Thank you for visiting our website! In the Journal, we'd like to share with you some of the activities that go on in our barn.

April 21, 2008

Wow! A lot has happened since my last note. Let’s see – where to start?

The girls came through the winter snug in their barn with lots of deep, warm straw. Unfortunately, with the snow and cold, we spoiled them and they didn’t go outdoors much, so that meant LOTS of cleaning for us, but we managed. They’ve really enjoyed the sun that’s been out the last few days.

We have TONS of babies now – well, during bottle feeding, it seems like it anyway. We had 67 kids in total out of 33 does. Out of the first 40 kids, only 12 were bucklings – that never happens here!!!!! Then a few more bucklings came along, but we ended with 42 doelings and 25 bucklings. And, I must say, this is the nicest crop of kids we’ve had in years. (Yes, that’s a proud mama talking, but still true!) The first babies were born February 2 and the last were April 1. Yes, it’s been VERY busy around here.

If you’re interested in any of our kids, please contact me either via e-mail or at 515-438-4022. We also have a couple of yearling bucks for sale as well as a few milkers.

Every year we put the word out to Wendy’s work that we need pop bottles to feed the kids. Lana joined in and told her work about it also and both let their coworkers know if they wanted to they could name a kid if they donated bottles. Boy, did we get bottles – and names! You wouldn’t think many people would want a goat named after them, but they sure do. Let’s see, we have a Brian, Lorraine, Chicken Legs Dan (Danny for short), Lindsey, Brianna, Elizabeth…It was really fun. Lana took pictures of all the kids and gave pictures to all of her coworkers. I’m ashamed to say we don’t have pictures to all of the people at Wendy’s work that named kids, but we will! One “little” guy was 15# when he was born!!! Lana named him Andre the Giant. He seemed huge at the time, but you can’t tell him from everyone else now. Gary named one set of twins Ijjy and Sipsy after one of his favorite movies “Fried Green Tomatoes.” My grandchildren got to name the first set of kids born. We have Jessie, Mystery and – this is my favorite – AUS. AUS stands for Adventure, Undertaker, Super Hero. They were very pleased with themselves. Lana brought her family over Easter Sunday to help feed and see all the babies. We had just had babies and needed names for two little girls. Lana’s sister-in-law asked if we had a Brooke or Dana (her baby daughters’ names). Nope, we didn’t, but we do now! All in all, all of them are named and real sweeties. We have to look twice at a couple of them because they look so similar, but I think we have all of their names correct “most” of the time.

Our does are on a new grain ration created by a dairy nutritionist and milking exceptionally well this year – we couldn’t be more pleased. When we’re able to get some nice alfalfa again, I’m sure they’ll do even better.

The dogs love this cooler weather. While we got thoroughly tired of it, they thought the snow and ice were great! They’d lay out in it and roll around and chase one another. We keep telling them to enjoy it while it lasts. Unfortunately, it’s going to be changing soon.

Sure seems like I have more to tell you, but I guess I’ll close off for now. Enjoy the nicer weather!

December 18, 2007

Can you believe Christmas is nearly here? It’s been a great year for everyone here. We were able to sell all of our babies (we kept 3 doelings – Thumbelina, Lydia and Lola, and 2 bucklings – Goliath and Bailee). The rest, I’m pleased to say, all went to great homes.

The open houses, Des Moines markets and tours this year have been wonderful. We’ve met sooooooooo many wonderful people and made many, many new friends. It’s amazing to us how loved the goats are. So many times we see people pull into the driveway and I expect them to come into the store. Nope! They head straight to the kid fence and begin playing with and talking to the babies! Can’t blame them – they are awfully sweet and lovable! Most are interested in meeting the big girls and bucks as well. They have a hard time believing each and everyone one of our “babies” has a name!

We “think” we have 37 does bred in total. Tummies are really filling out! Gary keeps giving me a hard time telling me that probably means at least 80 babies! Yikes!!!!!! I keep telling him that my mom always told me if I didn’t have anything nice to say, it was better not to say anything at all!!! J We had 54 kids this year and that was A LOT of work. This is going to mean MORE work and nearly 200 bottles to fix each day once they’re down to two bottles a day. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Wendy was so funny! For the first time in a long time, she helped me with the Christmas cards. In each one she wrote a little note asking friends and family to RSVP for dates they’re available to come help bottle feed and chore. Spoze we’ll get any replies???

Stosha has turned into such a “little sister”! She follows Toby everywhere he goes. Can’t say that he’s overly wild about it, but he tolerates her. He does have to put her in her place occasionally though. The one thing you must know about Great Pyr’s is that they love to dig. Toby has many holes he’s able to slip through to get out of the pen away from the girls and goats if he chooses. Well, Stosha now thinks she should be out too if her big bro is! She also thinks she should guard on the outside too. Honeybump is our good girl. She stays inside with the milkers and is perfectly content, but not Stosh! We’ve tried everything we can think of to get her to stay inside because she’s taken up chasing cars/trucks. That’s how we lost Molly and don’t want the same thing to happen to her. We refuse to give her any loving until she follows us into the pen, but as soon as we leave the barn, she’s out again! Drives us crazy!

When we had our Christmas in the Country open house last Sunday, some friends took a wonderful picture of “Grandma Posie” and Miss Kitty (Posie was dubbed Grandma Posie by some preschool kids that come out regularly). Posie is rather old and gets pushed out of feed and hay by the more aggressive, younger ones, so she now has free roam of the barn and isn’t in a pen with the others. She’s quite crippled up, but still loves attention and smiles that beautiful smile she has. Shelly caught Miss Kitty snuggling up with Posie on Sunday and took a picture to share with us. I’m attaching it for you to see as well.

I want to let you all know that Miss Tillie’s will be closed the month of January, 2008. Nobody seems to like our roads! We will, however, be accepting e-mail and phone orders for cheese as well as anything else available in the store.

Wendy, Connie and I want to thank each of you for all of the support you’ve given us this past year. Some days it’s hard to get up and do it all again, but with the wonderful comments and encouragement we receive from so many of you, it makes it all worthwhile. On behalf of all of us – including Lana and Gary – we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and prosperous, Happy New Year!

Kathy

October 4, 2007

I think I finally have all the fair news in, so can't wait to share with everyone.

• Amanda and Cricket placed Grand Champion in the 4-H county fair
• Shelby and Peeper placed Reserve Grand Champion

• Heather and Jeff did great in their 4-H County Fair show with the goats as well:
  • In does under 4 months – Willow got a Purple Ribbon
  • In does under 5 months – Darla got Purple, Tessa got Lavender
  • In does under 6 months – Pamela got Purple, Fiona got Blue
  • Does 1 year, not in milk – Bumpkin got Lavender, Erin got Blue and Kid got 2nd Blue

• Allie won Grand Champion Dairy Doe with Miss Marie at their 4-H County Fair
• Carmella placed 1st for a Purple Ribbon

• At the State Fair open class, Allie and Carmella placed 4th
• Dominique placed 5th

• Kim’s children placed 3rd, 4th and 5th with their kids from us at their 4-H County Fair. They showed their girls as dry yearlings. The judge said they would’ve come in 1st, 2nd and 3rd had they been in milk. Kim is like us though and prefers to breed them as yearlings.

• Sara’s County Fair wasn’t until September. She did great as well!
• Willo got Grand Champion
• Bella got Reserved Grand Champion and Champion in a different class

CONGRATULATIONS to each of you on a job well done!!!!!! We’re so proud of you all and wish you continued success with your goats!

On another note, breeding is going hot and heavy here – we’ll have LOTS of babies for next year. In September, we bred 29 girls and have 9 left to go. Hopefully, they’ll come in soon so we can have early kids!

June 29, 2007

Don't faint! I have some other information for our webmaster to get online for us, so thought I'd jot a few lines as well.

Things are pretty quiet around here now. The last of our babies that we sold left about a week ago. It’s always hard to see them leave. The people put them in the back of their truck in a stock holding pen. Of course, they weren't happy and were crying as they left - well, you know what that meant - I was near tears too! The barn seems so empty each time some leave.

We finally finished the feeders for feeding the kids outdoors. So now they only eat inside when it's raining. What a difference in cleaning!!! Generally it would take us ½ hour or more to clean each day, but that's cut down to just 10 minutes or so. Heaven!!! They've even been spending more time outside just laying and browsing through the grass. Gotta' love it! What I really enjoy is when they are eating their grain. They're all lined up and all you hear is crunch, crunch, crunch! Sounds so cute!

The girls finally have fresh hay and what a difference it's made. Their coats weren't shiny and healthy looking with the hay they were getting before the new stuff came in. Now they look wonderful! And their milk production has gone up drastically. Hope they're able to keep it up with the hot weather that's coming!

Stosha had a horrible cut on her front leg about a month ago. I was about half way finished milking and all at once the goats were in a corner like they were afraid and Stosha was running around abnormally and panting very hard. Well, I don't know how she did it (never found where it could've happened), but she had probably a 5 inch cut on her leg and it was pulled wide open. Thankfully our wonderful vet (whom I've threatened great bodily harm if he ever thinks about retiring!!!) came right out and stapled it up. Because of the heat, he didn't want to put one of those lamp shades on her head so wrapped it instead, but within a week, she had torn it off and taken out some of the staples, so ended up wearing it after all. She was not a happy camper. I'm happy to say that she healed very nicely and is back to normal now.

We have four bucks currently and are adding two of our babies this year - Goliath and Bailee. So a project for this summer will be to enlarge our buck hut. Currently we have to have 2 together, which works when the girls aren’t in heat, but not when they are. So, we're going to try extending the hut and make individual runs for everybody. That could be a chore - especially with the heat that's coming. The two bucklings are still able to be in with the kids so far, but won't be long until they have to be moved. Our two-year-old buck's name is Dante. Dante LOVES people, but has been especially ornery lately. He was pestering the buck he was in with "Prince Apollo" terribly, so we finally took PA out and put him in with Hot Rod. Dante LOVES to kiss us - which is fine except when he's been being buckly. Then it's a little bit ishy to receive his kisses because, of course, he thinks he needs to kiss you on your lips. Gotta' love him!

Well, think I'm out of news for now. Will try to get on again soon! Stay cool this summer.

May 22, 2007

Hi all! I've resigned myself to not being able to do a monthly journal, but promise I'll try to get one as often as possible. Just never enough time!

Wendy and I think we've finally recovered from having babies. We had 54 this year - lots of triplets and just about every color under the sun! We ended up only freshening 26 does this year; however, one lost her baby (it had been dead quite awhile) when she went into labor and never got her milk in, so we're milking just 25. Five others didn't settle. One had a tummy like she was pregnant and Wendy and I had a wager. She was sure she was pregnant and I doubted it. So I finally told her I'd do 10 push ups military style (and if you know me at all, that would be a hard thing for me to do!!!) if she was pregnant. Funny thing is though, she never said what she'd do if she was wrong - and she was! Oh well, we had fun guessing for awhile anyway.

We had one HUGE buckling born about a month ago. His mom had tried and tried to deliver him so I finally stepped in to help. All I could see was this HUGE nose and HUGE foot. After much work, we got him delivered and he and mom were fine. Needless to say, his name is Goliath for obvious reasons. He was only 9 pounds, but a VERY big boy! And on the opposite end of things, we had triplets – two were normal sized and the third was only 2 pounds. She was just a little bit of a thing – but ornery as all get out. We ended up naming her Thumbelina! She’s just a sweetie – in fact, Gary has put claims on her. She’s his little girl.

We’ve had very good luck this year selling our babies to 4-Hers and people wanting milkers. Thank you to all of you that are giving our babies good homes. We still have just a few doelings left if you know of anyone else looking for kids.

Lana got to deliver her first kids this year. Tootsie was having trouble with one of her triplets and Lana went in and helped her get him out. We talked it through and she did great! She made sure she was here for several of the deliveries and was a great help cleaning up the babies, milking out moms, feeding babies their first colostrum (not always easy) and cleaning up the pen after the deliveries. A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Lana who is now officially a Vet Tech as of May 3! She worked very hard and we’re extremely proud of her!

Stosha and Honeybump will be a year old May 26. It’s hard to believe they can be that old and that BIG!!!! They’ve really grown and are sweet as can be. They guard wonderfully now. It makes us feel very good to hear them as well as Toby working evenings so we can go to bed and not worry about the girls/babies.

I’m sorry to tell you that shortly after my last journal entry, we lost our sweet Mik. He just couldn’t handle Iowa’s cold weather with his age. The barn just hasn’t been the same without him. It took quite awhile to get use to not seeing him peek through the window of the parlor door to see what we were doing or to beg for an animal cracker. One of our first-year milkers has tried taking that trick over for him. She was rather standoffish as a kid and yearling, but after she freshened, she totally changed. She became an escape artist and opens the gate from the loafing area and lets herself into the alleyway. There she takes the lid off of the grain barrel and eats as much grain as she thinks she wants and goes over and helps herself to the hay she chooses to eat. Then she began coming to the parlor door and looking in – just like Mik. I guess he sent her to torment us after he left.

We have several retireds we’re trying to find good TLC homes for. If you know of anyone that would like to have a sweet pet, please send them our way. We’re quickly running out of barn room, but we’ll make due if necessary.

Gary was called away to Florida due to a family member’s failing health. WE WANT HIM BACK!!! We always knew he was a valuable asset to the farm, but once he’s gone for awhile, we REALLY notice it and miss him. He can’t get back soon enough. Lana continues to come one night a week. What we wouldn’t do if we could hire her full-time! We really enjoy her and cherish the help she gives us when she’s here. She, of course, loves the animals, so that really helps. She and I had a really hard time giving up holding the babies while we bottle feed. As much as we knew it was time for them to begin using the feeder, it’s always hard to give up the last of the babies. She has her own “forever kid” this year that will stay on the farm as hers. Her name is Lydia. My gosh, she’s an ornery little thing!

We’ve begun our open houses for the season. Between those and tours, it’s so fun to see people’s faces when they see the kids and how friendly they and the older does are. I think they’re the most photographed goats around!

Lana and I took Lydia and Lisa Marie over to the Madrid Nursing Home about a month ago to visit the residents. It was so rewarding to see the eyes of some of those residents just light up. Of course, we heard many stories about when they were younger they had goats and drank the milk, etc. It’s amazing how many people have had goats in their lifetime. One lady in particular was in a wheelchair. When Lana bent down to let her hold Lydia, she put her sweater over her, cuddled her and wasn’t going to give her up! It took a lot of talking to convince her she needed to go home with us to be fed. It was really neat to see.

Last week I took one kid, Aaden, to my grandson’s kindergarten class. They were studying about farms, so I worked it out with his teacher and the other two kindergarten teachers to bring over a kid to talk about/show the children. That was a neat experience as well. Colton, my grandson, was in heaven telling everyone “they’re very curious.” I bet he said that 20 times! So then I started asking him questions about how we care for the goats, etc., and he would tell his classmates the answers. You should’ve seen his chest puff up!

Ok, I’ve rattled on long enough. I hope to get back on soon to tell you more stories. Enjoy the spring and summer! I’m praying it doesn’t get blazing hot!!!

January 10, 2007

It's tax time!!! Ish! We've been inputting hot and heavy trying to get it all summed up for the accountant. Would love to just hand him all the receipts and say "have at it", but I think he'd frown upon it. I think I've finished today.

All the breeding is done. We had hoped to have everyone bred in September, but the girls had other ideas. Kidding will be strung clear from February 6 to April 17 (those are due dates). If everyone settled, we'll be milking 27 this year. We kept asking the girls to get it done, but oh no. Ellie Mae is the first due and Tiara was the last bred. We're pretty sure three of our heaviest milkers didn't settle (they're not included in the 27). That's not good news!!

We'll be moving the 9 doelings into the old barn with the older goats within the next couple of weeks. Then it's time to thoroughly clean their barn and stalls and get all the heat lamps set up and ready to go for the new kids. February is rolling around very quickly. We've already begun to wonder how many kids we'll have this year!! Last year was 57 - what a handful! We've already had several requests for kids. Thank you to everyone who is interested in our babies.

The pups, Stosha and Honeybump are growing like weeds. They're 8 months old now and are surely over 90 pounds. When we had them spayed at 6 months, they were both in the low 80s. They're spoiled rotten. They think they have to get a treat each time we leave them after feedings. Their favorite new treat is to fill their Kongs with peanut butter and let them lick that out. That keeps them busy for an hour! They are also starting to develop their evening guarding instincts. Stosha, in particular, barks when she hears a noise. It's so funny to listen to them - they sound like teenagers whose voices are going through the change. We'll need to move them before the new babies come also. Gary and Wendy did a fence walk the other day and found that several older trees have fallen onto the fence and needs repaired in several places. So, that's on the list to get done before the pups are moved. We'll have a fence mending "party" in the near future and have Gary, Wendy, my son and anyone else that would like to join in the "fun"!

Lana continues to come once a week and has been trimming hooves, giving CD&T shots and worming. She's anxious to get back into the milking routine. Gary continues to come as well and help with all the repairs we don't have time to get to. His latest project was building the 9 doelings an outside feeder. Until then, they've been eating their hay inside. They thought they were being punished to actually have to eat outdoors! For Christmas, we gave Gary a t-shirt with the saying "Who's your Goat Daddy" on front and a caricature of a Nubian goat on the back. He's definitely one of us now. He's also anxious to get back into the routine of milking again, as are we.

Mik, our almost 16 year old wether, is declining in health. He gets to come out into the alleyway and eat anything and everything he wants - and he's taking full advantage of it. At first he was just going to the grain bin and making himself to home eating as much of that as he could. Then he would go to the hay and chomp on whatever tickled his fancy. Now his tastes have changed! Wendy takes a cup of coffee out with her each morning and sets it in the cart while we work. Well, Mik got a whiff of that and helped himself to her coffee! Starbucks, no less!! Now, every morning, she sets her cup down and he goes right to it and laps it up as soon as he comes out of the pen. AND, the other day I took out a left over piece of pizza for Toby and Mik smelled that. I offered it to him thinking he'd turn his nose up at it, but instead he took ¾ of it and ate it in one bite! He's such a silly guy. We've begun covering him at night to hold in his body heat. He doesn't do as well with the cold as he did. We're expecting a cold snap later this week, so we're hoping the cover will be enough.

The store, Miss Tillie's, did very well in 2006. Thank you to all of you for your continued support. We're hoping for an even better 2007! We continue to get new products into the store and hope to get those posted on our website soon. We will start having our open houses one Sunday a month again beginning in probably April or May. We're anxious to have everyone come out and see the new babies and what's new at Miss Tillie's. On the other hand, don't feel you have to wait for an open house. The store continues to be open Tuesdays through Saturdays 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

I'll sign off for now. We hope you all had a happy holiday and wish you a happy, healthy 2007.

September 25, 2006

Another four months has passed since we sent out a journal. My gosh, the time flies by so quickly. So much has happened, so I'll try to hit the highlights.

We are pleased to announce that we sold all of our doe kids (and several buck kids as well) that we aren't adding to our milking herd. Most went to 4-H kids and they did TERRIFIC at their county fairs as well as the Iowa State Fair. Amanda and Shelby took first and second in their class at their county fair. Kim's kids took first, third and fifth at their county fair. Jeff took Grand Champion with Bumpkin (he told his mom she now needs a gold feed dish!), Kid came in second and Erin took third in their class at their county fair. And Allie showed at both her county fair as well as the State Fair. Miss Marie took second and Jenny took fourth (I think) at their county fair. At the State Fair, Miss Marie took Grand Champion and first in her class and Jenny took second in their class. I wish I could share pictures of all of them, but I think Helen, our webmaster, might yell at me!!!! J Wendy and I just want you all to know we're EXTREMELY proud of each of you!! Congratulations!

We lost our Great Pyr, Molly, in June. That was the hardest thing ever. She was such a sweetie. Toby didn't quite know what to do without her. He's one tired guy right now trying to do day shift as well as night shift. One thing we're happy about is that he guards from home rather than thinking he has to go across the road to push the coyote back like Molly did. A few weeks after we lost our Molly, we purchased two more Great Pyr six week old pups. We had already been looking for pups to bring on the farm because Molly and Toby are seven this year. They say older dogs don't live as long as smaller, so we wanted to be prepared. So, in addition to Toby, we also have Honeybump and Stosha (both females). They're ornery and cute as can be. They were just a bundle of fur when we purchased them, but are getting quite long and tall now. Next Friday, they'll be 16 weeks old. When we brought them home, we put them directly into the Kid Barn so they could get acquainted. They've now discovered when the kids go outside, they should too, and when they go inside, they should follow - at least for awhile. Not sure when the guarding instincts will come into full play for them. Once they're a little older, we'll put them in with Toby to learn from him also.

Honeybump and Stosha get goat milk every morning and evening after chores. In addition, Forest Gump, one of the wethers we have, has decided he should have some also. He starts talking as soon as he hears our cart coming and DIVES right into the milk with the pups. What a character!

The kids are going through the teenie bopper stage. My gosh, how they've grown. Most are now in the 70+ pound range. They still think they need their loving and hugs every day. They thoroughly enjoy when we have open houses and they get EXTRA attention from all the visitors. Nothing spoiled about our group!!

I'm so happy to tell you that Gary is still with us every morning and he now is a full-fledged "Goat Daddy". I think he's hooked! (Hopefully, this means he'll never leave us!!!) Two of the girls in particular are very partial to attention from him. Faith and Lexy are pretty much vying for his attention full-time when he's here. Lexy was "his first love" and she would only give kisses to him and wanted only his stand for milking. THEN, Faith started meeting him at the water buckets when he was filling them and getting special attention. Boy, that didn't go over well! Now, Faith HAS to have his stand for milking and Lexy gets in my stand and kind've gives him the eye when she's giving me kisses. My gosh, they're silly!

Gary has also become quite adept at being able to give information during tours. Generally, he and Wendy are in the barn doing the talking about the girls and procedures. He helps get everything in ship-shape for the tours as well. We've decided if he ever thinks he's going to leave us, we're going to have to kidnap him!!!!

We're also pleased to still have Lana, our vet tech student and friend from DMACC, helping us Tuesdays each week. My gosh, if you ever want reliable help, she's your gal! She's already volunteered to be here to help with birthing. You can bet we're going to be calling her - especially in the middle of the night deliveries!!! J I love to tease her. Of course, she's only here one day a week, so sometimes has trouble with names. I make sure not to say the name of the goat that goes in her stand to see if she can determine who she is. I can see her going over the milk sheet list trying to determine who is who. Then she turns and looks at the goat. Not sure if she thinks looking at them will give her a name or what!! We love having her here to help. Someday we'd love to hire her full-time!

We've already begun to breed. Ellie Mae was first again this year about two weeks ago. Last week Velvet and Nellie were bred. Today was Caylah and Cera. We've been having very chilly weather, so thought the rest would come in right away, but we're still waiting. Hopefully soon!

Miss Tillie's store is doing quite well. We've gotten in several Iowa food products such as Sheeder Farm meats, locally made pure maple syrup, soynuts, Iowa roasted coffees and chais, jams and of course, locally made crafts. We have a Sunday open house monthly. Please be watching for more information and come on out and see us and the girls. The next open house is Sunday, October 15 from noon - 5 p.m.

Will sign off for now. If there's something in particular you'd like to hear about, please contact me and let me know. I LOVE to talk about our girls and pups. Also, we've had several questions about health issues. Please feel free to call/e-mail us about questions you may have. We'll be happy to share whatever information we may have from past experiences.

Will talk soon! Kathy

May 30, 2006

Well, I've done it again - taken way too long to write another entry into the journal. SORRY! Kidding season has come and gone, and boy were we busy!!! As I told you in my last entry, our first kids, triplet does, came February 5. Then we had a week and freshened 18 does with 36 kids. That was a whipping! But I think if we're given the opportunity to do it again, we'll take it. It's nice to have so many done at once. The last kids were born April 18 - triplets again. Altogether, we were blessed with 57 live kids - that's a record for us! Unfortunately, we lost our sweet Gabby (Gabber Girl) the morning after she delivered her twins. The vet couldn't quite explain why. We noticed the next morning that her body temp started going down and she just couldn't get up and was miserable. It was so hard to have her put to sleep, but didn't want her to suffer. The barn just isn't the same without her talking to us all the time. Although, I think her daughter is going to be a close second when it comes to talking!

For the first time ever, we ended up with more doe kids than buck kids. We had 30 doe kids in total and 27 buck kids. I'm very pleased to say that we sold all of our doe kids to 4-Hers as well as several bucks. We kept 6 girls plus a buck kid for ourselves and purchased a doe kid from some good friends of ours. I've always wanted a spotted doe and they had the most beautiful black and white spotted kid I've ever seen. We named her Jabot. She's a sweetie and we can't wait to get her into the milk string in a couple of years.

It sure was a chore bottle feeding all of our babies! Luckily, we had several friends/family that came to help. AND, my uncle made us a bottle feeder that feeds 12 kids at a time. That was a life saver!!!!! It cut our bottle feeding time from over an hour to about 15 minutes. We still hold the babies and bottles for all of them until they're about a month old before putting them on the feeder. That way we know they're socialized good and gives us the mother/kid bonding.

I'm very pleased to say that we now have help with morning chores Monday through Saturday (plus so much more!!!!!!). Wendy's brother is retired and asked if he could help us out by choring and milking with us mornings. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't tell you what a tremendous help he's been - plus he's a putser so he's done a lot of fixing up and organizing that we haven't had time to do. What a life saver he's been. We're hoping he NEVER gets tired of it - EVER!

On top of the new babies, we've also been very busy with our new store, fittingly named Miss Tillie's. We opened for business on May 5. Our Grand Opening will be Sunday, June 11 from noon to 4. The initial response earlier this month was overwhelming. We just hope we can come up with enough interesting things for people to keep coming back. Right now we have items that are hand-stamped, crocheted, plants, Iowa wines, silk scarves and so much more. And, of course, we're finally able to sell our cheese from the farm. That's very exciting for us.

Well, time to sign off for now. I'll try not to take so long again. In the meantime, come on out and see Miss Tillie's and visit the kids. They're so much fun to watch.

PS, we've had so many people share their goat stories with us. We'd like to compile a binder of all the goat stories we can get. If you have a goat story that's special to you, please e-mail it to us so we can put it in our binder! I know there are tons of stories!!

February 5, 2006

Ellie Mae gave birth to three beautiful little girls last night between 7:30 and 8:30. Mommy is doing fine. Babies are great and eating like little pigs!!! The first little girl came out sucking her tongue and just couldn't wait to eat!!!

Ellie Mae went into mild labor early yesterday morning so we knew it would either be an all-nighter or we'd miss the super bowl. Well, we missed all but the last 25 minutes of the first half plus three songs of half time because of chores, then walked in just in time to see the final score and the teams walking off the field because of kidding. :-) Oh well, at least we didn't have to stay in the barn all night!

The next kids are due starting the 11th. Have 18 due next week between the 11th and the 19th. Thankfully Wendy took off to be here. I told her last night she could go to bed while I got the colostrum ready and I got up in the night to feed the babies. But, next week - we're sharing!!!!!!!!

January 30, 2006

Where did 2005 go???? Kidding season is very quickly approaching us! The girls are getting very fat and sassy. As I mentioned last time, we have LOTS due in February. In fact, we have 1 due 2/6, 6 due 2/11, 3 due 2/12, 1 due 2/13, 2 due 2/16, 2 due 2/18, 3 due 2/19, 2 due 2/24; then we go to March and have 1 due 3/3, 1 due 3/10, then 2 due 4/18 (the last two we hope settled - they came into heat a couple of times and these are the last dates we have on them). We're positive one didn't settle, so that puts our total to freshen at 24. Wendy took the week of February 13-17off from her off the farm job to be here and help. Now, if the girls will just cooperate! Lana, our helper, is really looking forward to the kids coming too. She is a first year vet tech student and is anxious to see the birthing process and how to care for the kids/does afterwards. Somehow, I can't help but think she should be able to be here for at least a couple!!

We've been getting the girls ready by trimming hooves, giving shots and worming. Lana is becoming quite the hand at that.

Wendy and I have been enjoying our free time before milking/kidding starts again. We've been to Texas two times, had the grandkids spend the night, going to visit friends, eating out and have even enjoyed a few movies. So, now it's about time to get down to business.

We've had a lot of interest in our upcoming kids. Thank you!!! We had several names given to us by youngsters that attended our open houses. We have them all jotted down and will be sure to use some of them.

Will keep you posted on the upcoming births!

September 27, 2005

WOW! I had to write and tell you about the great turnout we had at our 5th Anniversary Celebration! Thanks to all of you who shared that day with us. We worried a bit earlier in the week that we would have rain. Luckily, we had a beautiful, sunny, day with just a light breeze. FANTASTIC!!!! We"re very thankful to our family and friends who helped out tremendously to make it a success.

We had many, many visitors in the barn. Wendy and I spent all of our time out there answering questions and introducing the girls and kids. It was very heart-warming to see how everyone responded to our girls as well as what we do.

Connie was busy in the cheese kitchen trying to answer questions as well as sell our cheese. Luckily, we had help in there for her! We had one friend handing out samples of our homemade goat milk ice cream and home made goat milk hot fudge sauce. We had rave reviews about the ice cream and many asking us to make it for sale. Unfortunately, there are a lot of steps we need to take to be able to do that, so it may be awhile, if ever, before we can.

We had tents, tables and chairs in the front yard where the vendors and band were. We heard that the band was a hit, and everyone had a nice time just being in the country enjoying the day. We also had a "Kids Korner" where kids could color their favorite goat picture, put names in a box to help us name our 2006 kids, and there was a sand box and swings for them to enjoy as well. It made us happy to be able to share our little bit of country living.

Thank you to everyone who entered the wine and cheese basket drawing. The lucky winner is Rachel from Cambridge. We hope you enjoy your gift, Rachel.

I also have a bit of other news: Allison, who purchased two doe kids and a buck kid from us earlier in the year, entered her two doe kids in the Iowa 4-H State Fair competition. We're pleased to announce she got 3rd and 5th with these two kids. Congratulations, Allison!!!

Ann, our intern from Iowa State University, left in July for Peru to do additional research for her degree. Once completed, she'll be moving to Illinois where her other half has a teaching job. We sure do miss her and wish her the very best! We have a new helper this year. Her name is Lana; she has Nubian goats of her own, and she's been a tremendous help. She's a little nervous because she's going to have the girls to herself this Saturday night while we attend my nephew's wedding. She'll do great!! (Sure hope the girls cooperate!! They're being a little hard to get along with sometimes now that it's breeding season.)

AND ... we've begun breeding for next year. We started the second week in September and now have all but 3 bred (plus possibly one OOPS! - Simon went over the fence again this year, darn him!!). So ... so far we have 22, or 23 - depending on if she was in total heat - bred. That means we'll be spending the majority, if not all, of the month of February in the barn next year. CRAZY WOMEN!!

Will write again soon!

August 19, 2005

I have to begin by bragging just a little again. We told you last year about our friends Amanda and Shelby who won Grand Champion and Reserved Grand Champion at their County Fair. Well, they did it again!! Amanda and Mercy won Grand Champion, and Shelby and Olivia won Reserved Grand Champion. We're so proud of them!!

And, congratulations to Amanda who was crowned Buena Vista County Fair Queen! She makes a beautiful queen (she cleans up pretty darn good too for a goat gal!). Amanda is in the yellow.

This year's kids are growing so fast! Some are nearly 70 pounds already. We won't be breeding these doe kids this year; instead, we'll let them get more growth and maturity and will breed them in the fall of 2006. We will be breeding 9 yearlings starting next month and will breed 15 of this year's milking stock. It's time for us to get out our chart to determine who we'll breed with what buck. It was a very hard decision, but we have decided to retire Miss Tillie. Her milk production has declined over the years and she's now 8 years old, so she is going to become a retired, pampered diva (more than she already is!).

Can you believe the cheese company is celebrating its 5th anniversary???!!! To make it special, we're planning a "party" in conjunction with Picket Fence Creamery and Prairieland Herbs open houses. Picket Fence and Prairieland Herbs are celebrating September 16-18 at their respective farms. We will be celebrating Sunday, September 18 only as we have deliveries on Fridays and the market on Saturday. We will have new flavors of cheeses to try, Jasper Winery from Newton will be sampling and selling wines, a new jelly maker will be available to sample and sell her jellies, hopefully a couple of other local vendors, we're planning to have a band for a couple of hours that day, goat milk ice cream and goat milk hot fudge sauce, and a drawing for a wine and cheese basket to be given away. If you'd like to join us, please feel free to call us at 515-438-4022 for directions and times for the three farms celebrations.

Talk to you again soon!

June 28, 2005

Where on earth has this year gone????  I apologize for leaving you all in the lurch wondering what babies we had.  This has been our busiest year yet with keeping up in the barn and in the cheese kitchen as well.  Yesterday at the market, I had a lady tell me that she had been checking our website to check in on the goats with no new news.  Boy did I feel awful.  So, let me begin this with telling you who everybody had. 

Phoebe Baby - one buck kid
Gabby - one buck kid and one doe kid
Nellie - one doe kid and one buck kid
Tiara - doe kid
Tillie - doe kid
Ellie Mae - one buck kid
Velvet - two buck kids
Sweet Pea - two buck kids, one doe kid
Cha Cha - unfortunately, we lost our sweet Cha Cha during birth - very hard
Mandi Jo - two buck kids, one doe kid
Fancy Face - one buck kid, one doe kid
Caylah - three doe kids
Faith - one buck kid, one doe kid
Josie Cat - one buck kid
Dorthy Ann - one doe kid
Beatrice - two buck kids, one doe kid
Delaney - one buck kid, one doe kid
Tootsie - two doe kids, one buck kid
Abby - one doe kid
Laryl - one doe kid
Latte - two buck kids, one doe kid
Daisy Duke - two doe kids
Lexy - two buck kids

By the way, thank you for sending so many nice names.  We used several!!

We have been very successful in finding wonderful, loving homes for the majority of our kids that we aren't planning to add to the milk string next year.  Thank you for everyone's interest.  It sure makes it much easier to see them leave us when we know they're going to be cared for so well.

We learned a very hard lesson this year.  Generally, we don't worm our kids until they're two months old.  This year, right before the two month time period, we lost three of our kids to hook worms.  Our vet told us it's because we have so many kids in an area.  So from now on, we'll worm no later than three weeks of age.  We also plan to add another barn just for kids.  That's an experience we don't wish to repeat.

We have a couple of wonderful kissers in the milk herd.  Lexy loves to lather your face and neck with kisses after she's milked and gotten her treats.  Dorthy Ann is just plain a stinker.  She loves to kiss your elbow while you're setting up the milk pail.  Faith on the other hand has never been one to want loving - until this year.  This year she won't get off of the milk stand until you take her face in your hands and kiss all over her face.  If you don't give her enough, she still won't get down and you have to start all over again.  Yes, we have very spoiled girls!!!

The girls have been milking wonderfully!  Unfortunately, Abby and Daisy Duke are no longer in the milk herd.  After they freshened, they gave us a nice amount of colostrum, but when it was time for them to milk after that, neither of them gave milk (.6, .8, etc.).  We tried giving them shots of oxytosin (sp???), but nothing worked.  The vet couldn't explain, nor could any other goat people I contacted, so we dried them up.  So, instead of milking 23 this year, we're milking just 20, which is fine. 

One of the kids in particular likes to "help" us when we're cleaning the loafing area.  Delaney's doe kid was named Sassy Pants for obvious reasons.  When we're in their area cleaning, she likes to get in the cart and show off to the others that she's in it and they aren't.  To get her out of the cart, we wheel the cart out with her in it to a play stand for them and she jumps from the cart onto the stand.  At first it really was cute - plus she was helping to push it down to be able to add more.  However, she's gotten to be quite a dickens and knocks the cart over when it's full and we have to refill it again.  Now the long, hard task of convincing her she really doesn't want to do that any longer!

Iowa is going through a horrible hot spell very early this year.  It's already in the 90s with LOTS of high humidity.  Neither we nor the goats are at all happy with it.  We purchased a very large barn fan that the goats like to lay directly in front of.  We're praying it's going to cool down, but I'm afraid we're destined for a long, hot summer. 

We purchased a used pipeline system and went to pick it up today.  It was for cows, so needs to be converted for goats.  We're hoping to be able to get it installed this fall or early winter after we're done milking this year to be able to use for next year's milking season.  As it stands now, it takes two hours to milk when I do it alone in the mornings, and an hour with two milking in the evenings.  This should cut down on our time considerably - plus it will go straight into a bulk tank rather than being placed in stainless steel totes and hauled up to the cheese kitchen.  Much less hard on our old bodies!!! 

I realize this doesn't make up for six months of no news, but it's chore time once again.  We hope this finds you all well and will try to write again soon.  The attached photos are a few pictures of this year's kids.  Hot Rod threw quite a bit of color!

January 26, 2005
We hope you all enjoyed the holidays! Ours were very nice, but our R&R time has gone by very quickly. Wendy reminded me the other day that we only have about 2 weeks left! Weve been taking full advantage of our down time by going out to dinner in the evening, evening movies, overnight trips, (unheard of during milking season), sleeping in... We're trying very hard now to get back in the mindset of getting up at 4:00 a.m., living in the barn, and LONG hours. Thank goodness we love what we do!

We've already begun giving shots, worming, and trimming hooves to get the girls ready for kidding. What a chore! This weekend we plan to get the barn all cleaned and ready.

We have some sad news and some scary news. The sad news is we lost our oldest buck, Maverick. For some reason, Mav developed hypothermia the last three winters. We've always been able to pull him through it; however, this year, he started when the temperature was only in the 30s. We knew he was going to have a hard time making it through our cold Iowa winter if he was already having trouble. So, we made the hard decision to have him put down. It's so hard to lose one of our kids. Our scary news is that we noticed last week that one of our yearlings, Daisy Duke, had very swollen feet and wasn't walking very well. Our vet, who is absolutely wonderful, came out and discovered she somehow had an infection in all four feet. I'm happy to say that with proper meds, shes A-OK now and back to normal. Thankfully, we watch our girls pretty closely and generally find problems early.

Heres the list of who is due when. Sure could use some name ideas! Please start sending names (boy and girl) right away!!!

Phoebe Baby February 11 (Phoebes breeding was an OOPS! Simon broke out of his pen.)
Gabby February 15
Nellie February 18
Tiara February 19
Tillie February 21
Ellie Mae February 21
Velvet February 23
Sweet Pea February 24
Cha Cha February 26
Mandi Jo February 26
Fancy Face February 26
Caylah February 26
Faith February 26
Josie Cat March 2
Dorthy Ann March 3
Beatrice March 4
Delaney March 4
Tootsie March 5
Abby March 8
Laryl March 10
Latte March 10
Daisy Duke March 10
Lexy March 30

Thats the rundown! Were praying that all goes smoothly. Will stay in touch as we can! (SEND NAMES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!)

November 12, 2004
The milking season is quickly winding down for us. We're now milking the girls every other day - in a couple of days we'll switch to every third day. They're as ready for a break as we are! The girls seem to handle our drying up process very well. We much prefer this method to simply cutting them off. That seems as though it would be very painful for them!

All 23 of the girls are bred. The first will be due around February 15 and the last will be due the end of March. Last year the kids all came within a two week period. It was nice to have it all done quickly, but VERY TIRING! It will be better this year to have them spread out a little. We're trying to guess how many we'll possibly have this year. Our lowest estimate is around 50. That's going to mean an awful lot of names to come up with. If anyone has any names they'd like to submit already, that would be much appreciated! We like to start calling them by their names as early as possible.

   I have to tell you about our barn cat, Wailin'. About a year ago, he came to us as a small kitten, probably three months old and absolutely skin and bones. He "wailed" nonstop when he first adopted us. Slowly, with food and a lot of patience, he came to trust us and is now a beautiful, filled out cat. He still "wails", but now instead of it being because he's hungry, it's because he's starving for attention. He follows us everywhere asking to be picked up and loved. Actually, he does all the loving. All we have to do is pick him up and he wraps his front legs around our necks and rubs and purrs very loudly! Wendy accused me and our intern, Ann, of spoiling him because we carry him around and love him while we chore. However, he started following Wendy to the manure/compost pile with his tail straight in the air when she would take the cart out and she began picking him up and carrying him back - of course, now he thinks he needs to be carried back every time. He's quite a character. I'm attaching a couple of pictures for you to see our little guy.

Colder weather will be coming in later this week. Ish! Over the weekend, we did a lot of barn repair and cleaning. We still have a bit more to do this coming weekend and then I think we're pretty much caught up. All of the goats have been enjoying the weather we've had so far this week and have been spending a lot of time outside. I can't believe how much they're growing.

We're having an open house November 19-21 with Picket Fence Creamery and Prairieland Herbs - two other businesses on the outskirts of Woodward. Everyone really enjoys going out to visit the girls when they come so I hope the weather is nice! Please feel free to come visit us during that weekend! If you need directions to any of the businesses, please call us at 515-438-4022.

August 23, 2004
Congratulations to Amanda and Shelby!!! Both did extremely well at their county fair. Amanda and Cricket came away with Grand Champion over all and Shelby and Heidi were the Reserved Grand Champions. We're so proud of them! We had to share the pictures they sent to us.

It's hard to believe it's nearly September already. We hope to begin breeding for next year the middle to end of next month. The girls have been coming into heat for a couple of months now and really getting the bucks riled up. As it stands now, we will retire three of our girls and plan to breed 15 of our present milkers and 8 yearlings. Should be busy again next February and March!

Our milk supply is starting to taper down somewhat since we're late into lactation. We're hoping to be able to continue to milk though until the end of November. We've been putting lots of cheese away to tide us over the winter months.

We've been enjoying cooler weather the last two weeks. Iowa is generally in the upper 80s to low 90s in August and very humid. We've been in the 70s and even hit the mid 60s one day. The kids think that's just great! They've been bouncing off the walls and us too! It's so fun to watch them run after one another and jump and kick. They're real comics to see. They've all developed very cute personalities. Some are a little more serious and some are very ornery and fun loving. When we go in to fill their water buckets, we can always guess that Rupert will jump up on our backs for some loving while the buckets are filling. It's comical to see them when we're nearly finished milking. I don't know how they can tell it's almost that time, but they sure can! They all line up in the corner waiting to see if we'll give them some licorice when we're done. They're so spoiled!

We hope everyone has had a wonderful summer!

July 5, 2004

We hope everyone had a safe 4th of July holiday. Although we had lots of work to do around the farm, we took an R&R day and were actually pretty lazy. It felt very nice for a change.

It’s so nice when our customers stay in touch and let us know how they’re doing with our kids they purchase. The attached picture is of Shelby (2-legged kid) and Heidi (4-legged kid) sharing a kiss at the 4-H Taste of Storm Lake fundraiser event. Shelby, her sister, Amanda, and their mom, Amy, have purchased goats from us the last two years. They’ve stayed in touch and shared pictures of our babies with us often. Wendy and I love to see our babies go to such loving homes.

The little ones are now on the big pasture. Our weather has been so up and down that we had a couple weeks where several were ill. I’m happy to share that we’re finally pretty well back to normal - thankfully! They’re loving having toys to jump up on and play king of the mountain. They also think it’s great fun to “help” us haul the dirty woodchips down to the compost pile. What a chore to try to push the cart when we have lots of little ones and yearlings following very closely. The newest venture is for a few of them to try to get into the cart while it’s being brought back to the barn. For some reason, they love to get in and on top of that cart. We’ve even had to haul the cart with a kid or two inside of the cart. We generally have to end up letting them play with it for awhile before we’re able to get it back in place.

Three of our little boys went to a new home a few miles away. They went to a lady that had had a milking goat previously, but now just wanted pets. It sure makes the barn seem empty when a few of them leave.

It’s time to start looking for hay again. Our weather has been so rainy that good hay crops are going to be hard to find. Many of the farmers have had to cut their hay because it was ready and then it got rained on. We’ve been fortunate so far and are keeping our fingers crossed for some good baling weather.

Good luck to all of you who will be showing your goats at the fairs this summer!

May 19, 2004

What a busy time this has been. These kids have really kept us busy! We thank everyone that sent in names. We wanted to share the names that were given before any more time goes by.

1. Spot
2. Dasher
3. Possum
4. Schneider
5. Jobe
6. Johnny
7. Rupert
8. Nemo

We still have 25 kids here - mostly wethers. There's one in particular that we named Capone after Scarface Capone. He's brown and white with marks down his face that looks like he has scars. Recently though we've begun calling him Chubs Capone. He has turned into a little piggy! He loves his food!

The babies are almost big enough to go on the larger pasture with our yearlings. Capone and Sophia are still able to get through the fencing over there though, so we're going to give them about another week. Then we should be safe.

The girls have been milking in excess of 100 gallons a week. We've been making LOTS of cheese!

We had an open house April 30-May 2. I think people were more interested in meeting the goats than tasting the cheese. I think nearly everyone that came out also went to visit the barn. It was a lot of fun. The Des Moines Farmer's Market started May 8, so we're busy there each Saturday morning now. We really enjoy the opportunity to meet so many different people, as well as seeing our regulars return. To be honest, what I think is most enjoyable is seeing people's faces when they try the cheese for the first time. Most think goat cheese has to be horrible and are pleasantly surprised once they try it.

It's nearly chore time. Will try to write again soon.

March 17, 2004

The babies are all here!!! We ended up with 36 in total - most of them little buck boys!

Below is what everybody had:

It was easier said than done to get pictures of very fast moving kids. I'm attaching a few. Please send names quickly, click here to go to photos and naming section!!!

February, 2004

The countdown is on! After nearly two months of rest, it's nearly time to begin again. We're really getting some huge tummies in the barn. Most that are due toward the end of the month have already started to udder up. We feel so horrible to see them uncomfortable. Let me show you their due dates:

Faith - February 17
Lucy - February 22
Tillie - February 23
Penelope - February 23
Cha Cha - February 23*
Sweat Pea - February 23
Ellie Mae - February 23
Velvet - February 24
Fancy Face - February 24
Cinnamon - February 24
Nellie - February 25
Phoebe - February 26
Tiara - February 28
Mandi Jo - March 1
Josie Cat - March 2
Caylah Jo - March 2
Macy - March 3
Gabby - March 15
Beatrice - April 8

As you can see, we'll probably be living in the barn February 23 - literally. That's ok. We're just praying for healthy babies and easy deliveries. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Our oldest buck, Maverick, developed hypothermia from the cold weather we've been having. He has a horrible habit of rubbing his sides along the fences when he has girls in heat and has rubbed a lot of his hair off. Even though we have blankets on him, it just wasn't enough. He's much better. Hopefully he'll be able to go back into the buck pen soon.

We purchased a barn cam recently to be able to see what's going on in the barn. We're so excited! We hope to have it hooked up in the next few days. This will be very helpful during kidding. In prior years, Wendy and I have had a monitor in the barn so we can hear what's going on, but still need to make trips to the barn several times including during the nighttime hours to see exactly what's happening. The girls make so many noises, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on sometimes. The barn cam will be set up so we can see the girls we have in the kidding pen. If it works well, we'll purchase software for our website to be able to let you see what we do in the barn.

Be watching for kid pics!

*After writing this, our Cha Cha aborted her triplets 18 days early. Unfortunately, we lost all three babies, but Cha Cha is doing great and already giving lots of fresh milk. She's one of our best milkers; we're anxious to see how she does this year.

May 1, 2003
Kidding season ended April 13th with the birth of triplets - two doe kids and one buck kid. In all, from 17 does, we had a total of 36 kids. That's a lot to bottle feed! We've now weaned all but the last 10 kids from the bottle. The last to be weaned were Cricket, Casper and Kermit. Cricket is not at all happy about not getting her bottle and is VERY vocal to let us know! The older kids are eating a nice selection of mixed alfalfa hay and our own grain mixture.

   Today is very rainy and damp. It was really cute to see three of our yearlings cuddled up with Toby, one of our Great Pyrenees, taking a nap.

   This week is hoof trimming week. Not a fun task, but a necessity for the goats to keep their legs and feet healthy.

June 27, 2003

Where did this month go? We apologize for not posting the kid names sooner. We want to thank everyone for all the names submitted. The names we chose are: Buddy is the buck, Dorothy Ann is the doe in the middle and Delaney is the doe on the right.

We'll plan to do this again next year when we start kidding. Start thinking of more names!

Several of our kids have gone to good homes within the last few weeks. It's so hard to see them leave. The barn always seems so empty when one leaves.

Last Sunday, we moved the remaining kids to another part of the barn so they could have more pasture. They loved it! We have a calf hut in that area and they loved jumping on it, running in and out of it and playing "ring around the calf hut"! It's so cute to see 10-12 running around it with their little ears flapping. Instead of just lying around, they've been out eating pasture and getting more exercise, thankfully.

The girls have been milking very well. Beatrice is giving us nearly two gallons per day! Unfortunately, the heat and humidity is rolling in so that will probably change soon.

This morning we had a horrible storm roll through the area. We had lots of loud thunder and lightning. It was so funny to see our 13-year-old wether, Mik, on his knees with his fanny up in the air and his head hiding under the feed bunk. Guess he thought if his head was hidden that he was safe!

Show season is coming up. To help teach you more about goats, we've posted a diagram showing the various names of the body parts. It's important to know the terminology for the show ring.

November 14, 2003

I'm failing miserably at getting something written monthly. SORRY! Let me tell you a little of what's been going on the last couple of months.

Two of our wethers, Barney and Bailey went to Wendy's work for their United Way Campaign. Four of the upper management people were in a contest to see who could raise the most money for United Way. The person with the most money "got" to kiss a goat. It ended up that they raised so much money that all four of them kissed both kids. The boys rode very well in the car and were on their best behavior - thankfully. Wendy and I really enjoy showing off the goats. People thought we had given them baths before we brought them in. Many people still believe that goats are dirty and smelly. They sure found out differently!

Mandi and Josie are yearling twins and milking for the first time this year. They're so silly to watch because if one of them comes in to be milked, the other thinks she should too. If they don't come in together, the one that doesn't come in screams until you come out and get her.

It was a very sad day here August 2. We lost our Maudie Mae that evening. She was 13 years old and her health had been steadily declining over the preceding months. That night she just couldn't fight it any more. Her brother, Mik, went through a grieving period, but with lots of TLC and extra treats, he's come around quite nicely.

We'll be living in the barn next February - literally, I'm afraid. We like to breed our girls in September for February kids. We had hoped they'd come into heat throughout the entire month, BUT they didn't start coming in until September 20. We bred 16 between September 20 and October 2 - several of them in one day most times. We bred one two weeks later and got the final doe bred yesterday. (Be watching starting the middle of next February to help us name some of the kids!)

We're winding down with our milk schedule. We've begun to dry the girls up. Most are down to once a day now. We're still milking three twice a day. It's really comical to see them right now - when they're in full milk in the Spring and Summer, we have to ward them off at the gate because they all crowd it and want to come in at the same time. However, now they really don't care if they come in or not, so we are having to literally go out and bring most of the does in. They look at us as if to say "it's not my turn."

I think I've rattled enough for this month. I'll "try" to be more timely in the coming months.

December 11, 2003

Cindy from Oklahoma, I received your kid question message. Your e-mail address wasn’t complete, so my return message didn’t go through to you. Please e-mail me direct at goatmom@northernprairiechevre.com and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

We’ve been getting bombarded with snow, blowing snow and cold temperatures lately. I hope you’re having better weather! The girls think this weather is totally unnecessary! For the last two days, the wind has been blowing snow so badly that I’ve fed them inside. Well, they think even though the wind has stopped blowing, they should continue to be getting fed inside! They weren’t too happy with me this morning when I asked them to go outside to eat their hay. They were still standing in the doorway acting quite disgusted when I left the barn this morning!

All 19 of the girls are bred now and getting pretty plump tummies on them already. Everyone is also dried up as of last week. Sounds crazy, but I’m actually missing milking – especially mornings. It’s so soothing to lay my head on their sides while they milk and just talk to them. Sounds corny, I know, but I love it!

The 8 doelings we kept for breeding next year are really getting big. They’re all poofed out from the cold weather. They weren’t very happy with us after the first snow when we asked them to go outside to eat hay. I’ve never heard so much complaining in my life!!! We ended up spoiling them quite badly by scooping the little bit of snow around the feed bunks so they didn’t get their feet snowy. We’re just too soft!!

Start thinking about kid names! We’ll be posting some pictures of kids and asking for help naming them.

Wendy, Connie and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!! See you in 2004!

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