Monday, November 26, 2012

Thing 1 & Thing 2


Please excuse the "not so good" pictures.  Our granddaughters broke Nana's camera so I had to resort to using my phone to take pictures.

Here are a couple of BEAUTIFUL girls!  
These girls originally had very pretty names, but our daughter, who is a teacher, was working on a Dr. Seuss unit and started calling these girls Thing 1 and Thing 2.  The names stuck.  : /

Thing 1 is a little shorter in height and her light colored markings are lighter than her sisters.

Thing 2 has a small light colored "dot" on each side of her chin.

For quick identification they wear different colored collars so that we can tell who is who even across the field..

Their dam is Nashama's Airi and their sire is CRF Woody.  They are half LaMancha and half Nubian.

Pictured below at 8 months old.

Thing 1

Thing 2

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The "Other" Farm Hands

We tell you a lot about the goats, but we are equally as proud of our Livestock Guardian Dogs.

These girls work very VERY hard to make sure that everything is as it should be on the farm and they are the reason that the goat herd is always safe.

Yesterday morning I was out moving some of the goats around.  Suddenly, I heard "The Bark".  All three dogs took off!  Shasta stayed in the pasture with the goats, which is where she is 99% of the time.  She stationed herself at the perimeter fence and barked.  Sadie and Gypsy took off.  Sadie was out and across the west fence before I knew what was going on.  I got to watch Gypsy take off, jump over the north fence and head west across the neighbors pasture.  I watched them until they were almost to the west side of the field and all I could see were small white specks.  I am not sure what had them upset, but I can tell you two things.  (1)  Sadie doesn't "go out" unless she thinks it is absolutely necessary (She is the alpha female and normally will just give orders to the other two girls). And (2)  Those dogs are AMAZING to watch work!

Below are some pictures of the girls.

Gypsy on her post.  She can see and definitely hear everything from here.


Sadie looks like she is sleeping, but rest assured that she knows everything that is going on.

Gypsy (left) and Shasta (right) in the pasture with the goats.

This is an older photo, but one of my favorites.  All three girls on post.


This is also an older photo of Chrys and Sadie discussing farm security issues.  :)

  
Although she is not a Livestock Guardian Dog, Cammi is my dog and she is so very loyal.  Anywhere I might be on the farm, she is right there with me...or waiting on me.  Cammie is a Shetland Sheep Dog (Sheltie).

  

I know.  This isn't a dog.  This is, however, Cammi's kitty.  This is Callie and from the minute she stepped foot on the farm she became a big part of our family.  She also immediately became best friends with Cammi and the two of them are nearly inseparable.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

BFF (Barn Frog Friend) 2012

This little froggy lived in a hole in the wall of our holding area all summer long.
Now with the cooler weather, and I suspect with the returning of his friends, he has left us.
I am going to miss his evening serenades.



Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Boys

We always talk about the girls, but today we are going to introduce you to the boys.
I didn't have pictures of all of them and I wasn't about to get in the pasture with them.  If I did, they would want me to pet them and love on them and at this time of year, when they are in rut, that is the last thing that you want to do because these boys STINK.    Anyway, that is why there is a fence in the pictures between them and me.  :)



Woody
Woody is our Nubian buck.  He is black with long frosted ears and he is the sweetest guy.  Woody was born here on the farm and we bottle raised him.  Woody's mom is Rosie and she contributes her wonderful milk each day for your milk and cheese.
 Woody's sire's name was Cheers so we played off of that using character names from the sitcom "Cheers".
Woody has a full sister on the farm by the name of Norma for the character Norm.
 


Alvin
Alvin is the young guy and he is a La Mancha.  We got Alvin last December at a few days old and bottle raised him.  Alvin is a sweetie, but he seems to think that he is extra special......I say he is spoiled.........and he can get into a bit of mischief.
We named Alvin after the character Alvin, of the Chipmunks.  That way I can holler AAAAAl VIN!!!!!  :)



Ed
 Ed is our La Mancha buck.  He is long and tall with a lot of color so we are anxious to see how much color he adds to his kids.


Bob
 And finally, there is Bob.  Bob is a Saanen and one of the most notable things about Bob's appearance is that it looks like he has a bad toupee.......a really really bad toupee.
 

I'm not sure why Bob and Ed got the names that they did except that they just seemed to 'fit'.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Who Is Spoiling Who?

Our grandbabies with little Miss Sparkle.
The girls love to go out and see the baby goats.



Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Scarlet's Baby


After a VERY long wait, Scarlet finally presented us with a bouncing baby boy yesterday afternoon.
I was actually starting to get a little worried about her because she has been SOOO miserable for several weeks now.  She did fine though and she is a very good little momma.  :)

Diego

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Freckles New Baby!

UPDATE:  We have convinced our granddaughter that Sparkle is a great name for this little girl.  :)

Freckles presented us with a beautiful baby girl yesterday.  :)
Freckles and Scarlet were in a race to see who would kid first and I fully expected it to be Scarlet, but Freckles won when she had her baby at approximately 1:30 pm yesterday.  
Mom and baby are both doing fine.  

Hopefully Scarlett will have her baby today.  I sure hope so because she is miserable.

Freckles and her baby girl. 


If you look very closely, you can see several light colored spots on her side.  These are called moon spots.
Our 4 year old granddaughter wants to name her Spots, but we'll see.