Sometimes goats get itchy and the fence is just not enough.  Here is Claidi the nigerian dwarf.

For fun

The Goats- They're a getting pregnant

It's that time of year where the goats are getting bigger.  We then start a guessing game of how many babies we think are in there.  A safe bet would be to say twins, but some goats seem so enormous already with a month to go that maybe they have triplets!

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.