There's Not Enough Milk for the Babies!

Ghost gets lunch!

We're milking goats twice a day, but are having a hard time feeding the baby goats!  Our poor Goldie became ill shortly after giving birth and during treatment her milk dried up....completely.  She's much better, thank you, but will not produce milk again until she has more babies.  That won't be until same time next year so we've got to make some adjustments.  Goldie not producing milk is a big set back for both our fledgling soap business and our current crop of baby goats.  Goldie was our biggest milk producer: her daily contribution almost doubled the individual output of our other two mommas, Chocolate and Mabel!

So, Goldie's two kids, Ghost and Giggles, are essentially without a supply of nourishment.  Mabel is not producing quite enough to feed her triplets Monkey, Muffin and Mink.  Chocolate is taking good care of her kid, Coco, who was growing fat and happy on her 'free-choice' milk bar.  So, Coco now is taken away from Mommy during the day and we milk most of Choco's supply each night, leaving some for dinner for the kid.  The kids are all approaching six weeks of age so they are starting to nibble hay and a wee portion of grain.  But still, it's not enough milk!

Fortunately, we had a lot of raw milk frozen.  It's purpose was to make soap - I had planned a good stash for getting ready for Spring shows/sales and the opening of Global Market.  We've slowly but surely been dipping into the 'stash' to feed the babies!  We could have gone to formula but....to us that's yucky, chemical stuff.  We could purchase bottled goat milk- but the cost is silly and we view pasteurized milk as almost dead, much of the nutrition destroyed.  So, the stash it is.

We're finding that, when it thaws, fresh, raw goats milk separates and has some 'curds' suspended in what looks like a mix of whey and thin milk.  We've quickly come to the process of thawing the milk in an ice cream pail and then taking the stick blender to it to reconstitute it.  We add in and blend anything newly milked, once it has cooled.  It's working well and all the kids are thriving!  However, I'm not making any soap right now or eating any of our lovely, fresh goats milk, saving all the good stuff for the kids.  Looking forward to the day when the kids are weaned and the excess becomes mine to do with as I wish!

It's Been A Whirlwind!

Muffin gets lunch!

Happy Easter to everyone!  I'm finding it really hard to believe that April is almost upon us!  Perhaps that has something to do with the freezing temperatures and three feet of snow outside!  This time last year the snow was completely gone and buds were swelling!  It's been such a loooooooong winter this year; it seems hard to get excited about Spring because it still seems so far away!

March is a bit of a blur for me.  So much happened, so fast and I feel rather like I stumbled through the whole thing.  We've both been sick, we've both gotten some work off the farm, we've been dealing with a predator in the chicken coop and we've had a passel of baby goats!  I have vague memories of cold nights in the barn with the goats, finding murdered chickens in the coop, studying for a new job, sneaking around the house while Farmer Man sleeps after working a night shift, trying to find the energy to get groceries and coughing and sniffling during every event!

The end result is that we have six beautiful baby goats: five girls and a boy!  Mabel had triplets first, on March 9.  She produced a boy, Monkey and two little girls, Mink and Muffin.  If you follow this blog, you remember last year she rejected them completely and her kids were bottle babies.  This year she was more accepting and cleaned them up, but could not seem to feed them.  It was also very cold the night they were born (-25 C) so eventually they came into the house and became bottle babies.  Once again, I was so thankful for my Henry Milker, so light and portable, with clean milk ready to use.  Farmer Man was at work, so it proved to be a long, stressful and tiring night for me!  And, admittedly, we weren't as organized as we could have been because we thought we were at least a week away from having babies.

So imagine my surprise when I go to the barn to refresh waters the very next day and hear the wee cry of a baby goat!  Sixteen hours after Mabel, Choco produced the cutest little dark brown baby girl, Coco Chanel!  Everything was going well with these two; Farmer Man set up a heat lamp, we helped clean up and put a little coat on the baby and mother and kid were bonding and feeding very nicely in a short time.  We didn't think Choco was even near her due date: she didn't look very pregnant, she'd been very placid and hadn't exhibited any signs of nesting.  Last year, she was the last to have babies, fully a month after the first birth, so we assumed she had resisted Randi's advances again.  It being a weekend, I was around and continued to do hourly checks.  It was still very cold outside, so we wanted to make sure the new mommy and baby were taking advantage of the heat lamp, mommy was getting lots of water (the water was freezing quickly, and needed replacement often).

Early evening, as I went to check on things I found Goldie in the throes of birth.  One baby was already out on the straw and she was obviously working on a second.  Fortunately Farmer Man was home and he worked on getting a second heat lamp installed in an 'adlib' birthing suite for Goldie and her babies.  We helped clean up and dry off the babies and got everyone in the warmth of the new birthing suite.  Goldie had two girls: a lovely, almost ivory coloured kid we've named Ghost and a little chocolate brown girl named Giggles.

Whew, all our babies within twenty four hours and freezing cold temperatures.  It was worrisome.  The babies in the house were doing fine, Mabel was getting back in the groove of being milked but she wasn't producing enough for triplets and we didn't feel we could take away from the other new mommas right at this time.  Thank heaven for frozen milk!  We had frozen a LOT of milk while continuing to milk into the fall, long after last years' babies were weaned.  It was intended for soap, first and foremost, but also for our use through the winter.  We really hadn't thought about a stash for this years' babies!  The thing about frozen milk is that it separates and clumps, so feeding time became a little long as we had to warm the milk enough to 'melt' the clumps in it; some of it I've also had to put in the blender to re-liquefy so that it would go through the bottles smoothly and not clog the nipple.

By Monday morning, Farmer Man, on an hourly check, realized something was wrong with Goldie.  She didn't want to get up and was very lethargic; the babies weren't getting fed.  By an early afternoon check, Ghost was lethargic and shivering.  Into the house she came!  Farmer Man was worried enough to call me at work and I raced home as soon as I could.  The little girl was very still and weak: Farmer Man had prepared a bottle and would get it in her mouth and squirt a bit, trying to get her to swallow.  He went off to work and I continued this into the evening.  On a check, Giggles seemed to be fading, so into the house she came, too!  Now five to bottle feed - thank heavens for the frozen milk.  Thank heavens, too, for pals Nancy and Deb, who came to help feed (and to play with baby goats!).  The twins rebounded, a huge improvement in just twenty four hours of consistent feeding!  We tried milking Goldie, but she was producing hardly anything.  She continued to be lethargic the next day so we called our vet, Dr. Sherry of Wheat City Vet Clinic.

Dr. Sherry's visit was not good news, but at least we knew what to do.  Goldie had a high fever and an infection of some sort and possibly mastitis.  There was no benefit to waiting to diagnose mastitis - she had to be treated promptly!  So, we added to the routine two shots and a teat drench.  Mabel, too, had a bit of fever and lethargy so she was included in the treatment plan.  I was squeamish about giving needles so Farmer Man stepped up to the plate on that one!  I did the teat drench - which is kind of like putting a blunt needle into the teat and pumping in medicine.  Goldie's milk production dropped to nothing, and will likely not return - a huge loss for us not only in terms of feeding babies, but also for soap production this coming year.  But, what counts is that everyone seems much improved and all the babies are doing well!  Here's to hoping that April calms down!

Box of Baby Goats....

Farmer Man and I have been very sick.  February was the month of a respiratory viral infection, and we're still not right.  Neither of us have been this sick in years!  Of course, on a farm, there are still chores to be done: someone had to drag themselves out of bed to feed and water chickens and goats.  Doggies still needed to go outside occasionally.  So, somehow, I missed the signs.  We knew our three Mamma goats were going to have babies soon; by our calculations mid-March would be the earliest.  Imagine my surprise when I was hauling water up yesterday afternoon and heard the thin, light cry of a baby goat.

A goat's gestation period is five months.  By our calculations, based on when we put Randi in with the girls, March 16th should have been the earliest possible due date.  There's, you know, a courting period, the females have to actually go into heat which is often brought on by being with a male in rut.  Well, Mabel must have gone into heat in a flash because yesterday afternoon she presented us with triplets!  All girls, we think, but we've been wrong before so we're giving it a day or two.

I knew Mabel and Goldie were getting close.  The babies had dropped, giving the females an indentation high on their hips.  I'd been checking for the mucous plug that indicates the start of birth but had missed that sign.  Everything seemed fine late morning when I checked on them on my way to collect eggs.  Mabel didn't appear to be 'nesting' or pawing the straw or any other signs.  Admittedly, I wasn't there very long.

So, I arrived yesterday afternoon to find one wee baby goat.  I dashed up to the house, called for Farmer Man and grabbed a few things.  I wasn't as organized yet as I could be, thinking I had another week to prepare.  A second baby was coming as I got back to the barn.  The lovely thing was Mabel was accepting them this time and was working to clean up the first one.  Last year she had triplets and then retreated to a corner of the pen and would have nothing to do with them.  When she became distracted by the arrival of the second baby, I continue to clean up and dry off the first.  We are having babies earlier this year, when it's colder, and we're very conscious of that.  The first thing Farmer Man did when he arrived on the scene was to close the barn doors, so that drafts were at a minimum.  Then he got the heat lamp out and installed.

The third baby arrived quite promptly and Mabel and I worked to clean and dry them all.  Then I started showing them where to feed, hoping Mother Nature would kick in.  The babies just didn't seem to get it; only one showed a natural inclination but couldn't quite figure out which end.  The other two seemed to have no idea of why I was standing them up and placing them at their mother's udder.  Mabel didn't seem to get it either and kept walking away, returning to clean and muzzle them.  Time went by and I felt that these little ones really needed to eat.  Out came the Henry Milker and I milked Mabel - not ideal, clean conditions but I felt it needed to be done.  Trying to bottle feed the wee things right there in the pen was it's own challenge, but I got a little bit of colostrum (the initial momma's milk, full of antibodies and good things) into each one.  I kept trying to show them where to feed, and Mabel kept walking away or putting up her leg like she was going to kick.

Even with the heat lamp, the babies were shivering so I went and got some little doggie sweaters my dogs had outgrown.  I kept trying to show them where to feed but nobody was getting it!  After about three hours, one of the babies seemed to be getting weak and was shivering consistently so up to the house into a big cardboard box.  I milked Mabel a bit more and went up to the house to feed the little kid.  I was hoping I'd return to find the other two feeding but slowly, over the next hour, all three ended up in the house getting bottle fed.  We'd really hoped not to have the responsibility of bottle feeding triplets this year but you can't always get what you want, right?

Revving Up The Soaping!

Goats Milk, Oatmeal, Cinnamon Soap.

CSA is finished, the Global Market is finished, the gardens are largely finished.  What's left?  Making soap!  I'm getting ready to participate in some craft fairs.  I was able to make small batches of soap thru the summer, which sold nicely at the Global Market, with great feedback from customers.  One needs volume to participate in a craft show, though, so I've been soaping up a storm!  I've been aiming for a batch a day...although that hasn't always happened!

Like everything we do, we're looking to make soap as simply and naturally as possible.  No swirling, twirling, no glittering or glamming!  We're making skin-nourishing goats milk soap with no artificial colours, no artificial fragrances, no preservatives, no chemical sudsers - just natural ingredients!  We're super-fatting with fresh, fluid goats milk - no dehydrated milk powder here!  It's harder than you might think to find info, so a certain amount of experimenting is going on in the kitchen!  Farmer Man and I, and a few friends, have been washing up with some odd-looking, but still very usable soaps!

Our 'mainstay' soap is a cold process soap which we're calling our 'Simple Soap': just coconut oil, olive oil and lots of goats milk.  All ingredients that are good for your skin, and coconut oil makes a nice lather.  We'd love to keep our soap ingredients 'local', but it's hard to make good soap with just what is available: canola oil, sunflower oil and hemp oil!  We could get into rendering lard, a classic soap ingredient but...we'd need a lot and I just don't really want to get into it!  We have also made a hemp soap - very popular at the Global Market and a good pairing with our hemp lotion bar!

To keep our soaps the lightest colour possible, we are freezing the mixes as soon as they go in the mold.  The common practice, in cold process soap making, is to insulate the soap in the mold and leave it 24 hours.  During this time the soap goes through a 'gel' phase, during which the chemical process involving the fats, oils and lye is completed.  A lot of heat is generated during this phase which can scorch milk fats and darken the colour of the bar.  We can keep more of the milk solids unscathed and the colour lighter by avoiding the gel phase.  Our soap will be a little softer, and may take longer to cure, but more benefits to the skin!  We're making most of our soaps in flat tray molds, so it freezes quicker and to avoid heat build-up.  The hemp soap I've been making in a loaf mold, and have had the centre darken, meaning it was warm enough for a short time for the gel phase to start.  Still great soap - maybe we'll call it 'Hemp Heart' soap or something!

So far, we've got a good stash of our Hemp Soap, Simple Soap Unscented (great for those working in hospitals and such where fragrance is frowned on, or for people who don't want their soap to interfere with their perfume choice), Simple Soap with ground Lavender and Lavender essential oil, Simple Soap with ground chamomile and chamomile infusion, a goat milk, oatmeal and honey soap (from a recipe on the Web), a shampoo bar and a shampoo bar with Rosemary essential oil (for scalp stimulation).  Today's experiment:  a goat milk, oatmeal and cinnamon soap which I am not going to put in the freezer.  I'm making it in a loaf mold and since the ground cinnamon is going to colour the bar anyway, I decided to see what would happen if I didn't freeze it, but insulated it instead!  I'll post some pictures on our Facebook page when I take it out of the mold in a day or two!

It's Officially Mating Season for the Goats!

A little primping!

It's time to start thinking about having adorable baby goats bouncing around next Spring!  No, really, you've got to plan for these things!  Last year we bought our buck, Dandi Randi, in the middle of December.  We thought we were being so smart; we'd have babies in May, when the weather was nice.  We wouldn't have to worry about babies getting chills, there would already be nice, fresh leaves and grass for the Mommas for sweet milk!  Well, turned out to be a critical error: we should be planting out our seedlings in May, and keeping up on the weeding of newly seeded rows!  Between the late nights monitoring the Mommas, sitting with goats in labor and bottle-feeding babies - we were worn out and weedy before our CSA season even started!

So, this year things will be different! Although Farmer Man and I have had some spirited discussions on just when to put the buck and the does together, we agreed on October 1st, looking to have baby goats in February or March.  Maybe the beginning of February, if one of the girls is receptive right away.  February is a little early for my taste; we can still be very cold in February but we have heat lamps and insulated boxes so everything should be alright!

A bit too enthusiastic right away....

Fall is the normal mating season for goats.  It can be manipulated - apparently the females can come into heat just by being around the male or smelling a rag impregnated by his scent.  Brambles Nubian Goat Farm, where we got all our lovely goats, is having babies now.  Our late Spring baby girls: Marble, Cherry and Chica, are really too young to breed right now, so that's a disadvantage we hadn't thought about last year, either!  Boys mature early, Gaffer, Marty and Myrvan are ready to breed (boy, they really think they're ready) and are currently for sale.  Their dairy goat genetics are excellent and their temperaments are all delightful, and they should make awesome sires and be a great addition to some dairy goat farms somewhere.

Our Buck, known as Dandi Randi, has been ready to breed since the middle of summer!  A goat buck's idea of making himself attractive involves urinating on his face...so Randi has been smelly and sticky and loud and pushy for some time!  He has continually tried to get out of his pen, tried to get at the girls and generally been a little hard to handle!  His name became Readi Randy and we've been getting tired of his antics.  Finally, the last couple of weeks, we noticed the ladies were getting a little difficult.  More obstinate, petulant, cranky and milk production has been down!  Seems everybody is getting in the mood.

A little dinner...

So, October 1st started with a wee grooming for Randi - to get him ready for the ladies!  After milking the girls and putting them all out to pasture, we got Randi on the milking stand and fed him his morning grain ration while doing his hooves and giving him a (fairly) good brushing.  Having his scent on the brush may help the ladies get in the mood!  When we led Randi out to the pasture - did his attention perk up!  We let him loose but stayed to monitor things.  He was immediately on the hunt - pursuing poor Choco around the field for a good five minutes.  Strange noises, licking, sniffing - quite the sight!  It was interesting he picked Choco because she was the last to have her babies this past Spring, so the last to succumb to his advances!  Maybe he could smell that she was in heat, or maybe he likes a challenge.  After a little while, things settled down and we went and cut willow for everyone, and it seemed quite quiet in the pasture the rest of the day.

The buck and the does will stay together 24/7 for more than a month now.  Does are in heat (known as estrus) for only about one day, but will come back into heat in about three weeks.  We want to make sure the 'deed' gets done so we'll give them lots of opportunity - as long as Randi stays a gentleman and doesn't appear to be getting rough with them!  We will not take the chance of the ladies being injured so we're keeping a close eye on things - one of us will be around them regularly throughout the day!  Kind of like a chaperon, don't you think?  

Our Little Manitoba Dairy Goat Herd!

Mervy and Marty, two of the triplets.

An update on our little herd of goats!  We've had goats a little over a year now, starting with our three Mamas: Goldie, Mabel and Chocolate arrived last June.  We currently have a herd of ten - having added Daddy Randi in December and having seen the birth of six kids through May and June!  What an adjustment it's been; the time has been full of laughs, joy and yes, quite a bit of frustration and worry!  Being new goat keepers nothing is familiar, routine or 'to be expected'.  You can read all you want and watch all the videos you can find, but the best lessons learned are the ones you experience!

Originally adding the three does to our routine was not at all a burden.  We already had a pattern morning and night for feeding the chickens and we had, in previous years, had a small group of Berkshire pigs to care for each summer.  We did not bring in pigs for the summer we added the goats - one thing at a time.  When we added young Randi in December the Farmers Market season was over, the farm was quiet and he just went in with the does and was hardly a 'blip' on the work radar.  There were times....like when the does were following Farmer Man around and figured out how to get on the roof of our house!  We got into a nice rhythm of feeding, grooming and hoof trimming and all was well.

Gaffer and Marty: less than two weeks apart in age, but
being an only child gave Gaffer a weight advantage
from the beginning!

Goats are awesome animals: sociable, intelligent, affectionate.  We enjoyed, throughout the Fall and Winter, taking them for walks, without leashes.  We learned not to worry about them 'escaping' because they always just came to look for us if they got out.  We did find we had to improve our fencing a bit - they are smart critters and better jumpers than you might think!  And yes, they like to eat the ornamental flowers and shrubs in your beds, borders and pots! We continued our education, to care for the does while pregnant and into birth.  However, nothing prepares you for actually going through labor with a goat the first time, second or third time!  Of course, each doe had a totally different experience with a different set of problems!  You can read more about the birth of all the kids here, here and here.  Choosing the 'goat', 'Nubian goats, or 'The Goatling' labels from the right-hand side of the blog will bring up all the posts concerning them!  Adding the routine of milking and feeding baby goats has been a bit of a strain!  Our big error was having babies in May/June - when we should have been planting and tending our vegetables.  We thought we were being so smart (!) having less to worry about in warmer weather but it did put us behind in the gardens!

We're still learning lots, each and every day.  Randi was very young when we brought him here: we both laughed when we first saw him and asked if he was old enough to 'do the job'!  He obviously was, and has produced beautiful kids!  Randi is a purebred registered Nubian goat; his father Buccaneer was recently declared on of the top ten bucks in Canada!  Our newest experience is a buck in rut: Randi has decided it's mating season now, and he's already putting on his 'show'.  Fall is officially mating season, as the days get shorter, and we have no intention of breeding the does again until October.  This could be an interesting few months coming up!  The mating rituals of male goats involves weird moaning noises, peeing on one's own face and producing lots of musky odors!  I guess the does don't mind, but I'm not finding him as attractive these days!  It's actually quite 'yucky' to pet him at this time, much to his consternation!  He loves a good rub on the forehead but.....not happening right now!

Marble, the third triplet, and the twins, grazing and nibbling
on their favorite treat: willow branches!

Our females are all high-percentage, commercial Nubian does.  Goldie and Chocolate are 75% Nubian, Mabel is 85% Nubian.  We chose Randi as our herd sire to strengthen the Nubian/milking lines.  Goldie is part Saanen and Alpine, and has the cute little wattles under her chin, which she has passed on to her son Gafferty.  As Gaffer has been fully weaned, we're quickly learning that Goldie is an incredible milker!  Literally twice the production daily of the other two mamas at around two litres morning and again at night!  If you're interested in increasing production in your dairy goat herd, Gaffer is available for sale - contact us!  Mabel, although not a 'happy' mother, is a very good milker, quickly producing her litre and a bit morning and again at night.  Her triplets are high percentage Nubians, with the added milking genes of Randi's lineage.  Her two sons, Mervyn and Marty, are also available for sale and are extremely friendly and people-oriented as they have been bottle fed from birth.  Chocolate has the creamiest milk of all three - although we've never had it officially tested in any way, but by taste, to us, it's the nicest milk.  Her milking capacity is a bit of an unknown, as we are still allowing her to nurse her twins, but we keep them separated during the day and get more than a liter in the evening milking!  I believe her twin girls will be available for sale, because we do not have the capacity for too large a herd right now.

Having baby goats around the farm has been extremely fun!  It's made us very popular with friends and customers; we've become a bit of a destination!  Hey, wait a minute, isn't that agri-tourism?  Maybe we should have made some money at giving tours!  Baby goats are just a hoot - they run and jump and climb and then 'zoom' over to see how you are.  Especially the triplets, bottle-fed from birth, are just like pet dogs, although they're getting a little big for our laps now!  And soon, now that we're getting extra milk - some serious soap making is going to go on around here!  Once we get caught up in the vegetable gardens.......so maybe October for that soap making!

Goldie's (and Our) First Baby!

This is not the post for you if you are not comfortable with frank discussions of birth, bodily functions and such!  There will be some (mildly) graphic details and pictures!

Aagaard Farms is pleased-as-punch to announce the arrival of Gafferty, a wee buck kid born about 4:00 PM on Sunday, May 20th (nobody had a watch on so the time is unofficial)!  The son of Goldie, our 75% Nubian doe, and Randi, our purebred Nubian buck, Gafferty, henceforth known as Gaffer, is doing fine!  It was the first baby for Goldie and for us, so it's been an exciting weekend!  Farmer Man decided, rather on the fly, that the kids' names should start with the first letter of their Mom's name; as the little buck was floundering around, Farmer Man called him a 'little gaffer', and the name stuck!

We do like things kind of natural around here: no chemicals on the gardens, no chemicals or antibiotics in the critters food, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.  We did not intend to be so natural that Goldie would have her baby outside, in the pasture, but that's what happened!  We have done extensive reading on goat birth, watched YouTube videos, haunted some of our favorite websites like Fias Co Farms; nothing prepares you like the real thing! We've been watching our does for a few weeks, looking for signs and symptoms of impending birth.  We knew the udders were filling, we could see the body signs, we had read about the ligaments along her tail bones 'softening' when birth is near but we're still not exactly sure about that sign.  The does either think we're nuts or they enjoyed the 'massages' along their spine and down by their tail!  The goats had gotten their usual grain ration shortly after 1:30 PM and everything seemed normal: the little herd was together, they all came and partook of their treat, everything seemed good.  I angled around to get a look at all the girls rear ends: two of the first signs of imminent birthing, after the softening of the ligaments, is the doe releases a white, waxy looking plug from her vagina, then she goes off by herself.  Most goat keepers would have her in a separate pen a week or so before birth but it was a lovely day and we hadn't (didn't think) we had the softening of the ligaments, or the release of the plug......

About half an hour later I cruised back by the goat pasture, just to have a look.  Goldie was off under the spruces with a glob of yellow birth fluid hanging from her vagina.  Yikes!  This is happening NOW!  I ran to the house, grabbed the prepared birthing kit, the camera (like a good blogger) and yelled for Farmer Man!  Goldie stubbornly refused to walk to the barn at this point, so we grabbed some empty feed sacks to keep the baby from hitting the ground.  There was something I needed from the house so I ran back, and made a quick call to pal Deb, who had wanted to know when babies were coming.  I think I yelled something into the phone like: "Having a baby goat, gotta go!"   Deb appeared shortly after and a third pair of hands was a great help!

A wee, little hoof presents itself!

For about an hour and a half, we watched and encouraged Goldie, pulling the empty feed sacks after her as she moved around.  Farmer Man was at her head, keeping her steady and calm.  She'd push, a little hoof would appear, then recede.  She'd push again and we'd see a little hoof, then a tip of a little nose and a little pink tongue!  This might stay out, then disappear.  We still couldn't see the second hoof!  I was running through my mind everything I'd read about assisting in the birth, but it was too soon for that.  Finally, after almost two hours, Goldie lay down and began to really push hard, making funny little noises!  I intruded into her vagina, just a tad, and found the second hoof, just inside the entrance.  On the next big push, I got it between two fingers and pulled lightly along with Goldie's push.  A few minutes later, a little wet, gooey baby came sliding out!  As we were outside on a breezy day, Auntie Deb and I were ready with puppy pads to clean the baby, then old towels to keep the baby warm.  We tied off the umbilical cord with dental floss and slid the feed sack with baby up to Goldie for her to do some cleaning and bonding!

How does this work, again?

Farmer Man got some grain, Deb took the baby, all wrapped in a fresh towel, to a sunny spot just by the barn doors.  With a rest and a bit of grain, we got Goldie up and slowly made our way to the clean baby stall in the barn.  We put them in together, and turned on the waiting heat lamp.  Momma Goldie seemed interested, and did some more cleaning of her baby.  Getting the baby up to nurse and getting Goldie to stand still to nurse was a bit more of a challenge.  The rest of the evening, and the next morning were consumed by watching, encouraging Mom to nurse, using treats and brushing to get her to stand for the baby.  We actually put into action our milking machine - The Henry Milker!  Love this thing, highly recommend it!  We milked Goldie, had the waiting baby bottle and nipple and tried to make sure little Gaffer had colostrum and a good feed!  The worry and frustration when the baby didn't want the bottle!  Fortunately, shortly after Momma Goldie let him get a good drink and we could all relax!

Our plan now is to let little Gaffer feed during the day, then we will milk Goldie out in the evening.  I must say, fresh goat milk is a gorgeous, gorgeous thing!  Creamy, smooth and no, absolutely no, goaty flavor!  I've got a small stash for our first batch of soap, and that supply will grow every day!  Hopefully, we'll be making soap next week!  In the meantime, we're playing with Gaffer, congratulating Goldie and we are watching and waiting for Mabel and Chocolate to have their babies!

Getting Chubby in All the Right Places?

'What are you looking at?'

We've been watching our three young does very carefully.  With the introduction of our little buck Randi in December, we're hoping the ladies are pregnant.  We're newbie goat owners, so we don't have that 'wealth of experience' that more experienced owners would have.  We're doing a lot of reading and a lot of research right now, getting ready.  And looking carefully at the girls.....

We thought, in November, before Randi, that the girls were a little over-weight, a detriment to getting pregnant.  We re-assessed the amount of grain they were getting, the amount of treats and extras, purposely took them out on more walks and they did slim down.  Now, we're thinking they're getting a little fat again - but in different places!  Goats will get wide with their babies, not bulging below.  The girls didn't seem very receptive to Randy when he first arrived, and we've never witnessed any goats 'doing it', but it may be time to have Dr Sherry out for a visit!

Pregnancy brings different requirements for goats.  For instance, too much protein, and the baby (or babies, as goats often have twins) can put on too much bone mass to quickly, and be difficult to deliver.  That will mean the mothers will have to get an adjusted grain ration.  So, although we kind of like to do things naturally here and could take a wait-and-see attitude, we'll be getting a pregnancy test done soon.  Mabel, our two tone, looks the most pregnant and she was, indeed, the 'nicest' to Randi.  Chocolate, who does not show any signs, was the least receptive; well into January she was chasing and head-butting Randi quite frequently!  Deliveries spread out over a period of time would suit us 'first time' parents!  If Mabel took a liking to Randi early on we could have babies as early as mid-May!

I can hardly wait for baby goats!  They are the the most adorable little creatures!  Plus, of course, that's when we'll finally have a regular supply of lovely goat milk and we can begin to be more self-sufficient in fresh, unadulterated milk, butter and cheese.  Plus, we'll be able start to Aagaard Farms' newest product: goat's milk soaps and lotions!  And, baby goats are just the cutest......it will be hard to get any work done!

Now We're (Trying) To Make Goat Treats!

Who knew?  Apparently, goats have a bit of a sweet tooth.  Training, of any kind, can be greatly enhanced by a little tidbit of something sweet as a reward.  We've seen a few blogs that call cracked corn the 'crack' drug of goats - highly addictive.  Our little herd gets cracked corn in their mixed grain ration everyday, that is how the bagged product is formulated.  So, for training purposes, we needed something extra special: how about corn in corn syrup?  We used the treat recipe on one of our favorite goat blogs, The Henry Milker.  Here's the recipe for their goat treats.

The recipe seems quite simple: boil sugar, corn syrup and water, add cracked corn, cook for a while, remove from heat and add baking soda (good for the goats stomachs).  Sounds easy, right?  The recipe says to bring the temperature of the cooking liquids to 300 F.  Well, I had my candy thermometer in the mixture and it didn't seem to want to budge past 250 F.  Boiled for ten minutes at medium, no movement.  So I nudged the heat up to medium high and still no movement.  I let more than five minutes pass, still stirring and no movement.  I nudge the heat up to high and kept stirring.   My candy thermometer seems to want to just stay at 250 F.  Now, I don't have a lot of experience with making candy and I had doubled the recipe, but this just didn't seem right.  The mixture smelled strongly of sugar and corn at this point and had been boiling for over twenty minutes; the recipe says nothing about how long the cooking will take.  I decide the thermometer is broken, it's been boiling for quite a while and it's probably done!  There is nothing else in the house that measures that high so I'm winging it.  I remove the pot from the heat, let it cool a bit and then add the baking soda.  Immediate bubbling and frothing - the recipe never said anything about that either!  Now, I'm seriously wondering if this is not going well....

The recipe instructs to pour the mixture out onto cookie sheets, let it cool and then break into pieces.  Hmmmm, twenty four hours later, mine is more like salt water taffy: very flexible, soft and stretchy, nothing is snapping off here!  The good news is that the goats were quite enthusiastic about the little sample I took them yesterday!  It's probably the most aggressive I've seen our new little buck around the does as he tried for a second piece!  I'm going to do a little research, or just email Henry Milker and find out how long it actually takes to cook this stuff!  Is there a long, slow period of heat increase in candy making?  Well, always something new to learn: that's a good thing, right?

Happy Birthday, Goatlings! Have We Got A Surprise For You!

Yes, that's him, hiding behind the Farmer!

This week brings the birthdays of all three of our little Nubian doelings!  Yesterday Chocolate turned one, today is Mabel's birthday and Saturday will be Goldie's first birthday.  We had decided months ago  that they would get a very special present, so yesterday we made a trip to Brambles Nubian Goat Farm up by San Clara, Manitoba.  Brambles is where the girls all came from and we needed something special for them that only Brambles could supply.

We returned after dark last night with an eight month old registered Nubian buckling, a gorgeous little guy who is brown with some white and black patches, mostly on his legs.  When Rebecca, of Brambles, introduced me to the little guy my first question was: "Is he old enough to do-the-deed?'.  Farmer Man came in the barn a short time later and asked almost the exact same question!  He is probably about twenty five or thirty pounds lighter than our three does (who admittedly may be a wee bit over-weight), and two or three inches shorter at the shoulder.  He is very festive looking at the moment with some bright green splotches: something about a tattoo ink bottle accident a couple of days ago, but Rebecca assures us that it will wash off easily or wear off in a few days!

Look at those festive, green ink spots!

He is just gorgeous; the full Nubian ears, a long slender nose, beautiful big brown eyes, excellent lines!  Farmer Man would like to call him 'Randy', but I'd like to get to know him a bit better before picking a name.  He smells like a goat buck with a musky, smokey scent that the girls don't have.  He has not, unfortunately, been the instant success we were hoping for.  The goatlings were in a bit of an uproar when we pulled up to the barn last night.  We've never both been away so long and the girls had not gotten their afternoon or evening grain ration and it was past their bedtime and we still hadn't 'tucked' them in!  We got the little buckling out of his crate on the back of the truck and set him in the corral where he promptly started to bawl and bleet.  I got some grain for everyone: we fed him in the corral and the girls in their usual spot in the barn but left the barn door open.  When they finished their grain, the girls came out for a look.  Chocolate promptly head butted the little fellow, Goldie chased him around the picnic table and Mabel just went back inside the barn.  So much for love at first sight!

The two doelings continued to be quite aggressive with the young buck so we decided to take the crate off the truck, put it in the barn and he could have separate accommodations for the night.  Farmer Man found a pallet that would fit over the open door so that the little guy wasn't completely cooped up in the dark.  This morning, Farmer Man went and hang out with them for quite a while; he even took all four for a little walk while he gathered kindling.  Mabel, as always, is sweet and gentle, just sniffing at him from time to time.  Goldie continues to chase him a bit, Chocolate continues to take runs at him, horns first!  He did show a bit more gumption today - pushing back a bit, so to say!  Other times, the little buckling goes to hide behind Farmer Man anytime the doelings approach.  According to everything we've read, once the goatlings even just smell a virile male, they should go into heat within ten to fourteen days, so there may be an attitude adjustment in the next couple of weeks!  And hopefully, some baby goats will be bouncing around the farm in May!