...and in my spare time...

Our field trip to the goat farm was not exactly a random occurrence. It was actually a mission to see if the boys would be able to actually milk them. Why? Because we have been interested in getting a milking doe to provide us with our milk needs. We used to have Nigerian Dwarfs, but this time we would be going to the farther end of the dairy breeds and going with the Saanens. Saanens are the largest of the dairy breeds, but they are super duper sweet and give a lot of milk.

After a little work to get the yard back into goat mode, Gretta and Heidi came to live with us last Sunday. Gretta is a two year old who just had a kid 3 months ago. Heidi is an unrelated 3 month old doeling. We can breed Heidi in the fall and have a second milking doe. At first, we were milking twice a day and getting nothing. Well, we got a whopping 1/2 a cup each time. We were concerned that there may be a problem... and there was... just not with Gretta. It seems Heidi had been nursing from her surrogate mother. We kept Heidi separated from Gretta for 12 hours and saw an enormous difference. She's giving a quart every 12 hours, which I'm pleased with. We are hoping to get her to a once a day milking schedule in time. As for now, we keep Heidi in a pen over night and I milk Gretta in the morning. Then, they can spend the day together and Heidi can take the other quart for herself.

The kids love our new does, and the does are very calm and gentle. Ivey will stand in the yard and "baaaaa!" at them and feed them leaves. I am very happy to have goats again. I missed having them out back.

On the chicken front, it seems we have two that will not stay in the coop. Lemondrop escapes daily to lay her egg in a flower pot in the garage. A Rhode Island Red has decided that she needs to lay her eggs in the hedges by our deck. She gave herself away the other day with a loud cluck and I found a hidden stash of eggs.