Bamboo Treat for the Goats

A neighbor down the street had the bamboo in her backyard cut and put on the curb.

So Don and I drove the truck down there and got a load for the goats.

This was after I had carried 2 loads to the goats. Gus, Don's cat was hoping he got something.

 

They love the leaves.  It's much better for my bucks than goat pellets.  In fact, the veterinarian told me not to feed the bucks pellets, when Billy Shakespeare developed Urinary Calculi. Here is a wonderful article on Urinary Calculi. http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/urinarycalculi06.html I almost lost BS.  I feed him hay and oats now; instead of the pellets many people feed their show goats.
 

Billy Shakespeare and son, Minimus

The pile of bamboo will likely still be there until Tuesday, so we may go back for some more free food for the goats.  It would be great to just let them go down there and eat, but I know that is not a good idea.  My neighbors are very good about my urban farm, mostly because they can't see it.

Honey Bunny, Dottie Belle and Anna, Dottie's new kid.

Honey Bunny's kid, April.

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.

BIlly Shakespeare's New Pen

As usual, Don was not a willing participate in my farming project. All through Lowes Friday he was saying, "This is the last project I'm helping you with."  I replied, "Yes, this is the last project this weekend." (He does not find me funny; but at least he ignores my comments, so that works.)

So Saturday morning we gathered up the items and headed to the spot for B. S.'s new pen.  Don started digging the holes with the post hole digger and said, "I don't want to do this."  But of course it has to be done, because my dear sweet neighbor is not happy with stinky Billy.  And because I tend to be a very lucky person; not just because my husband is not a violent person, but just 2 days before, a former employee in our construction company had called looking for work.  He's kind of a handyman, jack of all trades, and his name is Jack.  So I told Don, that if he just couldn't make himself do the fence; he could hire Jack to do the work for him. I had just spent almost $200 on materials and am still in debt for the Chateau de Poulet, so all I could afford was the free labor that Don was hopefully going to do. My husband ran a very high end remodeling business for 30 years, but for most of that time he was the pencil pusher, not a hammer swinger.  He loved designing and was very gifted at it.  Anyway, I had been far-sighted enough to write down Jack's phone number.  Don disappeared into the house for a few minutes and came back out and said, "Jack will be here in about an hour." 

B.S. now stands on his igloo looks at the does.

So Don mostly got to supervise and advise and Jack worked his butt off.  It took about 4 hours Saturday and 2 hours Sunday afternoon. Late Sunday B.S., along with the new buck kid, Minimus moved into their new yard.  I called Linda and told her to go to her computer room and take a deep breath. 

Father and son now live together.

Sorry But Billy Shakespeare Stinks

I have 3 does and 1 buck, not counting the 2 kids that were born April 1st.  The does and kids live in the back, behind the garage apartment.  But we didn't make a special yard for B.S.; I just put him in the dog yard that fits rather snugly between my house and my neighbor's. He loves to stand on the air conditioning unit and yell at everyone going by.  It's funny to see people stop, point and laugh at the unexpected site of a  goat. 

B.S. is my friendliest goat.  He was only about 2 weeks old when we picked him up in Loganville, just outside of Atlanta, GA. at the Double Durango Farm.  I had to bottle feed him.  That night we checked in a hotel to watch the LSU football game.  So B.S. is one of a few goats to sleep in a hotel and watch a football game.

He and my granddaughter, Kennedy, have been wonderful playmates since the day they met.

Kennedy and Shakespeare last year.

We'll be outside and I'll look up and B. S. is wandering around free in the yard.  I'll look at Kennedy and she will say, "I let him out.  He's my friend."  And he is.  She has great control of him.  I think she will be great showing him at the State Fair. 

 My Neighbor is the best neighbor about my having a mini urban farm.  She is always bringing friends over and even recommended that a family who is home-schooling their daughter come and visit the farm. She saves vegetable peelings for the critters and I give her eggs. But one day she called and said, "I have to ask you to move Billy away from my computer room.  I can smell him in that room and at my front door."

So in the spirit of being a good neighbor; last weekend we built a new pen for Shakespeare.  Don, very reluctantly, and I went Friday to Lowe's to get the needed hardware.  We had a lot of chain link left over from the girls' yard, so that came in handy.  I'll write a post tomorrow about B.S.'s new pen.

The New Kids Spent Their First Night Alone

This is about 1/3 of what I bought that still need planting.

Today was a busy day.  I still have hundreds of plants to put out from last weekend's shopping trip to every nursery in town with my mother and daughter.  In fact, when we unloaded the truck, my daughter said that it looks like a nursery threw-up in my yard.

But before I could get to my landscaping, I had to milk Honey Bunny, my Nigerian Dwarf goat, for the first time.  This is very exciting for me, mostly, because I haven't had fresh goat milk to make all that cheese and yogurt I learned to make in the classes I took back in February in Waco.   

Milking Honey Bunny this morning meant that the kids, April and Minimus would have to spend their first night away from their mother.  I expected a lot of crying and that's what happened.  I decided to give Honey Bunny a bedtime snack. So I put her up on the milking stand facing away from the pen so she would not see me moving the kids into the "baby house."  That's where they were born and spent the first 10 days of their lives with their mother.  Oh! I haven't even blogged about their birth that was on April 1st.  Things move along quickly around here. 

April, Minimus and Honey Bunny

Of course they started crying when I took them to their house and their mother got upset and started crying.  I put her back in the pen and went to the babies and held them for 45 minutes until they fell asleep. Actually they were asleep after about 3 minutes.  I just enjoyed holding them.  Honey Bunny had calmed down by then. 

For her first day of milking Honey Bunny was super calm and still while I milked her.  Just the opposite of my stubborn girl, Dottie Belle.  Maybe it was good that Dottie Belle was my first goat to milk, so I can truly appreciate a great one like Honey Bunny.  Dottie Belle was a bottle baby. She was not raised with her mother. Instead I bottle fed her.  I'm not sure she has ever understood that she is not human.  So I think she cuts up  more because she is more familiar with me.  We'll have to see if Honey Bunny stays good.  Tonight the kids never cried when I moved them and they went right to sleep.  Honey Bunny still called out to them a few times, but settled quickly.

Working in the front yard allows people to stop and ask me can they see the goats.  Of course I love to do that.  So I had two sets of visitors today; both with children.  They all love holding the kids and chickens.

Gypsy Ginger enjoyed sampling my friend Lola's clothes.

  This evening it was so great to look in the refrigerator and see a jar of goat milk.  It won't be long before I can have some really great yogurt for breakfast.  Now that I have made my own yogurt, I can't eat that stuff from the grocery store.  

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?

Gypsy Visits a School

Last week Kennedy and I loaded up the truck with Gypsy and 2 chickens, Gracie and Moonshine.  The Pre-K classes at Shreve Island had been studying the letter G.  They had also learned the song "Gus the Goat."  

When we drove up to the school, Kennedy pointed to the playground and wanted to go play.  But I told her we had to show all the children her goat and chickens.  The children certainly enjoyed petting Gypsy and the 2 chickens.  As I was holding Moonshine and passing her around so the children could feel her feathers, we heard a splat/crack.  I was so shocked. Moonshine had laid an egg and it hit the concrete.  It almost hit a child on the head.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of that, but I was just too surprised.  Now the children know first hand where eggs come from.

Moonshine right before she lays an egg.

By the way, the first Pre-K class took Kennedy to play on the playground while I showed the animals to the next class.

On Friday, I took 10 eggs to one of the classes to put into their incubator.  Hopefully, by the end of February they experience chicks hatching.

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.

The Sunshine House

Goat Shack

The little Goat Shack, made out of recycled wood, sat needing a new coat of paint for a year and and half.  I had sanded and scraped one side twice. I had bought the paint and brushes.  But they sat in the garage/barn. I had many excuses; it's too hot, too cold, raining, I have Kennedy.  Anyway when I got the call that the Kindergarten class was coming to visit the mini urban farm, I found the motivation I needed.  I scraped the other 2 sides in one day.  I put 2 coats of paint on the goat shack in one day!  Now it has been upgraded from the goat shack to the Sunshine House.  My dear husband said, "I didn't know it was going to be that shade of yellow."  No matter, it is not visible except if you walk down to the goat yard; though it may glow through the slats in the wooden fence.  Whatever, I don't have to keep coming up with excuses and that is a relief.

The Sunshine House

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."

Jazzman Is Happening Today

Gypsy and Dottie Belle at 5 weeks old.

I got my first 2 Nigerian Dwarf does in February of 2011.
For over a year now, I have been surfing the internet and reading about raising and breeding goats. 





 I've been watching youtube videos like crazy of goats giving birth or kidding.

Monday night I finally decided to place that order to Hoegger Supply that I had been making since January. Mother had sent the money back in January to buy a milking pail for my birthday present and I had put a birthing kit and first aid kit in my shopping cart at the Hoegger site.  Monday night, I also went to this website and printed up the Kidding Handbook. http://www.goatworld.com/articles/kidding/KiddingHandbook.pdf  I even put a copy of the Kidding Handbook in my husband's backpack for him to take to work with him Tuesday and read if he found time.
 
For about the past 3 weeks Dottie Belle's udder has been steadily enlarging, but I didn't know how far along that meant that she was.

Billy Shakespeare at about 7 weeks old.

  She has been living with Billy Shakespeare  off and on since I brought him home in October, but he was only 3 weeks old. I was never actually sure they had mated until I noticed her udder.  

She never seemed interested in him.  So I was guessing delivery would be late August or September.  


Tuesday morning, July 17th, I went out to feed everyone and looked at Dottie Belle with the freshly attained knowledge from the Kidding Handbook.  Sure enough there was a little discharge on her vulva. (I have a picture, but I'm not going to include it in this post.)  I had been checking her ligaments around the base of her tail for a couple of weeks, but that area felt just like the other 2 does'.  But Tuesday morning, I could feel what was meant by "ligaments around base of tail will loosen."  Dottie Belle's were finally different from the other does' ligaments.  So my next step, of course, was to call my husband and make sure he had read the Kidding Handbook.  When I told him today was the day we would be using it, he didn't believe me.  I quickly put fresh straw in the goat shack and put Dottie Belle in there.  I then ran into the house and got the camera, surgical gloves, disinfectant soap, towels, a gallon of distilled water, and hydrogen peroxide as a substitute for iodine to put on the umbilical cord.  As soon asI got back to Dottie Belle, she jumped over the little privacy board I had put up for her and ran to a briar patch and laid down.  She had a contraction, let out loud bellow and I saw "the bubble" I had read about.  My friend and fellow school board member, Jasmine, called about that time and I told her Dottie Belle was having her babies.  She said, "I'll be there in 15 minutes."  Now Jasmine doesn't know anything about goats, but she did not want to miss seeing the big event that I had been talking about for months.  I then called my husband back and told him I was right that she is kidding RIGHT NOW.  I wanted Dottie Belle to go back to the comfy bed of straw I had made like it said in the Kidding Handbook, so I got some goat pellets to persuade her to return.  She followed me back to the shack and as soon as she got there out popped a beautiful kid.  I do have a video. Jasmine showed up just 5 minutes too late to see the birth and my husband came home to check things out just minutes afterwards.  His question was, "How did you know she was going to have the kids today?"  I replied, "Because I read the Kidding Handbook last night."  Anyway, kid number one and only was born at 12:35 p.m.  My husband returned to work, since it looked like everything was under control. Jasmine and I sat and waited until 3:45 for another one to be born. Jasmine so badly wanted to see a birth.  But we were having a board meeting at 4:30 and she rushed home to get ready and go to the meeting.  I gave up going to the meeting and sat with Dottie Belle and her kid until 6:00 and then decided there were not going to be any more kids.  Dottie Belle did everything exactly by the handbook, except that little run for the briar patch. I was at first going to name the new buckling Donald, because this was also my husband Don's Birthday. But Don didn't really care if he had a goat named after him, so I've named him Jazzman in honor of Jasmine.  It was her idea.  He weighted 5 lbs.  The average weight for a newborn Nigerian Dwarf goat is 2-3 lbs.  So he is a big fine fellow and looks very much like his daddy, Billy Shakespeare.

As soon as he was cleaned, he wanted to nurse.

Jasmine and Jazzman

Dottie Belle took a quick nap.

The grands came to love on him.

Chase and Jazzman. Jazzman even has his dad's blue eyes.

 

 

At least I'll have the birthing kit I've ordered for the next kidding.