Goat babies!

We are not going to have any kids this year. We lost Lilly and her kids, then Lacey lost her kid. When we lost Lilly, we had to put the remaining 3 in the same pen. At that point Lacey was pregnant and P was not.

In theory, Nubian goats are seasonal breeders. The bucks go in rut and the does start cycling in August. They will continue until about January. So at this point I have no idea is P cycled while in with Nephi or not. If she did, then we will have a big surprise in July! Why did I say in theory? Well, occasionally Nubians will cycle later or earlier and the males will go into rut or stay in rut later. My vet swears that they ONLY cycle breed from August to January. I have friends that occasionally have kids in September or November. People cannot start to know or predict the secrets of God and I think it is interesting that we keep trying!

So, with no kids due this year and one doe down, it was prefect time to increase our herd. We had planned to keep one buck as companion for Nephi and we needed one doe to replace Lilly. We drove 6 hours to a breeder that has good bloodlines and sometimes cheap prices. It was a long and uncomfortable drive with my neck still in the healing process.

When we got to her place, she first showed me a little doe, that in her opinion, had some issues. She is the youngest of 4, has ear control and a mild under bite. Being the 4th of 4, she is very small. She is a month old when we see her and she is the size of a newborn. Ear control is not considered a 'fault' during showing but many people do not want a Nubian that can move her ears. If that wasn't enough, she also has a mild under bite (think of a bulldog but she isn't that bad and her teeth don't show). Her degree of under bite is also not an official fault but many people would not buy this girl based on those two things. So the chances of this girl getting a good home are almost as small as she is. I asked her price and was surprised that she wouldn't find a home since she was almost free. Here is my catch, she has fantastic bloodlines! Did I say fantastic? I meant amazingly fantastic! Her issues are genetic but as long as she is not directly bred to another Saada buck, she won't pass those traits on to her kids. If her faults were more severe, it would be a gamble, but with this girl, it isn't a gamble. Especially with my ace in the hole; Nephi! She is the idea doe to breed to Nephi whose bloodlines have strong facial structures. We got her; meet Summer's Pearl Moon, or Pearl for short.



How can you not love that face?! As she grows, her ears will lay
flat and her bite will even out quite a bit.





She jumped up on the chair to look out the window
 with ease. This girl is going to be a handful!







Chewing on my rug



After taking Pearl, we moved on to see the other does that we had originally come to see. There were 7 doelings in 3 different barns. We immediately discarded any from barn 1 since they were too closely related to Nephi. We picked one from barn 2 and took her to barn 3 for comparison. It was funny because as we talked I got the distinct impression that this lady did not want to let me buy to girl we picked from barn 2. When I strait out asked her what was going on she said that she quoted me a price before she realized what a good milker the Mom would be and now that she knows, she can get twice the price. This little doe has 1 sister, so the money take from selling these two would be quite high (almost as much as what we paid for R's Bella!). I told her that we wanted that doeling and asked if she wanted me to pay the higher price. She said no, she quoted me a price and would stand by that price (the only honorable thing this woman has ever done and since she increased the quoted price when I bought Nephi, we are now even!). So, we have Prairie's Dawn Light.

Dawn is on the left near the door. She was dam raised for the
first 3 weeks so she is a bit skittish. We are working
hard on her friendliness.

She is very curious and extremely loud! She has great bone structure
and we are very happy to have gotten her for the original price!
I love the markings on her face, R says she has black racing stripes.

Our final adventure was finding a buck friend for Nephi. We wanted one with a different set of bloodlines so we would have more choices and combinations for breeding and we would be able to offer a wider variety of lines to people in our area that want to breed. There were only 2 barns with bucks. We went from barn 1 to barn 2 and had an idea that we wanted a buck in barn 1. As we were talking in barn 2 a little goat ran up and started chewing on my pant leg. I pushed it away and we continued to talk. We started walking back to barn 1 when this little goat showed back up and started chewing on my pants again. I pushed it away and started walking faster. I almost made it to the corner of barn 1 when the little goat shows back up and stands on my boot. I started walking and it balanced on my boot and would not get off! I pushed it off with my foot and we walked the rest of the way into barn 1 so we could look at the little black buck. He would make such a great addition to our herd. Nephi is light brown and a black buck would even us out! Perfect. Then the little goat jumped on my boot again. So I asked, whats the deal with this one? It is beautiful! She said 'Oh, he is for sale also. He is the last of 3 and is quite a bit smaller than the others.' He? He?! He! He was dark chocolate brown with black trimming and a small white spot on his head. Oh, she says he is out of a blue roan doe who is out of a blue roan buck so he will probably throw some blue roans. Blue roan like my sweet Lilly goat! Sold! Meet Helaman, our last addition to our small herd.

Nice wide chest on this boy and he is only 2 weeks old.

He is such a nice color and is very friendly.

Heleman is the first one to greet me and even though
he is the smallest, he eats the most! Isn't he a doll?!

All in all our trip was a success. I am glad that we took Pearl. Her future was uncertain and I am sure the sale barn would have been her final destination. She will blend well into our program. Dawn is a gem and has great lines and a nice broad chest. Helaman has the best look of any buck I have seen. I think he looks better than Nephi did at that age. We are excited to see how they all grow and mature. We have a herd of 6; Lacey, Nephi, P, Pearl, Dawn and Helaman. This year will be interesting!

We will breed Lacey and P to Nephi in fall. That will allow the kids a year to mature. I am excited to see what kind of babies they throw but I also want them to get big and strong first. Having 4 does will let us breed two each year and give the others a year off.

I have people lined up this year for kids but we don't have kids to sell! I hope they will wait until next year, but if not... That is the plan Heavenly Father has! 

Glancing back & Looking forward

Another year has come and gone. As we look back on 2010 we remember it fondly and anxious wait to see what the new year brings. We have loved, watched our Gunner (Monkey) grow, were broken and got back up, made a lot of money on goats and invested in more! We gained family and lost family; gained a brother and sister, lost our second set of twins. We were approved to adopt. 2010 was a big year with a lot of adventures; as we are sad to see it end, we are excited to see what is coming our way!

We had a friend ask if we were making any resolutions. Simple answer: nope! The next question was 'why not'. We have plans and we already know where we need to go and in general, how we will get there. We know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us, we know in general what the plan is and the path to get there. We know the path but we don't know every step and we are still surprised at how things work out. Will 2011 reunite us with our family (child and his/her Birth family)? Only Heavenly Father knows and we will continue to follow his gentler promptings.

Another friend asked if we are trying to be the perfect couple, put on a 'good face', if our blog is really who we are. Yep, this is us - in all of our imperfect and goofy glory. She then asked if our blog was an adoption blog: nope! Our blog started one day when I wrote the same email (with minor changes) and sent it to 5 different family members. I decided that it was ridiculous and we wanted a place where we could share what we want and keep private other things. She asked why our blog is public. When we started we didn't know how to make it private and I wasn't sure our Moms and my Uncle Ed would know how to log in! Besides we now have lots followers from other countries and we get a lot of emails from people that we would never correspond with if our blog was private. 'Do all of our friends follow our blog?' Nope, only a few friends know we have a blog. Like I said, we are fairly private and while we love our friends, we are selective with whom and what we share. 'But you just said your blog was public.' Yes, but how many people that read our blog actually know us in person? About 6!

What do we have planned for 2011.
First: C will undergo her final surgery to fix her neck; this will hopefully happen in the next 4 weeks.
Second: we will travel to California so R can baptize his little sister.
Third: we will do some serious riding this summer and will start Gunner.
Fourth: who knows; we haven't thought that far ahead!

Our wish for you:
"May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires.
May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had, forget your home address!
In simple words ............
May 2011 be the best year of your life!!!"

Breeding success!

The goat mating dance is so funny to watch; bucks are gross and obnoxious! If you have never seen a buck acting like a buck and are not easily offended, I encourage you to visit a farm and ask to see their bucks. They make funny faces, goofy sounds and run around like fools (much like teen boys that I remember from my childhood and some grow men I know presently)  - I love it! And our Nephi is so persistent...

We purchased Nephi and Miss P from a ranch in Eastern Nebraska. A huge goat ranch, she had 86 does, 23 bucks and had already rebred most of them. We got a gigantic discount on both our goats by buying 'off season' and doing a package deal. It never hurts to negotiate - the worst they can say is no, right?!

Anyhow, both Nephi and Miss P were dam raised and when we brought them home, almost completely wild. All of our goats are dehorned and Nephi was descented as a kid, so he isn't super smelly. Both are getting better at being handled, Miss P is hard to catch and Nephi is hard to get to stand still.  Both did very well for vaccinations and hoof trimming but I can tell that we will need to start thinking about building another structure to restrain Nephi for shots and trimming as he is already almost too big for our stand. If you have any big bucks or have seen any buck restraints, please let me know - I am having a bugger of a time finding something that will hold a 200 pound buck!

Both Lacey and Lilly are bred to Nephi for 2011 kids. Lacey is due in March and Lilly in April. Miss P gets to wait until next year for her turn, I want to make sure she is big enough to handle kidding and she is still on the small side right now.

We brought in a doe (Twila) for Nephi to 'date' over Thanksgiving weekend and she was bred this week. Twila will be headed home next week and should kid in early May. We brought in another visitor (Daisy) today. She is actually currently cycling so Nephi is being diligent about being amorous. Since she was brought mid-cycle, she may not settle this cycle, so she will be staying through January 2nd to ensure that her breeding takes. That makes 2 outsider does for our first season of being official Nubian breeders offering buck services. With the savings from not having to send our does out and these two visitors, Nephi has now paid for himself and MissP!

I have several reservations for doelings our of our 2011 crop and we will retain one buck as a companion for Nephi. I have yet to decide if the retained male will remain a buck that we might rent out or will be a wether. I probably won't be able to decide until we see what he looks like and if he would make a good breeder. I hope to get a good selection of kids this year and am excited to see what they look like.

We have the buck house "love shack" finished and the horse barn almost done. As soon as we finish the new horse barn, we can move the horse out of the buck pen and start buying fencing for Nephi. Then... We can move Nephi into his love shack and will have the kidding pen ready to go! We have always had late April kids, so having kids in early March and early April will be a challenge since March is our coldest month. Yikes! However, having bred a bit early, it will help our kids to be bigger towards the end of summer and sell better since they will be breedable in Fall.

Three years ago I never imagined that we would be hip deep in the Nubian breeding business. Never thought that we would have top bloodlines in our barn and be making enough money to have a self sufficient herd! What a blessing.

I added a bunch of goat info to our website on the Homesteading page - eventually, once our web designer has time and we have money we will move it over to the goat section. It contains basic information on our practices for goat care. Everything we do is done at the direction of our vet, who specializes in goats and only goats.

If you have questions or thoughts, please leave a comment or shoot us an email! We love the questions we are getting and enjoy getting to know so many of you from all around the world.

A minor setback, a lesson and a blessing

I went to the doctor in tears on Monday morning. When my neck gets bad is causes a cascade of other issues like migraine headaches, numb arms, swollen hands, aching back, trouble sleeping and a bad case of the grumpies. Each of those issues cause more issues like lack of enthusiasm and a worse case of the grumpies.

So, I got there at 7:15 in tears and sat in the parking lot crying until they opened the door at 7:50. I saw the Doctor, who I might mention is wonderful, compassionate, understanding and very, very, very good at whatt she does. She gave me an anti-inflammatory medicine shot and sent me over to therapy for some massage and stretching.

Two things I would lie to share with you 1. the anti-inflammatory shot is wonderful and kicks in in 20 minutes. 2. it stings like nothing I have ever felt before - mind boggling stinging. 3. it is a shot in the butt. Not the hip, they do it square on the smooshy part of your bottom. Did I mention that it stings?! Yeah, now you get the idea!

Anyhow, I took 2 pain pills and sat in the Jacuzzi at the Senior Center for an hour. No, I am not a senior, not even close, but it is the only place that one can completely relax when in severe pain because there is a lifeguard on duty. It was wonderful. I drove home for the first time since March 3rd without any pain at all. Amazing!

At my follow-up this morning, she put me on the same medicine as yesterday only in pill form. You only have to poke me once to convince me that waiting 45 minutes for it to kick in instead of 20 is not such a bad deal! I return to work tomorrow and hopefully this is the last setback on the long road to recovery.

I recently ad someone ask - 'knowing what you know now, would you have surgery again?' My answer 'YES!' The pain before was from nerve damage and impingement, which if you have never experienced, I hope you never have to. If you have had it (say a root canal) multiply that by 20. If affected my arm and hand movement, coordination and strength and right before surgery was starting to affect my legs. I still have a numb place on my hip/thigh that I can't feel. Nerve pain and the affects of that are awful, muscle pain and inflammation - easy peasy. This will pass, it is all a part of getting better and I know that. Before, I was getting worse and there was no possible way to get better.

____________________________________________________

On to something more fun. Goats!

We purchased Nephi to breed to our does and possibly to offer breeding to others in our area. The interest has been outstanding and lucky for us, he likes his job. He has already paid for himself, which is the whole idea. We make a little money each year off the kids but for the most part, the sale of the kids pays for the hay and vaccines for the adults. Milk is an extra bonus.

We have had Lacey in with him for a month and she just cycled last week, we will know by the end of this month if it took or not. I left her in with him because he is still a baby (11 months) and he has become very attached to her. I know that at some point in the next month or two he will have to move over to the 'Love Shack' alone - ah, the sad, sad life of a bachelor! I just put Lilly in with him and hope that she will cycle this month. That would allow us to have staggered kidding, which would be nice for a change. This whole breeding this is new to me and I hope to figure it all out in the next year!

A lesson and a blessing
We just found out that one of our kids from this year, Midnight, has been given away to a new home. I know, given away?! I freaked out. What if she is abused or worse - eaten!

No need to panic, I am such a fool. She has been given to a home with a small child with Downs Syndrome. He loves Midnight and she is doing very well. Animals can bring such joy and healing, even healing that is inexplicable to doctors. They are more in tune with the subtle changes and delicate spirits of those with disabilities. Will I miss Midnight, yes without a doubt. Does she belong to this small boy, yes - it was destined to be before she was even born. It humbles me to know that my sweet little goat may help this dear child. What a blessing for us both.

How arrogant was I to be upset?! How arrogant to think she was mine?! Lesson learned. I was merely a vessel to get this little goat to this little boy. Heavenly Father's hand is so entwined in my life and I must learn to trust Him, He will not lead me astray. Thank you Lori for helping me learn this lesson!

Patience is a virtue

What a week! We went from the high 60s to the 20s over the span of a couple of days. I can tell; spring is on the way. The horses are starting to shed - it will be a very hairy spring around the Stout Ranch. We have one month left until kidding season; we bred both does and have bets going to see how many of what we will get. Robert is betting (hoping really) for 2 bucklings. That way we can take them to auction and our herd will not increase! I am betting (hoping really) for 3 babies; 2 doelings and one buckling. I would like to have more options for the does we keep. At this point there are too many variables to guess and making plans seems like a waste of time and energy. We will find out on April 24th! We are still having to be patient - since we have been waiting since November, I think we are doing splendidly!

We planted our seeds for the garden two weeks ago. We start them indoors during early March when it is too cold to put them outside. They will continue to grow in pots on the breakfast table until mid-May when it will be warm enough to put them outside. It is so fun to watch them pop up; small and fragile, struggling towards the light. In mere days they are 2-3 inches tall with big beautiful leaves. Last year, not knowing what I was doings, I over planted on some things and under planted on others. This year, I have a nice variety of everything and if all goes well with the hail and wind, we should have a nice harvest!

I was sitting here watching my seeds and thinking that they could be compared to the parable of the mustard seed and our struggle to increase our faith and share the Gospel. But as I sit here watching these tiny seeds that I planted a few short weeks ago struggle to live and grow I am reminded of our personal seeds and our personal struggles; how we can help each other's seeds to grow and thrive just by being more tolerant and understanding. We each face different struggles as couples and as individuals. We, each of us, has within us a tiny seed that struggles to live and grow and thrive. I don't know your struggles, just as you don't know mine. I also don't know the struggles of the rude man in the grocery line or the lady that cut me off on the freeway. But when I take the time to remember that we each have our own private impurities, challenges and struggles, it makes the small offences of another seem even smaller. How much easier is it then to forgive and uplift each other?!

Empathy by Kelly Miller

When empathy is learned
Our heart to another is turned
As births buds of charity
That we can comfort with clarity

From our own pain we see
And feel with deepened depth
Such that it is the seed
Of love's flower we'll not forget

It seems that all is moving very slowly on the adoption front. We turned in packet 3 almost one month ago and so far, not a word from the Case Worker or even the support staff. I suppose they are very busy and I like to imagine them working fervently on our paperwork round the clock! The reality is that there are several couples in line ahead of us and we will be learning the virtue of patience. Patience will become a dear friend by the time this is all said and done, I just hope I have enough patience to enjoy the ride.

We were talking about the process the other night and we realized (again) that it doesn't really matter how long it takes, our dear child and his/her Mother will be ready and waiting for us when the time is right. We keep having this same epiphany each time we start to get worked up about it. This is our constant struggle, our thought to keep in perspective, our seed that needs to be nurtured...

Goats

We retained our two main does this year and bred both.

The Marimac Sparkling Lilly (left) and The Marimac Sweet Lacey (right) are both bred to Mega-Milkers Timeless Tradition for late april kids.


Mega-Milkers Timeless Tradition

Last year, our Lacey and Timeless gave us Stout Ranch TimeleSweet Phoebe. We are allowing Phoebe to grow this year and will breed her next year. She is a very angular and correct doeling and we expect great mamary from her.

We are taking limited reservations for kids, as we expect to retain at least 1. We are excited to see the products of our breeding efforts and will have a buck available for breeding next fall.