We made cheese!

We did it... we made cheese! And it turned out really well! Here is a photo of the first batch we made. We seasoned portions with lemon pepper, herbes de provence, natural, and garlic & chives. We are so excited about this we can hardly stand it!

Mercedes kidded this week as well. One large, maybe extra large buck kid. Both she and the kid are doing well.

Photos, Photos, & More Photos

What is the quickest way to catch you up on what's been going on at the farm... how about a few photos?

Lynn has twins: 1 buck, 1 doe. This is the doe: Mystic.

Lynn's twins, just born.

Kids at play on the rock pile.

Big kids at play on their new ramp in their new play area.

Wisteria has twin buck kids.

Updates

We have been busy at the farm, and busy at work. So much that we lost track of doing updates on the blog! Sorry to leave everyone in the dark! Our kid total so far this year is 28 kids. We've had 21 bucks (boys) and 8 does (girls).

Our latest additions were a set of twin bucks from Wisteria, another set of twins (one buck, one doe) from Lynn and just yesterday a huge single buck kid from Mercedes. Our kidding seasons should be coming to a close. We do have 2 does that may be bred, but we will have to wait and see. We have the vet coming out in a few days to take a look at them and see if indeed they are pregnant. If they are, we may have "Snubians" on our hands. What is a Snubian? It's a Saanen crossed with a Nubian!

We'll try to post photos of all of the new kids very soon. It's hard to believe, but our spring/summer calendar is already filling up with meetings, shows and other events. We are hoping to plan in some travel time this summer and fall as well. We'll see how that goes!

Another addition to our busy weekend

We thought our busy weekend was over... not so fast! On Sunday evening Jetta decided to go into labor with triplets! Yep, one of our first freshening Nubians gave birth to 2 does and one buck kid. She even tried to push 2 of them out at once. These kids are sired by our Jr herdsire: Silverwood Prince Merlin.

Twin does arrive!

Jasmine freshened today with twin does. We are so excited to actually have does! But so tired at the same time. This means that we have had a total of 5 doe kids and 16 buck kids born so far in 2010.

Eventful Weekend

Another eventful weekend around here. As the weather gets nicer and new kids arrive, more and more people want to come out and visit. This makes for some very busy weekends. We are not complaining! We love seeing friends and family, and the goats love company too. It's just that we do't get as much time to catch up on our sleep. If there is such a thing.

We knew Saturday would be a busy day. We had to get feed, go to our tax appt and we had 3 groups of people coming over in the afternoon to visit the babies. That all got a bit more hectic when Raven, one of our Nubian does, decided she was going to start kidding at 10 AM. So, Laura stayed home and Chris went to get feed and to our tax appt on his own.

Raven decided to take this process very slowly. Laura noticed the water bag emerging at 10 AM. Raven's first kid wasn't born until noon (a buck kid). Then a second one finally followed at 12:45 (another buck kid). As neighbors were getting the new babies dried off and taken care of (navel's dipped, etc.) Laura milked Raven to get colostrum. Then Raven got some nice warm water, grain and alfalfa hay. We got the babies fed and tucked in under a heat lamp. That was about the time that group of visitors #1 showed up.

As Laura was explaining about the goats, she noticed Raven grunting. Then another grunt. Thinking it was just Raven expelling the placenta, Laura didn't give it much thought. Until another grunt... that is when Raven pushed out buck kid #3! Shortly after that group of people #2 arrived. As we were drying off this kid and making sure he was taken care of... group of people #3 shows up.

All in all it was a wonderful day of visiting, but a lot of work and waiting as well. We did chores Saturday morning at 6 AM and got in about 8 AM. Then Laura went back out at 10 AM and didn't get back in the house until 4 PM. Then, both of us were back out at 6 PM for chores. Luckily Chris volunteered for the midnight feeding. We will laugh about this some day.

A Busy & Exciting Day

Lexus's buck kid

FSF Merlin Illusion

Today turned out to be a busy day at the farm. After Wylie kidded at noon, her daughter Lexus decided to kid at 5 PM. And... drum roll please... WE GOT OUR FIRST NUBIAN DOE KID OF 2010!!! So Exciting! Lexus had 2 lovely twins, 1 buck and one doe. That means that we have had 15 kids born so far this year, and had 3 doe kids out of the whole lot.

Lexus did a fabulous job: she milks out like a dream and is eating and drinking like a champ. We are so thrilled with our new kids! We have named the little doe: "FSF Merlin Illusion".