What a hot day it is...

The humidity is really effecting everything, even us humans. I am afraid it is gonna be a really hot and humid summer. I need to get to shaving the llama and goats. It will make all this heat much easier on them.
I have gotten most of my planting done. Here is some of my gardens...

 Here is my small herb/flower garden, it is around our well head. I have some rhubarb,oregano, and then a butterfly bush and two other flowering bush.

Here is my large herb garden. I have lavender,peppermint,spearmint,basil,cilantro,lemon balm,dill seeds and parsley seeds planted. I also planted some daisy bushes in here for more color.

 Here are my two rows of tomatoes with marigolds in between each. I planted 36 tomato plants.

Here is a pic of my raised flower bed. I have a lot of flowers in here. Tiger Lilly's,a rose bush,snap dragons,dianthisis, and many more.

Here is a picture of my cauliflower,broccoli and cabbage. You can also see my rows of pas and beans and the un planted area. I will use this un planted area for sweet potatoes and more beans and peas later.

I had my daughter take some great pictures of some of the animals. so here is a little tour of our "farm".

    Here is Dillan. He is just over 8 weeks old. He is one of the two withers.

 Here is June. She is just over 1. She will be breed soon for some fall babies.

Here is Bella and Ruth. Bella is just over 1 and Ruth is 8weeks. Ruth was my only doeling born and will be retained. Bella will be breed for some fall babies too.

Here is Fawn. She is the only horned doe I have. She is just over one. She will also be breed for some fall babies.

Here is some of my chickens. You can see my turkin rooster.

Here[above] is Cotton. She was freshened for the first time this year. She had twins. A doe, Ruth and a Buck, Daniel.

 Here is my young bucks and withers. In this pic. is Daniel [brown and white buck] , Dillan he was also pictured above, and Eclipse he is another buckling.









 Here is the same pen. In this picture you can see Dillan again,Eclipse and Twilight.Twilight is one of my withers. He and Eclipse were from a set of triplets to another one of my does, Twinkle. I sold her other wither, O'Ryan.







 Here is Morocco. He is one of my new bucks. He is as sweet as they come. He will make a great addition to this farm. I am excited to see what he throws. He did a good job over at Fairland Farms.








 Her is our sweet llama, Ruby. She has been with us for three years. I love her dearly.










Here is Festus. He came to us a buck. He is not what I want from a buck so he was withered.









Here is Carmel. He was the buck that bred all of this years does. He is a good buck. He is smart, gentle and always does his job!

Here is Daisy. She is my moms horse. She will soon join the other farm we have and will be with the cows. There is just not enough land for horses here. I want to have mainly goats here.

 The is my horse Ruby. She is an Arab. I love her. She does not ride that well, but is a good companion.










 Here is Tango and Twinkle. Tango is a great milker and is a great mom.She had twin buckling's. One of her buckling was Dillan.
 Twinkle is the doe that had the triplets.She is learning to be a good milker. She has a nice pedigree and is a really good doe. Just needs to get better with handling.








I hope you all enjoyed a look at my place. I will post some pics of my baby chicks and turkeys and more of the goats later.
Good day to you all!

Goats for sale

Here is the list of the goats I have for sale right now...

I have Fawn, she is a one year ole doe. Never been freshened. CAE negative has a clean bill of health. She is current on all vaccinations. She is horned. I am currently working on her lead training. She loves to sit next to you and is coming along well.

Here is some of this years kids for sale.
I currently have 1 buck for sale, His doe is a nice doe, good milk, and threw a beautiful set of triplets for her first freshening. I am asking 200.00 for him.
Eclipse




















This is his dam, she has excellent bloodlines.

I also have his brother, who is withered.  For sale, he is 75.00 He looks just like Eclipse, but a slightly longer body.

And the here is Dillan. He is also a wither. He is really friendly, loves attention and is very well behaved.

I also have some other goats I would consider selling. Please contact me if you are interested in any of these goats.

Some new pictures...

I finaly had time and decent weather to take some pictures of some of my new goats and the kids.

So this is Butterfly.

This is June Bug.

This is Bella.

This is Fawn.

And here are the kids.

From left to right in the front we have Twilight [all black with white spot on head], Ruth [my only doe kid], Lil Joe [blonde with white spots],Dillan [chamoisee with a dark strip down his back and some on his legs], Eclipse [all black with a small white spot on head] and then in back we have Daniel [he is a pretty little pinto] and then O'Ryan [is  black and white ]

We have disbudded, trimmed hoves and will be wethering some this week. I will be selling some, so please contact me for a price list and some pics and descriptions.
We are busy busy busy here. We have the new land that needs fencing and a barn. Gardens are going in, not to mention milking, cheese making and just the general care of all our four legged friends.

Well lots to do. Good Day all!

Wet Weather...

I hope all of you are doing well during what has been a stormy spring. I am hoping all these storms are about to leave us. It is making my life harder. With all of theses storms we have a lot of mud and standing water. Of course this mud is worse in front of the barn. It will be a job leveling all of it out after all this rain dies down.
Last year we dug a drainage trench from between the two big stalls at the top of our hill. It has helped, but the horses are not leaving the front of the barn so all this mud mixed with all their manure is making it all worse.

I had the vet out to check out my 6 new goats and to castrate a calf and goat. I also had all horses vaccinated. Then next week the vet will be back to wether all but 2 of my 6 kid goats. Then we will be saying goodbye to some of the kids as they will leaving us for their new homes.

I just bought some new herbs, tomato plants, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. I am hoping to at least get the herbs in the ground tomorrow and then the rest in this weekend along with some more seeds. All this rain seems to have washed away some of my seedlings and possibly rotted my potatoes!

Good day to all of you!

Kids...

So our kids [baby goats] are getting big! They spend a lot of time outside on the nice days and we have even moved our little Ruth to the barn. They are all on bottles now as I am milking all three does. Now bottle feeding seven kids is a chore. We are trying to come up with a system so that we are not allowing bad behavior or one kid stealing too much food. So in our attempt to keep things better organized we added two new stalls to our barn. This is going to help with our kidding next year and with keeping kids away from moms. It is always amazing to me how goats can escape anything. We built four foot high stall walls and 3 1/2 foot gates with a board running across the top. I have one doe Twinkle who can still manage to squeeze out! And believe it or not our little Ruth, the bottle feed, smallest kid we have can jump out too! She jumps higher then any of the bucklings! So I have gone to placing a gate across the new pens on top of the gates on the stalls!

My father in law is purchasing some acreage down the road as his retirement home and will be closing on it soon. He is buying five acres and allowing us to use three acres as we please. So this is the best answer for the horses and cows. This will also free up my two acres for more goats. I know this land will take some work, putting up fences and a barn/lean to. Not to mention driving to care for the animals. It is only five miles away so it will be an easy quick drive. But I can not help but already planning what I am gonna do with the extra room here! It is amazing what we can all do with just a little bit of land. If you rotate animal's, and use good management, you can keep healthy happy animals on small acreage. So in my head I am growing my goat business, raising more poultry and allowing more room for gardens.

I hope you all are happy and healthy as we enter this wonderful time of year.

Well here are some new pictures. ENJOY!

Here is our Ruth, when she was inside.

She is such a couch goat!

Here are all seven kids!

And Again!

It has been a long week...

It has been a long week. Have any of you had one of those weeks or maybe days? You know the ones, where you feel tired just getting up. I have been really sick. Let me tell you if I am saying I was sick, it was bad. I usually just grim and bear it. I have told my girls many times smile, nod and keep going. That is what I do.But this week, well really two, have not been good.

I have had a showing fall thru, and a FSBO that gave me a hard time, even though I sold his land! I am closing that deal nest week. And I am still trying to get my farm running better.

Had a sick baby goat, who pulled thru and is now doing great. Getting used to another horse and goat here has been hard. I have small dairy goats. This goat is a pushy giant Nubian mix that is full of bad habits. He even broke down a fence to get to the horse.  And then today I lost one of my favorite hens. She was so egg bound her abdomen was swollen and purple. I guess in my own sick days I did not notice her illness. I have been wanting to get all my kids on bottles and no more moms. I just do not have the time. I feel exhausted all the time.

I hope all my followers are doing good and having better luck.
God Bless you all!

dehorning..

Well today was the day we took our kids to another Nigerian goat farm and she burned off all the horns. I was prepared to do this. Now I am not so sure. I love my kids, I want the best for them. And not having horns makes them more saleable, not to mention safer; for people and goats. Yet watching Dawn hold down my little cute kids... hmm... not sure I could do it. I love each and everyone. Now don't get me wrong; they will all go [besides the doe]. But burning horns take a special touch. Too hot, too long can cause damage. Not hot enough or long enough can cause scurs. Just takes a special touch!

I have been working on getting more milk. And let me tell you, I am not doing bad. My older doe, Tango is giving 2-3 quarts of milk daily. While my junioe doe, Cotton is giving 1-2 quarts daily. Now as for Twinkle, we are working on it. She has always hated to be showen, or walked and miking is no different! She flips all over the place. I hope I can keep my cool and keep working on it. I find it hard, but am not giving up.
I recieved my first cheese kit. I am so anxious to make us some cheese. I hope to begin the process this weekend. I will try! We are moving cattle, a horse and a nubian goat. I know this can be a long job. I am ready!

Spring is in the air! I can feel it! Can't smell it, I have a cold, but I surely can feel it!
I have a lot to get done, so I must go for now.
Enjoy the fresh spring air!