It was a dark and stormy night.....

We are expecting a snow and ice storm, so Whitney decided this would be a good night to kid. After I finished evening chores I put her in a stall with a bale of fresh, dry straw.

At 10pm I checked her and found a beautiful buck kid.

An hour later, while checking on him, she produced another buck without incident, affording me the opportunity to get these somewhat graphic photos of the process.

You don't get any more newborn then this, just seconds old.

The barn cat, who appears to have picked a fight with someone tougher then he is, watched over the proceedings from the safety of his perch on the stall wall.Well that was it, two bucklings.
Two more does left to kid this spring and one in summer so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some girls!

Doelings (and a buck) that need to go!

I think it is time for a couple of the girls, and one of the boys, to go. I don't need that many to milk and I really would like to have an all registered Oberhasli herd.

Both of these girls are about 7 months old and come from a friends dairy herd. They were bottle raised on pasteurized milk and are very friendly. They have been dis-budded, vaccinated and wormed. The girls have been running with an older registered Oberhasli buck, so it is possible that they are bred.

Alpine type doeling

LaMancha type doeling

I also have an 8 month old registered Oberhasli buckling I would like to sell.

Registered Oberhasli buckling
I'd like to get $75 each for the does, or $125 for the pair of them. I'm asking $150 for the buck, but I am open to trades too.

Now that was quite a surprise!

Today I was planning on blogging about our trip to visit Grandpa, but mother nature sent me a surprise instead. Boogie and I drove across the state and back yesterday, so we got home very late, nearly midnight. After bundling a dozing Boogie off to bed I headed down to the barn to milk Whitney. Iris, my other doe, has a terminal condition called CAE which creates difficulty for her keeping her weight up, so I left her in the feed stall where she could munch through the night as I often do. I did notice she had a bit of an udder, but wrote that off to hormones. This morning, I waited about an hour later than usual to accommodate for the late milking last night, and to my GREAT surprise found Iris with a doe kid. I took the doe up to the house and went back to milk two goats now and get some milk pasteurized for the new little girl. As I sat down to milk I hear maaaaaaaa, maaaaaaa from the corner and lo and behold a little buck kid as well. I am amazed since Iris had just had twins around the first of the year in addition to her disease. I never expected more kids from her. I pasteurized her colostrum along with Whitney's milk so it didn't turn into custard and both of the kids have gotten a good dose.

Now Boogie has 'babies' to help with, though he really needs to work on being more gentle with the little guys, and I have a busy day moving bunnies off the porch to make room for two bottle babies. In the mean time they are sleeping up in the bedroom. Yes, once again I have goats in the house+

Heeeeeere's Whitney

This morning was spent making the hour drive to DeSoto, Wisconsin to pick up a new Oberhasli doe. Whitney is 4 years old and currently milking, so I will be able to make more cheese and ice cream. She did well on the ride home in a large crate in the back of the pick up. I took advantage of having the truck and stopped on the way back and picked up two more apple trees and seven blueberry bushes. Boogie was very helpful, as always. He enjoyed the ride up because he got to see lots of choo-choo trains, then he napped on the way back after playing with the dogs, cats and goats at the farm we visited.
See the blueberries on the roof and hood of my poor car?



Here is Whit with the blue collar meeting Iris for the first time. She is going to have to be kept in for a week or so with limited access to grass as she came from a large dairy herd which has no pasture available. A belly full of green grass when a goat is not used to it can mean big trouble, and I've had enough of that lately.

I'm sure Conner will be very happy to have a new lady in his life too!

Boogie says "Have a GREAT weekend, I sure am!"