Bitti's Baby

 

After getting Thing 2 and her baby all situated yesterday morning I decided to walk back through the barn (just in case).  Well, as soon as I walked back into the barn, I heard the tell tale signs of labor.  A quick check confirmed that Bitti was in labor.  .......Now.......Bitti is just a wee bitt NUTS!  A quick hand a lot of luck and I was able to catch her and then spent the next 30 minutes coaxing her to the baby barn.  Got her all situated and then went and finished our morning chores.  She waited on me to finish and then she delivered the cutest little girl.  :)  I spent quite a bit of time with her trying to bond.  I would even rub the baby, getting her birthing fluids on my hand, and let Bitti lick me and clean my hand.  I actually thought that we made a lot of progress yesterday.  Today, well, today she is back to being crazy.  LOL

 

Here is a picture of her little girl.

 



Thing 2's Baby

 

Yesterday morning when we went out to do the morning chores, I did a quick walk through and to my delight Thing 2 had just delivered a beautiful little doeling.

 

Thing 2 is Airi's daughter.

 



BayB's boy

 

When she was two we let our grand daughter pick a baby goat for her very own.  She picked one of the best ones, in my opinion, and named her Baby (we spell it BayB).  Now, when you say her name, be sure to add quite a bit of that southern drawl and you will have the pronunciation just right.  LOL

 

Well, BayB had her first baby last night.  She delivered a boy and not only is he jet black, but he is drop dead gorgeous too! 

 

BayB is a daughter of Wings.

 



1st baby of the season!

Tiana (daughter of Taboo) delivered the first baby of the season this evening.  It's a boy and he is gorgeous!  Luckily, Tiana gave us plenty of notice with this cold weather and everything went like clockwork.  Mother and baby are both doing great!  :)



Winter Storm 2013

We have spent the last several days preparing for this winter storm and I know that most of you have heard me complain about the heat and the drought and the rain and so forth, but for the record, let me just say that I HATE snow and cold!  And I hate snow and cold most of all!

There was a time, as a child, that I remember loving the snow.  Even when we lived in town I loved the snow.  Looking back I realize that I loved it because I wasn’t really responsible for anything, at least we weren’t responsible for livestock.  Oh we had livestock when we were growing up and we helped with the chores, but we weren’t the ones who were “responsible” for “everything”.  Now, it is a whole different story.

All of the chores take at least twice as long.  You bundle up in layers and can hardly move and then you go back and forth and back forth in the snow and before long it feels as if you can hardly take another step.  We can prepare for many of the farm chores.  We button up the barns and get plenty of hay into the barns before the storms hit, but the most difficult chore (to me) is making certain that all of the animals have plenty of fresh warm water.  In temperatures like we are having (and we are fixing to have), plenty of fresh warm water is just as important as food and a warm house to the girls and let me tell you……..when you are carrying warm water in 5 gallon buckets, these girls drink a LOT of water!  LOL

 

Panic!

 

 



We put some of our younger girls with the boys beginning back in the last part of June in the hopes of having winter milk this year.  It is looking like quite a few of them bred, which is wonderful!  I have been thinking that there was lots and lots of time since the first ones couldn’t be due to have babies until about Thanksgiving.  Well, on Saturday morning I got to thinking and it dawned on me that Thanksgiving is ALMOST HERE!!!!  We could possibly be having babies SOON!!!!  I had a little bit of a panic attack and then went and told Chrys and our daughters so that they too could experience a panic attack.  Once we all calmed down we figured out that we make a pretty good team so we can all jump in and get the “nursery” ready.  There are a few supplies to get ordered, but we CAN be ready!  J  I think that we all love kidding season even though it is a lot of work and we all end up totally exhausted, still, there is absolutely nothing cuter than a baby goat………..unless, of course, it is our granddaughters.  J

Maggie

 

Maggie ~

Maggie was born in February of 2003 and she came to live at our farm in the spring of 2004.

About a year later, I’m not sure how, but Maggie hurt her foot.  We penned her up in the barn in order to take some of the stress off of her foot and to let her rest.  Maggie DEFINITELY took to spoiling and before long, she was only limping when she noticed you watching her.  J  Needless to say, she was turned back into the pasture with other girls and surprisingly enough, she got along just fine.

About 2 years after that incident, it just so happened that we had a snow day and I was home from work.  No one else was home and all of the vehicles were gone.  Well, it was a good thing that I ended up being home that day because Stormie got sick.  I had no idea what was wrong with her, but thanks to some good people on line I was able to diagnose her and helped find some treatments to give her with things that I happened to have around the house.  It turns out that Stormie had milk fever, which is life threatening.  I spent the bigger part of that cold snowy day sitting on the floor of the barn beside Stormie alternately syringing coffee, tums and milk down her.  At one point when I was walking through the barn, Maggie came walking up to me and she was limping.  She continued to limp and look at me with pitiful eyes for quite some time.  I finally looked at her and said, “Maggie, you are just going to have to wait until your daddy gets home.  Stormie is very sick and I have to try to save her life.”  Now I don’t know that Maggie understood everything that I said, but I do know that goats are smart and that girl immediately stopped limping around and went with the rest of girls leaving me to tend to Stormie.  (Stormie made it by the way and is still a big part of our farm family).

From time to time throughout the years, when she felt like maybe she wasn’t getting her share of the attention, Maggie would pull the old limping trick.  It usually worked for her and she could get just about anything she wanted.

Two weeks ago Maggie started acting a little draggy.  Within a couple of days, it became obvious that she was getting very sick.  We began doctoring her, but a few days ago she quit eating (except for a few of her favorite treats, animal crackers).  Monday night she wouldn’t even eat any animal crackers, but she did eat a piece of bread.  It is with tears in my eyes and a great sadness in my heart when I tell you that I went to the barn on Tuesday morning to find that Maggie had passed away in the night. 

Maggie – You will be truly missed ol’ girl.

Dedicated to you Maggie………….

The Rainbow Bridge

By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill,
Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
Where the friends of man and woman do run,
When their time on earth is over and done.

For here, between this world and the next,
Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest.
On this golden land, they wait and they play,
Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.

No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness,
For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness.
Their limbs are restored, their health renewed,
Their bodies have healed, with strength imbued.

They romp through the grass, without even a care,
Until one day they start, and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back,
Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack.

For just at that instant, their eyes have met;
Together again, both person and pet.
So they run to each other, these friends from long past,
The time of their parting is over at last.

The sadness they felt while they were apart,
Has turned into joy once more in each heart.
They embrace with a love that will last forever,
And then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.

Beulah

Most of the girls are now expecting, but just to be sure we put Alvin in with them for about the next three to four weeks.  It never hurts to be certain.  When we moved Alvin over with the main herd, I decided to move Bob and Ed out of their bachelor pads and back in with the younger girls, just to give them company.  Well, Ed did fine.  Bob, on the other hand, has proved repeatedly that he can jump the fence whenever he pleases.  I put him in.  He jumps out.  I put him in.  He jumps out.  I put him in………..well, you get the idea.  So, as a reward for his unrelenting efforts, he got to move back into the bachelor pad.  :/

One of the chickens has now taken up residency in the goats barn.  We have named her Beulah and her best friend seems to be Dee Dee.  Attached are some pictures of them “discussing the weather”, just hanging out and then Jynger decided to come over and visit for a spell.

 

    

    

 

.........Oh My

Happy Tuesday!

 

On Sunday morning Chrys and I went out to milk and as seems to be the “normal” at this time of year, the girls were being much less than cooperative.  Chrys had gone out first to bring them into the holding area and when he hadn’t come back in what seemed like forever, I decided that I had better go help.  After chasing about 10 of the girls up and down the fence line (by the boys) forty two times we finally got them into the barn.  Some of the better behaved girls were already in the holding area, as they should be, but glancing up I immediately noticed that something was NOT right!  I could see that “someone”…….and I won’t mention any names, but Chrys did NOT shut the door to the milk parlor tight enough and guess what?!  There were about 30 goats in the milk parlor and they were having a party!!!!!  I ran in there and it was literally wall to wall goats!!!!  There were goats on the milk stand.  There were goats underneath the milk stand.  There were goats all around the milk stand.  There were goats EVERYWHERE!!!!  Chrys came in right behind me and  we managed to get all of them out except the 8 girls that we would milk first.  Once the dust settled, the only logical thing left to do was laugh.  Sometimes that’s all that you can do and these girls certainly do keep us entertained (and busy). 

 



mmmm..........

Using our new Pumpkin Goat Cheese, I took mini filo shells and filled them with Canyon Ridge Farms Pumpkin Goat Cheese and then topped them with whipped topping.  Very simple.  Very pretty.  VERY GOOD!!!

 



Mom used our new Pumpkin Goat Cheese and made this DELICIOUS no bake cheesecake! 

Out Of This World!!!!

 





Goat Dating Service

Well, the Canyon Ridge Farm “Goat Dating Service” is officially in full swing!  Two of the boys, Bob and Ed, have been given their own individual bachelor pads, mainly because it is easier for us to move the girls around than it is the boys (and a person doesn’t get quite as fragrant doing it this way).  Woody and Alvin…….well, we still have to move them around each time we need to, but both of them are very easy to handle.  You know what this means don’t you???  We will be having LOTS of babies in March and April.  That seems like a really long time to wait for babies, BUT what we haven’t told you yet is that our younger group of girls have been in with the boys for some time now and if everything goes as planned then we should start having babies in December.  J  We always love baby time, but I notice our daughters begin to hyperventilate each time we talk about kidding (baby) season since they have pretty much taken over the baby raising.  J

 

A couple of weeks ago, one of our babies from last spring, Carly, became kind of sickly acting.  Our daughters told her that since she was such a pain to get to take a bottle when she was a baby that there was no way that they were going to let her die.  They started her on antibiotics AND put her back on a bottle twice a day to make sure that she was getting plenty of nourishment.  Well, Carly had absolutely no problem taking a bottle again and she seems to be doing pretty good at this point……..except that she EXPECTS a bottle every time that she sees someone now.  LOL

THE BOYS

 

 

I always talk about the girls.  Today it's the boys turn to be in the spot light.  :)

 

The boys (bucks) are a very important part of the herd and our boys are normally sweet, beautiful and loving.  Normally.  As you well know, it is that time of year when the girls are wanting to go visit the boys.  Well, the boys want to visit with the girls too!  So much so that they spend quite a bit of time "fixing" themselves up for their encounters and can think of nothing else.  In fact, we spend the majority of the year making sure that the boys are eating well and are in top physical shape because at this time of year they don't eat as well and what they do eat, they normally run off while chasing the girls around.  They also sometimes have a tendency to lose their manners at this time of year.  Thankfully, the manners always return after the breeding season.  :)

 

 

Bob is a beautiful pristine white Saanen boy.  He has a soft coat of hair, a lovely long goatee and a funny almost humiliating toupee thing going on on top.  :)  Notice, in this picture, that Bob's goatee and toupee are NOT the beautiful pristine white.  Neither are his front legs and chest.  This is all part of the breeding season "fix yer self up" thing that happens for the girls.

 

 

Below is a picture of Woody.  Woody is a Nubian buck and is now almost 4 years old and he is ALWAYS the perfect gentleman.......even during this time of year.  He is so sweet and kind and is always perfectly behaved.  I know that under those dark colors that Woody and the other boys look just like Bob does.  How do I know this?  Because they all smell the same!

 

Ed is the next boy in line.  Ed is a LaMancha buck who is long and tall.  He has turned into a very pretty boy, but he is still lacking in the manners department during breeding season.

 

Next is Alvin.  Alvin is a  Nubian LaMancha cross and will be 2 years old in December.  He is one HUGE guy!  He just recently (within the last 2 or 3 weeks) has figured out that he doesn't have to bow down to the older boys.  I was wondering how long it would take him.  He is taller and he is definitely more "hoss" than they are.  Alvin is very friendly and sweet.  So much so that it is somewhat annoying when you try to walk through the field and he as to "touch" you at all times.

Last up is Si.  Si is a Nubian and he is the baby of the group.  Being only 7 months old, he is not getting in on much of the "dating scene" this year.  In July we finally had to make our daughter stop giving him a bottle, although I wouldn't be surprised to find out that she still sneaks one to him every once in a while since he only throws a fit when he sees her.  :)  Si is very sweet natured and we are excited to have him join the farm.



Airi

Happy Tuesday!

I was just thinking about how well the first fresheners (first time milkers) are doing at milking time now.  Occasionally one of them has a relapse, but it so much better than it was there for a while.  Anyway, this got me to thinking about Airi.  Have I ever told you about Airi? 

Airi is an absolutely drop dead gorgeous LaMancha girl that came to us from Colorado about 2 ½ years ago.  If we are out in the field or in the barn, Airi is so sweet and loving.  She wants constant petting and will rub and love on you until you are just about rubbed and loved out.  After she had her first baby here we were so excited to finally get to milk her because she is so beautiful and there was lots of milk there.  That feeling continued………..until we actually did milk her.  She went into the milk barn fine.  She went up on the milk stand great.  We started milking her and OH MY GOODNESS!  The rodeo was on!!  She would kick and jump and literally stand up on her front feet only with her back feet almost touching the ceiling.  Honestly, it would take at least two of us to milk her.  One to milk and dodge the stray foot aimed right at your head and the other to “try” to hold her legs so that she couldn’t hit the afore mentioned head.  Now, we are either hopeful, stubborn or just plain dumb because we endured this twice a day for two full milking seasons (a milking season is generally 300 days).  Well, Miss Airi kidded this year and it was finally time to bring her to the milk stand.  With a sense of dread, we brought her into the milk barn.  As we bring her up onto the milk stand the dread heightens.  We finally get to the milking part and Queen Airi is a calm, well behaved little angel.  Each day when it is Airi’s turn to milk, there is still some anxiety, but thus far she has been a very well behaved little lady.  I guess endurance does pay off. 

New Baby Chicks!

The new baby chicks have arrived!

These are Red Sex Link Chickens.  

They are a cross bred chicken that the sex of the baby can be determined by its color when it hatches.

I'm not sure that you can see them very well in the pictures, but there are also 3 Ameraucana  chicks.  They are grey and they will lay the "Easter" eggs (colored eggs).

We expect these little girls to start laying in September sometime.  :)

The Burying Tree

On our farm stands an Oak tree.  This Oak tree is not the tallest tree on the place, but it is by far the tree with the most expansive reach.  This tree is a real beauty to look at.  In fact, our house is situated so that when you look out of the big kitchen window you can view this tree.  I have no idea how old this tree is.  Daddy said that it was already a big big tree when he bought this land some 45 plus years ago.  As children, my siblings and I climbed its sturdy branches and played beneath the refreshing shade which it provided.  For its beauty and memories alone it is a special tree, but what makes this Oak tree so very very special is that it is the burying tree.  So many pets from my childhood are buried beneath it.  There are dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, rabbits and squirrels just to name a few.  This week, sadly, we laid two more beloved pets to rest beneath the protective arms of the Oak tree.  Motzy, our daughters little Shih Tzu dog, passed away on Thursday.  She was such a sweet little dog with lots of love to give.  On Sunday, our cat, Dharma, passed away.  It is always difficult to lose a pet, but it is also consoling to be able to lay them to rest in a safe and comfortable place…..to lay them to rest beneath the arms of the Oak tree.

Opal, Zoey and Viv's Babies

These babies were all born on Friday (3/22/13)

Opal delivered a single buckling.

Zoey delivered a single doeling.

Viv delivered twins.  1 doeling and 1 buckling.

Motzi's Babies

Just because we didn't think there would be enough to do at this time of year........

Our daughters' dogs had puppies on March 8th.  They are 2 weeks old today.

Shih tzu puppies.

Noni & Sylvia's Babies

March 21st babies

Noni delivered triplets.  2 girls and 1 boy.

Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture before the little boy went to his new home.

Sylvia delivered a single buckling.

Mocha & Lemon's Babies

March 20th babies

Mocha delivered 2 DROP DEAD GORGEOUS bucklings.  Oh how I wish they had been girls.  

Look at those  colors!         :(

Lemon delivered twins.  1 doelings and 1 buckling.

Molly, Cass, Funny Face and Starla's Babies

March 19th births

Molly had twins.  1 boy and 1 girl.

Cass had twins.  2 girls!

Funny Face had twins.  1 boy and 1 girl.

And I missed getting pictures of Starla's babies.  You would think that with three of out there with camera's that one of us would have gotten a picture.  :(

Starla delivered triplets.  2 boys and 1 girl.

Patty, Prayer and Halo's Babies

OMG!!!!  We got SOOOO busy and didn't have time to share any pictures.  Fortunately, we "did" get pictures (I think I missed one or two) and we can share now.  So far, we have had a slow day today, but that can change in a heartbeat this time of year.  : /

March 18th Babies

Patty delivered triplets....2 girls and 1 boy

 

Prayer delivered triplets........ALL Girls!

 

 Halo delivered triplets.  2 girls and 1 boy.

Cappuccino's Girls

Cappuccino (Chino) delighted us this afternoon, shortly after Jynger delivered, by presenting us with

TRIPLET GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!

Very VERY Excited!!!

Jynger's Babies

Jynger delivered triplets this afternoon!

I'm so happy that she finally had them.  She has been SO miserable for SO long.

2 boys and 1 GIRL!

The little girl is on the right.

Gypsy With Her Goats

Yesterday was such a pretty day.  We sure enjoyed being outside with the animals and we even managed to get quite a bit accomplished.  Gypsy was hard at work sticking close to a couple of the expectant moms.

Gypsy with Prayer and Jersey.

Speck and Mattie's Babies

Yesterday afternoon (3/16/13) Speck and Mattie both delivered a set twins.  Each girl had one girl and one boy.  First Saanen babies of the year!

Speck's Babies

 

Matties's Babies

 

Playdoe & Sarek's Boys

Well, I got pictures taken when they were born yesterday morning, but by the time we finally finished everything up last night, I was to tired (or lazy) to post.  No babies yet this morning, but the day is still young.  :)

Sarek delivered first at about 9:30 yesterday morning (3/14/13).  She had twin bucklings.

 

Within minutes after Sarek's delivery, Playdoe delivered triplet bucklings.  All five bucklings are absolutely gorgeous, but I was sure wanting at least one doeling out of each of these girls.

 

Helga's Twins

About 2:30 this afternoon, Helga delivered twins.  1 girl and 1 boy.

Rosie's Babies

Rosie kidded about 11:00 this morning with triplets.  2 boys and 1 girl.

Since the only Nubian buck we had at the time is her son, we bred Rosie to Alvin who is half Nubian and 1/2 LaMancha.  The little girl and one boy have ears 9Almost Nubian ears) and the other little boy doesn't have ears (like a LaMancha).

Raz's Babies

Raz kidded about 6:30 this morning with twins.  1 doeling and 1 buckling.

Ginko's Babies

Ginko just delivered a set of twins.  One girl and one boy.

Ginko is half Nubian and half LaMancha.  We bred her to Alvin, who is also half Nubian and half LaMancha.  The little boy does not have any ears, just like a LaMancha and the little girl has long ears, not as long as a Nubians, but more characteristic of a Nubian than a LaMancha.  ...........at least they didn't both have one of each ear.  : /  This is the first Nubian LaMancha cross that we have had that has ears that are longer than elf ears.