Idaho Update

My last blog entry was about moving our family and herd to Idaho.  And while I had every intention of keeping up with the blog, there were a lot of obstacles not the least of which was lack of electricity and internet service.

We had been promised that water and power would arrive by the end of August and while the power company showed up as scheduled the pump guys did not.  So we hauled hundreds of gallons of water to keep our herd in water for over a month.  What a relief to finally get running water.

The next big delay was getting the barn built.  It was supposed to be finished by the end of October, then it was "by Thanksgiving" and we were finally  able to move the goats in after the first of the year.   Sadly on the day we moved the goats out of their calf hutch shelters through the snow to the barn we discovered that "Double the Kisses" aka "Dutch" and expired for unknown reasons.   I had yet to use him on any of my does and was heart broken by his loss.  I do not know exactly what happened but I suspect fast acting pneumonia, although I saw no signs of any issues the night before. 

Due to the move and dealing with temperatures they were not used to none of the does showed any signs of heat until a few weeks after they moved into the barn.  Having better living conditions and being just a fence away from the boys seemed to sort of wake everyone up and we managed to get maybe half of the does bred.   I decided that June/July kids were ok, but I didn't really want any August kids so I cut off breeding.   Since LA will occur here before my does kid I will have to wait for next year and will try to have everyone bred by the end of November 2019. 

I intend to draw blood for pregnancy checks in April and will post results when I know for sure who is and is not pregnant. 

This spring and summer we will work on fencing pastures and moving the bucks out of the weaning pen in the doe barn and into their own barn.  And we will also be working on getting everyone (including me) in top shape for a good year in 2020!