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.