Canyon Ridge Farms

A Snowy Morning...With A SURPRISE!

2012-02-13T07:50:00.001-08:00

There was a time when I LOVED snow. Although I still think it is pretty to look at, it sure does make life on the farm so much more difficult. In fact, I am not a fan of cold weather (never have been). When the weather is cold and cold and snowy, then everything is harder. Not only do you have to make sure that all of the critters are well taken care of, even if you are freezing to death, but even just the layers of clothes that you put on to try to stay warm make every move feel like you are climbing a mountain. I much prefer summer, and shorts and flip flops. :)

Below are just a few photos from this morning at the farm and the surprise that we received with the first snow of 2012.

Shasta (the LGD) and Helga together watching the snow from the open doorway.

A HUGE pile of goats huddled together in the middle of the barn. This was actually kind of strange that the majority of the girls were huddled together like this. First of all, it wasn't that cold in there and second of all, usually when they huddle together they will do it in small groups rather than in one BIG group like this.

Jynger, sitting in the middle of the group, looks completely miserable. She "sat" like this for about 5 minutes or so. Poor thing. Just a few more weeks and her babies will be born then she can regain her slim and trim figure and be a whole lot more comfortable.

The plants in the greenhouse this morning. They are looking SO good. On the far right where it looks like just dirt in the pots we have snow peas coming up. MMMMM.......can't wait for a good stir fry. Who am I kidding? I like to just sit out in the garden and "graze" on snow peas! :) Notice the snow on the top of the greenhouse.

View looking out the south door of the greenhouse this morning at one of the gardens. It's kind of hard to believe that if we get enough drying in the gardens this week to till again that we will begin planting this next weekend.

And NOW>>>>>>>>>>For the SURPRISE>>>>>>>>>>>>

Little miss Mattie (one of the Saanen does that we purchased a few weeks ago) kidded this morning with a big healthy single GIRL!!!!!!! I brought her in to the house and finished cleaning her up and got her warm and dry then fed her some colostrum (boy can she eat!) then I took her back out to the barn so that her mom can take care of her for a couple of days. I have no idea what to name her, but Snow keeps coming into my mind. I guess because (1) she is white and (2) she was born on the first snow day of the year. :)

New Additions To The Farm

2012-01-30T08:01:00.000-08:00

We made a couple of new additions to the farm yesterday. Three to be exact. :)

These are yearling Saanen goats and it is going to take me a bit to be able to tell them all apart, but in the mean time, they are as follows:

Red collar - Haley
Blue collar - Sophie
Aqua collar - Mattie

They are sure pretty little girls. :)

Working In The Gardens

2012-01-22T20:05:00.000-08:00

Chrys has been working on getting compost spread onto the gardens over the last week or so and this afternoon he started tilling it in so........the first till of the season is now complete! :) Now he will go back and do a "deep" till (but not to deep) and then finally another shallow till.

This is the yard garden. It was windy enough today that Chrys no more than got it tilled and the dirt was all drying out already by the time I got my camera.

The two pictures above are of the South West garden. The soil looks very nice......sure hope that it grows some "very nice" veggies.

The South East garden hasn't been tilled yet, but Daddy has been working on it this winter doing some leveling so that our irrigation works better.

The pictures above are of the plants in the greenhouse. It has now been almost three weeks since we started planting in the greenhouse and our little plants are growing nicely. :)

Tapioca Finally Kidded!

2012-01-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

Tapioca finally kidded, of course she couldn't have done it on Monday when the temperatures were in the 70s. She had to wait until yesterday morning when it was SOOO cold! Both boys, yes....more boys, are doing great and so is their mom. :) OH! And notice that these two AREN'T black! LOL

These two little (actually BIG boys) are sired by Tecumseh whose sire is CBC Farm TKE Star Gazer and whose dam is The Wagoner's Farm Truffles.

Their dam is RC Goats Tapioca whose sire is Haven-Hills Fox Trot and her dam is Haven-Hills Meadow Gold.

These two boys are available for sale.

Sakara Had Her Babies!

2012-01-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

Sakara just kidded with triplets! 2 boys and 1 girl. All three babies are good sized and all are healthy...........and black of course. LOL

No control of their little bodies yet. Seems to be heads and legs EVERYWHERE! :)

The top one is the little girl and the the bottom two are the boys.

These kids are sired by Tecumseh who is sired by CBC Farm TKE Star Gazer and whose dam is The Wagoner's Farm Truffles.

Their dam is RC Goats Sakara whose sire is Nashama's EXR Influence and her dam is R C Goats Silver Aspen.

Both of the boys are for sale. We are undecided yet on whether or not the little girl is for sale.

Boogie Kidded!

2012-01-13T06:43:00.000-08:00

Boogie kidded yesterday with one very gorgeous little doeling. I'm kind of disappointed that there was only one, but she is a nice big healthy little girl so that is what matters. :)

This little girls sire is Tecumseh whose sire is CBC Farm TKE Star Gazer and his dam is The Wagoner's Farm Truffles.

Her dam is RC Goats Boogie whose sire is Coyote Springs DVR Evolution and whose dam is RC Goats Salsa.

This little girl is available for sale.

Ditto's Babies

2012-01-11T18:43:00.001-08:00

And.....right at chore time, Ditto blessed us with two gorgeous little bucklings......and of course, they are black. :)

These two little darlings sire is Tecumseh whose sire is CBC Farm TKE Star Gazer and whose dam is The Wagoner's Farm Truffles.

Their dam is Ditto whose sire is Lucke- "H" Trident and whose dam is Canyon Ridge Farms Thunder. If you haven't read the story about our Livestock Guardian Dogs, read it here http://www.canyonridgefarms.com/lgd.html . Ditto's dam was one of the does that was so badly injured in the attack in our barn.

These two little guys are available for sale.

Sugar's Babies

2012-01-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

Sugar kidded early this afternoon with twin girls. FINALLY! More Girls! :) These are also the only babies that we have had so far this year that are not black(ish) in color.

Aren't they sweet?!

These precious little girls are sired by Woody whose sire is Longman's SA Arousing Cheers and whose dam is NuFlower Enchanted Rose.

Their Dam is Canyon Ridge Farms Sugar whose sire is Lucke- "H" Trident and whose dam is Good-New PS Adrian (call name is Maggie).

These two little darlings are available for sale.

Seedlings

2012-01-09T10:04:00.001-08:00

We did some planting in the greenhouse about a week ago. Just as always, once the seeds were in the dirt and all watered in, we go out everyday (and sometimes two or three times a day) hoping to see the first signs of new plant life. Yesterday we were rewarded with quite a few new little seedlings. :) Hopefully this is a sign of better gardens this year.

The picture below is not very good because......well, because I'm not a very good photographer, BUT if you look very closely, you can see the little heart shaped green seedling. mmmm....I am hungry for fresh produce already.

Sarek's Babies

2012-01-08T07:47:00.001-08:00

About 8:30 this morning Sarek blessed us with twin bucklings.

Gorgeous little bucklings with frosted ears and white top knots. The second buckling looks like he is going to be a very pretty roan color.

Sarek delivering the first buckling. You can see a little hoof and his nose and if you look closely, you can see his little tongue sticking out. :)

His full head is now out.

Both boys after the trauma of being born.

Sarek "thinks" she likes them.....she just doesn't want to actually touch them yet. LOL

Sarek is sired by Coyote Springs DRV Evolution and her dam is RC Goats Rowan.

The bucklings sire is Akin Hills Tecumseh whose sire is CBC Farm TKE Star Gazer and his dam is The Wagoner's Farm Truffles.

Both of these boys are for sale.

Patty's Babies

2012-01-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

Patty presented us with two absolutely darling little bucklings today.

Patty is actually the first Nubian that we ever got. I can remember that when we got her our kids were upset with us because they didn't like "those long floppy ears". LOL They love the "long floppy ears" now. :)

Patty was about 2 months old when we got her and she was as WILD as a March hare! Oh my goodness! With a lot of work and dedication (mostly on Megan's part), Patty turned into one of the sweetest girls you ever met, she also gained to status to herd Queen. Patty is now almost 10 years old. Patty miscarried last year and I was sure hoping for a girl from her this year, but the boys are sweet too.

Patty cleaning one of her boys

Patty cleaning and loving both boys. :)

These boys sire is Woody and he is the son of Longman's SA Arousing Cheers and NuFlower Enchanted Rose.

Patty doesn't have a pedigree.....We don't care though. Her daughters and granddaughters that we have in the herd milk wonderfully. :)

Both of these boys are for sale.

The smaller of the two boys went to his new home. Thanks Heather!

2012 Kidding Season Has Now Begun

2012-01-06T18:50:00.000-08:00

.....And the 2012 kidding season has now begun!!!!!

This afternoon Wings kicked off the season with first a nice little buckling born around 4:30 pm. Over an hour and a half later, she presented us with 2 gorgeous little doelings! Wings had no problems at all with the deliveries. I guess she just wasn't quite ready for the girls to be born right after the boy. LOL This is our first kidding with Wings and she is proving to be a very attentive mother.

Sire to these kids is Woody, Son of Longman's SA Arousing Cheers and NuFlower Enchanted Rose. Lots and Lots of milk in the pedigree of these kids. :)

2 doelings pictured above.
At this time, both of these little girls are being retained for our own herd.

The buckling went to his new home on 01/07/2012. Thanks Jonna!

Wings with her triplets.

Wings sire is Coyote Springs DRV Evolution and her dam is R C Goats Sabaka.

The little boy went to his new home. Thanks Jonna!

New Members To The Farm Family

2011-12-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

We are welcoming new members to our farm family. Seems that I just couldn't wait until our own does started kidding. :) I LOVE baby goats!

A special "Thank You" to Russ & Marla of Maple Spring Farm.
These are absolutely drop dead gorgeous LaMancha kids!

In keeping with our original idea to name the LaMancha kids on the farm "fairy" names, well, that's just what we did. :)

First we introduce Alvin. According the web site that I was looking up fairy names on, Alvin means "Noble Friend" in fairy language. He sure is friendly now, especially if he thinks you might have a bottle for him so I have no reason to think that he will continue to be anything but friendly and he also already thinks that he is the biggest deal around so I figure he is going to be very noble as well.

Next we introduce Zanna. I have no idea what Zanna means in fairy language, but I like the name and it really seems to fit her.

Stay tuned. There just might be more LaMancha babies coming to the farm soon.

What To Do In Our "Down" Time

2011-12-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

As many of you are aware, we are now in a bit of a "down" time. Milk production had dropped so much due to the does being at the end of their lactation as well as the cold weather so we finally made the decision to dry them off and wait for the next set of does to freshen. Friday morning was our last official milking day of 2011, however we did a partial milking on Sunday and a full milking this morning which is part of the drying off process.

So.....What ever will we do in our "down" time?

Sunday and Monday we worked on getting wood cut. We are almost to where we need to be in order to have our winter supply of wood. We heat totally with wood so it usually takes between eight and 10 ricks of wood to see us through the winter. It just depends on how bad the winter is.

Monday I (along with Daddy's help) gave all of the young girls their Christmas pedicures. They weren't really sure about all of that, but their hooves all look really nice now. :)

Tuesday we went out and delivered the last of the cheese and milk for the 2011 season. When we got home, I moved the bucks out back with Charlie Cow and then turned the young girls in with the mature does. I don't think that they really thought that they were goats and they sure didn't understand why I would make them leave their deluxe accommodations and make them live in the big barn with "those goats". I stayed out there with them for quite some time and then finally came to the house. About 10:00 last night Chrys and I went out to check on them and had to bring all of the young girls "back" into the barn and lock the gate so that they couldn't go over and stand beside their previous pasture. When I let them out this morning guess where they went? Right! They went straight back to stand by their previous pasture. :(

I moved eight does to the maternity ward (previous barn and pasture of the young girls) this morning. I gave them pedicures and also gave them their yearly vaccination that we give about 2-4 weeks prior to having babies. I don't have exact dates on this group of girls since we pasture bred them, but none of them are due before January 5th. I normally wouldn't have moved them to the maternity ward this soon, but since we have the young Livestock Guardian Dogs now and I don't trust them yet since they are still just pups, I thought it would be best to have these does in an area that the pups can't get in to.

There's not much else to tell at this point. I have a list as long as my arm of things to get done during this "down" time. We'll see if it all gets completed or not. :)

Below are a couple of pictures of the young girls today, standing beside their old pasture and begging to return "home". These girls are all 6-8 months old and there are 20 of them.

Here is a photo of some of the does munching on hay inside the big barn.

Poor Charlie Cow

2011-12-16T13:56:00.001-08:00

Poor Girl Charlie Cow (yes that's her name). We moved the does that were in the back pasture up to the big barn this morning. Charlie Cow has cried and cried ever since. She has never ever been without goats. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure that she knows that she is of the bovine species. Poor thing. She thinks that she is goat too.

Most of the day she has stood at the fence and cried for her goat friends. A few times she would go off and graze or go get a little hay. When I would go out there she would come to the fence and just want to be petted. I finally felt sorry enough for her to give her a little "extra" grain at feeding time.

Next week, after we get some hoof trimming done on the teenagers we will move them back there with Charlie Cow and I am sure that she will be happy again......although they may not be. They are used to staying at the Ritz. LOL

Disaster Diverted

2011-11-17T09:45:00.001-08:00

A disaster was diverted this morning thanks to our WONDERFUL and ever FAITHFUL Livestock Guardian Dogs. Both of the younger adult dogs, Shasta & Gypsy, came up with blood on their necks (not their blood) and one of Shasta's hind feet is sore. When Chrys left for work he said that there was a pack of dogs out on the road. All of the LG dogs, including the pups, have been on high alert ever since. Shasta won't leave the milkers (although she rarely does anyway) and Gypsy won't leave from the perimeter of the dry does pasture. Both of the pups are even on high alert and periodically sounding off at the perimeters this morning. Sadie, of course, is alert close to the house and barking directions to the others. :) (The Alpha female position must be a good spot to be in.)

I wish people would keep their dogs at home. Just because you live in the country does NOT mean that it is okay for your pet (cared for, neglected, or otherwise) to go onto someone else's property and wreck havoc. I have seen what a pack of "pet" dogs can do to a herd of goats. It is NOT something I ever want to see again!

Shasta this morning in the milking does pasture. You can see a faint red color around her neck. Gypsy's looked the same but she wouldn't let me get close enough this morning for a photo shoot. :)

This is Mya. She and Tess (the pups) have both been on high alert this morning and have stayed close to the milking does and Shasta.

The dry does coming up when I called them so that I could inspect and get a head count. (Everyone was accounted for and looking good.)

Dry does still coming up......

....and they are here and getting all of their little noses counted.
(Notice Gypsy behind the group that is around the tree.)

Cammie and Charlie Cow counting each other's noses.
Yep! They are both here! LOL

Airi, in the milking doe pasture. Not a real good picture of her, but it kind of goes along with her attitude. ;)

Cammie

2011-10-24T12:27:00.001-07:00

Cammie is now almost a year old. If you remember, she was a birthday gift this year from my wonderful husband. It took her a long time before she really liked me. Seems that for the longest time she much preferred Chrys or Megan. Once I was home full time we became fast friends though......or maybe she just likes me now because it is usually just her and me......and the goats......all day long. :) At any rate, Cammie is always by my side now. We seem to do everything together. :)

Two things Cammie seems to hate are birds (which is ok, they don't stand a chance of getting in the gardens) and she seems to HATE having all of the dog bowls where they are suppose to be. We have six dogs. Five are Livestock Guardian Dogs (3 mature and 2 pups in training) and Cammie (who is a Sheltie and should be a herding dog, but doesn't seem to have a lick of herding instinct). Anyway, Cammie is always carrying off the dog bowls. Not just one or two, but ALL of them! I line five bowls up along the fence (about 10 feet apart in order to give each dog their own space) and I no more than turn my back and Cammie is carrying them off. The next day I have to go find them all again. It is like easter every day. The only bowl she doesn't carry off is the metal one that I left at the end of the shop.

Well, I'm a little slow I guess. After about three weeks of the daily dog bowl hide and seek game I finally got smart. I drilled a hole in each bowl then I ran baler twine through the hole and tied each one to the fence. Now Cammie can't carry them off and hide them. And when I go to mow along the fence all I have to do is throw them over the fence with the twine still attached and they will still be right where I need them to be. :)

I finally got all of this done on Saturday afternoon. Several of the twines have been taught where Cammie has attempted the dog bowl hiding game. :)

New Feeder

2011-10-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

Our daughter's boyfriend made this "Really AWESOME" new goat feeder for us and just delivered it 2 days ago. The goats all seem to be really enjoying it (is there food in it???) and it is perfect in EVERY way!

It has a metal pipe frame that he welded together then painted and the trough is made from extra heavy duty conveyor belt. The trough is bolted/screwed onto the frame and is open on each end. Being open on each end not only means that it won't hold water, but it also means that it is easy to clean. In addition, with the ends being open, they are designed so that another feeder can be added in the future by butting it up to the current feeder and over lapping the ends creating one continuous feeder.

I am SOOOO proud of this feeder and SOOOO thankful for someone being thoughtful and caring and making it for us. Thank you Matt!!!!!

Note: I think he would make these feeders for others by special order. If you want one, let me know and I can put you in touch with him.

Random Photos Of Some Of The Goats

2011-09-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Here are just some random photos of some of the girls.

Some of the younger girls. These girls are between 3 and 6 months old and will one day be a part of the milking girls.

This is Norma. Norma is a very special girl to me. If you haven't read the story about Norman, then please do. Then you will know why she is so special. Norma is a full sister to Norman.

A group of yearlings getting their chance at the dinner table before we let the rest of the girls in.

The pictures above and below: Dinner time for most of the herd. This is what 54 does look like all eating at the same time. Of course the rest of the herd was served their dinner in their own pen/pasture.

Good Dogs Gone Bad????

2011-09-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

The new livestock guardian dog pups are now about 3 months old. For the most part it seems that they are really good pups. Shasta has taken the reign on their training, as we had hoped, and "most" of the time she has them in the goat pastures with her or if it is milking time then she makes them come into the holding area with her and goats.

Shasta with Tess (what you can't see is that the goats are just to the left of the dogs eating their dinner)

Tess

Mya

Cammie (about 8 1/2 months old now)
Not a livestock guardian dog, however she is suppose to be a herding dog and she is definitely my little buddy now.

Cammie

Now.........Remember that I said that Shasta has the pups in the goat pasture most of the time........Well, she does seem to let them have a little R & R time in the evenings. I'm wondering if maybe she should re-think this policy.

Just who I thought was tearing up the cushions on our swing. :(

What we didn't know is that Cammie was also one of the culprits. I guess there is a reason that Shasta wouldn't let the pups play with her when they first arrived at the farm.

Reflections From A Question

2011-08-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

We did a farm tour today with an extremely nice couple from way over yonder on the other side of town. Farm tours always make me a bit nervous before hand because I really don’t know what people are expecting once they arrive at the farm. I much prefer to do tours in the winter and early spring when there are lots of babies to ooh and awe over and freshly planted gardens that show promise and hope. Anyway, here it is the end of August following a horrible drought. The gardens are burned up, the babies are six months old and there is just not a lot of exciting activities happening on the farm……and we are giving a farm tour.

The reason I am writing this is that, of the all the questions they had, the husband asked a question and then made a comment on my response that has had me reflecting on my response since they left. Well, after much thought, I stand by my response. Don’t get me wrong. He wasn’t derogatory in his statement to me. He was just stating a fact and I completely understand where he was coming from on that. Now….below is the jest of the conversation and then following that are some of my additional thoughts.

NOTE: Conversation is not verbatim.

Question: What do you do with goats that are no longer producing.

My Answer: Some will be sold, but some will stay here forever. We will basically have a geriatric ward.

His Response: That kind of hurts the bottom line.

My Answer: Yes, it can but some we have had since the beginning. They take care of us and we take care of them.

Now….. Here are some of my additional thoughts on this subject.

· S Some of these girls have been with us from the very beginning. We raised them from babies, bottle feeding them and tending to their every need.

W We have had one or two get severely ill and have spent nearly 24 hours a day for days on end doctoring and nursing and finally seeing health return to our beloved friend(s). Likewise, we have had a couple attacked by “stray” dogs and nearly killed. We kept vigil beside them for literally weeks while they mended.

· W We have braved the cold as well as the heat to take care of girls (and boys) because we could see that they were struggling. Did they thank us? Yes. In their own way. :)

· O Our “original” girls have taught US how to be goat farmers. They have endured it all while we learned! When we first started, we didn’t have a nice little barn. In fact, we didn’t have a barn at all. We were using one end of my dad’s barn for housing. We finally did get a barn (it was originally a kennel and low and behold is now actually our milk barn), but had no electricity ran to it. We milked for a full year by flash light. We finally got power to Chrys’ shop and then we ran an extension cord to the “barn” so that we could hang a drop light to milk. I think we milked that way for at least a year, maybe more. We finally got power ran to the barn and followed that with hot and cold water. :) They have taught us when to medicate and when to “wait and see”. They have taught us that sometimes it IS serious and sometimes they are just faking. LOL Yes, they DO have that thought process.

· T They have taught us that they are not just a herd of goats. They are each individuals with their own personality and their own funny (and sometimes frustrating) quirks. We have the bullies, the whiners, the loners, the tattle tails (That’s right! I said tattle tails!), the busy bodies. The personalities run the full gauntlet and although some can be frustrating from time to time we LOVE them ALL!

· W We have an old girl now that came to us last year. She is beyond her production years, but she will stay here until she crosses the rainbow bridge. Why? Why not! She came to us with her “family”. If she were to have to move to a new herd at this point in her life I believe that she would very soon die. She’s old. She eats slow and she is moving slow. To have to endure a move and go through the brutal hierarchy rituals that goats go through, I fear, would be too much for her. So……..she stays. :)

· W We don’t buy and sell and buy and sell and buy and sell goats. The goats we have are members of our family. Yes, some don’t work out, for whatever reason, and need to move to another home. Most, though, are literally members of our family. We care for them. They provide milk for us. When the time comes we will continue to care for them until the end. That’s what families do.

There are so many more reasons that some of these girls will never leave Canyon Ridge Farms and when I think of the time when some will be gone it brings tears to my eyes.

In conclusion, YES, Canyon Ridge Farms WILL have a geriatric ward providing love and nurturing care until the very end. It is the least we can do for some of these girls who have done SO much for us.

……..I may add more to this later, but right now my brain is running in a hundred different directions and my body is tired and says it is time for bed.

MEGA Turtle

2011-08-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

NOTE: This is another of my "Back To The Future" photos. I guess I still need to change the date on my camera. The date should read 08/11/2011.

After I finished up morning chores and cheese making I was getting the garbage together because today is trash day. Cammi (the Sheltie) was raising a ruckus outside so I went to investigate what of the many many dangers out there she was alerting me about this time. :)

This "BIG" guy (or girl) was making a march across the north end of the front garden heading to the pond that is right behind the house. He was absolutely HUGE!! His shell was at least a foot in diameter and his head was bigger than the palm of my hand (and I'm not one of those girls with pretty little dainty and petite hands).

He may be drop dead gorgeous to some other turtle, but I think he was kind of ugly and very pre-historic looking.

New To The Farm

2011-07-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Introductions are in order!

These two darling little girls have a future in the security system here at the farm. These girls are half Anatolian Shepherd and half Great Pyrenees, which is what our other three livestock guardian dogs are and we just love love LOVE this mix. :)

With Sadie being 7 and Shasta & Gypsy both being 5 now, we felt like it was a good time to get a couple of young recruits and let the older girls help train them. After all, experience trains well. :)

The little girl on the left with the black mask is Tess. The little blonde girl.....we are still debating on a name. Any suggetions?

( I guess I have the date messed up on my camera. The date should be 7/18/2011.)

My BFF

2011-06-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Introducing to you my BFF (Barn Frog Friend). He (or she) is waiting every morning in the same place which is on the board just above the latch to the holding area.

It seems that every year we have a "barn" frog and I guess this little one is this years frog.

He (or she) doesn't have a name yet and I am thinking of just calling him my BFF unless you all can come up with a better one. :)

Cammi

2011-06-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any pictures of Cammi lately. Meg took some good ones of her this weekend so I thought that this would be a good time to show you how much she has grown and how pretty she is. Cammi is now 8 months old and we have had her for 6 months....and YES....she still loves Chrys and Megan more than she does me although now that I am at the farm full time, she does follow me everywhere and always waits patiently nearby until I am done with whatever I am doing.

Now.....If I could just get her to round the goats up for me at milking time.....

Finally Finished!

2011-06-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

In April we took a flying trip to Pennsylvania to pick up our pasteurizer. It was a fast, long and hard trip but we accomplished our mission and had the added bonus of getting to see a little bit of the country that neither one of us had ever seen before.

Once we got back home, we jumped in and worked day and night (that's what it felt like anyway) to get the dairy and creamery finished. The good news is that as of June 2, 2011, Canyon Ridge Farms, LLC is officially a Grade A Goat Dairy AND a Grade A Milk Processing Facility. As a side note Canyon Ridge Farms is the 1st privately owned farm in the state of Oklahoma to be a licensed "ON FARM" processor of dairy goat products.

Anyway, below are some pictures of the completed project. We hope you enjoy seeing it as much as we enjoy sharing it with you.

Two compartment sink in the milk room used to clean the milking equipment.

The door on the right with the window is the outside entry door into the milkroom. The solid door on the left leads into the creamery.

This is the milk parlor where the girls come in twice daily to be milked. You can see the milk lines up above that take the milk directly to the bulk tank.

Another view of the milk parlor. The door in the middle leads into the housing barn. The door on the left leads into the holding area. By the way, YES! This area is air conditioned for the comfort of the girls AND the comfort of the people conducting the milking session. :)

Here is the creamery. You can see the refrigeration units, shelving and prep tables. The piece of equipment on the front table is the pump that pumps our milk from the tank to the bottles and/or pans. Both of the doors in this room with windows lead directly outside.

Another view of the creamery. The door at the back of this room leads into the milk room.

In this view, you can see the three compartment sink used to clean all of the utensils.

Another view of the refrigeration units and prep tables.

This is the bulk tank/pasteurizer and the chart recorder. This is the equipment that we went to Pennsylvania to pick up.

We hope you enjoyed the tour!

More Progress

2011-04-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

Another weekend has come and gone and another piece of the project is almost complete. We now have lights and power in the creamery!!! The only thing left to do on the electrical is to run power for the air conditioner. The creamery looks awesome all lit up, but I am wondering just how awesome it will all look at 3:00 in the morning. I'm thinking it may be just a little to much bright and a little to much white. LOL Now we need to put the base boards down and install the sinks. Oh and I still need to paint the doors and trim them out and then........we can set all of the equipment and the creamery will be DONE!!!!! With the completion of certain parts of this project it sure makes it feel like we are "almost" there. Getting Excited!

One Project Complete and a New Baby LaMancha!

2011-04-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

WOW! The septic tank was set in place on Friday afternoon and we spent a loooooong weekend working until dark, and later, both days getting the lateral lines in and covered and hooking everything up to the tank. BUT...It is in and that is one project that I don't think I want to repeat anytime soon. On a bright note: When I got home from work yesterday Ciarra had presented us with a new baby! This is the first LaMancha baby we have ever had. I think she is sooooo cute. I have decided that all of the LaMancha babies will be named after elfs. This first baby gets the honor of being named Tinker Bell. :) It's kind of funny. As early as January I still would NOT have ever owned a LaMancha (it's an ear thing with me..lol). In February we purchased the herd of goats from Colorado and there were 4 LaMancha and 2 LaMancha/Nubian crosses. I accepted them as part of the package. After about month or so I was ready for some LaMancha babies because I wanted to 'see" them. NOW....I think Tinker Bell is about the cutest little thing I have ever seen. :) I am thinking that I do like the LaMancha girls. Below are pictures of Tinker Bell and her momma, Ciarra.

The Septic System

2011-03-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

We rented the equipment and Chrys dug the hole for the septic tank and the trenches for the lateral lines this past weekend. It was a job that took a full two days (see previous blog) and Chrys was sure tired by the time it was over. They are suppose to deliver the septic tank tomorrow and then hopefully we won't get to much rain until we get the lateral lines in and ditches filled back in.

Septic Digging for the Dairy

2011-03-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

While digging the hole for the septic tank that will service the milk barn and creamery we ran into a ledge of solid rock. We finally had to go rent a jackhammer to assist in the removal of the rock. While Chrys was trying to hammer through the rock I kept telling him that I was just certain that he was either going to strike oil or hit a mega diamond vein. :) I'm pretty sure that he was getting slightly annoyed with me. I guess taking pictures of big rocks is like taking pictures of mountains. You just never get the same effect. The rocks which we trying to remove were actually quite large even though they don't look that way in the pictures.

Greenhouse Items

2011-03-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

Here are just a couple of snap shots of the some of the things in the greenhouse. These seedlings are right at a week old when I took the pictures.

Spinach

Fancy Greens

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Cammi

2011-03-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

I have several things to update on today, but I am going to put them into a couple of blogs to kind of keep the information seperate. First is just a couple of pictures of Cammi. She is sure growing! And she is always in perpetual motion so getting a decent picture is no easy task. Cammi is, evidentally, a "collector". She has all of these "treasures" that she collects and she wants to keep them all right by the door of the milk barn. It is really kind of cute , but it is annoying too. It gets to looking pretty trashy (even though these things are treasures) and I have no idea where she finds all of this stuff!

2011-03-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

An article on the Tahlequah Farmers' Market that includes a nice little write-up about us. Thanks Tahlequah Daily Press!

http://tahlequahdailypress.com/local/x977553107/Homegrown-heaven

Spring Break

2011-03-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent the first couple of days of my spring break doing some much needed catch-up on paperwork. Took one day and drove to Missouri to pick up some more parts for the milk line. On Thursday I actually got into the green house and started replanting some things in there. If we hadn't lost everything in the Arctic blast that we had in February then we could have been planting in the garden last week instead. :( We took the bull and a calf to the sale on Saturday. Pleased with the sale price, but really kind of miss the bull already. Maggie had her babies on Saturday (Finally!). One doeling and one buckling. Two doelings went to their new home. I think they will be very loved......and spoiled. Chrys is nearing the end of installing the milk line (we hope) and I was able to get some more painting done in the milk barn. Last night as we were heading into the house from chores (well after dark) we discovered that Izzy finally had her calf. A little heifer. :)

And now.......just a few pictures......

The seed trays that I just planted this week.

Some of the doe kids that we have for sale.

A couple more of the doe kids that we have for sale......although the spotted won't take a bottle so we have to latch her on morning and night so she can't leave until she is weaned......(and why sell her then??)

Maggie's little doeling that was born on Saturday.

Maggie and her babies.

I am actually thinking about keeping the buckling for a future herd sire. If he passes along his dam's awesome milking ability coupled with his sire's milk lines........WOW!!!!

New Homes For Baby Goats

2011-03-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

All 12 wethers went to their new home today. :) That sure took a lot off our feed bill but more importantly, it took a lot off of our chore time.

Still feeding 22 bottle doelings. :)

My Morning...

2011-03-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

Got up on time at 3:30. :)
Put the coffee on, grabbed a can of Mountain Dew and headed to the barn.
Arrived at the barn just after the birth of Halo's twins (1 doeling & 1 buckling)
Moved Halo and the twins to the other barn.
Went to milk barn and prepared everything for milking.
Milked 18 does by hand.
Prepared milk for all of the babies.
Went to kid barn and fed 30 babies.
You would think eating is a natural survival instinct, but one pen of babies is just not getting it. Had to bottle feed each one individually (on my lap).
Milked down the new momma and made sure her babies had colostrum in their tummies.
Went back to the doe barn, checked everyone one last time and opened the door to the pasture.
Chrys started washing up from milking and feeding babies so I went to the house.
Walked in the door and looked at the clock.......running 25 minutes late!
Oh well...........take down the cheese that was draining and salted and seasoned (a new flavor I'm trying), put it in the press and then the fridge.
Chrys comes in so I ask him to drain the other batch of cheese I had going.
Jump in the shower.
Put on my make-up and do my hair (this kind of "beauty" doesn't just happen...LOL).
Get dressed.
Head out the door.
Had to stop and get gas because I was to tired last night to do it.
My daddy and 2 neighbors were at the gas station and all wanted to visit.
Ran into the store to grab me something to eat for breakfast.
Got to work and clocked in..........ON TIME! :)

Now I can rest a little bit until 4:00 then it is time to head home and start all over again.......I LOVE MY LIFE! :)

Barn Helper

2011-03-03T12:55:00.001-08:00

Peyton came over last night and was helping in the barn. She has SOOOO much fun in the baby pens. Realize that she has always been scared of the animals, so this is a major step.

In this picture, Peyton had "locked" the gate back. If you are familiar with type of latch and goats then you know that as they get older they are very adept at opening these latches so you have to keep something in the little hole underneath to prevent escape. Peyton understood the concept, but just not quite where to put the hook. Notice the hook is hung over the top of the latch.

Helping Nanya bottle feed a new baby goat.

Carrying feed to the bucks.

Doing Nanya's dishes in the milk barn. Notice the very durable yet stylish muck boots (just like Nanya's).

More dishes.

She had so much fun and so did I just watching her. I can't wait till she comes back to help again. And yes, she did get paid for helping. :)

Norma

2011-03-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

I will give you a bit of history here.

In the spring of 2009, I had the opportunity to purchase an "unregistered" buckling out or some excellent stock at a great price. Needless to say, I jumped on it. :) Well, this little guys sire's name was Longman's SA Arousing Cheers. I decided to play off of the Cheers portion of his name thinking of the Cheers sitcom. Sooo....I named my little buckling Norman. Liking the thought that he would be so striking that every time he walked into the barn, all of the girls would yell "NORM!" I know, corny, but it worked for me. :) Norman was the sweetest little guy. He was always calm and easy going and oh so so loving. The picture below was taken of him at 1 year and one week of age.

In October, I think, the lady who we purchased Norman from called and offered us his dam and his sire. We, of course, waisted no time in heading to her place to pick them up.

Well last summer in 2009 we lost Norman to urinary calculi.....More accurately, he got urinary calculi and we thought we had him over it. He got it again (or maybe still had it) and we couldn't get him through it. If you have ever seen an animal with urinary calculi, it is horribly agonizing and painful. I finally asked my husband to put him down. That was very very difficult for both us.

This past fall, we lost Norman's sire, Cheers, to pneumonia. This was really really bad to. Fortunately, we had given my brother one of Norman's full brothers from the 2010 litter. Even better than that, My brother gave him back to me. :) By the way, his name is Woody (from the character on the Cheers sitcom).

Prior to Cheers passing, he had bred all of the does who are kidding now including Norman's dam, Rosie. On Monday, March 1, 2011, Rosie presented us with a single doe kid. This little doeling, who is not so little, is slightly darker in color than Norman was, but she has the same gray undercoating and seems like she will have a great disposition like Norman did as well.

This is one goat that I didn't have to spend any time on thinking of a name that fit her. I looked at her and immediately new that her name was..........NORMA!

Pictures coming soon!

Baby Goat Updates

2011-03-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

Wow! It has been well over a week since I have posted. We have been having baby goats "everywhere"! :) Kidding season is one of my very favorite times. It is always so exciting! You get all of the anticipation of a child waiting for Christmas morning. Dreaming and trying to guess just exactly what you are going to get. Then, just like Christmas morning, you get to finally unwrap the present and see what that special goat or goats brought you. Then.....the work really begins. Milking the does, feeding the babies, getting everyone adjusted, making room for the next doe who is getting ready to kid "any second". Exhillarating and Exhausting! :)

Here is a brief run down of who has had what.

2/2/11

Sage delivered 1 doe and 1 buck during that extremely cold snap that we had. Both were DOA

2/16/11

Spirit delivered 2 doe kids

2/19/11

Sugar had 2 doe kids - These were the preemies and they are doing very very well now.

2/21/11

Playdoe had 1 doe and 1 buck

2/23/11

Mozli had 1 doe and 2 bucks

Helga had 2 bucks

Molly had 1 buck

2/24/11

Slide had 1 doe and 1 buck

2/25/11

Dottie delivered 1 doe kid

Splash had 1 buck

2/26/11

Malya had 1 doe and 1 buck (the buckling died on 3/2/11)

Thunder delivered 2 doe kids

Starla had 2 doe kids

2/28/11

Funny Face had 1 doe kid

3/1/11

Rosie delivered 1 doe kid

Jynger delivered 1 doe and 1 buck

3/2/11

Pepper delivered 1 doe and 1 buck

Gabby had 1 doe

If you were counting (and if I didn't miss anyone) that is 16 does that have freshened with 19 doelings and 11 bucklings. We have 18 doelings and 9 bucklings, 27 kids in all, that survived.

We still have 7 and hopefully 8 does in our original herd left to kid anytime. In the new herd that we just got from Colorado it looks like there are 2 or 3 that could kid soon. Then we get a small break from kidding before we go into round two.

Preemies

2011-02-21T13:01:00.001-08:00

As of last Thursday, Sugar had been really sick. I really think that she had pregnancy toxemia and was treating her for that. I was really scared that we were going to loose her but on Saturday, February 19th, Canyon Ridge Farm Sugar blessed us with 2 little preemie girls.

I think that they must have been about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks early. Their hair coat is thin, their hooves are soft and their teeth haven't come through the gums yet.

I found them within probably 20-30 minutes of them being born, but they were small, cold and weak. I got them in the house and we all started warming them up, first in very very warm water then by drying them with a blow dryer and was able to get their body temperature up. We then tried feeding them some colostrum. The bigger one, Splenda, was able to drink from a bottle. The smaller one, Sugar Kayne, had to be fed through a syringe for her first two feedings. After that she was able to start sucking a bottle. (notice the play off of their dam's name).

Sugar continued to be pretty sick and was not passing her afterbirth. We finally got her to pass the afterbirth late Saturday night and then have continued giving her karo syrup for energy as well as a B vitamin shot to help increase her appetite. Finally, this morning (Monday), she is starting to act like she is feeling better.

The babies are doing great! Eating, peeing, pooping and sleeping and have taken up residence in the house beside the wood stove. These pictures were taken Sunday afternoon when they both stood (rather wobbly) for the first time.

This is Kayne. Notice how thin her hair is.
Kayne has some unusual and pretty coloring on her face and legs.

Here are both girls. Kayne standing and Splenda laying down.

Here is Spenda standing. Notice the moon spots on her side.

Both of these darling little girls were sired by Longman's SA Arousing Cheers.

Babies

2011-02-21T12:54:00.000-08:00

R C Goats Ft. Spirit Flyer blessed us with 2 little doelings on February 16th.

This is Sally

This is Amelia

The Originals & The Newcomers

2011-02-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few pictures of the dairy herd. The ones with the red string "necklaces" are the new girls. All of the others are part of the original herd.

See the Lamancha does to the left. They look kind of funny next to all of the long eared girls.

More of the new girls.

These around the hay feeder are mostly the orignal does.

More of the original does around the hay feeder.

New Goats

2011-02-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

Sunday and Monday we made a trip to (and from) Colorado Springs, CO to pick up a herd of 35 dairy goats that we had located. Chrys and I along with my Mom & Daddy loaded up two trailers and supplies and headed out bright and early (4:00 am) Sunday morning. We arrived there, after an uneventful trip, at about 6:30 pm. After taking a quick look at the herd in the dark and visiting with Caren, the herd owner, for a bit we headed off to eat dinner and find a much needed motel.

Following a good nights sleep we arrived back out at the farm about 7:30 am and proceeded to load out the goats. This was pretty interesting because they just couldn't understand why their whole routine was being disturbed, but it went pretty well and we were loaded and back on the road by about 8:30 am.

The trip home was a little longer because we traveled a little slower and made more frequent stops to check on the girls but we finally arrived back at Canyon Ridge Farms at 12:30 am Tuesday morning. By a little after 2:00 am the girls were all unloaded and bedded down for the night with plenty of fresh water and hay. At this point we head to the house to CRASH!

Despite the long hard traveling day, the girls endured very well. I actually think that they endured much better than we did. :)

I am SOOOO thankful for our daughters, Megan & Kymberly, who took care of our critters at home and everything else around the farm while were gone. They are the best!

Despite everything, none of the does kidded on the trip. We were afraid that some might since their due dates were so close and we prepaired for that possibility by packing and taking along needed supplies for such a situation. The does spent time adjusting to everything on Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon, the first doe from the new herd presented us with twin doelings. I can't wait to see what the rest of them present us with.

I almost forgot.........Most of this new herd is Nubian but there are 4 Lamancha and 2 Nubian/Lamancha crosses. This is interesting for us since we have Never Ever owned a Lamancha. :) Of course I don't guess it matters as long as they produce plenty of good tasting milk.

Cammi Jo

2011-02-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

Cammi Jo is 8 weeks old now and has been a member of our family for 2 weeks (tomorrow). The first few days she did really well on her house training and then.......the snow storms hit. Really for the most part she is still doing really well. She loves her treats and those have not only helped in potty training but in teaching her to "sit" as well. She is actually doing very very well with that command.

This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard this strange noise and couldn't quite place what it was. A few minutes later Chrys comes back to the bedroom carrying Cammi and said, "Did you hear her?" Then her proceeds to open her mouth and show me a very bloody tongue! It seems that Chrys was stoking the fire before we left and little miss Cammi followed him out to the porch where we have a metal wood rack. Cammi proceeded to "lick" the metal and her tongue became stuck! Chrys was trying to get some warm water to "unstick" her tongue when she pulled it off of the metal. Poor baby! I hope she doesn't do that again, but I checked with Megan a little later and she said that she is acting fine.

LOL.......another day on the farm. :)

More Snow

2011-02-09T16:57:00.000-08:00

We were blessed with another 5-6 inches of snow today. We have broken several records for Oklahoma this year.......maybe we shouldn't be so competitive. :) The goats are all fairing well. They have been spending all of their time in the barn eating hay. We are so thankful that we had this new housing barn for the girls this year. It has made this loooong winter storm(s) much more bearable for them. On the bright side we should be seeing temperatures in the low to mid 50s by the weekend and low to mid 60s for the first part of next week. Gotta love Oklahoma weather! Below are some pictures of the snow storms.

These first pictures are from last Friday's storm.

The Greenhouse covered in snow.

View of the pond from our back door.

View of the house from the barn.

View from the back porch of the yard garden and the S.E. pasture.

Pretty little squirrel sitting on the back of the chair under the tree.

These pictures were taken of today's storm.

Above pictures were taken at 6:30 am.

These pictures are were taken at about 7:00 am

Winter Weather

2011-02-03T05:32:00.000-08:00

Cold Cold Miserable Winter Weather!

The February blizzard of 2011 set in with a fury and left few unscathed. Canyon Ridge Farms was no exception. The snow fall amounts could have been worse. The snow drifts were pretty crazy. The temperatures, almost unbearable for man and beast.

We made it through the actual storm portion of this event without incident. Chrys had to work so the girls and I held the fort down. I am thankful that my work has been closed so that I didn't have to worry about that while taking care of the farm and critters.

Yesterday morning when I went out to do the morning chores we had a doe who had kidded. She lost both babies, a doeling and a buckling, to the cold. She had gotten them both clean and dry, but I guess it was just to cold. She, Sage, wasn't due for another 20 days.

None of them were due for another 20 days! I would have thought that that would have given plenty of time, even with an early delivery, to get past this major cold snap. We had a couple of the other does that acted like they were in the early stages of labor yesterday, one even with discharge but now I think it was just her mucus plug.....guess she has more than most.

Many of the does really really struggled with the cold yesterday. Last night we stole the heaters out of the greenhouse and set them up in the barn. We then took shifts all night to make sure that none of the goats got to close to the heaters or knocked them over and started a fire. The goats were really quite cute. They would kind of form a half circle around the heaters and just stand there. Some would stay for long periods of time and others would just come over to warm up and then move over to the hay feeder to stock up on groceries again. I am relatively certain that we probably lost everything in the greenhouse last night, but I am also pretty sure that that was correct thing to do for the goats.

It is time for my shift at the barn again. I get to milk on my shift.......I wasn't planning on milking for at least 20 more days, but then we have been complaining about having to buy milk to. :)

Have a Blessed and warm day!

Weekend of Progress

2011-01-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

It was a productive weekend. :)

Friday evening we went to pick up the newest addition to our farm family. Camouflage (aka Cammie) is a six week old Shetland Sheepdog. She is very very cute and "already" very very spoiled.

On Saturday we went to town and picked up a few supplies then we spent the afternoon trimming the goats feet and giving annual vaccines. Saturday evening we went to the winter meeting for the Tahlequah Farmers' Market. There was a good attendance and it looks like it will be another great market year.

Sunday was a good day. We got door #7 installed on the dairy barn and we also got all of the batting strips up on the ceiling of the creamery. Daddy is working today on getting the first coat of paint on those and then some caulking and another coat of paint and the ceiling will be done.

This evening will be spent making final preparations for this horrible winter storm that is suppose to assault us beginning tonight. I will get all of the feed barrels filled during my lunch hour today then will stop by the grocery store on the way home this evening. Once we get home we will make sure that the diesel and fuel cans are full, the wood supply by the door is full, the generator is operating properly and all of the extension cords are handy. We will also make certain that all of the critters have their hay feeders full and are tucked snugly into their appropriate housing area.

I will be very glad when winter is over, but I am thankful right now that it is still a full three weeks before our kidding season begins.

Stay safe and warm! We'll report in as time and weather conditions allow.

DOORS

2011-01-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

Can there ever be to many doors???? Maybe. :)

We are still working on the dairy barn and creamery. Tonight we plan to hang the "6th door" and maybe even get the "7th door" hung. That is a bunch of doors! Amazingly though, we use every single one of them already.

Here is how they add up:
* 2 doors into the creamery from the outside
* 1 door between the creamery and the milk room
* 1 door into the milk room from the outside
* 1 door between the milk room and the milk parlor
* 1 door from the milk parlor to the mechanical area
* 1 door from the milk parlor to the housing barn

We may have to add doors #8 & #9 which was in the original plan, but we are changing that plan just a bit and hopefully our dairy inspector will agree that the "New Plan" will work just fine if not better than the original one. :)

Greenhouse

2011-01-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

We held a "Planting Party" with our kids last night. We had pizza and soda pop and lots of fun! And.......we even managed to get over 6,000 seeds planted and nestled into the greenhouse.

We should soon be seeing our little seedlings breaking through the soil and oh I can not wait to be tasting some of that "super" spinach, "lavish" lettuce and "gorgeous" greens! It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. mmmm.........

Weekend Progress

2011-01-16T18:55:00.001-08:00

We started out the weekend by gathering a few supplies for the construction project. When we got back home it was such a nice morning with NO wind, which has been the kind of morning that is hard to come by lately. With such a nice morning we decided to get the plastic on the greenhouse, which we should have already had done. We have been so caught up in working on the dairy stuff that garden stuff just kind of fell behind. Anyway, the greenhouse is now ready to go and we are holding a planting party in the greenhouse tomorrow evening complete with pizza and soda pop. :) Should be fun!

The creamery came a long way this weekend as well. All of the FRP is up in the creamery. Now we need to put the trim up on the ceiling and in the corners and put the base down. Creamery....90% complete!!!!!!!!!

The creamery walls before putting up the FRP panels.

The creamery walls after putting up the FRP panels.

Dairy Update

2011-01-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

Well.....

The housing barn is complete!

The milk barn is probably 80% complete. We still have to install 3 doors, some curbs and paint again. Then it will be ready to hook up the milk line. Oh.......we need to install the septic system to.

The creamery is probably about 80% complete as well, but it should be about 90% complete by the end of the weekend. This weekend we will install the FRP (fiberglass panels) that will line the walls. After that it will just be running the wiring and plumbing and those are both going to be surface mount so although it is a job, it won't be that bad.

We hope to be finished with the above list of things by the end of the month, but in reality it will probably be closer to the middle of February. At that point it will just be a matter of waiting for our pasteurizer to be ready and after that we will need to get our final inspections and receive our permits to begin operation.

COLD COLD COLD

2011-01-13T08:37:00.000-08:00

WOW! What miserable, cold weather we have been having. Saturday was fairly nice. Sunday started out nice but by about 3 or 4 o'clock that changed. Temps have been in the single digits and low teens since then. Now on Thursday, at 10:39 am, it is finally above 20 degrees. I sure hope this signals a warming trend.

All of the critters have faired well. All of the goaties have been holed up in their new housing barn. I sure am thankful for that this year. The other thing that I am thankful for is that for the first year EVER we did not breed to kid out in December and January. It feels so weird to not be milking and caring for babies in this arctic weather. We will start kidding out around the middle of February though, however, it is usually starting to warm fairly nicely by that time.

On Saturday we went to Missouri and picked up the FRP panels for the inside of the new creamery. After we left there we came back into Oklahoma and headed to Tulsa to Sam's to pick up the new prep tables and shelving units for the creamery.

On Monday since my work was closed, I got the first coat of paint on the ceiling of the new creamery. Dad helped me out and put another coat of paint on Tuesday. Last night Chrys caulked all of the nail holes on the ceiling and tonight we will put on the final coat of paint on the ceiling.

New Year!

2011-01-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

It has been several days since I have posted and a LOT of things have been accomplished since my last blog.

* We have put up new metal siding on the wings of the milk barn. These wings will be the holding area/feed room and the exit area/mechanical room.

* The interior of the milk barn has been cleaned, all seems and joints have been caulked and the first coat of new paint has been applied.

* The interior stud walls of the new creamery are up, the insulation is in and the wafer board is up!

* We divided up the younger does who have not been bred yet and gave each of the young bucks their own harem. The first babies for the younger group should begin arriving around the 25th of May.

In other news - The mature girls are all starting to get big bellies. These girls should start kidding about February 22nd. I always love kidding season. It is so exciting to see what each doe has and there is absolutely nothing cuter than a baby goat.........except our grandbabies. :)

SOOO.....with kidding season fast approaching, it now becoming imperative that we get the dairy barn completed in a timely fashion. It'll happen. :)

Kitty Prints

2010-12-16T18:43:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we poured the floors for the holding area and the exit area/mechanical room in the dairy barn. Finished the holding area and moved to the exit area. Went back to the holding area and there were the prettiest little kitty foot prints in the cement. My husband asked if I wanted him to fix it. I said, "NOPE! These are special." So now we have nice little kitty prints in our milk barn courtesy of Rylie the barn cat. :)

My Favorite Time of Year....one of them anyway :)

2010-12-14T13:08:00.001-08:00

It's the middle of December and this is truly one of my favorite times of year. Yes, it's the holiday season, but who cares?! I have seed catalogs!!!!!!

That's right! It's cold outside, the fire is warm and the seed catalogs are calling my name!

As I pour over all of the beautiful plants in my catalogs my mind starts to wonder and I imagine my gardens as they will be come spring and summer. As the signs of spring emerge, so do all of my beautiful garden plants. I have lettuce, onions, spinach, radishes and carrots. I have broccoli and potatoes and the most gorgeous sugar snap peas you have ever seen! As spring time warms we are planting tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash, melons and on and on. The gardens are by far the most gorgeous gardens you have ever seen! All of the plants are big and tall and strong! The soil is dark, rich and fertile and there is not a weed in sight!

Still in my mind I am looking at the wonderful bounty that we are harvesting from our gardens and taking to the area farmer's markets. All of the local market clientele are just as thrilled as we are with the bounty of the harvest and as much as we enjoy sharing our harvest with our clients we are relishing in the annual renewal of those friendships!

After several hours of sitting with my catalogs open while staring blankly into space I slowly come back into reality and as I close my catalogs for the evening I know that only one portion of the above dream will be easy. That portion is the annual friendship renewal, but the other parts of the dream are what makes farmers farmers. Without the dream, it is all for naught.
As long we have anticipation and expectations the American (or is it HUMAN) dream lives on.

So I do my chores and hurry through dinner so that I can once again get back to my seed catalogs and stare off into space until I am called back to reality and head off to bed with the eagerness of child knowing that I will get to "re-live" the experience again tomorrow evening.

Have a GREAT night and we'll see you at the market!

News or Lack Thereof

2010-12-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while. :(

I was sick for a full week then spent a week preparing for my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary, which turned out GREAT by the way. Then spent a week preparing for Thanksgiving, which was also Wonderful!

Today our dairy inspector came out for a "progress" visit. He was just looking to see what all we have gotten done on the new dairy and creamery and to answer some of our questions. The visit went really well and he answered a lot of questions favorably. Chrys and I both felt very good after he left. I think we are on the right track. :)

.......on the other hand I am so ready to be done with the construction part of this and get on to kidding season then milking and making cheese. This should prove to be a very interesting venture. :)

Weekend Productivity

2010-11-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was VERY productive!

We finally managed to get all of the outside insulation and metal onto the new creamery. We still have some trim to put on, but the doors are installed and the walls are up so at least we are dried in and can work "inside" throughout the upcoming winter days.

I didn't get any pictures this weekend, but will try to get some tonight and post them on here tomorrow.

It feels sooo good to be another step closer to our goal. :)

SADIE WORKING......or not.....

2010-11-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

The big brave livestock guardian dog is not so big and brave when it comes to the sound of a gun shot (or the site of a spot light for that matter). Last night Sadie pushed her way in the house when Megan came home then promptly took up post beside the wood stove. Meg layed down on the rug with her and they both snoozed for a bit, then Sadie had to go back outside to help the other two LGDs with their goat herd responsibilities for the night.

Makes me really wonder what all kinds of trouble Sadie got into in her pre-Canyon Ridge Farms days. :)

.....PROGRESS.....

2010-10-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since I have posted.

I was off work (from my day job) most of last week. This afforded some daytime hours to be working on the milk barn and creamery. There wasn't that much visual progress, but I was sure busy all week. I did get a trench dug from the end of the new creamery to the South end of the milk barn for our drains (sure hope they are deep enough). It was hard work because every bit had to be dug by hand but Megan and Peyton helped so that made it better. Below are pictures of Peyton helping. :)

Kymberly cleaned out the milk parlor and milk room. With all of the construction going on this is an endless job. She also went around adding more screws to the interior and exterior walls of the milk barn.

Yesterday was a looong day to Oklahoma City. Very very tired by the time we got home but this morning........it proved to be well worth the trip. More on this to come later..... :)

Creamery Construction

2010-10-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

Below are a couple of pictures of the new creamery while in construction.

You can see where it will attach to the current milk barn.

This is a 16x32 structure.

Below are pictures of the drainage pipes in the creamery prior to the slab floor being poured.

More pictures to come as I get time to post.

Productive Day

2010-10-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

This turned out to be a fairly productive day. I got the pump room cleaned out and threw out and burned a lot of stuff that was just taking up space. Once that was done I went to work on cleaning stuff out of the milk barn. Sounds fairly easy? Well, not only were all of the milking supplies and misc. stuff needed for the goats in there, but all of the tools and misc. supplies that we have been using for the construction projects were in there as well. I left most of the construction supplies and tools since we are not done with the projects yet, but most everything else has been moved out and stored in the pump room.

Put the little girls out on the front pasture today since I was home and could keep an eye on them. Also put Tecumseh out in the little girls pasture while they were out front. He didn't seem as impressed as I thought he would be, but we did get to spend some one on one time today and that is always a good thing. :)

More Barn Remodel

2010-10-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of the "old" barn and milk parlor prior to construction.

This view is from the north end with housing on either side and the milk parlor and milk room in the middle.

The new housing barn is on the south end (you can see a "hint" of the roof sticking out above the old barn).

The new processing facility will be on the north end of the milk barn and will be a 16x32 structure.

The "old" barn will continue to be the milk parlor and milk room in the middle with a feed room and holding area on the east side and a storage room and mechanical area along with the exit area on the west side.

We will post more pictures and information as everything pulls together.

2010 Breeding Season

2010-09-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

The 2010 breeding season has officially begun! We put our senior buck, Longman's SA Arousing Cheers, in with the older girls on Saturday. Both Cheers and all of the girls seem quite happy now. :)

Our junior buck, Tecumseh, is a little sad because he is now all alone, but he is not nearly as whiny as I thought that he would be.

Below is a picture of Cheers. I really need to get a good one of him when he is not in rut but for now, this is all I have.

Longman's SA Arousing Cheers

Here is also a picture of Cheers dam and sire.

dam: Longman's Baron's Ariella 11*M

sire: Longman's Serenade's Salute +*B

Jane Doe

2010-09-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is Jane Doe, affectionately known as Janey.

A week ago, we woke up to find Janey with a broken leg.

The only thing that we could figure is that she got her leg hung up in something. :(

We set her leg in a splint and wrapped it good, then this weekend we took the splint off and then re-wrapped it in vet wrap. It is still quite sore for her, but she is tough and is getting around really well considering.

We have several pretty colors of vet wrap so that as we have to re-wrap Janey's leg she can be the most stylish goat in the paddock. :)

LIVESTOCK GUARDIAN DOGS

2010-09-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

Guardians for your livestock are essential. Don't believe me? Check out our Livestock Guardian Dog page on our website at www.canyonridgefarms.com and read our story about the importance of livestock protection on our Livestock Guardian Dog page.

All three of our girls are part Anatolian Shepard and part Great Pyrenees. I truly love this mix.

This is Sadie and her favorite person in the whole entire world. I don't guess I blame her. He is my favorite person in the world too. :)

This is Shasta. This is not a good picture of her because she is an absolutely gorgeous girl and normally doesn't have that silly look on her face. Shasta is the the girl that is almost always right with the goats. The other girls guard perimeters and area but the goats belong to Shasta.

This is Gypsy. Gypsy and Shasta are full sisters and littermates. For some reason Gypsy didn't want to look towards the camera at all when I was taking pictures.

Sadie and Shasta

2010 Doelings

2010-09-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Not much to post today.

We have enjoyed the rain and cooler weather that we have gotten the last couple of days.

Below are just some pictures of the 2010 doelings. These girls will be added to our milk line next year. There are 16 girls in this group.

Relaxing under a tree.

Here are the girls when they saw me come out and I guess they figured they would come up just to see if they could talk me into feeding them ....... "again".

Here is a shot of the young girls playing on the composting hay pile.

This is Latte perched atop the "temporary housing" for the young girls. We are using this trailer as their housing while we are doing construction with the new housing barn and milk barn.

Blessings

2010-09-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

I arrived home from work yesterday ready to start putting more screws into the metal on the new housing barn. What a wonderful surprise I had to see that all of the screws on the east side of the barn were already in. I was told that the barn fairies arrived about mid day and took care of that little chore............I LOVE my Daddy! :)

New Housing Barn

2010-09-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

It was a very productive weekend! We actually got the metal on the roof and the metal on the side walls of the barn. We still have to completely secure all of the metal, put the ridge cap on the roof and put metal up on the gable ends but after "all" of that all we have to do is trim it out and build the sliding doors (3 of them), OH and bring in more fill dirt......and then it is done! :)

View of the inside from the milking parlor.

Kymberly is helping Chrys cut a sheet of metal and it

looks like daddy is watching the goats again. This is a view of the east side of the new housing barn.

You can see on the fright where it attaches to the holding area of the milk barn.

Another view of the east side of the barn and a better view of where
it will attach to the milk barn.
Also notice Sadie (one of the livestock guardian dogs) checking things out.

A shot of the south end.

Another shot of the south end.

That's it for now. More pictures will be posted as soon as we progress on this project.

First Cool Day

2010-08-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

WOW! We are having a wonderfully cool day. :)

After so many weeks of 100 degree weather it is 86 degrees right now at 2:00 this afternoon and it is suppose to be even cooler tomorrow. This is such a welcome relief to us and I can only imagine how nice it is for the critters. Now if we could just add a little bit of rain, the ground, plants and trees could sure use it.

Housing Barn

2010-08-16T07:32:00.001-07:00

The first image is a view of the barn just prior to starting the new addition. You are looking at if from the South end. At this point, housing for the goats is on each side and the milk parlor is in the middle. The new housing barn is attached to the South end of the existing structure and will be a 24 x 50 x 10. We hope to have the trusses set this week so that we can start putting the metal on next weekend......if the weather cools enough.

PICTURES

2010-08-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

These are just some random pictures of some of our babies from this year.

Here they are all following Megan with the feed bucket. It was getting dark so it is hard to see, but they are so cute!

This picture was taken just prior to the previous one. They are exploring the freshly tilled garden.

The two pictures below are just the babies exploring and eating fresh grass and weeds along the driveway.

The spotted one in the last picture is Pynk Baby Goat (named by our 2 year old granddaughter). We affectionately call he Pynkie. I bet no one else in the world has a "pink" goat. LOL :)

Baby Goats

2010-08-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

......I guess I am a sucker! I went to look at some goats the other evening. The pictures posted on the internet looked alright so I thought I would take a gander at them.

We got there and it was so sad. Both of the mature does literally looked like a bag of bones. They were lethargic and had the runs. The buck didn't look much better and he had a bad foot on top of all of that. There were three little doelings with the youngest being about a month old and the other two being about 2 months old. These poor babies are not much bigger than my newborns. Their hair coats are rough and their bellies are huge. They look like little starving orphans from a third world country. :(

Well.......I guess Chrys couldn't stand it either (he really is a softy :) ). We just didn't have a place to keep the older three separated from the herd and honestly, at least one of the does may not have made it through the night. We did go ahead and bring the three little doelings home with us. They have their own little deluxe accommodations in the barn with an outside pen and a fan plugged in to give them a breeze inside.

We started the de-worming ritual on them when we brought them home. They have received their shots and now have all of the hay, weeds and grain that they want to eat. I am giving them a bottle twice a day, but I guess they as so used to not getting enough that they don't drink much. My normal babies would be drinking a gallon per day "each" and these little girls are not quite drinking a gallon between the three of them.

Oh! They have names now too! :)
The smallest one is Jersey
The biggest one is Penny
and the middle one is Aurora

I don't have pictures yet but I guess I need to post some on here so that when these girls are big and beautiful that we can all see the difference.

Goats and Projects

2010-08-09T06:39:00.001-07:00

We went to Little Rock, Arkansas on Saturday evening and picked up 5 really pretty Nubian does. The old girl is name Rusti and the middle aged girl is named Mozli (these were the names that they came with). I have figured out names for the twins (4-5 months old). They are Mocha Swirl and Frappe'. I still have yet to decide on a name for the yearling.

Mozli has some problems with her front hooves. It appears that she has been foundered. :( Chrys and I got her down yesterday.......got her on the milk stank, laid her down, I laid on top of her while Chrys worked on her feet........and was actually able to take about 3/8-1/2 inch off of her front hooves before it started getting tender. There is still along ways to go, but at least we are headed in the right direction.

The construction on the new housing barn is going slow. Chrys, Megan, my Dad and me are "The Construction Crew" and the weather is SO hot right now. We are only able to work on the weekends and then only in the early morning and late evening. Then if we take time out to run to Little Rock and get goats or Wichita, Kansas like we are going next weekend then it takes a little bit longer for things to get going. We do have most of the poles up and set. We have six more poles to set....hopefully this evening.

I will post pictures of the new girls and the barn soon.

hhhmmmmmm

2010-08-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

There is not a lot to write about right now except it is HOT!!!!! Much much to hot!

With plenty of shade and lots of fresh cool water, all of the critters are fairing pretty well.

A week from Saturday (8/14/10) we will be going to Leon, Kansas to pick up some new girls to add to our milk line. I am really really excited about that, I just hope that the weather has cooled off some before then. If not, it may have to be a middle of the night ride back home so that they don't get to hot.

Excited!!!

2010-07-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

I am SOOO excited! We went yesterday and ordered the materials for our new housing barn! We were really hoping to have someone else build it, but it would have just blown our entire budget.......so........I guess "WE" are the construction crew. :)

The barn will be a 24 x 50 with 3 sliding doors (one on the South end, one on the West side and one on the East side) for ventilation. Not really worried about the inside configuration right now. We can take care of all of that once the construction project(s) are complete. The housing barn will butt up to the milk barn so that none of these "royal little princesses" will have to go outside in inclimate weather and ruin their pedicures! LOL

Keep checking back for updates!

New Buckling

2010-07-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

We went Saturday and got a new junior buckling. He is a fine looking little fellow and comes from a long line of Superior Genetics and milk. It was kind of hard to actually be in the market for another buckling after loosing Norman, but the fact is we will have does that need to be bred this winter and I am really looking forward to seeing what this fella brings to the herd.

I found the perfect name for him, but alas, "other" people in the family want a different name.........I will update here when a final decision has been made. Pictures coming soon!

2010-07-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a sad sad day at Canyon Ridge Farms. Norman was losing his battle with urinary calculi and it became evident that it was in his best interest to end his suffering. This was one wonderful boy who had a regal yet gentle and loving nature. He will be greatly missed.

We want to thank all who have offered support and advice and we want to give a special thank you to an email acquaintance who has become a special friend. Suriyah of Good Goats offered her medications and advice to help Norman while we were trying to get meds located and in stock. Suriyah's love and caring means so much to us and I'm sure, that had Norman met her, he would have loved her too. Thank you Suriyah!

2010-06-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Well......yesterday was kind of a sad day at our place. We sold off the horses. :(

I'm not really sure why I feel so sad about it. Fargo (the gelding) was sure a pain in the butt! He would bite my goats and that would really upset me. He would wreck havoc anytime that we were trying to do anything with the other animals on the place. He would pick up the baby calves by their necks. He was just a general pain but Etta (the filly) was a sweet little thing (even if she did tend to follow Fargo's lead).

Anyway, the people who got them sure got some nice horses.......

2010-06-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well.....it has been a few days since our last blog so here is a quick update.

GARDENS - The gardens are not doing so well. It seems that we have a little (big) problem with our soil. The plants get up so big and quit or they "start" putting on fruit and then quit! We are working to make the corrections to the soil, but it doesn't look like it is going to be a quick fix...this may actually be a long term issue. What ever it is with the soil it seems to be great for broccoli but not much of anything else. We will probably have some produce for market in a few weeks, but that is not for certain. Right now, I am just canning what we are able to get out of the gardens. :(

GOATS - The goats are doing well for the most part. We got two new little doelings and they are doing fine. Cute little things. :) All of the other babies are doing well too.

We have moved the milkers from twice a day milking to once a day milking. They aren't liking it very much but right now, that is the best situation for us.

We avoided a near disaster with our yearling buck, Norman, yesterday. It appears that he had urinary calculi but we think the we got the problem diverted in a timely manner and he seems to be doing fine now. A big thanks to my brother and my wonderful husband for their help with this.

COWS - The cows are doing fine. We were trying to work them yesterday so that they could be moved to the rented pasture. The horses through a glitch in that! As soon as we started trying to get the cows up, the horses started running the cows and caused major havock with the whole bunch! We were only able to actually get 1 cow and her calf worked.

HORSES - Horses STINK! See cows for reasoning on this determination.

FAMILY - The family is doing great! We had a big family dinner this past weekend. We sadly had 3 of the neices/nephew who were not able to attend, but everyone that was there seemed to have a good time. It is always great to get the whole family together!

Spring Broccoli is Finished :(

2010-05-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official. The spring broccoli crop is finished. We harvested the remainder of the broccoli for market weekend before last and Chrys tilled up the broccoli gardens to get ready to plant more summer produce.

In the pictures you will see Chrys tilling the front garden area where the broccoli was and then the result. It's kind of sad looking. Those were sure some big beautiful plants. Chrys has one more tilling to do (hopefully it will be dry enough tonight) and then we can start setting in the remainder of the summer veggies.

Sunshine

2010-05-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

Finally! We sure needed this sunshine and it looks like we are going to get serveral days of sun and NO STORMS! It is amazing how much better the sun makes you feel. Here is a picture of the sky one evening this week after a storm.

Sugar and Pepper are doing really well on the milk stand now for the most part anyway. The last two milkings I have milked them two handed which means that I didn't have to hold a leg or hang onto my milk bucket. (I sure hope I didn't just jinx it.)

Enjoy YOUR weekend!

Wednesday Already!

2010-05-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

WOW! It's already Wednesday!

The Farmer's Markets went great this last weekend. We sold out of everything at two markets and almost everything at the third market. We now have a little bit of a break before our summer produce is ready, but honestly, I am already missing our customers. I can't wait to get back to market.

The weather is....Oklahoma weather I suppose. Lots and lots of rain on Monday. Really nice day with lots of sunshine on Tuesday and now back to rain on Wednesday. :( I am just tired of mud!

Sugar has had a complete turn around on the milk stand. Monday I contacted my brother and told him how horrible she was. Monday night she started acting like an angel. I wonder if he went over and had a talk with her. I really don't care how it happened as long as it continues. I actually really like her now.

Pepper is a little different story. She started out pretty good, then got really good and now she has regressed a little since Sugar has started behaving. Still not to bad, but it could be better.

When I got home last night, Chrys and Daddy were working in the garden. We already have little baby squash and little tiny baby cucumbers! This is SO exciting! After I milked, I managed to get almost 1/2 of the yard mowed while the guys worked the garden. I could have probably gotten all of it before night fall if the lawn mower hadn't been acting up.

We have kind of slowed down a little on our cheese making, but today we got an order for four different kinds so I guess we need to step it up a bit. This weekend we are planning to start some cheddar and mozzarella.....I'll let you know how it goes.

Rain, Rain, Rain

2010-05-14T11:52:00.001-07:00

WOW! Lots and lots of rain today! I know we needed the rain, but we really didn't need it all at one time. More rain is predicted for the next couple of days....

We did have the forsight to at least start picking produce last night when we had a clear spell. We got about half of the garden picked and that much at least is ready to go to market tomorrow. Dad called earlier and said that he was going to go out and start picking more while we have a little break in the rain this afternoon. :)

We went out to milk this morning and I guess the "honeymoon" is over with Sugar and Pepper. Actually, Pepper isn't doing that bad, but Sugar, well, that's another story. I think she is part bucking bull. LOL .....I just can't wait to go milk tonight.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Sugar & Pepper and the Weather

2010-05-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

My brother's goats, Sugar & Pepper, have come to live with their "Auntie" for a few months while my brother is tied up with other things.

We brought them home night before last. Understand that our goats are kind of hateful little ladies for a while to any newcomers in the herd. Well, Sugar took a couple of good hits from Stormie and Patty joined in a time or two then Maggie thought that it was her turn to torment them. She got her hair all bristled up and headed in for the head butt....just as she was about to butt Sugar, she stopped and sniffed her...then she started rubbing her neck and licking her head. I swear, she realized that these "new girls" were her babies. After a few minutes of that, Thunder got all bristled up and was moving in to see if she could get in a good butt or two. Maggie stepped between Thunder and the girls and wouldn't let Thunder do anything to them. Then Thunder settled down and started rubbing on them too. Animals REALLY ARE intelligent!

I went out yesterday and bought Pepper & Sugar new necklaces (collars) and then last night, I got out the scissors and clippers and trimmed their tails, udders, and bellies. That sure makes it easier to milk and much more pleasant for both them and me. I finished up the make-over with a nice relaxing (hah!) pedicure. The girls took it all very well and this morning they came right back onto the milk milkstand as if I hadn't just completely worked them over last night. Good Girls!

We went out to milk at 4:00 this morning. It was soooo hot and muggy! We just finished up and got back in the house when it started raining. As I was about half way through my morning shower, Chrys hollers at me and tells me to get a move on because there were storms moving in pretty quickly. Luckily, the storms just kind of split around us and we didn't get more than just a little rain. They lost power in a lot of the Tulsa area and I have even heard that an F1 tornado touched down in the Jenks area. I love spring but hate the storms! I am always very very glad to get into June when the tornado season is mostly over.

Have a Blessed day!

Spring in N.E. Oklahoma

2010-05-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

We will start by saying that we have lost (forgetful old mind) our old blog spot so we have decided to start another one.

It has been a fun year here at Canyon Ridge Farms. We had a winter that seemed much to long and so far we have had a terrfic spring.

The goats have all kidded and most were weaned......until we decided to save back some more doelings. We made this decision and then of course the two does that were pregnant had four kids and only one doeling. The doeling, affectionaley known as Pynkie is "ROTTEN". Then with Pynkie being the only doeling, she was lonely so we decided to get a few more doelings. Fortunately for us, my brother had two does that he had gotten out of one our best milkers and our younger buck. They had four kids (3 doelings and one buckling....lucky him). Anyway, we were able to acquire the doelings so that Pynkie would not be so lonely. Unfortunately, she is still "ROTTEN".

The gardens have been doing great so far this year. We had a crop failure with our sugar snap peas, but other than that the gardens are going great. Almost all of the spring time veggies are nearly done for the season. We probably only have one more harvest and then we "try" to patiently wait for the summer crops to mature.

We will keep you updated on the farm happenings (hopefully quite frequenlty).