day.  It was a little more than shy Rambo could handle.

Her favorite spot in our makeshift barn is on top of a hay bale where she can look out at the dogs and little goats.  She now sleeps in the stall that Brian made in anticipation of the kids.

Hopefully my next blog entry will be to announce the arrival of a couple of healthy kids!!

Wendy Settles In

Wendy has now been living with us for six days.  For the first few days, we kept her primarily in our carport barn.  Brian bought lots of hay to provide a warm, draft free space during this weeks' rain, hail and snow.

It is great to have Wendy so close to the house, especially because there is a window that opens from the basement to the carport.  We can pass grain and water through the window and can check on her without going outside.  She also likes to look into the window for Brian and Betty White.

For the last few days, we have let Wendy out in the backyard, first on a lead and then free range, to browse on the grass.  The dogs and little goats watched Wendy as she emerged from the carport barn.  At first everyone was excited.  The little goats were so excited that they started headbutting each other.

As the week has progressed, the goats and dogs have become more accustomed to each other.  Yesterday, Brian and I decided it was time to introduce the little goats to Wendy.  We let them in the backyard together to browse. 

The goats mostly ignored each other, although the little ones ran away from Wendy when she sniffed and inspected them.  No signs of hostility yet and we are hopeful that after the kids arrive all the goats will continue to peacefully co-exist!

Wendy also had a visit from Arthur.  For some reason, he was not threatened by her and was especially happy to eat her droppings.  Yucky little Arfie loves to eat goat poop!

We have nearly finished compiling our goat birthing supply kit (which includes handy things like iodine, shoulder length gloves, and scissors to cut the umbilical cord) and have been reading all of our books on kidding.  Only four days until her due date!!