B&B Happy goats
Herd Master
Safe travels.... 
rachels.haven's Journal
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Baymule
Herd Master
Be safe getting back home!
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rachels.haven
Herd Master
Got back. The animals were fed and alive. The house is intact. The layers somehow got fed chick crumble the whole time, but that's okay, and the dogs were somehow given a whole 50 pound bag of dog food over the week we were gone when it normally lasts a month, but I guess people often put on a little extra weight over Thanksgiving, right? Why not dogs? (Bailey has indeed added some padding already somehow)
We got somewhere between 17 inches and two feet of snow. That's a lot of wet.
I think the fence installation season is over for me. Getting the panels here was the important part and that happened. I'm planning on testing out some woven wire when things thaw too. That's exciting.
For now it's just time to go into maintenance mode here and feed all the beasts.
I did adult doe feet today. The three kids and three bucks are next on my list. The bucks are always the best behaved, so I'll probably have them go last.
We got somewhere between 17 inches and two feet of snow. That's a lot of wet.
I think the fence installation season is over for me. Getting the panels here was the important part and that happened. I'm planning on testing out some woven wire when things thaw too. That's exciting.
For now it's just time to go into maintenance mode here and feed all the beasts.
I did adult doe feet today. The three kids and three bucks are next on my list. The bucks are always the best behaved, so I'll probably have them go last.
Last edited:
HomeOnTheRange
Golden Herd Lurker
Welcome back!
B&B Happy goats
Herd Master
Glad you made it home safely
Baymule
Herd Master
When we leave I am always glad to get back and go check on all the animals. Our neighbor that does chores when we are gone doesn't have a smart phone, I wish he did so he could send me pictures. When they are out of town, I can't send them pictures either. LOL When I pet sit, I send pictures.
Bruce
Herd Master
And the dogs ate it all? Maybe the neighborhood squirrels got into the bowls when the dogs were done. LGDs, for their size, don't eat a whole lot. Puppies I guess would chow down more since they have growing to do. But growing too fast is a bad thing. Guess they'll be back to their usual ration now.Sorry about all the snow. I guess that storm went south of us, we've gotten a couple of inches in the last day or so, another inch or today until tomorrow.
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- #1,128
rachels.haven
Herd Master
Friday check in time.
THE CHICKENS ARE FREE RANGING (in snow). Good dogs. The silkie chicks are almost ready to go out to their coop with a heat lamp with Mr. Teddy. And I have egg customers.
Bailey is patrolling and racing around the yard at night barking things off. The giant coyote was back this week, but Bailey is out for his blood. He can howl AND bark like a dog and is VERY loud, btw. Much louder than my dogs. He's not real happy about not being allowed in sight. All the normal coyotes are gone again and someone is shooting it up on the conservation land. Hope they get a little coy-thing meat or fur or whatever.
I've weaned Ava's doelings. They'd made tooth ulcers in their mom's udder the shape of their mouths on one side while I was gone. Ava's being milked once a day and starting to go dry but has decided it's okay for me to milk her, probably because I'm not a toothy doeling. I believe she is indeed pregnant by Patrick. Her udder is so torn up and scabby, poor dear, but suddenly her stand manners are perfect, no hobbles required (although she did take a biting pot shot at me today on the way by, but whatever). Maybe next lactation won't be so bad.
Quick question: Does anyone know the length of a Nigerian's lactation? It doesn't seem like they want to make milk for very long.
My family still hates nigerian milk, btw. They can taste it even in small quantity mixed into our daily milk 😭 Too rich, too creamy, and too "not as good". Only lamancha milk is "high quality" enough without the nesquick. Ugh. Please explain this to me. I think it's great. I wish they would have come to this conclusion sooner, but I guess we didn't have lamanchas earlier.
Speaking of milk, I got the town's blessing to sell milk, and they are the authority apparently here. So I may test the dairy waters next spring. A lady in Pepperell sells it for $20/gallon (which is going grocery store price, I guess). It might be magic though...or organic or something, and I'm not going to do that right now, so I'll probably ask for a fair bit less. Maybe I can pay for hay this way and enjoy milking as much as I want?
Here's a goat count. It's a bunch of goats, but we're swinging it. Whatever I do next year tiny goat-wise, I think I'd like to close my herd for a few years and have no more new personalities staying on the scene unless they are born here.
Lamancha Bucks
Rustic Wood's Black Tie Affair (ate the metal straw off my feeding syringe while I was worming him yesterday like a champ, thanks buddy) 120 lbs
Lucky 4-Leaf Count Chocula (coming in two weeks)
Lamancha Does
Woodland Haven The Saffron 155 lbs (deep, wide, long legs, great feet, cute ears, wanna be lap goat that outweighs me and biggest little goat you've ever met)
Moon Mist LOG Purple Summer 122 lbs (a sweet doe with sausage teats and a soft, soft udder-she's golden)
Epimetheus Lace 80lbs (looks like a muppet with her scurs and how she "talks")
Kaos Farm RWP Uranium (coming in two weeks)
Nigerian Bucks
Mustang Meadows T Durango (my cute little one from a michigan diary lines with high production and big teats in his history, son of the best milking doe in his breeder's herd)
Rosasharn WS Sir Patrick*B (I love this one for his sweet attitude and dairy record)
Rosasharn MM Mili's Buckeye*B (amazing build, stunning feet and legs, good udder history with okay production history, but has a habit of hunting and biting butts if you haven't picked him up and carried him around the pen recently enough and he's not small)
Nigerian Does
Mustang Meadows T Avalon (lovely teats and udder, from michigan diary lines, good production, and bred to Patrick from when Badger chewed his tail open and I put him in the extra stall next to the doe stall while Ava was in heat and she broke in to help herself) Hoping for more does if we keep going.
Ava's 3.5 month doelings by Buckeye to be evaluated in the fall when they kid. I'll probably breed them to Durango at 40lbs/8months for kids with SWEET udders and teats and small stature.
Woodland Haven Ava's Sugar
Woodland Haven Ava's Ginger
Woodland Haven Ava's Lavender
That's it. And yeah, the ground is frozen now, so no more fence work until May. I may get out the chainsaws that came with the house and if I can get them working, there are a few choke cherries and euro cherries that AREN'T 40+ feet tall that I can take down assuming that frozen wood isn't an issue. There is at least one that is too big for me that we will have to hire out for, but that's a later expense. It's also right in front of the house in the big doe pen. I agree with DH. Those trees when they grow large DO look like nightmare forest trees...but for different reasons-potential goat poisoning reasons.
Also, there's still that wasp nest in the wall of our house that I need to figure out. How do you poison a dormant nest that you can not reach?
Sorry if this was a little jumbled. Today is a "sick day" for my oldest and he's a handful putting it mildly.
Oh, and my youngest discovered and pieced together how to play DH's high school trumpet. That might be another reason why things are jumbled. So it is not quiet here. I really need to take the slides and mouth piece out of that thing and HIDE them. 4 year olds do NOT need to be jamming on trumpets in their undies and socks at random hours. Sure glad I don't have nerves to be jangled at all.
THE CHICKENS ARE FREE RANGING (in snow). Good dogs. The silkie chicks are almost ready to go out to their coop with a heat lamp with Mr. Teddy. And I have egg customers.
Bailey is patrolling and racing around the yard at night barking things off. The giant coyote was back this week, but Bailey is out for his blood. He can howl AND bark like a dog and is VERY loud, btw. Much louder than my dogs. He's not real happy about not being allowed in sight. All the normal coyotes are gone again and someone is shooting it up on the conservation land. Hope they get a little coy-thing meat or fur or whatever.
I've weaned Ava's doelings. They'd made tooth ulcers in their mom's udder the shape of their mouths on one side while I was gone. Ava's being milked once a day and starting to go dry but has decided it's okay for me to milk her, probably because I'm not a toothy doeling. I believe she is indeed pregnant by Patrick. Her udder is so torn up and scabby, poor dear, but suddenly her stand manners are perfect, no hobbles required (although she did take a biting pot shot at me today on the way by, but whatever). Maybe next lactation won't be so bad.
Quick question: Does anyone know the length of a Nigerian's lactation? It doesn't seem like they want to make milk for very long.
My family still hates nigerian milk, btw. They can taste it even in small quantity mixed into our daily milk 😭 Too rich, too creamy, and too "not as good". Only lamancha milk is "high quality" enough without the nesquick. Ugh. Please explain this to me. I think it's great. I wish they would have come to this conclusion sooner, but I guess we didn't have lamanchas earlier.
Speaking of milk, I got the town's blessing to sell milk, and they are the authority apparently here. So I may test the dairy waters next spring. A lady in Pepperell sells it for $20/gallon (which is going grocery store price, I guess). It might be magic though...or organic or something, and I'm not going to do that right now, so I'll probably ask for a fair bit less. Maybe I can pay for hay this way and enjoy milking as much as I want?
Here's a goat count. It's a bunch of goats, but we're swinging it. Whatever I do next year tiny goat-wise, I think I'd like to close my herd for a few years and have no more new personalities staying on the scene unless they are born here.
Lamancha Bucks
Rustic Wood's Black Tie Affair (ate the metal straw off my feeding syringe while I was worming him yesterday like a champ, thanks buddy) 120 lbs
Lucky 4-Leaf Count Chocula (coming in two weeks)
Lamancha Does
Woodland Haven The Saffron 155 lbs (deep, wide, long legs, great feet, cute ears, wanna be lap goat that outweighs me and biggest little goat you've ever met)
Moon Mist LOG Purple Summer 122 lbs (a sweet doe with sausage teats and a soft, soft udder-she's golden)
Epimetheus Lace 80lbs (looks like a muppet with her scurs and how she "talks")
Kaos Farm RWP Uranium (coming in two weeks)
Nigerian Bucks
Mustang Meadows T Durango (my cute little one from a michigan diary lines with high production and big teats in his history, son of the best milking doe in his breeder's herd)
Rosasharn WS Sir Patrick*B (I love this one for his sweet attitude and dairy record)
Rosasharn MM Mili's Buckeye*B (amazing build, stunning feet and legs, good udder history with okay production history, but has a habit of hunting and biting butts if you haven't picked him up and carried him around the pen recently enough and he's not small)
Nigerian Does
Mustang Meadows T Avalon (lovely teats and udder, from michigan diary lines, good production, and bred to Patrick from when Badger chewed his tail open and I put him in the extra stall next to the doe stall while Ava was in heat and she broke in to help herself) Hoping for more does if we keep going.
Ava's 3.5 month doelings by Buckeye to be evaluated in the fall when they kid. I'll probably breed them to Durango at 40lbs/8months for kids with SWEET udders and teats and small stature.
Woodland Haven Ava's Sugar
Woodland Haven Ava's Ginger
Woodland Haven Ava's Lavender
That's it. And yeah, the ground is frozen now, so no more fence work until May. I may get out the chainsaws that came with the house and if I can get them working, there are a few choke cherries and euro cherries that AREN'T 40+ feet tall that I can take down assuming that frozen wood isn't an issue. There is at least one that is too big for me that we will have to hire out for, but that's a later expense. It's also right in front of the house in the big doe pen. I agree with DH. Those trees when they grow large DO look like nightmare forest trees...but for different reasons-potential goat poisoning reasons.
Also, there's still that wasp nest in the wall of our house that I need to figure out. How do you poison a dormant nest that you can not reach?
Sorry if this was a little jumbled. Today is a "sick day" for my oldest and he's a handful putting it mildly.
Oh, and my youngest discovered and pieced together how to play DH's high school trumpet. That might be another reason why things are jumbled. So it is not quiet here. I really need to take the slides and mouth piece out of that thing and HIDE them. 4 year olds do NOT need to be jamming on trumpets in their undies and socks at random hours. Sure glad I don't have nerves to be jangled at all.
animalmom
Herd Master
My nigerians vary in their length of lactation. I have one doe that I have been milking steadily for over 5 years. I have another doe that is good for only 8-9 . months. Not much of an answer for you, sorry.
- Thread starter
- #1,130
rachels.haven
Herd Master
That's a good answer. Thank you! I guess I'll keep an eye out for good lactation length then.
