Today when we came up the road from our trip to Alamosa (we bought straw for the barns and a freezer) the herd of goats, plus two llama girls came running across the field, along the fence, like a bunch of dogs, running to greet us. Silly goats.
We have so much milk now, we are going to start freezing it. That combined with our house fridge freezer full of vegetables from the garden, we definitely needed to upgrade to a chest freezer. We found a little one at Sears.
So, anyway...goats. I want to introduce the herd, starting with the new girls. A nice family gifted them to us because they are moving, but actually not too far away from us, so they can come and visit often.
There's Pinky. She's an odd sort of color, and a mix of something...Alpine, Nubian? She's very big and very bossy. She likes to shove her way through the gate to get to the milk stand. And she likes to dance around when she's up there, which means, I get to hold her back legs while Richard milks. That way, she doesn't kick the milk bucket over. We learned the hard way.
 |
| Pinky with baby Aspen behind her, and Oreo's head in front. |
Pinky's baby doe is Aspen, and she's just adorable. She is polled like her mother, which means they were born without horns. I love polled goats. Alpine likes to lay in the middle of the hay trough or hay bale if it's on the ground while she eats.
 |
| Aspen |
Oreo is a unicorn, the result of a disbudding (dehorning) gone bad, but her one horn doesn't bother us much. She is pure Nubian. We did all have to learn how to get her head in and out of the milk stand though. I also have to hold her legs when Richard milks, but she is getting better everyday. She is the best at standing still of the three new girls.
 |
| Oreo, flipping her head around so her ears stand up. |
Oreo's baby girl is named Cookie and she is a Nubian/Alpine cross. She came with a cough, but it seems to be getting better. She also has one horn.
 |
| Cookie |
Bluebell is my favorite of the new girls. She is full Nubian and disbudded. She just is a nice looking and nice acting goat, although she has her issues too. She likes to lean to the right when she's on the milk stand, pushing against Richard as he milks her. If he gets up, she keeps on leaning, nearly falling off the stand. I do have to hold her legs when we milk. I think all of these girls may have been hobbled on the milk stand. They'll learn over time.
 |
| Bluebell |
And of course there's Jewell, who came to us about a week prior to the five new girls. She's older and seems like she's feeling her age a bit. She's a big Alpine goat, and very well behaved on the stand. She is also disbudded. She does eat a lot of grain though, almost like she's slurping it up, and she licks the dish clean, every time. Her udder is drying up now.
 |
| Jewell |
Our first girl, Fairy Dust, who is polled and a Boer/Alpine mix. She is the littlest of the goats, but very well-behaved on the milk stand. She does have some issues with trying to figure out her place in the herd. She thinks she needs to be milked first, maybe because she was the first one here. She had been with the billy almost full time, until we got Jewell and separated the billy goat from the girls. Fairy's udder is nearly dry now and I think she is pregnant. We may be getting goat babies around the Winter Solstice.
 |
| Fairy Dust |
The male is Molet. Big, red, full blooded Nubian with giant horns. He scares me a little. We have tried to find him a new home through Craigslist, but he's still here, sharing his male goat aroma with the rest of us at the farm.
 |
| Molet |
Quite a herd gathered in such a short time. And we have more milk than we can deal with. We will start freezing it, but it would be ideal to start up a goat share program. So, if you are local, and in Colorado, and would like to own part of a lovely goat herd, send us an e-mail and we can talk about how that works. The share will get you fresh, raw goats milk weekly. We may also do a goat cheese share.
No comments:
Post a Comment