This photo doesn't do this beautiful hay justice. It's deeper green than this faded image.


A closer look at the alfalfa hay.

Now this is Good Hay

Today I drove to the feed store where I always buy my orchard Timothy grass hay. I waited to get more until I was completely and totally out of my stash. The girls seem to have, for the most part, lost their interest in their hay over the last few weeks. I still give them fresh hay every day, but it doesn’t look like they are eating any of it, so I end up throwing it all on their bedding. When I pulled up to the feed store I discovered that the business had closed. No signs in the window telling where they might have moved to; that nice lady that helps me every time I’ve ever been there during the last six months failed to mention during my last visit that they were closing up shop.

I thought of a farmer who sells alfalfa hay – I bought one of those gigantic round bales from him last winter (the goats didn’t seem too keen on it though, so I never bought from him again); when I drove by his farm on the way to the auction a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that he had small square bales in his barn. After my disappointing trip to the feed store, I gave the farmer at Ed-Lyn Farms a call to see if he had any of those small bales available, and he said he did for $3.50 a bale. Said the quality was “okay… might have dried out a bit too much”, but I really had no choice; I know of no other place to buy hay except Global Ag, and I know theirs is just too stemmy. Off I go to Ed-Lyn Farms to get my alfalfa hay, not sure if the goats would even eat it. After arriving Mr. Ed said that he had some newly-available bales that were better that he had set aside for a regular customer who no longer needed it since she moved her horses to a new location. These were more expensive at $4 a bale. I asked to take a look at them and just one look-see was all I needed to know that I had to have them. They looked like a nice deep green with lots of leaves on them. Smelled really good too. I bought ten bales (and took home two barn kittens to boot) and gave a bale to the girls in the pasture as soon as I got home to see what their response would be. They devoured it! They absolutely loved it. I took away the alfalfa pellets that I was offering free choice since they now have the hay. They had been going to town on the pellets too, but I am happier seeing them get alfalfa hay since it’s in a more natural form. I’ve got plenty of storage room, so I am going to call Mr. Ed to see how many more of those bales I can get my hands on. I must have more. My earlier confusion about how “good hay” looks is now gone. I know what good hay looks like! And it’s beautiful.

Approaching Breeding Season

Now is the time to start looking ahead to breeding season for my two older goats, Ginger and Clover. They are both large enough and old enough to breed, and August through January are supposed to be a dairy goat's natural time to go into "estrus". I plan to take Ginger back to the breeder where we bought her; they have 10 bucks for me to choose from. I can take her there, and board her until the deed is done. Can you believe that it's $2.50 a day to board her?! Each doe bought from them gets one free breeding! So the only cost involved really is boarding. I'm hoping that it'll be clear to me when she begins to go into heat, and Scott says that I can just drop her by at any time. Clover will most likely be sent to her original home as well. This is the only place at all that I know of with Toggenburgs. Her breeder has only one buck... Clover's own dad. While this sort of mating doesn't go over well in the human mind, this practice is safe and quite common in the goat world. The Nubians are only three months old now, and are nowhere near being ready to breed, so they may likely be bred next fall. I am glad that by then I will have a greater understanding of what I'm doing; so I am thankful for that.

Just a simple country girl enjoying a good chew.


Hey! Mind your own bid-ness. I'm having a moment here.


The girls in their pasture enjoy the vegetation that grows at the creek's edge. Taking a drink of the water now and then.

Happy Goats

Ginger in her ninja pose looks ready to give Clover What For.


Starts out serious looking, but then they gently touch heads.


Clovers response. Take that!

Juniper (in back) and Tulip say hello to their friends.

Ginger seems to be more sensitive to the heat than the other goats. Sometimes I notice that she is panting on a warm day, when the others are not. She is always the first one to begin panting; then Clover. The Nubians, I've never seen pant. I got some advice after posting a question on one of my favorite goat message boards, Homesteading Today (they have a separate goat subject forum), and there are some people who hose down their panting goats on a warm day to cool them off. So I tried that. Ginger was not too cool about that at first, but then she seemed to warm up to the idea. She did stop panting after that, so that'll be my new response to a panting goat.

Yeah, she looks a little annoyed, but she's not panting.


Please, someone let me out. Some crazy lady keeps spraying me with a hose.

dang humidity

Earlier this week as I was beginning to prepare the goats' grain meals, I noticed on the outside of the bag was mold. I dish the medicated grain out of it's bag, which I keep just inside the mill/barn. I figured that as long as I rolled the opening up real tight, that would keep the humidity from affecting the grain. It seemed that that was working fine. I do keep the regular grain in a metal lidded bin to keep critters out, but with the medicated stuff, I just kept it in it's bag because I assumed that mice wouldn't want that. It looks totally processed with no sign of a real grain to me. I don't know - I guess that I was being lazy. I used the same logic with the alfalfa pellets. I serve that right out of the bag as well. I've never had any sign of critters trying to get to it, so I didn't worry about it.

It's been such a rainy summer, and since the end of June, it's been crazy-humid. Well, I guess that those conditions have finally caught up with me and my bags of grain. I had to throw out a practically new bag of medicated grain and a 1/3-used bag of alfalfa pellets. Both bags covered with mold spores and all the grain touching any part of the bag was completely molded as well.

I bought two new metal storage bins and new bags of feed. Another lesson learned first-hand as a "farmer". Strangely, I get a good feeling when something like this happens. Despite a loss, I feel I've come a bit closer to being a good farmer.

Clover and Tulip eating alfalfa pellets. You can see the dirt floor; and in the corner I keep the floor covered with straw/hay. Right now you can hear a wet squooshie sound as you walk on the bedding. I guess that I need to either put more straw down, or muck it out and put down another thick layer of "Stall Dry" then cover that with fresh straw/hay.