This morning the Albany Democrat Herald showcased our "ranch" on the front page with a headline below the picture at left of "Loving life on the ranch".   The article and pictures took up 3/4 of the front page and continued onto an additional page.

I was expecting a small story in the community section and was shocked when a co-worker told me we made the front page.     The article came about because we were featured in Farm & Ranch Living magazine.   You can read the Democrat Herald story for yourself on their website.

Overall it was a very nice article.  The only thing I would like to correct (other than that goats kid, not lamb) is that it gives the impression that all of our animals are rescues.  While we do have a lot of rescues here, our goats are most certainly not rescues and they are all registered  finely pedigreed animals. 

Confetti kidded around noon today with a single buck kid that looks very much like his sire.  He has blue eyes and appears to be polled like his dam.

He may possibly be available as a herd-sire, but only after more evaluation.  For right now I can tell you that he is VERY wide in the rear, much like his grand-father Basil. 

Confetti is being a very good mom and I'm sure he will thrive with all of her affection and milk  lavished on him. 

Yesterday evening Rtia broke from her pattern of quad births and delivered twins with assistance.   The black & white buckling looks a lot like his sire and the white & gold doeling looks like her dam.

These are the last kids out of Elijah for the year and there is just one more kidding to go - that of Confetti who is a Rita daughter.

Almost two years ago I was contacted by Farm & Ranch Living Magazine to be a diarist for the month of June  What that meant was in June 2013 I was to keep a daily diary that would then be published in the June 2014 issue.

Well the June/July 2014 issue is out on newsstands now and my diary and pictures are  the center article.

I have already gotten a couple of calls from people who read about our ranch there and want to purchase goats from me. 

We love our winged pest control and look forward to seeing the barn swallows return every year.  We enjoy not only their bug eating prowess but also watching their aerobatic flying and the fact that they chase bigger flying pests away as well.

This year we are doubly blessed with a second nest built in our doe barn.   So far they have been very good at following my request that they not build right over the milk stanchion.  

This picture of a baby barn swallow was a blue ribbon & people's choice winner for Bekah at the 2010 Linn County fair.

The study is the first large-scale, U.S.-wide comparison of organic and conventional milk, testing nearly 400 samples of organic and conventional milk over an 18-month period. Conventional milk had an average omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio of 5.8, more than twice that of organic milk’s ratio of 2.3. The researchers say the far healthier ratio of fatty acids in organic milk is brought about by a greater reliance on pasture and forage-based feeds on organic dairy farms.

A large body of research has shown that grass and legume forages promote cow health and improve the fatty acid profile in organic dairy products. Still, said WSU researcher Charles Benbrook, the study’s lead author, “We were surprised by the magnitude of the nutritional quality differences we documented in this study.”

Personally,  I am not at all surprised that researchers found that organic milk from dairy animals that were fed a grass based diet was healthier.   Just like our free range chickens produce MUCH healthier eggs, so too our goats who have a grass-based diet produce MUCH healthier milk that we prefer to drink raw in order to maximize those nutrients. 

You can read the whole report on the study here: 
https://news.wsu.edu/2013/12/09/researchers-see-added-nutritional-benefits-in-organic-milk/#.U4QCtvldU0U

About 3:30pm this afternoon Eve kidded with twins.   First born was the multicolored doe and the black/white buckling  was second.  Both of the kids have their dads blue eyes and it appears that it the doe kid at least may be polled as well.  She will more than likely be retained.

This was my husbands first solo kidding and I am very proud of him for sticking around and taking care it all.

Today is day 144 for Eve and we are really hoping that she will kid on her due date.  If she does her kids will all have names related to the Mt. Saint Helen eruption that occurred on that date.

Last Sunday I started out to give e Eve her maternity trim but it turned into a full body trim because she just looks so different my curiosity got the better of me.   Before she was a light caramel color and now she looks so elegant in her black and gold "evening wear".    She is bred to Elijah so blue eyed & polled kids are a possibility. 

I love the udders my first buck, Maple Sunshine,  put on his daughters and when it was time for him to move on to another home I thought I had plenty of his daughters in my herd.   And then two years later I realized I had sold or traded away all but two.   I tried to get the last doe kid he sired here back, but  no luck.

I knew the person that had purchased him from me had subsequently sold him out of state so it looked like I was going to have to be content with the two lovely ladies I had.   And then out of the I blue, I had the opportunity to acquire the last kids he sired in Oregon along with their lovely dam Bristol.

The doe kid (far right) has a little more white, but she is the same shade of gold as her sire and has his golden eyes as well.  I wanted to name her something that used at least part of his name, but I was over ruled as we watched she and her brother  romp through a patch of buttercups.   Yup after consciously not choosing that name for the past seven years I gave in and agreed.   So she is Buttercup and her brother has been nicknamed "Butterscotch" .   He will be available a a wether when he is weaned.

Figuring out who to keep and who to sell is always the hardest part of being a goat breeder.    I (and the children) always want to keep them all.

We still have three more does to kid this year, so if you don't see a goat that grabs your attention stay tuned.