A Visit From Friends & CAE Testing

Today was a wonderful day! How wonderful to visit with friends!

My friend Endine came to day with her three sons and her beautiful little daughter who was just born last Thanksgiving.

I SO appreciated her because she's so bold and fearless and yet so incredibly kind and giving at the same time.

She is my friend who LOVES to draw blood and she loves to disbud. It doesn't bother her at all. In fact, she gets a great deal of satisfaction from doing a job and seeing it done. AND, she's incredibly good at it.

I keep a closed herd and I test every year for CAE. Last year, I did a biosecurity profile on my goats and tested for several diseases that are commonly found in goats in the United States that are passed from goat to goat and can cause death in goats.

This year, I'm also pregnancy testing some of the goats that should have been bred, but I'm not sure about and also some goats that I bought that were with bucks, but aren't bred for certain. I'm excited to find out the results of those tests as that will tell me what to expect for the rest of the summer, lol.

Well, I suppose that I should go out and milk. I hear Tova calling to me, lol.

Speaking of Tova, I guess I'll post the obligatory udder pics of my Tova. She's looking SO wonderful.

Sleeping In the Tent

My girls received a little tent from their Aunt Diana for Christmas last year. We had it set up in the front room for most of January, but Daddy got tired of that and finally made us take it down. (He's no fun at all, lol!)

But, it's finally getting warm enough that the girls have been asking to sleep outside in the tent and we finally relented a couple of nights ago.

You can't tell since it's draped in sheets, but it's actually a little green tent that looks like a frog.



That's Kaia there on the right. She always looks so sad when she's quiet. I guess that's the look of the Great Pyrenees. When she's up playing with the kids, though she looks more happy.

I wanted to get a shot of them when they slept outside last night. Then, they were on the deck, but I guess they're getting more brave because they slept about 50 yards from the house last night.

Here they are sleeping.



Don't they look like little angels?

Also, here's a shot of several of the adult does.

Fencin' on Father's Day

Things were a little laid back today, but I did get some fencing done.

Anyone who has goats know that fencing is really a challenge with goats. I've tried quite a few different things and I have settled on cattle panel.

Some people call them stockade panels, some people call them cattle panels. They're four feet tall and 16 feet long; semi-rigid and the holes are smaller at the bottom working to 4'X4' by the time you reach the top.

I like them because I can work with them myself. I've been wiring them to the existing T-posts a little at a time. I have the buck pen finished.

The buck pen is also where we're keeping our LGD (livestock guard dog).

Our "little" Kaia is a Great Pyrenees. We got her a couple of weeks ago, and I cannot believe how big she has become in that short a time. We've been learning as we go along. We have her broke from chewing on the kittens, but, she REALLY likes our chickens a little too much.

I'll try and get a picture of her online tomorrow.

The baby goats are growing every day. We try to have Kaia spend as much supervised time with them as possible.

The older goats are learning to tolerate her, but it certainly has been a slow process.

Tova, my goat that kidded with triplets, is continuing to give about eight pounds a day. My two first fresheners, Clarabelle and Emily, are each giving between two and three pounds a day.

When you keep milk records, you measure the milk in pounds. A gallon of milk is roughly eight pounds; a quart is about two pounds; a half gallon weighs about four pounds, etc. So, between the three of them, I milked a little over 12 pounds of milk today which is a gallon and a half.

I'll close for now. Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day. We went to his father's house for evening meal. The kids had fun playing with their cousins.

God Bless

New Baby Goats

This has been an exciting week as we have had five new baby goats born.

On Monday, our doe Tova kidded with triplets. This is her second freshening, so we're very excited to see how she milks. Already, she's milking about a gallon a day! She comes from a nice line of heavy milkers, so this is what we expected from her. She had two bucklings and a doeling, so hopefully, her little doeling will grow up to be just like her mother.

On Tuesday and Thursday, we had sisters kid. One had a doeling and one had a buckling. Mommas are doing well...a little shy about getting on the stanchion, but better every day.

We bottle feed our babies, so they bond to humans rather than their mothers. It's a lot of work, but this is the choice that we've made for our farm.

Here's a picture of them all waiting "patiently" for their milk.

Starting a Farm Blog

I would really like to share the things that happen on a day-to-day basis at our farm. There are lots of us out there that are doing this now, and it's so fun to see how everyone's farm works differently.

Just a little history...

My name is Tamera and I live in rural North Dakota. I'm a doctor, but I don't practice in an office anymore. Now, I live at home with my four children and we homeschool.

I also have my own farm. (My husband is a farmer/rancher.)

I have dairy goats, chickens, guinea fowl, and kitties galore.

If someone had told me ten years ago that in ten years, I would be home with my four children with a farm of my own, I would have laughed. But, I love my life. It's hard work, but the rewards are AWESOME!

I hope to get this program figured out this week end and then try and blog a little each evening with a picture or two.

Hope you enjoy.