Itty Bitty Hooves

New Girls In Town

What a busy weekend here at the ranch. First on Friday we had a surprise delivery… I knew the mare was probably bred even though she didn’t really look it, Mirri has a way of managing to never really look pregnant, but she wasn’t showing any signs of imminent delivery–and she’s usually a drama queen. Well Friday afternoon out popped Dolly (Country Haven’s Silver Dollar). Here she is at not quite 2 full days old:

Then on Saturday Bob and I made yet another trip down to Carisa’s just outside of Attica Indiana to bring her our late summer filly from last year in trade for Alex, and 50% Nubian milking doe. Alex is just beautiful, and at only 2 weeks fresh (just had her babies 2 weeks ago) already producing just one cup shy of a gallon a day. I’m thinking in no time she’ll be giving us a full gallon, and maybe a little more to boot every day.

Here she is today after all the squabbling of herd rank finished off yesterday the barnyard was peaceful once again this morning.

Here she is with Savanah (Savvy)

And here’s Polly ignoring them both while she catches some shade:

So after all the business of Friday and Saturday, it’s nice to have a peaceful, quiet Sunday to just relax and enjoy all the critters here on a beautiful Sunny day.

I coulda had a fence

This last weekend was sure a busy one around here. Hubby was home on vacation which means NO vacation for me. LOL Besides all the regular chores I was often pulled into his projects out of necessity. Most of it was fencing related and that’s hard to do by yourself even when you’re a big strong man like Bob. Sooo, we put up a lot of fencing. Yesterday he did get left to do most of what he was hoping to do by himself. I had lots of chores, and errands to run, and then I got home and found I had a possible assignment to make a one-minute video for a company so I left him to pound fence by himself while I worked on the video.

For the record, a typical, quick, not-too-complicated one minute video takes about two hours to produce. Taking the video shots, cutting, splicing, and adding audio, and then uploading and posting is very time consuming… sooo I was very disappointed this morning to find out the video had been rejected. After a brief defense of my choices, they still decided not to use it. I’d made lots of videos in the past and never had any problems with companies liking them. Goes to say I won’t be wasting my time making another for this particular company. I could have been making fences. LOL

I found the camera!

I thought I’d left it in the truck, but I ended up finding the camera last night so I went out this morning and got some new pics of the gang from Iowa. Here they are at home finally. I named all the girls starting with the word ‘mighty’ since Mickey’s registered name is CMJ Mighty Mick. Here are the girls–

Mighty Aphrodite

Mighty Blonde Bombshell

Mighty Cherry Bomb

and

Mighty Amazon Red

and then there’s the Mickster. I couldn’t get the best pictures of him because when I walked into his pen he came right up to me and was all around me so I had to take the shots from outside of his pen. I’ll try to get some better ones when Bob is here to help out. For now, though, here’s Mickey–

They’re all doing just great, and the girls are getting a little less skiddish every day. Hopefully in a few days I’ll be able to pet one without them acting like I’m giving them ‘cooties’.

He’s HERE.

Well we’re home. Actually we got home late on Wednesday around 8 pm. It was a 5 hour drive each way to pick up Mick and the girls but it was pleasant, sunny, and a nice outting for hubby and me. We had a GREAT time at Sherry and Brant’s house. They are fantastic people and have a wonderful sense of humor. Plus Sherry made a wonderful lunch spread where we actually got our first taste of ‘Dexter burger’. Hambugers made from their own Dexter cattle meat. It was tasty, as well as a delicious apple cheese and celery salad that Sherry made. What a feast!

Too soon we had to leave to make our trip back where at first we were really worried about getting the four weanling girls off the trailer and to the paddock in the dark especially because they aren’t lead broke, or people friendly yet. They’re by no means mean, just scared. Mickey however is a real ham and very loving. He too though had never been lead ever anywhere at all, no where. LOL Soooooo we had to somehow finagle it so a 350 pound Boer buck would calmly walk across a 1/2 acre field to the paddocks, in a strange place, at night. Yeah… sure.

Halfway home I called my best friend Ellen and begged her to come help. She said I didn’t have to beg, but I did anyway, lol. We just needed someone to watch the refugees in the trailer while we unloaded and moved each one. Turned out to be a fairly simple manuveur. We used our really big great dane sized dog crate on our small flatbed cart and caught two of the girls and put them in it and pulled them over to the paddock, then came back and did the same with the other two.

Then it was time to unload the Mickster. Mighty Mick. All 350 pounds of muscle, and horns. Well let me tell you what…

A buck who’d never been led anywhere in his life walked as calm as could be on a lead to the paddock. He stopped a couple times to glance around and a gentle nudge got him moving again.

WHAT A MAN. I love that buck. He’s just the sweetest thing on four feet.

I meant to take new pictures today of the new gang, but unfortunately I can’t find my danged camera. We had it with us in Iowa, and I think I left it in the truck, which is now in Wisconsin with my husband. He had to go for the weekend to a seminar. He has to have so many hours a year of continuing education for his job’s license, and he won’t be back until late Sunday… sooo, maybe pictures on Monday if the weather holds up.

Ugh, it’s rainy/sleety and cold again today. I sure wish this weather would make up it’s #*!^ mind.

It’s A Girl!

No not here. I have six more weeks to wait before my Alpine doe Polly has her babies. My best friend Ellen’s Dexter cow had her long-awaited calf last night though.

She’s a beautiful solid black baby. Just the cutest little thing ever with the most delicately chisled head I would have thought possible for a cow. Most importantly she is a SHE. Exactly what Ellen was praying for. Ellen now has a booming herd of 3. A cow, a heifer calf, and a big beautiful bull named Leo.

Finally Out Of The Slump

Well, long time no post. Mostly it was the weather here. Like most of the country, here in Illinois we got hit with the deep freeze after several weeks of unseasonably warm weather. For me it was a ‘winter depression’. I can handle winter even though I don’t like it, but when spring hits like it did earlier and I feel the relief and am happy that spring has finally arrived only to be smacked with freezing weather again it just hits me hard.

Everyone is doing well here and I can’t wait because it’s only five more days until we go to Iowa to pick up the rest of the crew–Mickey and his four daughters. Then our little herd will be complete except for one.

I have a reservation on a purebred Saanen doe kid out of a fantastically lovely doe in Southern Indiana. If she arrives it will be in June and I’ll be picking her up probably late sometime in August. She’ll be the youngest of my bunch lol. Other than that though, I think I’m done buying goats for the year and am looking forward to all the babies we have next year.

I’d like to add a purebred Boer doe to the grouping, but that will probably have to wait until next spring/summer. We’ll see. You never know what life will toss your way, do you?

Promised Pictures of My New Doe

Okay, I finally got out there to sit with the girls and get some pictures of my new doe from Carisa and Andrea (thanks ladies, we love her already).

Here she is–purebred LaMancha Blue Glow Farm Savanna

Savvy and her partner in crime, Polly looking innocent as they come out of the barn

Polly helping me fill water buckets

Going back in to see what more havoc they can create

The inside of my barn and my ‘out of retirement’ milkstand

It sure is nice to be milking again. I bought the Udderlyez milker thing because my hands are what made me leave dairy goats years ago, and I still can’t quite afford one of the real milkers–it took a few times to really make it work for me, most of the first few milkings ended up being by hand, but this morning I actually got it all working well for me and I’m quite pleased with it for now. I still need to get a real milking machine…. if I could just stop buying goats I might be able to afford one. LOL

I SWORE up and down in the past that I’d NEVER have a LaMancha no matter how sweet, or how well they milked. I guess I should have learned my lesson that saying ‘never’ means almost certainly will. LOL I call her my ‘earless wonder’ and she thinks it is a term of endearment. LOL (it is–now). She’s absolutely sweet and while I do not plan on a herd of them, I already love her enough that she’ll never be replaced.

Got Milk?

I do now! Yesterday we went back to Indiana where we got Polly from and brought home a beautiful big Lamancha doe who kidded about a month ago and is in full milk. So last night I got to milk again for the first time in almost seven years! It’s just as wonderful as I remembered it being. I’m so glad to be back in goats again. I’ll post pictures as soon as I get some. We got a big cold snap here today and the temps plumetted into the 20’s after being in the 70s for several weeks. It’s not too cold to take pictures, it’s too cold for me to be out there taking pictures. LOL

No Fool Like An Old Fool

Hey there. It’s April 1st. I haven’t made my rounds yet but have two friends expecting babies–I’m betting today will be the day. One of them has a mini horse waiting to foal who has been driving my friend crazy for weeks now with looking like she is ready, the other is a cow my friend Ellen has who has been ‘ready’ for about a week as well.

On a funnier note, I’m not sure if this is some sort of April fool’s joke or not, but it seems some gardener in Europe found a home-grown vigra type plant by accident. Read the article here. While I certainly can’t say for sure, since I don’t grown ‘heather’, I’m thinking more along the lines of this periodical’s editor snickering and saying ‘April fools’ as he watches the hits on his site go crazy. Either way, I bet heather will be a very popular plant amongst older men for awhile now.