Dottie Belle Had 2 Doe Kids

It was about 5 pm today and I was in the middle of making yogurt and cooking dinner; when I made a trip to the garden for tomatoes and noticed Dottie Belle, a Nigerian Dwarf goat, standing in some tall weeds.  She had been yelling at me all day and when I felt her ligaments, But I noticed they were looser, but saw no other signs of labor this morning or early afternoon.  As I came back from the garden, it looked like something moved beside Dottie Belle.  So I went to check it out.  Sure enough she was cleaning up two small little girls. 

Dottie Belle with her 2 doelings.

 One looks just like the buck, Jazzman she delivered on July 17 last year, but about half his size.  The other one is black and white.  Both have Billy Shakespeare white cap on top of their heads. 
Grandson, Chase named the tri-colored, blue-eyed doe Neapolitan.  Connor wants to name the black and white, brown eyed girl, Anna; probably after one of his many "girlfriends."  Either way those may not end up being their names, because I am going to sell them.  Connor asked me why would I sell them.  I told him because I can't have too many goats.  He wanted to know was is against the law.  Anyway, children never want to part with baby animals.  

Connor's eyes are red from chlorine in the pool.

 I already have homes for 2, but Gypsy Ginger is going to deliver any minute, so I don't know if these 2 will go to the same home or not.  But I called Jo Marie and she came right over. We'll have to see Gypsy's baby, but it looks like she will have a tough decision about which 2 she wants.  These are adorable. She bought 6 baby chicks and a coop from me a few weeks ago.  I gave her the 2 baby ducks I had.  But for awhile the grands will have fun playing with the new kids.  I will soon be milking 3 goats.  That could make me very busy.

But not any busier than momma goat.

Baahing at the Barkus and Meow Parade

Thursday, January 31 while my daughter, Jacquie, and I were getting pedicures; I chose to have my toenails painted purple, gold and green for the Mardi Gras season; Jacquie mentioned the Barkus and Meow parade was Sunday.  I told her I was going to ask Don if he was up to taking the grandkids and enter the goats in the parade.  This is the one parade that one can just show up and enter!  I really thought it was a long shot that Mr. Introvert would entertain that notion for a second.  But "Sure!" he said. So I spent Friday and Saturday making and gather 5 costumes and devising a way for Dottie Belle and Gypsy Ginger to pull a wagon with Kennedy in it.  Don and I practiced with the goats before we told the children what "our" plan was.  We found a scrap piece of PVC pipe about 30" long and put the 2 leashes through it to keep the goats straight, looped the leashes through the handle on the wagon and clipped them on the goat's collars.  It actually worked well.  I didn't photographically document it very well. I was too rushed and was afraid of trying Don's patience.

Getting ready to line-up.

The theme for our float was Capricorn.  Connor was the mythical god, Pan (half goat/half man). Notice hat with horns. This picture shows some difficulty. The goats kept losing their boas.

 Notice Kennedy is not riding in the wagon.  It took way too long for the parade to start, so I had to carry her most of the time. So the boys used the wagon for the candy and beads to throw.

Here's the professional video from the parade.  We actually made it at the 1:58 mark.  It's just a very quick appearance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5rt4T3R67c

Don summed-up his experience as an intravert's nightmare with all those people jumping out and wanting to pet the goats.

The children, goats and I had fun, but were totally exhausted.  Dottie Belle spent the rest of the afternoon lying down.  Gypsy is a high energy kind of girl, so she fared the best. 
  


 

Cheese Making Classes

I mentioned earlier that from August through November, I was milking my Nigerian Dwarf goat, Dottie Belle, and making cheese, butter and best of all yogurt. Dottie Belle is the first animal that it has ever crossed my mind to milk. If fact, this whole goat, milking and cheese thing is way off path for me, unless one considers that I am always up for a new adventure.

The most milk I ever got in 1 milking was 34 ounces.  Nigerian Dwarf goats give very rich and sweet milk, but not a large quantity.  But they are very small animals compared to a cow.  So I would have to save up to make a batch of cheese or yogurt.

 I bought 2 books.

A friend loaned me this book.

It's great to have all this information along with many internet sites, but none of them exactly agreed.  My first attempt was a failure, because this former 4th grade teacher forgot how many ounces were in a gallon and I only used 64.  That was the "simple" recipe I got off the internet where you add apple cider vinegar.

Anyway, I did manage to be successful at making a strong traditional feta and ricotta.  But I went crazy over the yogurt it was so good. I will share that in a post by itself.

For a combination Christmas/Birthday present, my children went in together and paid for me to attend 2 cheese making classes on February 8th and 9th.  http://www.sustainlife.org/ On Friday, we learn to make soft cheeses and hard cheeses on Saturday.  The classes are in Waco, TX a little more than 4 hours away.  My husband is taking 4 vacation days to drive over there with me.  He's not interested in taking the classes.  But we will come back through Dallas and visit with his daughter and my son.  So it's a long weekend that we both look forward to.

Honey Bunny

After I have acquired all that cheese making knowledge, I will have to wait until my doe, Honey Bunny, kids hopefully in early April, so I can have milk.  When we left town for 3 days in November, I hired someone to milk Dottie Belle for me.  When I returned she had decided she was not going to produce milk anymore.  That was a big disappointment.  Have any of you had an experience like that with your milk animal?

Goodbye to Jazzman

Last July, Dottie Belle was the first goat to kid here at Thornhill Acre.  She had 1 buckling that weighed 5 lbs.  The average size for a newborn Nigerian Dwarf kid is 2.5 lbs. So he was a big fellow and I was so lucky that the birth was easy.  He had great coloration and clear blue eyes; but I can't start out keeping every kid that is born here.  So when I got a chance to sell him to a good home, I did.

Jazzman

Anyway my grandson, Connor, came over and I told him that the lady had just left who bought Jazzman.   Connor was very disappointed that I would sell a boy.  He believes the farm has too few males.  How do you explain to a 6 year old boy that a farm doesn't need very many male animals?

Billy Shakespeare

I told him that it was okay to sell Jazzman, because Shakespeare was now living with Honey Bunny, so we should have some new kids in March or April.  He replied, "No, Shakespeare is Dottie Belle's husband."  I told him that boy goats could have 3 wives; since I have 3 does. His eyes lit-up and I knew what that little boy was thinking. In the past few months he told me there were too many beautiful girls for him to have just one girl friend.

Honey Bunny

Therefore, I quickly added, but people can only have 1 husband or wife.  His expression quickly changed and he said, "But what if there are just too many beautiful women?"  I then said, "Well then you are not in love, so you can't get married." There are such tough lessons to learn.

29 Kindergarteners Visit My Mini Urban Farm

Neiman Marcus Heritage Hen Mini Farm

The principal of St. John Berchman's School, Mrs. Cazes called me to arrange for the kindergarten classes to visit my mini urban farm, Thornhill Acres.  She had told me before that they wanted to come, but when they saw the cover of the Neiman Marcus Christmas book, http://www.neimanmarcus.com/christmasbook/fantasy.jsp?cid=CBF12_O5415&cidShots=m,a,b,c,z&r=cat44770736&rdesc=The%20Fantasy%20Gifts&pageName=Beau%20Coop&icid=CBF12_O5415  
they thought about my farm and called. I don't know if any of you saw it, but one of the fantasy gifts was a Heritage Hen Mini Farm. No one that I talked with about this fantasy gift got anywhere near the price, even knowing it was Neiman Marcus.  For $100,000 a would be urban farmer would receive the coop, 3-12 chickens and up to 3 visits with recommendations and evaluations by "chicken experts." 

But I'm now off topic.  I think I was fantasizing about receiving the "expert's" portion of that price.

Before the students arrived, I ordered farm animal suckers and tatoos from Oriental Trading Company to give to each of the 29 children. I started by showing them a carton of the very colorful eggs my chickens lay.  Even the adults remarked that they did not realize that chickens laid different colors of eggs.
 

I put my Nigerian Dwarf goat, Dottie Belle, on the milking stand and told them about her "udderly" amazing udder that was full of great tasting milk.  Then I showed them how I milk her.  About half the class yelled out that they had milked a goat before.  That made all the adults laugh. Remember these are city kids who likely have not seen a live goat or chicken. Then one child asked could he milk her and that was followed by all of them lining up to take a turn.  I was shocked that every child waited their turn to milk.  Dottie Belle was a great sport and stood still for it all.

Next week I will be taking my goat, Gypsy, for her first trip to visit a class of 4 year olds.  They have been learning the song Gus the Goat and reading The 3 Billy Goats Gruff.  The teacher texted me today that they children are very excited about Gypsy's up coming visit. 



 










Of course I love my animals and the milk and eggs I get from them; but even more I actually love sharing them with children who otherwise would have no first hand experience with them.  I have never stopped being a teacher.
  

Blogging Interrupted

Dottie Belle and Jazzman

I didn't exactly decide not to blog from the middle of July until January; it just fell by the wayside.  The last blog I wrote was about my Nigerian Dwarf goat, Dottie Belle, giving birth to Jazzman.  





What then ensued was a change in hobbies.  

Feta Cheese sits and drains for 48 hours

I became completely absorbed in learning to milk the goat and then make butter, cheese and yogurt. 

Plain strong Feta cut into cubes.

 I actually had made butter from cow's milk when I was a child. I used the electric mixer. I found that to still be be best way to make butter.  
I was worried that because goat milk is naturally more homogenized, that I wouldn't be able to separate the cream. I looked into buying a cream separator, but wow they are expensive for something as small as my operation. But by letting goat's milk sit in a jar in the refrigerator for a couple of days, I was able to skim off enough cream.  Sometimes I put it in a bowl, so there would be a larger surface.  But the bowl took up more space. I remember when I started dating my first husband, one day he opened my parents' refrigerator and all that was in there was a huge bowl of milk.  He was a city kid and totally did not know what was going on.  But at our house out in the country, in you wanted to eat, you had to go pick it out of the garden or kill it.  Of course we had canned vegetables and fruits and meat in the deep freeze. But our refrigerator was mostly just for milk and eggs.

Anyway, my hobbies of sewing and blogging mostly ceased while Dottie Belle was in milk.  I'll go back and blog about some of the fun and hopefully interesting things that happened during those months. I wish I had documented things along the way, but now all I can do is say, " I'll do better next time."

I'll Be Ready Next Time

The order I placed to Hoegger Supply on Monday night arrived Thursday.  It was really a fast delivery.  




I am so thankful that Dottie Belle's kidding was in the 90%, so the humans could just be cheerleaders; no assistance needed.

Now I have a kidding kit, first aid kit, milking kit with a stainless steel milking pail, and hoof care kit.  I spent over $200.  So you can understand why I procrastinated placing that order; I didn't want to let go of that money.

Cloud thought I ordered him a box of bright orange paper.  He was delighted. Finally, we have a goat to milk.  This first week of milk I will just feed it back to Jazzman.  But from what I have read, Dottie Belle will produce more milk if I milk her as well as let her kid nurse.  So we will share.  This is her first kidding called freshening.  With each kidding she should produce more milk, but I'm just excited to get started.  My grandson, Chase, was up for the challenge of learning to milk a goat.  Dottie Belle was a bottle baby, so one could not ask for a friendlier and more willing goat.

3 Days old, Jazzman is my lap kid in training.

This afternoon I brought Jazzman in to sit in my lap for a few minutes.  I think his mom enjoyed a few minutes of freedom. He also got acquainted with Cloud.  The cat weights 12 lbs and the kid weights 5.5 lbs.

Spending Time with the Goats

With rainy weather, meetings and everything else going on, I have not spent a lot of time brushing the goats.  I give them food and water and then rush on to other activities.  So today I decided to brush all four and trim their hooves if needed.  They were all great at standing on the milking stand and letting me do this. But I noticed that Billy Shakespeare, my 5 month old buck, really loved being brushed. So after he finished the food I put in the bucket for him, I let his free and he continued to stand perfectly still while I brushed him.  The girls don't do that.  He is so tame and such a baby.

 The video is a little strange, because I'm brushing him and holding the video camera.

I also got a video of Gypsy and Dottie Belle on the roof of the goat shack playing. 








Gypsy got up there first using the chair that is against the house. 
 
Gypsy is by far the smartest, most curious and, yes, mischievous one of the 3 girls.  It took Dottie Belle a long time to figure out how to get up there. 

 
 Honey Bunny never even tried.  She just found a warm spot to sun bathe.
 I know I have not painted their house yet.  I have the paint scraped on 2 of the 3 sides.  I will do it before summer.

Trying to Woo Dottie Belle

I am such a fine looking buck.

Just look at my beautiful blue eyes.

I've tried whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

But she just jumps on top of the igloo.

Being the herd stud is harder than one thinks.

I Won!

My husband has heard me say that more than once and is always quick to correct me.  Well, I'm talking about e-bay.  He says, "You didn't win anything. You bought something."  Of course I know the difference, but I still get excited.  My e-bay purchases have been few and far between the last 5 years.  But here is one find that I searched for over 6 months before I found a 3 leaf clover butter mold for a decent price.  I found a couple before, but they were trying to sell them for $60.  No way.  There are many "antique" molds to be found on e-bay, but I had to have the 3 leaf clover like the one we had when I was growing up.
 
My mother milked our cow twice a day.  Often times, the only thing in our refrigerator would be a very large bowl of milk.  Food was either growing in the garden, in a pen, in the freezer or in jars that Mom had canned.  We didn't go to the grocery store and buy produce and such for the refrigerator.
So the milk was in the bowl for the cream to rise and then be skimmed off.  When we had enough cream, it was time to make butter.  We had a glass hand cranked churn.  That thing was too slow for me to stand and crank.  Finally, Mom and I decided that the electric mixer might be the way to go.  It did work beautifully and more importantly, quickly.

I have this fantasy of making butter with goat milk and using this mold.  I realize that goat's milk is homogenized so it will be harder to separate the cream and milk.  I watched a video on the internet that showed how to do this. So it does seem possible to do this.  

BS believes Dottie Belle enjoys the chase.

Right now I need one pregnant goat.  All 3 of my does went into heat this month, so there will be no May kids; therefore no milk or butter.  Little 4 month old Billy Shakespeare seems to be a kid prodigy in the mating department.  He is just too short.  But he is growing everyday.  I'm only putting Dottie Belle in the pen with him.  I want only 1 goat to kid at a time.

Billy Shakespeare Is Crying For His Bottle

This is how Dottie Belle treated him yesterday.

He is looking at me through the office window.

Today has not gone Shakespeare's way.  First we got a hard rain last night and a little this morning.   Now there will be no bottle today.  He was born on September 26, so he is 11 weeks old and it is time to ween him.  Diane at Double Durango Farm, where I bought him said she weens her kids at 8 weeks.  Well, I love to give them a bottle, but the rest of this week will be too busy with Christmas.  So he is in the "dog yard" right next to the office where I am blogging and I can hear him crying for his bottle.  All I can say is, "Eat your hay."

Shakespeare the Stud Muffin

Thursday, I noticed that Billy Shakespeare and Honey Bunny were actually being very affectionate to each other.  Honey Bunny was not a bottle baby and has never shown affection to any being. Gypsy, Dottie Belle and Shakespeare were bottle babies, so they are always rubbing on each other and on me.  Actually more affectionate than a lot of dogs.

Honey Bunny says I like the little guy.

I just filed Shakespeare and Honey Bunny's behavior away to be processed while I slept.  I got up Friday morning convinced that Shakespeare could not longer hang out with the girls.  While I was at the goat yard Shakespeare actually showed what all this affection was--foreplay, but with Gypsy and she was not interested in him.  Gypsy is the smallest doe and I don't think it would be good to breed her now anyway. Honey Bunny is my registered doe and I want to take her to a show before she is bred. 

Dottie Belle wants to go back to the other girls.

So I have decided to move Dottie Belle into the "dog yard" with little Stud Muffin Shakespeare.  Don asked me why I want to breed a non-registered goat, whose kids would not sell for as much money.  My thinking (and it may sound bad) is that I want to practice my first kidding with the "cheap" goat.  Poor Dottie Belle, I really love her; she and Gypsy were my first kids.  But I know that I could make some bad mistakes, like I did with feeding them grain and Dottie Belle got "goat polio." 
Also, my point of having 3 does is to breed one at a time and always have milk.



Shakespeare was born on September 26, so he is 10 weeks old.  I read somewhere that bucklings have been known to impregnate a doe as young as 7 weeks, so hopefully none of mine are "with kid" yet.  But since Shakespeare is getting too big for the Schnauzers to be his companions; Dottie Belle is now living in the dog yard with him.

Do any of you have experience with young bucks and know when it is best to get them away from does you don't want to bred?

A New Arrival

The breeder at Cimarron Valley Ranch named her Honey Bunny.

With any departure, there needs to be an arrival.  Sunday night was the arrival of Honey Bunny, my third Nigerian Dwarf goat and only one with blue eyes and buckskin.  I put the dog crate in the goat yard and let Dottie Belle and Gypsy take a few good sniffs before I released Honey.  I have to admit that I was apprehensive about their reaction to a new "sister" and they proved that I should have been.  Sorry I don't have pictures of their first meeting, but it was too dark at 11 o'clock at night.  

 

Honey Bunny learned very quickly that I have goat pellets in the blue coffee cans.

 

Dottie Belle and Gypsy immediately sent a very strong message to Honey.  They ran in a circle around me and then stood on either side of me and had a stand-off with Honey.  Clearly communicating that Honey was not to come near me. It was quite amazing, but I could not let that situation last.  I stayed out there for an hour trying to make Honey feel welcomed and ease Dottie Belle's and Gypsy's jealousy or possessiveness.

Kennedy loves the goats.  The only animal name she says is cat.

They each have their own bin where they eat goat pellets.

She has beautiful blue eyes.

Gypsy's tongue is out like a dog's.

Of course I love all 3 goats.  But when Gypsy and Dottie Belle start ganging up on Honey Bunny, I remind them that they are $100 goats and Honey Bunny is a $350 goat.  My taste in livestock is getting more expensive.

But you just can't beat the personality of bottle fed goats like Gypsy and Dottie Belle. They just want to play with me.  They are more playful than most dogs.

But I finally gave up, because it seemed that my presence only made matters worse.  When I left they were chasing Honey around the yard and butting her.  I went in and googled, "how to introduce a new goat to a herd?" 
Site after site said you just have to let them work it out.  They have to establish the pecking order.  Gypsy has always been the alpha goat and it seemed that Dottie Belle was putting up quite a fight to remain #2. 


It is probably a good thing that Honey Bunny is 2 months older and a little bigger; otherwise she might get hurt. This is a great example of the importance of disbudding the goats.  I'm really glad none of the 3 have horns. 

Dottie Belle is trying to take the camera from me.