Hey y’all! I haven’t been on here lately, as we have had a lot going on and have been doing a lot of re-evaluating and soul searching. While he is doing a LOT better since his heart surgery, my husband IS getting older and slowing down quite a bit. My right foot is still giving me a lot of grief after seven surgeries, and we have to start cutting back on the work load around here. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
After a great deal of thought and prayer, we have decided to sell the goats.
I love my goats, but I have to be realistic.
I have tested sensitive to milk, but when I first started milking my goats, I found that if I didn’t pasteurize the milk, I didn’t react (phlegm in the throat). However, last Spring, I started noticing that I was getting a lot of phlegm when I drank our milk. Even my Kefir was causing it. So, my main reason for having dairy goats is out the window.
I have also been evaluating the cost of keeping the goats, and considering that I am not getting any income from the goats, we can’t really afford to keep them. It is costing $200+ per month for all our feed. Granted, that includes chicken feed and dog food, but we just can’t afford to keep the goats as pets - which is basically what they are at this point. Our only source of income is social security, and we are having a hard time making ends meet.
So, I have listed four of our seven goats on CraigsList - three purebred pregnant dairy goats and our purebred Myotonic buck. The sad thing I’m finding is that I paid good money for quality goats. Everyone wants quality goats for bottom dollar. I actually had one lady email me, asking if one of the does ($275) was registered. She is purebred, pregnant, a second freshener, excellent milk production, from registered lines, but isn’t registered. The lady wasn’t interested. She wanted all that AND she wanted a registered goat!!! Another guy didn’t want to pay for my LaMancha/Nubian cross doe. He wanted to trade a Nubian buck for her.
@Baymule has given me the names of some FB groups, where I can list my goats, locally. I plan to do that tomorrow and will see how that goes.
We will be keeping Rosemary, because last year she did not get pregnant. This year, we have not seen her appear to be in heat, and never saw Danny Boy mount her. I put a marking harness on Danny Boy, but that wasn‘t until after he had been with Rosemary for a while. She never had any markings on her rump. But, it is possible that he bred her (before that) and we just didn’t see it. If she goes past February (which would be four months after I put the marking harness on Danny Boy) and she shows no signs of pregnancy, we will take her to the butcher.
We will also keep the two wethers born in June, and will take them to the butcher in April or May.
Once all the goats are gone, we will have to decide what to do about the dogs. I think that is going to be the hardest decision to make. They have been together since birth, and I hate to separate them. But, I have been told (by someone whom I trust and who knows about these things), that I could keep one and sell the other. There again . . . People want quality, but they don’t want to pay for it. We paid a lot of money for quality purebred Maremma LGDs. However, around here, it is common to find Great Pyrenees going for $100. I just don’t know how I am going to be able to get my money back, if I sell these amazing Livestock Guardian Dogs.
We have quite a few older chickens and ducks, which have all stopped laying. Since about mid-September, we haven’t gottten one egg from our birds. So, we are planning to butcher most of them. We will be keeping the pullets and one rooster, that hatched in July. We have six roosters in a separate run, from that same hatching. They will also get butchered with the older birds. By cutting back to ten chickens (from 45 chickens and ducks), that will cut way down on our feed bill, as well.
This Winter, we will be cutting down quite a few trees, that have been shading an area that could be used for vegetable garden. Next Spring, I want to get a good size garden in, so we will have vegetables, flowers and herbs, to sell at Farmer’s Market.
As I said, we have been really busy lately, so I don’t have a lot of time to hang out, on BYH. But, I will be checking in as I am able..
Surely glad to hear DH is doing so well.
Although, I do have to go in and wash my hands and arms after petting him.
And it IS almost as hard to sell them. We sold my sweet Calendula and Faith (Hope’s sister), which has helped a bit on the feed bill. 
Getting up is a major undertaking. DH has a problem with a bad hip. So, being able to hoist the mower up, on a chain between two trees makes the job doable.
I LOVE cutting trees down with a chainsaw. I had never cut a tree down, until we moved here. But, I seem to have a knack for getting the trees to go exactly where I want them. Although, you do have a point. Cleaning the branches up afterwards is hard work! Not my favorite part of the job. 
