An Open House

Preparations are under way.  The girls are ready to start being milked.  There are lotions and soaps to be made... and soon... so soon, cheese to be made!

And just as important... we are soon to host our first open house!  Visitors will get to come out and meet the goats, learn to make soap, and learn about what we do and why we do it. 

So pardon for a little while my limited posts of late (and limited posts in the next week and a half!) 

I'll post pictures and updates about the open house just as soon as I can!

Garden Goodies!

 

It was a good garden day... then we found this little skin (about 3.5 feet long)

 

The Single Worst Thing...

With all of the wonderful things about breeding and raising any animal, there will inevitably be one thing that is terrible.  The single worst part of breeding and raising goats has got to be disbudding the babies so they don't grow horns. 

As horrible as this is, it is the kindest way of dealing with horns.  Horned goats can be quite a danger to their handlers, other goats, and other animals.  They are also quite destructive.  Domestic goats aren't living in the environs that their wild cousins are, and their horns can cause far more harm than they would offer in the way of protection. 

When we had Balvenie and Chester, the disbudding iron had not come in yet.  By the time it arrived, their little horn buds had grown too much to be disbudded so they have horns.  That also means that their time with us will be limited because horned goats are dangerous, no matter how well handled and sweet they can be.  (Example 1: Balvenie didn't want to be caught one morning, so when I caught her collar, she dipped her head and caught my arm between her horns - twisted and gave me a couple of special bruises.  Example 2: Chester has walked up to Neville from behind and lifted the buck off the ground with his horns.)

What is disbudding you may ask?  Cauterizing the horn bud so that it deadens the root and horns never develop.  The restraining of the baby goat causes them to cry ... and then the disbudding causes them to cry.... and as soon as you are done, they act like nothing ever happened. 

At least this necessary awfulness is short lived. Each baby is done in less than two minutes, of which maybe 30 seconds is spent actually being disbudded and that's both sides. 

One down and 4 to go, as their horn buds begin to appear. 

And... Done!

Thursday afternoon we got home from work and when hubby and son headed back into town for martial arts, and I changed and went out to feed.  As I walked out to the does birthing pen, I blinked my eyes wondering why I was seeing double.  Why on earth were there two Aberfeldy's?  And two Tess's? 

As I got closer and saw that there were some differences - the second "Tess" wasn't painted - just a pretty champagne color with some grey markings, and the second "Aberfeldy" was not fully painted - only the heads were similarly colored and this little one had just a couple of small white spots. 

My instincts Thursday morning were correct - Balvenie had given birth!!  (She had been off her feed a little bit, and was extremely restless... I just knew she was going to give birth that day!)  She had already cleaned them up, dried them off, and was bleating softly to her little ones!  First time mama had her instincts in the right place!

The heat was bad, and the babies were new born and panting heavily without an interest in nursing.  Called hubby and had him pull our son from the martial arts class to come home and help out with cooling down the babies and get them on mama.  Once again, newborns in the house and mama as well to cool them down so they would nurse.  Once that was finally accomplished, and the temperatures came down they all moved back out to the doe pen. 

Meet Ophelia...

 

And Myra!



So far everyone is doing well, though Balvenie has become a little bit less interested in her daughters.  The babies are still learning that they can go to her and she will let them nurse, but she isn't the best about going to her babies when they begin to call for her. 

All three of Gerie's babies are now thriving!  They are putting on weight and growing every day, and starting to nibble on hay!!



Baby Update!

Everyone is doing well as long as the temperatures stay down to a reasonable level.  The little ones are even starting to emulate mama a bit!

At Long Last!

I've been trying to get this posted since Saturday, but blogspot was having some issues - or it just didn't like me.  (One more reason to move to wordpress, right?!)

At Long Last - We have babies!!  Ms. Gerie had triplets on Friday July 12, 2013. 

11:15 p.m. - Doe (light tan and white paint) -  named Tess

11:20 p.m. - Buck (black and white) - named Aberfeldy (though hubby calls him Lord Aberfeldy)

11:34 p.m. - Doe (Black with sable points)  - named Charlotte

They are a little bit premature, and it certainly shows, but were in overall good condition.  The heat on Saturday though was more than a little bit brutal.  All three were suffering from heat stress, though Tess had the worst case.  The poor babies were limp as dishrags, panting and not wanting to nurse. 

Without delay, we brought them all in the house along with mama (dogs safely shut in the living room). 

Our good friend came over and sat with us and the babies, and gave lots of moral support to us and love to the distressed baby goats.

As they started to cool down, we gave them electrolytes (3 cc each) by syringe.  Then about 30 minutes later, when they were cooler we gave 3 cc of colostrum, milked from Gerie.  Aberfeldy was more than definitely interested, and by the time Charlotte was down to the last cc, she was trying to nurse on the syringe.  Each of them went to mama for nursing after their syringe.  

Little Tess though just didn't want to perk up.  She didn't even want to swallow, so it was quite literally one drop at a time, and massage her throat to make sure it went down.  Then another drop, another massage.  etc.  By the time we were done she still wasn't interested in nursing on her own.  At this point, we really did not think she was going to make it. 

She still had not passed her meconium, though both Aberfeldy and Charlotte had. 

She lay back down on the carpet and rested.  About an hour later, she got a dose of NutriDrench followed by 1.5 cc of colostrum.   Finally, she started to perk up. 



Hubby stayed in the house with them while my son and I went out to feed.  We finished and were working on tipping off the knurled end of Neville's short horn before it could puncture his skull, when he (Nev) went batshit crazy on us.  (Bucking, Twisting, Butting, Full On BatShit Crazy!)  The wire saw flapped from the nearly finished cut, on the thankfully tethered stinky boy!  Hubby and son traded - Hubby came out and helped finish this little rodeo while son went in and sat with mama and the babies.  We finished as my son rushed out onto the deck shouting.  "TESS POOED!!!!  SHE POOED AND IT TURNED YELLOW!!!! And She is NURSING!"  Then he realized what he was so excited about and said "I never thought I would be so excited about crap!"  LOL

That was exciting news though.  We finished up in the barnyard, passed through and went to the garden to take care of that and by the time we came in again she had nursed again, this time for a couple of minutes according to our son!  When the sun started to ease down the western sky, we took everyone back out to the pen and shelter.  In the morning, the rain had begun and with it came much appreciated cooler temperatures - just what our babies needed to feel better! 

There was a great meeting of minds at the fence while Lulu met what will some day be her new herd members to protect.  She was suitably impressed - Penny got bored...  *sigh* 



Zucchini Zucchini Zucchini!

With the bumper crop of zucchini we are having, we are rediscovering that once you reach a certain point and even your friends and coworkers are "zucchini'd out" you have to get creative.

Zucchini isn't something that preserves well, so you have to be inventive.  Zucchini bread, while good, is something we can only eat so much of.  (Or I can only eat so much of!) You only need so much for a batch of stir fry.  There are only so many times you want to eat it sauteed with garlic, or grilled.  There is more than definitely a limit to how often you want to break your diet rules and batter fry it!

Zucchini fritters for breakfast? Sure!  Zucchini layered into pasta bakes? Absolutely.  But wait - there is an idea there.  A Zucchini Casserole - or is it a souffle once you reach a certain egg count?

At any rate, it is amazing so you get to have the recipe too.

5 cups grated zucchini

1 small onion, grated

½ tsp garlic powder

4 eggs

¾ cup flour

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

½ c melted vegan butter substitute (We use Earth Balance – feel free to use real butter)

½ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (For each cup of bread crumbs add 1 tsp each: dry Basil, Oregano, and Parsley)

Mix all ingredients except bread crumbs and pour into prepared 9x13 baking dish.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs then bake at 350F until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Approximately 1 hour ten minutes.  Or more, if needed.

Let it cool for about ten minutes before cutting and serving.  Oh My Goodness!  I have a new love!

Okay, now if you aren't after healthy try this for deep fried zucchini spears.

1 cup self rising flour

1 tsp cayenne powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 cup (or more) beer

Mix the dry ingredients, then whisk in the beer.  (It gets excited, so let it settle back down then finish whisking)  If it's too thick to create a delicate batter, just add a little more of that beer you opened.  It's okay - you can drink the rest now.

Heat your 1.5" deep oil over medium -medium high heat, and then dip your spears and lay them in the hot oil.  It will only take a minute per side - and drain on a paper towel, then salt while still hot. YUM!!!  Light, Crispy and deliciously fattening. 

Catching My Breath

It seems like lately every time I have something I just NEED to get down in writing, something comes up and steals the rest of my time for the day.  (Barn / animal work, laundry, pickling cucumbers, cooking, cleaning the trough, checking the mama goats, taking a daughter to drivers ed, and one day to goof off at the zoo with barn and house work on either end of the trip!) 

So since today is a day off from the university, and hubby and I plus two out of three kids are at home and relaxing, this seems like the right time to catch my breath. 

I have to say this with a bit of a laugh, however, as I feel like too much idle time is time wasted.  Maybe it's my Midwest roots showing, but I like to feel like I have accomplished at least something at the end of each day.  Even when it's not a huge thing, I still like to feel like something got done. 

Our Independence Day plans involve keeping an eye on our pregnant goat and waiting for the babies to be born (she is now on the long side of her due date) and I'm catching up on some baking.  Last night it was pie.  Blueberry and Rhubarb to be exact.  Today, bread. 

 

There will also be gardening, and admiring the gorgeous zucchini blossoms. 

Oh, and probably some mowing as the front lawn looks absolutely frightening right now.  That, at least, will be something I mow the edges of and pass the rest on to my son! 

For now though - another cup of coffee and then another trip to the birthing pen to check on Gerie...  :)  Poor mama is enormous...

 And she has "lost" her ligaments...

Looks like she swallowed a beach ball... or two...

 

 

And she is puffy and flashy, with a full bag underneath... 

But as my friend Lyn likes to say... She is a Drah-Mah-Queen!  She likes to fool us and keep us guessing as to when she will finally deliver. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Quite rampantly, I must say! 

 

 

Out of this insanity, we have eaten more chard than most people do in the course of any summer and harvested zucchini nearly ever day.  Recipes will be put up at some point in the future - Zucchini bread, Zucchini fritters, Zucchini casserole, Zucchini in stir-fry, Zucchini in everything! :) 

 

We have also canned a dozen jars of pickles and done a couple of batches of refrigerator garlic dill pickles.  Oh Nom!  

No News Is Tiring

So our lovely girl is due any day now, and we are very excited.  However... she has had two and a half weeks of false labor and she just keeps getting bigger!

 

 

Some mornings we get to have some quality time together...

 



We continue to await the arrival of her babies.  See how excited the donkeys are about this?  LOL