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Category: Goats

Musings of Breeding and Raising Goats on the Farm

Not Another Fencing Post

Not Another Fencing Post

*******Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps******* It’s time for fence repair again….. Really…what am I saying?….. It’s Always That Time Of Year….. I swear there’s planned obsolescence where pasture fencing materials are concerned….. Or maybe it’s just our conniving goats or the big-assed draft horses who we’re trying to contain….. But it’s always a farm project that’s on top of the list….. The elements and the containee’s are against us….. Pressure treated wood posts don’t seem to last as…

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Tough Decisions On A Farm

Tough Decisions On A Farm

**********Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps********** ***(This post won’t have any photos–it just didn’t seem right)*** Well…here’s the reminder and the disclaimer….. This is a Farm Blog…the following discussion might be disturbing….. This is not a happy or a pleasant post….. Farms are not predictable….. You think you’re in charge…but you’re really not…the best you can do is try to organize and direct the chaos….. I “think” we have things under control…but honestly…I don’t know….. We were planning on…

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~Back To Basics~

~Back To Basics~

**********Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps********** We used to have purebred goats….. We had registered Oberhasli dairy goats…along with Sanaan dairy goats….. We had gotten a Boer meat goat buck…so that the does’ offspring would have more meat and less bony dairy conformation….. …..(and yes…because that was better for eating)….. But with the passage of time…and the storms…and various mishaps….. …..our purebreds got older…their offspring’s genetics got muddled…we were given goats who didn’t match our “program”…(like we’re really that…

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*****Freedom*****

*****Freedom*****

**********Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps********** Remember the movie “Braveheart” with Mel Gibson playing William Wallace…and his rally for Freedom?….. My hurricane-secured livestock (who we had safely stalled in our barn)…decided to breakĀ out….. Lots of young goats…as well as MaMa Pig…scurrying and bounding everywhere…(MaMa Pig doesn’t scurry…she rolls along with her sizable authority)….. These beasties did an organized/combined jail break….. They probably concentrated on the old lower boards….. Too much standing water…too much flooding…added to their escapability….. …..and let’s…

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~~~Trooper’s On A Diet~~~

~~~Trooper’s On A Diet~~~

**********Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps********** When we first got Trooper…he was skinny….. Actually he was a mess….. A good friend had found him and seen his condition and needed to find him a home….. …..so she called us….. We needed a buck at that point………….the timing was perfect….. Storm Trooper is a registered Saanen dairy goat…he had been a 4H or FFA (Future Farmers of America) project…but somewhere along the way…Trooper hit hard times….. When he arrived on…

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The Afternoon Loop

The Afternoon Loop

*******Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps******* Preventing illness and injury is far better than dealing with the aftermath….. Over the years…I’ve tried to keep track of who needs what booster shots and/or medicines….. I’ve either done it by memory…or by season…then the wall calendar…then it was a floppy disk…then back to the RoloDex…now on to a SmartPhone….. But…not my SmartPhone…my older daughter’s…my phone is smarter than me…and I judge it for that…and I avoid it whenever & wherever possible……..

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~l’Odeur de Goat~

~l’Odeur de Goat~

*******Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps******* My younger daughter has daily chores and responsibilities….. In the morning…she feeds the geriatric turkey hen…the Mama rabbit…an assortment of French Black Copper Maran hens…and Brave….. Brave gets fed his breakfast bucket…high up in a pail that is clipped to an eye bolt in the trunk of a pine tree….. …..his bucket is placed up high for a reason…because he is a tall boy and reaching it is not a problem….. …..and because…

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Baby Goat~~Up-Date

Baby Goat~~Up-Date

*******Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps******* I wanted you to know that the orphaned baby goats are doing well….. …..they are adjusting….. Even though Snickers had twins…and Fatty Patty had triplets…those five babies have adapted and are thriving….. Although…I think the adopted wet-nurses are not so happy….. I’m not even sure they ever officially volunteered for the job…it just kind of…happened….. After Snickers and Fatty Patty both passed…Cami had to be banished from the nursery stall….. Her two boys…

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***The Ides Of March***

***The Ides Of March***

*******Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps******* Beware the Ides of March….. We’ve all heard that expression….. …..but apparently there’s an Ides of April…and May…and June…and so on….. It does loose some of its ominous-ness (I guess) when you say…Beware the Ides of August….. But even so…I think (in the future) there are a few baby goats who will be marking the Ides of March down on their calendars….. We’ve covered this before…disbudding and castration…two different ends of the same…

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*A Snickers Post-Script*

*A Snickers Post-Script*

*******Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps******* Well…this is an odd conundrum….. …..but I thought I should add it in as a footnote….. As I said in last week’s post…Snickers died…after a great deal of care and ministrations….. My older daughter was very committed in trying to nurse both Fatty Patty and Snickers back to health….. …..and save them both….. …..so far Fatty Patty is still vertical and amongst us………….Snickers…not so much….. But added to that…is an additional unfortunate/macabre event……..

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