The children and I were out in the does pen this morning - they to play and me to work on the kidding stalls.   We brought little Mo out to interact with the ladies and get some sunshine.   He is such a hoot to watch racing and jumping and just generally enjoying life to the fullest!  He was getting along so well that when it came time for lunch we left him in the pen.   I had just started on lunch when I heard "Baa-Baa!" at the front door.  Apparently as soon as Mo realized we were all headed back to the house he scrambled through the fence and headed to the house for lunch too.

After lunch I finished off the kidding pens except for the center divider.   I am leaving that out for now, since Mo is moving into the doe barn and I thought he should have as much space as possible.

Mo and the kennel he has been living in, (in our breakfast nook) was moved to the barn and Millie was elected to be his first pen mate.  She is a pretty even tempered doe, and is capable of teaching a young kid manners without harming them.   The kennel (minus the door) will hopefully make the transition to the new space a little easier for him and give him a familiar place to sleep.

The first kidding of the season for Wags Ranch and it didn't happen here.  Jasmine is now at Aura Acres in southern California and on the night of the 28th of February produced as single doe kid that was named Wags Ranch Good Day Sunshine. 

It would appear that Sunny is still putting gold on his kids just as he did last year.  And we are so happy to be able to add another pretty little girl to the doe column for him.  Last year he produced a 50/50 ratio of does to bucks, so we are looking forward to seeing his average this year.

Bekah of course immediately wanted to go see the new baby in person, and she cried a little when she realized that it is not a possiblity.   There is going to be more tears this year as we don't have room to keep every goat that is born here, and will have to make some tough decisions on who we need to make available for sale.

I was busy baking bagels last evening so Bekah gave Mo' his bedtime bottle.  I glanced over to on the progress Bekah was making and noticed that our cat Sophie was busy "helping" by licking the milk dribbles off of Mo's chin. 

As far as I know that is the first time they have had contact outside of Mo's kennel although she does like to hang out on top of his kennel with a paw dangling where he can sniff at it. 

By the end of next week I should have a spot ready for him in the doe barn and he will graduate from living in the kennel in the breakfast nook to living with other goats.  I wonder if Sophie will go visit him there.  

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

It wasn't raining this morning so I took little Mo outside with me to do chores.  He is so much fun to watch and he sticks pretty close to me.  When we got close to the doe pen I noticed that the new doe Tsunami was acting like she was in heat, even though she was supposed to be bred.   The closer Mo got the more interested she got.   Apparently he's got the mojo at less than two weeks old. 

I finished chores and then took Tsunami over to see if the bucks agreed with me - they did.  But she was more interested in Rio than Sunshine.   I had other plans and attempted to segregate the bucks like I always do, but our wether Stormy decided to get in on the act too, and when push came to shove all three boys escaped along with a few chickens and the chase was on.

Tsunami took off running back to the doe pasture with the boys in hot pursuit.  Rio was faster and wasted no time when he caught up to her.  Sunny was still trying to do a little sweet talking when I caught him and took him back to the buck pen.  

So far my luck with getting bred does hasn't been very good.  If I come out and find Mystery in heat in a couple of weeks the failure rate will be 100%.  I really hope that doesn't happen or almost all of this years kids will be out of Rio. 

What a way to start the day off, but at least it wasn't raining....

Bekah went outside to visit the new does this morning and she and Tsunami just really hit it off.  Tsunami was playing follow the leader over obstacles and running up and down the hill with her.   I have a feeling they are going to be buddies for years to come.

Mystery (above right) wasn't around children in her previous home and was initially a little taken aback by Bekah's energy, but when Bekah started running down the hill with Tsunami at her heels Mystery just couldn't resist and had to go along for the romp.   That seems to have broken the ice, and while she isn't quite as friendly as Tsunami, she is now actively seeking attention from myself and Bekah.

Bekah and I were supposed to leave for Reno at 6am on Friday morning but I didn't wake up until a few minutes before six, so we actually made it out to I-5 at 7am.  We encountered fog in south Eugene that lasted until Rogue River but other than that and a lot of construction we made good time.

We stopped just north of Weed, CA for lunch and let the Jasmine and Rosanna out for a little walk to stretch their legs.  Boy did we get stares!  Reminded me of when I was traveling out to Colorado many years ago with my pet mini pig.

Since their was no hot water available at the rest area we stopped a few miles down the road in McCloud where the nice guys at the Chevron station let us fill up the bucket to heat the bottles for the LaMancha buckling we were taking down with us.  While I was giving him his lunch, Bekah was having fun playing in the snowbanks.

A few miles down the road from there we stopped at a view point to take more pictures of Mt. Shasta and let Bekah do some more playing in the snow.   The pavement was dry and clear and traffic was pretty light so we made good time through the mountains.

Just before we crossed from CA into NV I got a call from Bob who said his drop off location was north of Reno and maybe we should meet him there.  I found the right exit off of HWY 395 and stopped at the Shell Station and called Bob back.  While we were talking he got a call from the gal he was delivering a mini horse too, and she said "There is a Shell Station at the exit....I'll meet you there".    A few minutes later they were both there and the exchange of goats and paperwork was completed by 6pm.  

My original plan was to spend the night in Reno, but since I wasn't feeling tired I decided to drive back as far as Susanville.  In Susanville, we stopped and fed our new buck kid (he was just born on the 13th) "Mo" his bottle and then I decided to drive on a little further.   I ended up driving all the way back to Weed, CA and stopped at a truck stop there about 10pm.  

We re-arranged the kennels, leaving just one in the back of the minivan and then Bekah and I crammed ourselves into the remaining space.  About midnight I woke up and checked on the buck kid.  He was shivering so I wrapped him in a towel and tucked him into my sleeping bag with me.  About 3:30am Bekah woke up complaining about "freezing!"   And she was right it was freezing - it was 20 degrees outside and there was ice inside the van!   At that point additional sleep was futile so after using the facilities and grabbing a cup of hot coco for her and coffee for me we ht the road.

We arrived in Medford about 5:30am and figured that was too early to call the lady that we were picking Mystery up from, so we waited until after we had given the buckling his breakfast and called her at 7:30am.  Unfortunately we still managed to wake her up, but she said we were welcome to come by and pick Mystery up.

We left her place in Rogue River about 8:30am and made it back home just a little before noon.   Bekah did very good for most of the trip although at one point just before we crossed into NV she said to remind her "not to sign up for another trip like this!"

We are very excited about the does and buck kid we brought home and looking forward to seeing them grow and mature here on the ranch.

Every since we lost our blue eyed buck kid Donavon I've been keeping my eye out for a replacement.   It's not easy finding a blue eyed buck or buck kid that come from strong milking lines that isn't related to the two bucks we already have.   In fact I scoured the nation looking for one. 

Stephanie at Aura Acres in southern California had some very nice prospects, but they were just too closely related.   But after some consideration she hit upon an answer - kids out of a buck she had bred.    Mojave Blue or "Mo" is related but far enough back, and to such quality that I just had to take a chance on the little fellow.

Mojave Blue was born on the 13th of February and was part of a litter of quints.   Unfortunately the fifth kid was still born and didn't arrive until the following day.  Needless to say his dam was not doing so well, so all the babies are bottle babies.  

They already had goat transport trip in the works to Reno, NV this coming Friday.  And since Reno is closer than the meeting spot we had been discussing, Bekah and I are headed down with a couple of does that we are trading for him and a bred blue eyed doe.  Bekah is very excited to have a bottle baby to care for again.

A sure sign of spring is when the "Easter Egger" hens start laying again.  I only have three of that breed, and they all lay slightly different colors of eggs ranging from olive green to almost blue.   Based on color only one has started laying, but it won't be long now until we will start seeing more greens among all the browns.

The other sure sign of spring is when I start "nesting" on behalf of my pregnant does.  This afternoon I started in on finishing the interior of the does barn.  A chore I have been putting off for months!  With hubby's help we got the permanent fence up that divides the the barn in half.  One 12x12 half is the general shelter for all of the does.  And then the other half has two 4x6 kidding stalls and the remainder of the space (8x12) is used for feed storage and milking.   It may be a little cramped but compared to our previous set up its a dream! 

Next up is to get the kidding pens fully set up.  I had hoped to have concrete floors but that was way beyond my budget, so the kidding pen side of the barn has horse stall mats down and it really works very well.   Eventually I hope to have those mats down in the whole barn.

We are very blessed to live near a top notch veterinary college which periodically has clinics that are open to the public at no fee, so that the students can gain experience.  Last week I took two does for ultrasounds and on Monday I took Sunny for the annual de-horning clinic, to see what, if anything, could be done about his scur.

There is no fool-proof method to prevent scurs, which are small pieces of horn that grow in after a goat has been disbudded.   If caught early they can sometimes be easily removed and the horn bud reburned.  (Which is what happened with Rio's scur.) But in Sunny's case, his scur appears to be from the two horns merging into a single x shaped horn, that is larger in diameter than any disbudding iron.   The scur is fairly flat on top and very slow growing so it really isn't a danger to him or to us.  

It isn't very tall at this point in time, but the base is actually wider than it appears at first glance. The instructor said she had never seen anything quite like it before and took numerous pictures.  And after much debate about the best way to tackle its removal among the students she finally said, "Here is an option no one has mentioned yet, we do nothing."    She then pointed out that while it looks small, its width would mean removal would create a rather large gaping wound on Sunny's head, and would probably do more harm then good.  I agreed with her assessment - the last thing I need to be dealing with is a gaping head wound!

Dr. V. asked me to bring him in again next year so she could evaluate it, and give a new crop of students something to puzzle over.   Most likely all we will ever do with it in the future is a yearly trim with a Dremel tool.

Sunny sure didn't like walking into the building, but once inside he stood like a champ and let the dozen or so students all get a close look at him.  He even stood still for the complimentary hoof trimming.   I told them any time they wanted to do a hoof trimming clinic I would be happy to host them on the ranch.  :)    Oh and I may have a couple of students try and come for some of the kiddings this spring.   I'm doing what I can to encourage the next generation of vets to pay more attention to learning about caprines!

I've been working on creating pedigree pages for all of my goats.  I could just buy them, but it is actually more interesting to do the research and learn about the various does and bucks in the family tree.

For example, I found out that Rio's paternal grand-dam had a 6 lbs (3/4 of a gallon) one day milk test score as a three year old.   And I found pictures of her and her udder the day of the milk test was done.

I have also created a new form for the pedigrees that goes back one more generation than I previously had, and I am planning on slowly updating (or creating) all pedigrees using that new form.    So far both bucks are up-to-date.

And speaking of pedigrees I am on a search to add another buck to the herd, but he absolutely must be unrelated to either Sunshine or Rio, and he needs to be out of a high production doe.   Blue eyes would be a bonus, but the other two criteria are by far more important.  So if you have a buck or a buck kid that you think would work please let me know!