Long weekend in Paradise

I am finally getting around to posting the rest of the pics from a couple weeks ago.
But first a quick update on my own goats:

I thought it was time to put Jenny's Mom in with Jenny. They immediately got into a knock down, drag-out head-banger. Daphne is half Jenny's size, but she has been herd queen for years and she kept taking the high ground. Jenny wouldn't give up even though she fell down. I broke them up and took Daph out where she stood breathing hard for some minutes.

That means I probably will have to put one of the lesser does in with Jenny, but there is only one house and I don't think Jenny ever bunks with either one of the lesser does. And any of the wethers will most likely be able to beat Jenny up.

My other option is to start taking them on walks and letting her mix with everyone and see how that goes. She is not 100 percent yet as I could see in her bout with Daphne, but I don't like having to keep a goat separate.

Here are some more pics of Willow at the farm:

Willow and little Lori, her momma Lois behind, Maya mare in back.


Willow with Lori's "big Legs"


Willow and Jackson, the biggest goat at the farm.

Goats and Snow

This is Moonshadow,aka Moo, Moonie a disbudded 5 year old Nigerian/Pygmy cross wether.



This is Obi-Wan, my 4 year old Angora cross wether.



In the next photo:In the front left is Daphne, aka "Fat Daphne", Daffy, age unknown; To her right,er son, Oberhasli brown wether Derek, one of Daphne's twins(Daphne had twins, his sister not pictured, but easy to see why I had to pull the first during birth. First born was his sister, and she was bigger than Derek!) In the background is Piper, one year old cashmere wether.


Piper, Obi, and Moonie had their hooves done today. I have not been keeping up with hooves;I noticed Moo had a bulge on one of his front clews, and it turned out to be a nasty case of hoof rot. The wall was separated from the sole quite aways up. I trimmed it way up and doused it with Hoof and heel. I'll have to keep after it. The snow should help keep it clean. Piper has good feet, they were just long. Obi had some rot in his curly tippy toes, and needed a big trim.

Picking Fiber-Cashmere

I spent several hours today picking though Obiwan's fleece from the last two years. The pic doesn't do it justice-the table is about 3 foot diameter, and I filled three gallon ziplocs at the end, stuffed full.

Technically Obiwan is most likely an Angora cross goat-his fleece has a buttery feel, long staple, and not a lot of crimp. I can't tell you the diameter-the crucial test of true cashmere, but Daphne's is a lot finer fiber than Obi's, but hers is very short. I will most likely have them blended together at the mill.

Most goats that have cashmere have it as an undercoat, with coarse guard hair covering it. Obi wears his angora style-on the outside. He does have course guard hairs mixed in, which true Angoras don't have.

His type of fleece is a chaff magnet-shavings, hay, even the outside of beech buds were all through it. So I worked through a handful at a time with a pair of long tweezers, trying to get at least the shavings out. Tough stuff like that can bind up the processing machines and a heavily contaminated fleece might be refused. I thought it looked pretty good at the end-the pile on the left in the pic.

Then I did Daphne's, and hers was almost totally clean. She is a pygmy goat who happens to put off some nice cashmere, although short staple. I picked out a few shavings and some hay and crammed it in the bag and ran out of good light to go on. I can't wait to see how much fiber we have in the end!

Haying my Herd with the Dog

My friend Tonia over at allnaturalsimplelife.blogspot.com. , makes taking a good picture of a goat look simple. Ha-it's impossible!

I am never particularly motivated to take photos of my own herd, usually because I have my hands full when I am around them. Hay, grain, water, chainsaw...lol.

This afternoon I decided to try and get pics of the ones whose feet I have trimmed in the last few days-sorry no pictures of hoof rot, of which there were several cases.

I put my camera in my new Turkish shoulder bag ( a gift from Boss after a recent trip to Turkey) and slung the hay under the other arm and headed out.

I took four times as many pics as I am posting. Goats just don't hold still for a camera! And the light was bad, even though it was overcast late afternoon. Still, I came up with a few to share

Here is Moonshadow, or moo, or moonie. He is our only polled goat. His horns had been removed when we bought him, also at auction. I saw him advertised in a local buy and sell it guide and called the woman to find out she had indeed taken him to auction that day, so I know that he is Nigerian dwarf and pygmy cross.



Cricket the Beautiful and her white face. She was bought at auction and was also sick as a weanling. Nic the cashmere weck is to the left, stuffing his face. I made up the name weck since he is what I call a wether with buck characteristics. A pain in the *** is more like it.

Nic had a retained testicle and I banded the down one, rendering him sterile but he is just like a buck. He smells worse than 19 bucks at the farm combined, and coddles his group of does and kicks the crap out of the wethers. I couldn't give him away,(I tried on Craigslist) and don't care to eat him, so he is still with us for the time being.



The small doe in the center is Anna, Cricket's daughter. Cricket is all white, Anna's father, Derek, is brown with black points. Anna is so cute but wild even though she was born here. The herd took her in. Her Grandma, Daphne, our herd queen,the black pygmy yawning in the front, tore down the fence and had Anna sleep with her every night in a little house while her mother slept in the cold outdoors against the house.
The face in the far left is Moonie-no horns.



Anaken, three year old Alpine wether. Look at that nice straight topline! If I was going goat dairy, I would try and get a couple of Alpine does. Anaken was the runt of a pack of around twenty Alpine bucklings at auction, and had coccidiosis rather severely, so he is on the small and scrawny side.



and lastly here is Peko, who loves to race along the fence as I carry the hay out tot he goats. He barks viciously at them to keep them in their places. Here he is in the pet cemetery, next to Louise's grave with his tennis ball...Gandalf's grave is in the background on the right.

Feet and Fiber

Nicolas: trimmed hooves today-then he puncture one on a stick.

Gen, Daph, Obiwan, Derek, and Moonie were combed.

Hooves

Just a quick note recordkeeping.

Caesar, Sir Nick, and Daphne had their hooves done today. NO major problems, except Nick was a jerk. Nice and clean with the snow on the ground. Now it's all gone after 50'sF today-back to muddy soup.