In other news, the last of the does and doe kids made their way to their new homes this week.  It is never easy letting go but these last two girls were so very special to all of us that there loss will be deeply felt.  And the barn seems so empty these days.  

We still have Toblerone up for sale and he will make someone a fine buck.  We also have three wethers to sell and then we will be sold out for the year.  Cutting back the work load is much better for my health, but boy do I miss my goaties!
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Due to my increasing disability we have cut back the herd again, and several more does will be heading for new pastures next week.  Kingfisher will also be going to his new home in Montana and we are hoping that this handsome young man will soon be going to his new home as well.   it feels weird to walk into the barn already, and not everyone that is leaving is gone.  Going to miss them all, but I want them to have the best care possible and I think they have all gotten very good homes.

Last year I cut my herd in half, this year I cut my herd in half again trying to keep my work load small enough I could manage it with my increasing disabilities.  And here I am again making more does available.  I should just disperse my herd but after 14 years of owning goats I just don't have it in me to quit them cold-turkey.   Most of the does that are staying here are staying for sentimental reasons - they are related to my very first doe Mame' and my first buck Sunny.  

All three of the following does have blue-eyes and all three are in milk with a sale price of $650 each:

Wags Ranch HT Moana - 4 yr old second freshener
Wags Ranch HT Rose Pavlova - 2 yr old first freshener (this girl will be a power house milker)
Wags Ranch HT Viennetta - 2 yr old first freshener

You can see pictures and pedigree info on the doe page, (unposed pictures take taken 7/19 below)

  I also have two adult bucks for sale as well and they can be seen on the buck page.

Tangled Forest BB Kingfisher - 2 yr old buck has blue-eyes and moonspots and is the gentlest, sweetest buck ever.  And his pedigree is fantabulous!  I drove all the way out to Maryland to bring those fantastic genetics to the western half of the US.  Take a look at the dams behind this guy!  $1000

Onaqui EYHO Toblerone - 1 year old buck with marble eyes.  Toby is extremely shy, not just with humans but with the other bucks and bucklings too.  He is not the easiest guy to catch, but once you catch him he stands still.  He also has a very lovely pedigree with high LA scores on the does behind him.  His price is discounted because he can be hard to catch. $500

I did not have the ability to shave goats this year so here are the boys in all their hairy glory. (Shaved pictures of Kingfisher as a yearling are on the buck page.)

After I finished the milking yesterday morning I noticed that Viennetta's udder was significantly larger than the day before and she was off by herself and even the offer of an animal cracker wasn't tempting to her.  And she never turns down a "cookie".  

It was a very smoky, sultry day due several wildfires near us, so rather than letting her kid outside we moved her into the kidding room and ran the air conditioner unit that has filtration so both she and I could breath easier.  I spent the day in the barn with her and by late afternoon it was starting to be apparent that she probably had a kid out of position.  Sure enough when she finally started trying to push in earnest, the first kid presented with a single ear.  At first I thought it was a tail and while breech births can be risky they are not all that uncommon and it isn't hard to help a doe out.  But no, this was an ear and the little buckling had his head turned sideways.  The second I got him out, his bigger SISTER was coming right on his heels.  She came out hungry and was immediately trying to get to her feet and nurse.  

Viennetta is a first time mom, and while she talked to them and cleaned them up she wasn't too sure about letting them nurse.  She is doing better this morning and the babies had full tummies when we took them out for a quick round of pictures.

​Ember will be retained in our herd and her brother will be available as a wether.

Creamy surprised us on Sunday June 27th on day 145 of her gestation.  We were doing two hour checks but she really wasn't looking ready to kid anytime soon.  Went out for a check to discover kids all nicely cleaned off and nursing.  Impressive for a yearling first freshener who wasn't supposed to get bred.  We don't bred kids young, we wait for them to be around 18 months old.  But she was big enough and demanding enough that I gave in and bred her.

The white boy has bright blue eyes and has been nicknamed Casper.  His more colorful brother has brown eyes and is being called the Calico Kid.  Other than this quick photo op while their pen was being cleaned a couple of days after they were born, we kept them penned up in the air conditioned kidding room for a week while we were recording record high temperatures. They are out and about now that daytime highs are in the more manageable temps.

The boys will be available together as pet wethers for $150.

The doe on the right (Creamy) is a yearling first freshener who will be 147 days on June 29th.  She was bred to Castle Rock High Tide and these will be the last kids of his born here.   The doe on the left ( (Vienetta) is a w year old first freshener who was pen bred so we only have a due date range which could be June 28th - July 25th.  However given her current udder size my guess is she is probably due closer to the end of June with July 4th babies being quite possible!  She was bred to Kingfisher and since we have not gotten very many doe kids from him, I am crossing my fingers for at least one. 

We still have two bucks available for sale, and one ready to wean doeling.   Chocolate Eclair (Rosie x Kingfisher) is still available and it is a little hard to believe no one has snatched up this cutie.​ I mean doesn't everyone need a little chocolate in their lives?

Last night we said goodbye to Castle Rock High Tide.  He has been sold to the Australian syndicate and will be helping to establish the breed in Australia.  We have known this day was coming for almost a year, but it was still hard to say goodbye to our sweet boy who has been our pride and joy for 5 years.

He is being transported by 5 Star Transport down to the holding facility in Texas, and it looks like he will have plenty of room for his journey.

While we are sad to see him move on, I know he will do great things for their program and we have retained a number of his daughters here all which seem to carry his gentle nature.

I have been searching for buck or buckling to fill Tide's slot and instead of getting just one, I brought home two.  (yeah I know, cutting back and all that.)  I really had only intended to get one, but then decided that as long as I was getting one I might as well get two that were close in age so they could be raised together.  

I picked out Arctic Tundra first - he is out of a first freshener however almost every doe in his pedigree has an LA score of 90 or higher and given what I saw of his dam's udder at just 4 days fresh, she is going to be living up to her pedigree.  Tundra is related to Tide on both his sire and dam's side which makes him distantly related to the 2015 National Champion doe and his great grand-sire is the sire of the 2019 National Champion doe so how could I pass up that sort of pedigree.

No other blue-eyed buckling were available so after a few hours sorting through all the brown-eyed options I settled on Strangers Ace.  He may look plain, but his paternal grand-dam has an LA score of 92 and has made the Elite doe list for 5 consecutive years.  And like Tundra he has a lot of does with LA scores of 90 or better behind him including one Jobi doe way back. (I love goats from Jobi!!)  He is unrelated to any goat in my herd and will be a true outcross.

The boys are only 4 days apart in age so are on the same bottle feeding schedule and both have very sweet personalities.  

One of the reasons we chose to move to Idaho was the laws concerning the sales of raw milk  are much more reasonable than Oregon and I had dreams of running a dairy here.  Alas, the deterioration that started following an accident 27+ years ago has reached the point where I can no longer keep up with a large herd.  So I even though I made drastic cuts last year, I am making more this year.   We will have some first fresheners kidding at the end of June into July and decisions on them will come after they have kidded.  My goal is to get the herd down to 6-8 adult does, and just a couple of kids.  But that is easier said that done as I love all of them.

Violet and her half sister Gal are retained along with Violets daughters Viennetta and her 2021 doe kid.  Moana and Puzzle are also retained.  That makes 5 adults and 1 doe kid retained. Everyone else is up for consideration so if there is a doe you are interested in let me know. 

I have updated individual pictures with those that are for sale.  A couple of additional yearlings may become available after they have kidded in late June or July.  
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Things have been a little crazy around the ranch lately, so here is a quick recap of the last three kiddings.   Rosie, who barely looked pregnant kicked things off by kidding at triplets unobserved overnight  April 15th-16th.  We have chosen to give the kids a birthdate on April 16th as that seemed the most likely scenario based on the last check at 10pm that night. She produced 2 doe kids and a buckling.  So far no moonspots are showing up, but Kingfishers kids tend to not show any for up to their first month, and then you start seeing them, so there still could be some pop up.

This is the only picture I managed to get (with my cell phone) of the three of them together.  They are a very active bunch, especially the little chocolate girl that was so tiny I could hold her in one hand when she was born.  We are quite smitten with her so it will probably be the white doe kid with blue-eyes that will most likely be the one that is available in the future.  Her little spotted buckling is already spoken for.

Moolatte (aka Cowgirl) was the next to kid.  She popped out twin buckling's the morning of April 17th.  First born was the oh so flashy black and white boy, with his dark chocolate and white brother following shortly there after.   Both were very large kids but she didn't need any assistance getting them out on day 152. 

These boys will be available as wethers once they are weaned.   Really looking forward to milking Cowgirl and Rosie for the first time and getting them on milk test.

And then there was Levana, day 154 rolled around with no sign of her kidding, so once again the Red Barn Mobile Vet paid us a visit to induce here just like last year.  However, unlike last year she kidded much quicker, and she only gave us a single buckling who is the spitting image of her - pure white with bright blue eyes.  There is already a sale pending for him.

We are sure when Levana was bred as we witnessed it and she did not go back in with a buck after that one afternoon.  Rosie and Cowgirl (Monolete) did go back in with Kingfisher about a month later.  Both of their udders seem a little small to us, but Cowgirl and Levana both look like their kids have dropped when I check on them today.  We will be giving maternity haircuts this evening, so we shall see what is under all that winter hair. 
 
Last year Kingfisher was only bred to two does and he produced only one daughter.  But boy howdy were some of his boys gorgeous.  We are of course hoping he gives us some pretty girls this time around.  He is blue-eyed and the does are all blue-eyed so the odds are pretty good there will be a bunch of colorful blue-eyed kids very soon.
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