Fall Logistics

Fall tends to be an easier time of year for the goats.  No babies to manage, milking is minimal, and the weather's not too bad yet.  In past years we've managed pretty well with pens of to breed and not to breed.  No question.

Unfortunately this year has been a bit of hassle.  We have a new awesome Boer buck and new ober baby buck I got in the spring.  Whiskey, the Boer buck has been doing his job admirably.  We've been introducing him to does little by little to spread out the kidding season into two bunches.  So instead of one week where we're showered with goat babies, we get two such weeks! mid march and mid april.  See below for a nice movie of Whiskey flirting with Gaga.

That takes care of one breed.  Then for our dairy goats, we put Silver and Claidi together in the do not breed section and put Diamond and Ayrlawn with our pretty ober buck Copper.

A slight issue ensues.  Apparently the does scared Copper so much during their non heat time that when they actually liked him for a few hours he was confused and unable to complete his only allotted task.

On Thanksgiving, both Ayrlawn and Diamond came into heat.  They tail wagged, rubbed along Copper and talked to him contentedly.  After futile attempts by Copper including our assistance with pallets and milking stands, Copper remained a failure.  Huge FAIL.  He still gets next year.

So the does got hauled up on Black Friday, no shopping for me, to meet a lovely ober buck at Blue Ridge Farm (they have beautiful animals).  Thus all the obers were happy except for a frustrated little buck.

You'd think that's the end of the saga, but no.  What to do with Mehmen?  the little nigerian dwarf buck out of Claidi.  He has no one to breed.  We placed him in a small pen near the Boers.  He escaped.  It wasn't until we saw him scramble up the side of a goat house and vault from the house over the fence five feet away that we discovered how agile goats can be.  he was very impressive especially since he only comes up to our knees.  So he's with Copper now, the fail baby buck of the year. 

But breeding season is almost over. thank goodness.  

Story of a Goat Eye

Five weeks ago, Ayrlawn got her right eye scratched while out in the field.  What's pretty amazing is that the goats dont whack themselves in the eye more often.   Her eye then got infected and looked terrible.  We were afraid she was going to lose the eye.  See below...

You can see the massive inflammation going on.  At this angle it's hard to appreciate but she has severe corneal edema and corneal ulceration as well. So per several veterinarian's recommendations, she was put on Terramycin opthalmic ointment, 3x day.  Three weeks later:

A huge difference.  The eye is starting to clear up.  A large ulcer is still present but the inflammation is starting to simmer down.  What's cool about this picture is that you can see some sediment in her anterior chamber from the infection.  Another two weeks of medication three times a day and her eye looks like:

Tada!!!  So much better.  Still on opthalmic ointment though since there is mild cloudiness from the ulcer site.  But she can see!  She only went through three tubes of expensive antibiotic ointment but is looking almost new.

Baby Goat Movie

I've been playing around with a new movie program so here's some kids playing!  This is Salmon as a kid playing with her brother Snowflake.

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Bake

Here's another recipe in an attempt to use up all of that lovely goat cheese ricotta.  I'm usually not a fan of butternut squash but this recipe was really good!

Ingredients:
1 4lb butternut squash- peeled, seeded, and cubed
1/2 yellow onion- minced
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup italian bread crumbs
1 tsp thyme
6 ounces of crumbled goat ricotta cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 F
Mix onion, squash, olive oil, thyme, goat cheese, and 1/2 cup of italian bread crumbs in a large bowl.  Add salt and pepper to your taste.  Pour it all into a baking dish and sprinkle the rest of the bread crumbs on top.
Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until lightly browned.

Goat Cheese and Mushroom Quiche

With several dairy goats, I find myself often overwhelmed with large quantities of milk.  An easy way to condense the goat milk down to to make lots of goat cheese, ricotta being the easiest.  Unfortunately there gets to be a point where I'm swamped with goat cheese.  An easy,  goat cheese involving, recipe I like is to make quiche.

Crust:
1/3 cup salted butter
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp white vinegar
~3/4 cup cold water

 Place all ingredients except water into a bowl.  I like to hand combine the ingredients as the key is to have pieces of the butter still intact.  You can use a food processor.  After the butter is broken down and mixed in, add water little by little until you get a ball that is compact and sticking together but not wet.  Put the ball in the fridge for 10 minutes while preparing the filling.


Filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 medium onion, peeled and diced
1 large garlic glove, peeled and diced
4 ounces of mushrooms- use your favorites, sliced
4-6 oz of goat cheese, depending on how you like your quiches.  I've used up to 8 or so oz to clear some freezer space.
8 eggs
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt

The mushrooms, garlic, and onions can be sauteed on medium in the olive oil for about five minutes until the mushrooms are soft. 

Whisk the eggs, basil, oregano, nutmeg, and salt and pepper together.


Putting it together:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
roll the dough out to cover the bottom of a 9" pie plate
scatter the cheese and mushroom mix over the bottom of the pan
Then pour the egg mix over the cheese and mushrooms.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until a fork inserted comes out clean.  The center is puffy and is no longer fluid when gently shaken.  Enjoy!  It's great for breakfast or even dinner with a salad.

Getting Whiskey to a New Home

 

This is Whiskey Shine.  He's our new buck!  Getting him home from six hours away in West Virginia proved to be more of a hassle than I expected.  My idea was to fit him in the back of my husband's Jeep Liberty which was at least much larger than my Toyota Echo.  I can barely fit our dog in the Toyota Echo, which doesn't stop Harry the dog from trying to get in it all the time since he loves car rides, even if he does prevent us from seeing the back seat.

On arrival with the Jeepaloo at Chestnut Springs Farm, I was all ready to load up the goat.  Slight hitch; Whiskey is a bit massive and there was some debate about whether or not he would actually fit in the Jeep.  We then looked at Whiskey, looked at the car, Whiskey, car, Whiskey, car.  You get the picture.  I was outvoted 2 to 1 about putting him in the car.  What if got scared they said?  There goes a window, a three hundred plus pound goat and probably whoever was in the car behind me.  

Fine.We'll get the goat home another way. 

New plan: My dad meets Chad, the CSF man, up in PA to bring him home, now only a three hour trip from home.  While our ford truck was a truck, it's kind of old and we have no idea how it manages to survive at all.  Hauling the massive Whiskey proved to be a challenge for the truck.  Up every hill it chugged like the little truck that could before whooshing down to the bottom before starting the next hill.  But it made it home with Whiskey.

At home, he was installed into a new pen to be isolated for important biosecurity reasons.  He got bored after two or three days and busted through the back of his house to join the baby bucks.  We were afraid he'd hurt them but he actually really likes them.  They try to tag team him to beat him up but since one is a nigerian dwarf and comes up to Whiskey's knees I don't think Whiskey even notices it when they hammer him.  Life lesson learned: the next buck I buy will be a baby or I need to buy a truck.