Changing of Seasons

It is a changing of seasons with the selling of the goat kids...but also a changing of seasons from Summer to Fall!

The first official day of fall was last week.  But with stifling heat and suffocating humidity, autumn wasn't anywhere to be found then.  What a surprise to wake up to 65 degree temperatures this morning and a coolness in the air!  Truly a reason to celebrate!

I am also grateful for the inch of rain we received a few days ago.  The fields are so lush that I have to check the calendar to remind me it isn't Spring!

Beautiful sunrise...

Edna and Charlotte are best friends and worst enemies now that they are the only two goats left to the herd!

Edna's udder has been quite full the past few days.  I am discovering that Edna had been producing a lot of milk and Hurray (her kid that I sold) had been drinking it!

Edna is really fun to milk!  I like her udder shape!

I am getting about 2 1/2 quarts of milk from both Charlotte and Edna.  Often, it is more milk than I can use so Blue Bell benefits from the surplus!

I've been trying to work on the goats hooves more regularly.  It is easiest to trim in the morning while their hooves are spongy from the dew.

These little bearded goats are sure a pleasure to enjoy!  I am thankful for the motivation they provide to get outside each morning and enjoy my Creator's beautiful creation!

And I hope that Fall is here to stay...!

Goodbye Goats!

The goat herd shrunk to a herd of only TWO this weekend!  It was bittersweet to say goodbye to five of the goats on Saturday!  But, the feeling of downsizing is quite free-ing!

I had never sold the kids from 2016, mostly because I was "attached" to them and I couldn't decide who to sell.  I also was thinking about the possibility of keeping one of the bucks to breed back the does.

But recently, the goat chores had become overwhelming on top of managing many other responsibilities of life!  Also, the goats were eating a lot of hay, grain, and grass!  If I were to keep seven goats long-term, I would need to make arrangements to enlarge their pen and build more shelters.  So, I logged onto my Craigslist account last weekend...

I got on a roll once I started posting goats for sale!  If I could find good homes, I wanted to sell as many as I could and keep just my two favorite milking goats (Charlotte and Edna).  Although I knew it would be hard to say goodbye, the benefit of having a small, manageable goat herd would be worth the grief!

"Hilarious"

"Howdy" Ho!

Thankfully, a nearby friend agreed to purchase Hilarious and Howdy (pictured above).  So, hopefully I will get to see them occasionally!

A family about 3 hours away contacted me through Craigslist and wanted to purchase Elly May (who is still milking).  Elly May milks about 2 3/4 cups of milk once a day.  She is also really sleek and shiny!

The family that purchased Elly May also agreed to take Hillbilly and Hurray!  Now, all of my kids from 2016 are sold!  Since the family lived so far away, we met half-way and the goats endured half of the trip in our cattle trailer...

...and the other half in the family's goat carrier in the back of their truck!

Goodbye Goats!

It is sad remembering all of the excitement we had experienced when we purchased Elly May two years ago and all of the fun we had with the goat kids this past summer!  They have been good "friends" to us!  The goat pen is so quiet with only two goats... 

But, I am now able to enjoy the goats I still have!  The chores are manageable and I am being a better steward of my resources by having a smaller herd.  (But I am already looking forward to kidding season again!) Sometimes the hard things are huge blessings in disguise!

What Makes You Smile?

I found a couple of random photos on my computer that made me smile!  Do goats make you smile?

Hurray is becoming a bit of "pet."  She has a really sweet personality and likes to be hugged on!  I am not sure if she will ever be bred (as I don't think I want to pass on her four-teat trait), but she is fun to have around!

Hilarious is growing quite tall and sleek.  I am amazed that at 5 1/2 months old she is still jet black!  Charlotte  (in the background of this photo) is burying her head in a bale of hay.  She sure loves her food!

Blue Bell makes me smile too!  She had some skin issues this summer so she had to get shaved, thus her short coat.  She also isn't spending as much time in the goat pen as she learned to dig out (uh-oh!).  Now, she usually just stays around on the porch or sleeps in the cattle trailer.  When I go to feed the goats in the morning, Blue Bell is always happy to greet me with a nuzzle of her velvety nose and a swift wag of her tail!

A Tattooing Tale

I don't want to see GREEN ink for a long time!

The American Dairy Goat Association requires that all goats in their registry be tattooed as a means of identification.  (See this link for more info.)  I finally sent in the registration information for the 2016 kids, so they needed to be tattooed.

Most goats are tattooed in each ear.  The RIGHT ear contains the herd identification number.  The LEFT ear is reserved for the "Letter-of-the-Year" (2016's letter is "H") and the order of birth in the herd (first kid, second kid, etc.).  It can be tricky to remember which ear is left and right, so thankfully the ADGA registration form has a diagram to help!

Hillbilly waiting for his turn...

Howdy is ready to go!

To begin the process, I loaded the tattoo pliers with the correct identification letters/numbers.  This can be tricky as they must be mirror image!

I tested the pliers on a piece of paper to make sure the sequence was correct!  Tattooing makes me a little nervous because there is no room for error!

I cleaned the tattoo numbers/letters with alcohol before using them.  

I also cleaned each ear with alcohol.  It is amazing how dirty their ears were!

I applied some green ink to a cotton ball...

...and I smeared it into the kids' ears.  I did all of the right ears first so I wouldn't have to change the tattoo.  (All of the right ears got "OBJ8" while the left ears got "H1," "H2," etc.)

I positioned the pliers in the ear and squeezed.  It didn't hurt the goats much (although I did have to get help restraining them).  It barely punctures the skin and they hardly squealed!  However, I am quite relieved that all of the letters seemed to be clearly punched and I didn't hit any veins.

Afterward, I rubbed more ink into the tattoo to make sure that it would be permanently in the skin.

And now I have green-eared goats!  The ink seemed to be everywhere!

Hilarious looks quite nice with her green ears!

The bucks like their new ear color too!

I enjoyed learning to tattoo my goats.  And, compared to the emotional "trauma" of disbudding, it was a relatively simple process.  Now all of the 2016 are registered, tattooed, and ready to their lives as "official" ADGA-registered goats!

Goat-Keeping Report!

Dear Emma (and other readers of this blog who have doubted the existence of "The Great Goat Adventure!"),

Thank you for reminding me recently that my last post was May 16th.  Ouch! A whole three months ago!  This summer has been fast and furious.  In fact, it seems that most days I spent more time out-and-about than actually on the farm.  But summer is coming to a close and I am reevaluating my priorities.  Goat-keeping reminds me that life isn't all "out there."  There is so much beauty and fun to be had "right here."  I truly enjoy my animals and pursuing an agrarian lifestyle.  It is important to me to enjoy yummy goats milk, observe playful goat antics, and work hard to provide my goats a clean, healthy environment.  And so, despite the lack of blog posts, I whole-heartly march on with this goat adventure!

Last time I posted, my little goat kids looked like this...

Frisky bundles of energy!

All of the disbudding scabs came off of the kids.  Overall, I was very pleased with the results of my DIY disbudding!  Hillbilly and Hurray are completely clean.  Howdy, Hilarious, and Holster ended up with very minimal scurs.  All of them were better than the vet did last year, so I call it a success!

The goats had a little adventure at the beginning of the summer (of which I have no pictures to document, sorry!).  We left for a week-long vacation at the end of May and had plans for friends to come do the morning/evening chores.  We left at 5am and I admired the beautiful clear sky as I told my goats "goodbye."  That evening we were notified that our community was experiencing record flooding!  (Something like 22 inches or so?)  I was unsettled because I wanted to be able to care for the goats and know that they were okay, but thankfully they were all fine after the rough storm passed!  Their pen is up on a hill so they didn't experience any harm.  However, we had just hauled a whole trailer full of hay to our hay/cow barn.  The water backed up at the creek and flooded the whole lower field and up over the whole barn!  All of the hay floated away!  Bummer!  We had purchased the hay from a friend who graciously sold us their next cutting several weeks later.  I am thankful!

Also, our garden did fairly well at the beginning of the summer before it got stifling hot.  We got some yummy onions, squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  

I was able to sell Holster (Charlotte's buckling) at the beginning of the summer.  I am still trying to sell the bucks.  It has been hard to downsize the herd.  And the longer I keep the kids, the more I like them!  

I have also been reluctant to wean the doelings.  I have the bucklings (Howdy and Hillbilly) penned up by themselves and I do not have another area to keep the girls separate from their mamas right now. It actually makes the chores much easier because the doelings drink quite a bit of milk so I don't have to worry about finding ways to use 3 gallons of milk a day!  Usually, we get about a quart or two daily from all three goats which is plenty for our family!

Hilarious gets to eat with Charlotte (her mama) during the evening!  Each milking doe is getting equal alfalfa pellets, beet pulp, and grain (a cup of each) at night.  In the morning they get 2 quarts of grain.  

Always ready to climb and explore!

Edna has been growing quite the beard!

I forgot to get a good picture of Hurray (Edna's doeling) and the bucklings last night when I was snapping photos and now it is storming out!  I'll have to get a better picture soon!  She is really changing colors right now and turning quite black.  Hurray has a really sweet disposition and I am often accused of showing favoritism towards her!  

I was disappointed when I realized that she has four teats (goats are only supposed to have two!).  I did some research and it is debatable if she should be bred or not.  I am still deciding what to do with her...

It has been amazing to watch the affects of restored copper levels for Elly May!  What used to be an orange/brown coat has now returned to jet black!  She is also so silky now!

(See how rough and shaggy she looked this Spring?)

Elly May's udder has also returned to normal.  After I weaned her buckling, all of the pimples on her udder seemed to clear up.  Maybe he was just being too rough on her!  Being a first freshener, Elly May has had to learn her manners on the milking stand.  Every morning is a race to get her milked before she eats all of her grain!

Thank you for following my goat blog!  This goat adventure is great!