Home Again

Now that the whole family has returned home after being away, we all happy to return to our regular routine. Asa waters the plants as John and Jake go to take care of the goats.

It's afternoon milking time. You may notice that the right side of Ginger's udder is larger than the left. Naturally, we get more milk out of that teat. Right now we are getting about 12 to 13 lbs. of milk a day from Ginger. That comes out to more that 1.5 gallons a day. We unfortunately end up dumping out most of that milk that we get. I occasionally make cheese, and we use some for cereal and to add to John's coffee. But we still get way more than we need. I just gave a 2-quart jar to a friend of ours who is lactose intolerant, and she was interested in trying it out in her coffee to see if she liked it, and if her body could handle it. She loved it and is ready for more already. I really would love to find a family or two who would be interested in using the milk. I don't like throwing it out... it's such a waste.

Goodbye Bucklings!

The boys walk the bucklings out to their new owners. The kids were sad (the human kids), but knew that they were going to a great home.


One last hug!

It was time to say goodbye to the bucklings, Ginseng and Sycamore. They are headed off to a new farm with lots of brush for them to eat. They will now be scrub goats, eating out in a wild field all day long with four other goats. Their new owner is a veterinary assistant and animal lover, so she knows about taking care of the fellas, and will keep them healthy and happy. Good luck to them at their new farm!

In the carrier and ready to meet their new goat family. Bye Ginseng and Sycamore!

First Mozzarella

I made an awesome Mozzarella cheese today. My first try today was a bust (so was my effort yesterday), I thought I knew what I did wrong - too much citric acid - so I ran out for more milk, cleaned all my equipment, and tried again. This time it was a success! I wish I could share this cheese with everyone out there, but you'll have to trust me that this mozzarella was Fantastic! Can you believe that I didn't take a picture of it?

Guess What?

It is good. I've been just dying to finally know for sure. I've been waiting so long to taste it fresh from the source. I guess that I'm doing something right, because our milk doesn't have that goaty finish that I've tasted both times that I was brave enough to drink the stuff. Before, I figured that I was getting the freshest goat milk possible, after all, the milk was from local goat farmers; which in my mind, are the most wholesome, hygienic, forthright, and and just plain good folks on the planet. I'm not sure why the milk from the store tasted bad. Perhaps it wasn't as fresh as I thought. Maybe its shelf life is only a day or two. Perhaps the housing conditions or the handling procedures weren't great. I don't know. But I know first-hand that Ginger's milk is sweet and delicious! No goaty taste at all whatsoever! Tomorrow's breakfast cereal will be topped with our own farm-fresh goat's milk. Yum, yum, yum!

Milking is going well

Ginseng says hello.

Check out this nice, strong milk stream!

At first, I was only able to milk one teat at a time, and forget about aiming the stream! I just set the bucket wherever the stream happened to land... Now, two weeks into this venture, I can milk both teats at one time, and aim them both exactly where I choose! My hands still get tired pretty quickly, but I know that my muscles will only grow stronger, and I will not tire out before I am finished with the job.

Right now I am getting four quarts per milking from Ginger. I plan to only milk once a day - in the morning. Four quarts a day is way more than enough to work with! The boys are put in their own pen at night with food, hay, minerals and water. All night long Ginger makes milk - and at 6:30 in the morning I go out to milk her. When I'm finished milking, I let the fellas out of their pen where they join their mother for breakfast and all day long they have free access to her and her milk. When they leave her for their new home on Father's Day - I can have double the milk each day; or choose to continue milking once a day. A gallon of milk every single day is going to be very difficult to keep up with! We'll see what happens when the time comes.

Disbudding and Hoof Trimming

You can see Ginseng's horn bud burn above his eye.

We took the whole family out to the field for the first time since the bucklings were born. Ginger was nervous the whole time, and Ginseng and Sycamore had a great time.

On Friday evening, both bucklings were disbudded by my animal sitter, Andrea Meyers, of Suzie-Qs pet sitting service. She takes care of all of the animals when we go out of town. In addition to disbudding the little guys, she trimmed Ginger's hooves for me. Gingers hooves have gotten seriously overgrown, and after freshening, she began to walk with a limp.

She's always be very difficult to trim and I've never been able to do a thorough job on her hooves. Well, while she was pregnant, it seemed that her hooves grew at lightening speed, and by the end of her gestation, looked like ones out of a book that demonstrates really, really badly overgrown hooves. I couldn't wait for her to freshen so that I could finally trim them - not supposed to do it during pregnancy for fear of stressing out the doe to the point of aborting. But right after she gave birth, she had a very hard time even standing on the front legs and would sometimes kneel on her front legs and be standing on her hind legs. That's when I knew that she was really in trouble.

Thank goodness for Andrea who came in and took one look at Ginger's feet and insisted on trimming them immediately! Her husband, who helps with disbudding, straddled Ginger in the front, and Andrea straddled Ginger in the rear, and Ginger fought! John came in to help both of them, and Andrea started clipping away! Luckily no hoof rot. It took three adults to trim her dang feet, so I don't feel so awful for not being able to do it by myself all this time. Next time, John and I will know how to hold her to get the job done. I won't let them get that bad ever again!

Today, I can really see improvement in Ginger's walk, she's moving around much better. She even trotted! One leg is still standing badly, but I'm hoping that now that she's no longer carrying all that extra baby weight, and her hooves are trimmed, that she can recover.

Andrea is really great - she will be caring for our goats and cats when we go out of town, including milking Ginger! I love that I have someone that is able to help out like this! Not many folks, especially ones with goats, have someone to look after their farm animals when they want to get away from the farm.

adjusting to life outside the kidding pen

Sycamore and Ginseng Nibbles Holdee (you can kinda see his wonky front leg) really like it outside the kidding pen. Despite their small size, they seem to be fearless around the other larger goats. Tulip and Juniper especially seem really spooked by the little guys. T&J want to do the goat butting game (no actual contact) with the babies - who are not put off by this at all.

A family moment in the fresh air.

Ginger's Babies Have Arrived!

Sunday morning Ginger was acting weird. I was wondering if perhaps she was going into labor. After a few moments, she began acting normal again, so I dismissed it, but decided that I should check back with her every so often during the day just to be sure. I never made it back to check on her until their dinner time, and when I walked into the barn, she was standing there with her water bag hanging out of her. I yelled to her "Hold On Ginger! I'll be right back!!" I dropped my bucket and ran back to the house to get the fellas and some.... towels? What do I need? I don't remember!

By the time I returned to Ginger's side her bag had dropped and she was standing and nervously bleating at me as if she was completely bewildered about what the heck was happening to her body. I led her to her birthing pen as the other goats watched with great curiosity.

Over the next two hours Ginger worked very hard to work her first baby out of the birth canal. John and I both had our hand at helping her get the babies out. We were really getting nervous at how long it was taking... our books said that it should be over in minutes rather than hours - and it had been over two hours. Finally with great relief to all, the first kid arrived. A few minutes later, the second one came out very easily and quickly, in just one push.

Ginger was a great mom from the moment the bucklings arrived, licking them clean and encouraging them to nurse.

One of the bucklings has a problem with one of his front legs. The knee joint doesn't seem to be able to lock, so he can't put any weight on it. That doesn't seem to slow him down much - he still gets around and does his best to keep up with his rambunctious and energetic brother. Asa called him Jumper - but has since changed his name to Ginseng Nibbles Holdee. I've named him Ginseng, and Asa figured that he needed a middle and last name: He loves to nibble at fingers that are put in his face and loves to be held, hence the name. The other fella with the wonky leg has been named Sycamore by Jake.

These are very cute, yet temporary additions to our barn. They already have a new home to go to once they have been castrated and dehorned. A friend of John's from B&D who has a farm will take them to use as scrub goats and pretty ornaments for his property. We will enjoy them very much while they are with us.