The kidding season this year has been a bit out of our usual.  Usually we start near the beginning of March and string things out until May or June.  That way we are inundated with a whole lot of milk all at once, and it lets me rebuild my hand muscles gradually.  But after not getting anyone bred in November, by the time the next heat came around we went a little crazy getting them all bred - well except for Lotus.  We thought Lotus was due the same day as Puzzle, but she apparently is due when the other girls are and bred date didn't get updated.  

All that means we have 6 does all due between the 2nd and the 5th of May.  Gal, Dassi and Lotus are showing signs that they are done with being pregnant, although Lotus still doesn't look bred and all has a very small udder.  However she is long bodied enough she could be hiding twins or triplets in there.
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Gal Kahol shares a due date with Dassi of May 2nd.  She is a first freshener and was also bred to ACE.  (Ace's dam scored a 91 on L.A. last year just a few weeks after he was born.)

Gal (pronounced like the actress Gal Gadot) is a half sister to our lovely Violet and a grand-daughter of my very first doe. If we are blessed with doe kids, more than likely at least one will be retained.

As explained above, we don't have a due date on Lotus.  She was supposed to be bred to ACE.  We will DNA check any offspring we decide to register just to be 100% sure on who the sire is.  She will be a first freshener

She has a bit of roundness showing, but not a lot and doesn't have much udder, but since she started losing her mucous plug yesterday, I'm going to bet she is due at some point next week like the others.

When Violet's (left) dam was the herd queen she had an enforcer - and rarely did any disciplining.  Her enforcer was Creamy's (right) dam.  These girls are several years apart in age but I am seeing that same dynamic starting to crop up.   Typically a herd queen does her own enforcing so their dam's partnership was a bit unusual. 

Creamy and Violet were both bred to TUNDRA.  Creamy has a due date of May 4th and she will be a second freshener.  Violet has a due date on the 5th and she will be a 5th freshener.   Creamy was supposed to be sold last year, but she has an udder like her dam with lots of capacity and long teats.  She may be available after LA as a doe in milk if I can bear to part with her.  

Violet has brown eyes so this will be a test to see how well TUNDRA does at passing on the blue-eyes.  Violet has two blue-eyed parents, and had two blue-eyed brothers in the same litter.   Right now I have only one daughter of hers in my herd, and if we are blessed to get a doe kid out of this union the odds are high I will be keeping at least one. 

Wow am I behind on the updates! 

So a quick update before the rest of the does start kidding in a few days.   On the evening of March 19th Puzzle gave us three beautiful blue-eyed boys.   I do not want the boys to be split up, so I am looking for a special pet home for these cuties.

Today is day 145 for Puzzle who is bred to Arctic Tundra and we are eager to see their first kids.  I think Puzzle will hold out for a few more days, but you can tell she has had enough of being pregnant.

As for the other 6 does that are pregnant, they aren't due until the first week of May, which is going to be one crazy week.  But it is good timing IF we have linear appraisal in July as scheduled.  There udders will still be relatively fresh, and their kids will be close to weaning age.

​So here are all the does

​*My herd kidding average is 147 days so that is what I use to calculate estimated due dates.

Lotus should have been due the same time as Puzzle, but while she did test positive for being pregnant and looks pregnant she isn't uddering up like we would expect.  So most likely she was rebred, but it wasn't written down on the board and she is really due the first week in May. 

You can see the entirety of the schedule on the new 2022 Kidding Schedule page found here.

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.