The boys

Nubians are seasonal breeders and their usual breeding season is fall, even though some does come in heat as soon as August and some will keep cycling well into early spring. Since we got our girls in spring, we had enough time to decide what to do about breeding. Goat lactation lasts about 10 months and goats need to have babies to have milk and you need a buck to have babies. So it's the same cycle every year, breed in fall for spring babies, milk the does from spring into late fall for 10 months with 2 months dry period.

Bucks are a whole different species than Nubian does. Once they come into rut, they perfume themselves for the ladies by urinating on their faces and legs, the urine dries up into a thick layer that has a very distinct odor to it. Some folks are bothered by the smell of a rutty buck but the ladies love this stuff. The bucks also exhibit other behavior that by human standards is considered disgusting. Herd sire is 50% of the herd so it pays to really chose carefully. While each doe will pass her genetics to her offsprings, the buck will pass his genes to the entire kid crop.

Some have come to stay :)

Can't even start to summarize all the critters we added in one year in just one post so I will spread it out some. Without a doubt, the Nubian goats have been the most important addition. We knew we wanted to get dairy goats and fell in love with the Nubians and their long ears, plus the breed does well with our heat and produce creamy milk high in butterfat. We also decided to go with registered stock. We were anxious to try our hand at milkign and having our own source of fresh goat's milk. We purchased a milker (Christie) and a dry yearling (Boston) from the Akins farm in April 2009. They were much more relaxed than the minis and easy to handle despite the fact they were 100lbs + does.

We found most folks have a preconceived idea that goat's milk is off tasting and are usually a little apprehensive about trying it out. While different breeds produce milk with different tastes and the milking and handling technique definitely effects the quality of the milk, Nubians have the most delicious milk we've ever tasted - rich and creamy with a taste I would compare to half and half rather than store bought cow's milk.

Christie was and a doll to learn milking on. - a seasoned pro on the milk stand, with a nice soft udder texture and firm teats and patience of Job. We found our wooden milk stand on Craigslist from a family in Stroud area - Den and Cheryl - who later became friends and homesteading buddies. I've really enjoyed being part of Cheryl's yahoo forum Oklahoma Homesteading and Den has been a blessing to us with his carpentry skills.

A month later we added another milker from Texas - Lonesome Doe Danish Pastry. She blended quite well with the other girls and produced close to a gallon of milk a day for us. By the beginning of summer we were swimming in milk, freezing what we could, making cheese and feeding the rest to the dogs and cats. Personality wise I much prefer Christie and her calm nature to Danish and her stubborness.

Nubians are said to be loud and while that is true to some extend we have not really found them any lounder than their counterparts. Our herd queen is quiet and mellow and they all seem to follow that suit eventually. Danish was a major loud mouth hollering at us 24/7 when she first arrived but she ,too, has mellowed out over time and is quite docile now.

Zia was our last addition of 2009 in the doe department and she was the only one we raised from a doeling. Honestly, I was not planning on raising any kids and deal with the milkers and mature does instead but she was too cute to pass and we got attached to her soon. She came from the Riverside Ranch in Tecumseh and is a beauty with black body and white frosted ears and muzzle. She was dam raised and not handled as much as bottle babies tend to be so she was on the wild side when we first brought her home. We made sure to spend enough time in the pasture with her and with lack of playmates (she was staying in a pen by herself sharing a fence line with the adult does) she warmed up to us fast. Christie is still the family beloved doe but Zia is a close second for all of us, I think.

To clarify pictures - Christie is the blond roan, Danish is red with black trim, Boston is a tri color roan and Zia the black one with frosted ears. Pictures are from when they first arrived on our property and I will post more later what they look like now.

Some critters have come and gone ... continued

Sasha, Henry and Molly, the pygmy bunch went to a wonderful family in Jones last April and are getting spoilt rotten. Sasha had a set of flashy triplets and Molly delivered a single buckling at their new home. Henry and the bucklings are now all wethers. We lost Socks to the coyotes before the herd was sold. Here are a few pictures of the goofy bunch :)

Some critters have come and gone ... continued

This is Dog. He adopted us. Showed up one evening and didn't let the others run him off. I told the kids they could not name him because we were not keeping him. So he was called dog for the longest time and eventually became Dog, I had to explain that at the vet's several times. He found a great family through CL that just lost their long time friend and even though they were still grieving they fell in love with Dog. Very sweet people. They drove 2.5 hours to get him. Turned out the gentlemen used to teach at Harrah schools. Dog is now part of their family on a large ranch on OK/NM border. His new name is Pepper.

Some critters have come and gone

Samson found a home with a wonderful family in Purcell, about an hour south. He was just too interested in the livestock and I never did completely trust him but he was a good loyal friend and we miss his mellow face around here. He is now a companion to a 13 year old boy and we feel the Lord has really had his hand in placing both Samson and Dog with the right people. These folks had a shar pei before and liked the personality. We took Samson down there and I showed them how he was trained and talked to the son about maintaining the alpha status with him. We got report that he did great and they never had to use leash on him. Samson probably thought he died and went to heaven being the only dog.

Has it really ....? An update.

Has it really been a year and a half since last post? Just can't be. Time seems to be flying here. I obviously cannot sum up 18 months in just one post so I will try to space it some and see if I can dig up any pictures to go with specific events. I can, however, give you a quick summary of what is going on now.

Ree is still with the Navy but looking to soon transfer into civilian life, how soon that remains up to the Navy and their speed. He is getting ready to take another med board but we don't have any details or date on that one. Workwise, he is still with the Navy Honor Guard and enjoying that.

We are back at Trinity Bible Baptist Church and happy to be back. Pastor and Mrs. Derksen now rent the house next door and their son Jason with his family is here also.

We have expanded the farm some - with dairy goats, meat rabbits, guineas and two working farm dogs. We like having fresh milk and cheese, hoping to add some chickens next year for fresh eggs. We had a new shed built, fenced in some more pastures, weather proofed some of our existing outdoor structures, set up the "rabbit motel" and lined up the front fence with welded wire fencing to prevent strays from coming in and to keep our critters in.

The house remodel continues - we redid the master bath last summer and we are about finished with the guest bathroom and about half way done with the kitchen. Hope to be finished before winter comes. We had an electrician upgrade our wiring and change the box, which was a hefty sum of several thousand dollars but way worth it. I will cover some of the remodels in separate posts as I am sure some of you want to see pictures.

Kids are still in soccer and doing well. Ree and I both coach the Tigers (which is Remy's team). We had 3 out of our 6 players come back and we do miss the ones who did not come back. The team moved up to U-8 division so we now play on larger field. Nadja and Sebastien are both in U-12 division and they both travel a lot for their games. Most weekends we are in two or three different places depending where they play. Remy's team also travels now but not as far as the older two. Nadja and Sebastien still take piano lessons and we are impressed with them.

We had quite a bit of company over the time - Dada came twice to spend summer with us, my mom visited in the spring and we got to see Mom, Dad, Tania and kids as well.

We just had a nasty flu, slowly getting over it. Remy is starting to show some asthma symptoms during soccer. Sebastien seems to be fine anymore, other than his visual migranes every so often. Ree is still seeing his lung specialist for the sarcoidosis, everything seems to be stable there.

Embrace Life

Embrace Life is the name of a stamp set from Stampin' Up! new Spring/Summer collection. I just love the set and the coordinating designer paper. Here are a couple of creations I made for my swaps and friends.