Interruptions

I've sat down to write this blog post at least five times if not more. Every time I sit down to write, something happens! To be honest, I was kind of afraid to try it again, lol. However, this is further than I've made it before, so I think we're doing good!

Things have been picking up around here. We currently have 7 kids on the bottle, 4 bucks and 3 does. Three are Sables, 4 are Saanens. All but two of the kids are available for sale, just FYI, lol. They are onery little jumping beans, and are fat sassy and healthy. We have all the kids on the bucket, which makes life a LOT easier. I don't know how you would use bottles to feed 7 kids all in one pen, lol.

We have two does in the kidding pen right now. The first one isn't due until the 10th, but I just went ahead and moved them over. I still need to get their dairy clips done, but I think I'll let this cold snap/storm system go through first. Frangelica was our last doe to kid, and I didn't have a chance to get her all clipped up. It's much easier to milk and get them cleaned up if they are clipped rather than all hairy, lol.

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Well, it is now three hours after I started this post, lol. Some days.... We had to go do chores before I was able to finish. Now the goats are milked, the kids are fed and hopefully all bedded down for the night. As I finish writing, I can't help but feel so blessed.... *sigh* hold that thought, the pasteurizer is buzzing at me.

....... so blessed to be listening to the rain hitting the windows outside. It's a sound we cherish around here. Coming from a part of the U.S. that generally doesn't worry about not enough rain, it still seems a little crazy to be so happy when it does rain here. But crazy or not the sound makes my heart happy, and I can't help praise our Lord for His provisions.

Spring Cleaning

With our first milker due in just 5 short days, I figured it was time to give the milk room a once over. We had some really strong wind recently, so the place was knee deep in dirt. Well, not quite knee deep, but you get the idea. :) I was finally feeling good enough to join the living (I don't recommend getting an ear infection, sinus infection and bronchitis all at once), and Delb was kind enough to help. We busted out the shop vac, and Delb went to work cleaning up all the dirt and dust. It's amazing how much dirt can accumulate in such a short time.

I set to work on the milk machine.

I figured it could use deep thorough once over before we start the next milking season. (I was right by the way =p) Next on our Spring Cleaning agenda will be the buck and doe pens. Our new shelters are due to arrive tomorrow, and we need to get the pens cleaned out in preparation for them. We are getting the Poly Dome round huts. I think the goat will appreciate them much more than the trailer we've been using as temporary shelter.

Cupcake is due on the 14th! Stay tuned to see her babies!

New Babies and Surprises

We have new babies here at HDF!  Maggie thought it would be a good idea to drive me nuts! This event also ties into another surprise, my dad's party! Friday evening, Delbert and I boarded the train and headed for Illinois. So, now that I can talk about it, lol, it's time for a blog post!
So, Friday Delb and I were busy getting last minute things ready for the trip. When I went out to do chores, I noticed Maggie seemed a little off. She didn't attack her breakfast, so I went in to check on her. She had no ligaments, so I went back in to give her some time. We continued to get things around, and I made several more trips out to check on her. I had just about convinced myself that she was just repositioning the kids, so we decided to make a quick trip to town. When we got back, I went to check on Maggie. There were two beautiful little kids! This is Maggie's third kidding, and the second that she kidded while I was gone to town!
So, I didn't have much time to dote over the new babies. I quickly made adjustments to the chore instructions, and we headed to Lamar. We went bowling and ate with his family. We left bowling and headed towards the train station but as we pulled out, we saw the crossing lights come on. Surely the train isn't that early! Oh yes it was! Well we thought it was. It was actually on time, but the tickets had the wrong time on them. We had two red lights between us and the train. We wheeled into the train station just as the guy was fixing to close the door. I jumped out and hollered to wait. Thankfully, they did, and we made our train only by the grace of the Good Lord above!
The trip to Illinois was uneventful, and my brother picked us up. We got ready, and headed to my dad's surprise 70th birthday party. We hid upstairs at the church and waited for them to show up. We snuck down, and needless to say, we surprised mom and dad! We had a great evening with family then later friends also. We spent the weekend back there with my family, and had a great time. Now it's back to the goats! We have two other does to kid between now and the end of the month. Sandy and Lily, our other two commercial Nubian crosses are due. They were both bred to Abe as well. I will be interested to see what color their kids come out as Maggie's were odd. Her buck kid is a light grayish brown with the sundgau pattern like Abe. Her doe is a light cream color. How you get cream from a brown mom and black dad us beyond me, lol. I added a picture of her kids... Guy and Dolly are the names they received while I was gone. :)

Oops!!

I'm sure about everyone has had an "oops" breeding before. Today was mine... Stella had come back into heat, and even after my last "no more breedings" comment, I decided to go ahead with her. She was up on the fence doing all the things a lovely doe will do when she feels she needs a man in her life. So, I let her out and decided to give Rebel a go with her. Well, Stella apparently wasn't impressed with his small (read young) size and wouldn't stand for him for anything. I figured she wasn't in the mood. I took Rebel to put him back in the buck pen and out ran Abe (my Sable). He had lost his collar, and I hadn't put it back on him yet. He's smelly! Also a little bit flighty.. So, I went to grab his collar so I could catch him to put him back in. Stella ( who is a lovely Saanen and Victor daughter) wasn't ready to stand anyways, so I didn't just run after the collar. BAD IDEA! Why yes, she was ready to stand for a buck, I just had the wrong one first I guess! I had collar in hand, and turned to go get Abe and wouldn't ya know... that goofy doe just stood there happy as a clam for him. *Sigh* Goats! So, if she takes on this breeding, pray that her babies come out any color but white! We'll still love the white ones too, it's just easier to register if they come out looking like a Sable! Lol.
I guess it's back to my office work now! Such a beautiful day to be inside doing office work. Who needs Florida or California in winter.. it was 71 today! I had all the windows open... it was just lovely.

Patience and Flexibility

I think mine is missing! I am so anticipating this year's babies and getting out to show! I'm driving myself crazy, and seriously have "goat on the brain". That being said, I was able to breed a couple more does this week. Anything else that comes into heat from now on out, save one doe, will not be bred this year. It's just way too late in the year to be breeding does for my purposes! We should be left with 7 dry does for this year. Two Sables and five Saanens. One of the Saanens isn't a show doe, so not so big of a deal with her. One thing I have learned since expanding our herd... flexibility. You can plan for months, but those does aren't going to follow than plan! You can hold a meeting, try bribery, etc, it doesn't matter. Gotta love animals!
I'm trusting the 2012 breeding season will go much more smoothly. I am considering using CIDR's to get my girls to kid in a much more concise arrangement. This year we have does strung out for 3 months, with several weeks between some kiddings. Can you tell I'm bothered by this? Lol. I guess my lessons in patience and flexibility haven't been ingrained as much as I thought.

Winter Ramblings

So, for anyone who doesn't know the story of how we came to have 40 goats, you can find the story on our website... www.hdiamondfarms.com/aboutus.html.

I was able to breed another doe today. It is taking me forever to get everyone bred this year. The thought of having kids in June is not one I cherish, but such as it is, we'll make the best of it. Were we got the goats later in the year, then had to wait a bit to get things figured out before we started breeding, it's just taking awhile! Hopefully next year, we'll get on a better schedule. One good thing about having kids so late, we sure should have a steady supply of milk until the 2013 does start kidding.

Other than getting Tunes bred today, nothing major really went on. Fed the goats this morning. Spent some time talking on the phone with my Mom, which is always nice! Did some office work today also. I've been trying to figure out an alternative to alfalfa until we get out of this drought and hay prices go back down to something reasonable. I'm considering an alfalfa pellet or chaffhaye/beet pulp/BOSS mix as a replacement for alfalfa. I'd keep everyone on feed hay and give this mix at night. Right now, with hay roughly $275/ton, I can feed the mix cheaper, and that's not considering any bulk price I could hopefully find on alfalfa pellets. I would have to get alfalfa for $216 a ton before it would be cheaper. Another item on the agenda is trying to decide how I'm going set up my kid management system. Whether to separate the kids or keep them all together, what to use for housing, what method to use to feed them... warm milk or chilled, free choice or on a schedule out of a bucket or some type of cooler. Thankfully I have just under 2 months until I have to have everything in place, but it drives me nuts if I don't have things in order, lol. Soon I'm sure.

H Diamond Farms will have an ad in the February issue of United Caprine News. Hopefully this will generate some hits for the website as well as some interest in reserving 2012 kids. Well, I think that's all the ramblings I have for today!

Tough Decisions

Well, today wasn't the best day of the week for sure. Delbert and I made the decision to sell most of our unregistered stock. That meant all the Boer goats left. We also decided to sell Samson as he wasn't up to our standards for our dairy goats. Two of the goats that we took to the auction were in the group of the first goats we ever bought. Molly is an older Boer goat and Squirt came to us as a baby. It was really hard to see her go. One thing I did learn, I can't take goats to auction. Any future goats will be sold outright, or given away. I just can't do that to my kids!
So, we went from 46 goats down to 21. Three bucks (adga), 11 registered does, 4 unregistered does, and 3 unregistered doe kids. This will allow us to focus more on producing quality adga registered dairy goats. It was a tough decision, but I believe it was the right one. Hopefully I can get some good pics up soon!