Molly is off for a weekend fling

Yesterday, after coordinating with Frank and Caroline, I loaded Molly up into the largest old dog crate in the bed of the pickup and took her up for a weekend fling with Harry Houdini, Prim's son.  Both Molly and Tangie are still giving a decent amount of milk, which I am attributing to the very wet summer resulting in lush green stuff in the pasture even up through the present (when usually the August heat makes the pasture dry out a bit).  Molly's absence was noticeable this morning, as she is still giving a good quart-and-half per morning.

We're all hoping Molly does triplets again.  Frank and Caroline are intending to replace Harry, as he has gotten a bit destructive, and the fencing is his preferred target.  Ideally, they want a polled son, which would be a first for Molly, but they definitely want a kid from this year's crop as I am planning to bottlefeed all kids this coming season.  I also plan to practice with the disbudding iron where appropriate.  It is going to be some work, but I saw with Tim and Andre just how easily bottle babies sell themselves, and the Cocoa/Chaos Puff shows how responsive bottle babies are once they grow up.

The polite version of yesterday's events is that Harry knew Molly was there before he even saw her.  In fact, he met her at the gate - and I had to push her in the last couple steps, as he was right there "with bells on."  Frank and Caroline both have a rather, um, "earthy" sense of humor so I'll spare y'all the ribald jokes, but let's just say Harry was interested and enthusiastic, while Molly had a "What kind of nanny do you think I am?!" look on her face.  Harry finally got the clue, and when we walked back to the house, he was busy wining-and-dining her, probably whispering sweet nothings to her as he licked her ear.  We'll go pick her back up either Sunday or Monday, depending on when hubby feels more up to it.  I won't be able to get Molly up in the truck by myself - she does NOT like traveling.  At least this time, I didn't get pulled over because someone on the highway couldn't tell the difference between a complaining goat and a "wounded deer," like what happened when we took Maggie up there.

Just for the record, Prim is STILL milking after more than twenty months.  That is exceptional!  It's also the main reason Harry is still intact and alive at this point - this breeding has been planned since last year, but Hurricane Irma messed up plans on both ends (they took damage last year).  I've been forced to learn a bit of patience, as things happen in their own time here.

Getting caught up

I am way behind on updates here, and hubby apparently didn't feel he had anything to say while I was gone to my son's wedding, so here we go:

• I sold three kids before I left on my trip: Andre, Timmy, and Tyche.  All three went to pet homes - Andre pretty much sold himself! - and that gave me travel money.
• I sold three more kids this past Saturday: Brownie Junior, Hansel, and Snickers (Cocoa Puff's daughter).  Brownie Jr turned on all the charm we never knew he had and got himself a pet home, and Hansel and Gretel won over a young couple, but they want to breed and get milk, so I mentioned the 3 week old Snickers as a potential bottle baby and they agreed to come out to the property to see her.  It was love at first sight, and when the gal asked if she could hold Snickers, I watched her just MELT when Snickers turned, looked her in the eye, and batted those baby blues.  I have full confidence Snickers will be every bit as spoiled as mama Cocoa Puff.  They said they'll probably change Hansel's name (no big deal) but they love the name Snickers.
• Hubby accomplished his mission while I was gone and kept the milk production up.  Even though he ran two gallons through the cream separator after picking me up in Palatka, I still had to make a cheese the very next day, and have been making quite a few cheeses since returning home (all cheddars right now) as I am bringing in between a full gallon and a gallon and a half each morning.  And this is with Maggie still over at Frank and Caroline's to breed to Harry Houdini (Prim's son, if you recall).  Hubby will have plenty of cheddar cheese stocked up before I switch over making butterkase (has an umlatt over the "a") when it warms up.
• Tractor Supply has had Gold-Laced Wyandottes TWICE now for Chick Days.  Both groups were labeled pullets only, but the first group was actually a straight run as I have at least four cockerels out of eight.  I got with one of the assistant managers yesterday about that, proposed a working-out on some more chicks, and he found that agreeable as I took home another ten chicks.  I forgot to ask if they know which hatchery they're getting their stock from, but either way it's a potential new infusion of genetics.
• The week after Chocolate died, a possum got my best hen Beauty.  Yes, I still mad about that ... we trapped and killed the culprit (I thought we were going for a raccoon), but that doesn't change the fact I did not get to hatch any eggs from her.  This is back on my mind as I get ready to fire up the incubator and two hens in the broody house are setting eggs (to be replaced as soon as the rain stops).

First cheese of 2018

I made the first cheese of 2018 now that Molly has (finally!*) switched to regular milk from colostrum.  It's a feta, and half of it was ordered by Larra the waitress up at Leo's.  Leo ordered yogurt and a bit of milk.  We're still working on the colby and cheddar cheeses from the latter half of last year - good stuff.  I shared a colby with Frank and Caroline, but told them hubby is not willing to allow a cheddar out of the house.  LOL  Frank said I need to make more cheddars this year, because he also loves a good sharp cheddar.

I have renamed Molly's second-born white son.  He is now Herbie the Love Bug.  It fits him, and sounds a lot better than "Whitey" so Herbie he is.  I also just got an email from Frank saying their kid and family want Herbie, and can I hold him until March.  He'll get attention (they have school-age children, just like the family I bought Brownie from) and he'll be mate to Harry (Prim's son) Houdini's daughters, making to offspring grandkids of both Molly and Prim.  Prim is still milking from when she kidded last February - just half a quart usually now, but over 11 months after kidding is impressive for a goat.  I am getting between a quart-and-half and two quarts in the morning from Molly, and that is with leaving her udder half-full for the twins!  She is likely producing over 3/4 gallon of milk in a 24 hour period.  Any wonder that I am trying to cross those two nannies' bloodlines?

It's warming up and clouding up to rain again (forecast to start tomorrow night and run until Tuesday morning) so pictures will need to wait until better weather.  I have the idea to see if hubby can get a video clip of me and the kids.  We'll see if goats cooperate.

More goat pics and hurricane prep

First, yes we know about the coming hurricane and are making preparations.  No, we aren't evacuating.  Yes, we know this one is a lot stronger than Matthew last year.  Hubby is getting ready to go to town to buy a generator and more drinking water today, since the generator we bought used from our neighbor last year doesn't want to stay running and the new spark plug didn't fix the situation.

Now, for the fun part: more goat pics.  I'd like y'all to meet Cocoa Puff, granddaughter of both Prim and Chocolate (offspring of Cocoa and Harry Houdini).  Hubby and I took pics back in April of her bottle feeding, and I just have not posted them, though I've been promising to do so since May.  Feeding a bottle baby, from hubby's point of view, then mine:

bottle feeding Cocoa Puff, back in April

what I see when bottling a kid

the lower the milk level, the more sleepy the eyes get

 For a much more recent pic of her ... well, only one is in focus enough to bother posting.  She usually comes up to me when she notices me, wanting attention.  Bottle babies are VERY affectionate goats.

Cocoa Puff at approximately six months old

Yes, she has horns.  I tried to disbud her, but when that 900F + disbudding iron touches the horn bud, you realize there is no amount of reading, YouTubing, or planning that can substitute for experience.  I've banded her horns, but am wondering if the bands have lost some of their elasticity since I bought them a good six months ago.  Both she and Maggie (formerly called Two, of Molly's triplets) have bells on their collars.  Cocoa Puff was the main reason for buying the bells: she doesn't stay in the fence any better than either of her parents did here (and Frank says Harry has figured out a weak spot in their fence now) and now instead of wriggling through the gaps in the electronetting, Cocoa Puff, noses up the bottom unelectrified strand and shimmies under the fence.  She snuck up on me in the feed shed one morning, and that was when I decided she must be belled.  She stills tries to sneak into the feed shed some mornings when I'm getting the chicken feed ready, but other mornings she remembers that I tell her, "No!" and shove her out the shed.

I may not get any more pictures of the twins - they are definitely in the "bounce-bounce-zip-zip-ZOOM!" stage.  They also enjoy attention, and will come up to the fence and "Meh! Meh!" for petting, patting, and ear rubs despite their mother's warnings.  Blue Eyes also seems to enjoy climbing on us, especially hubby.  She's been up on his shoulders a few evenings while I've been milking.

Prim had cycled the morning Chocolate kidded, but apparently didn't settle as Brownie was doing his billy goat job again this morning, after breeding Chocolate and maybe Tangie last evening.  It looks like I won't be getting new baby goat kids for my birthday in January after all, but Prim, Chocolate, and likely Tangie will all be kidding the same week in early February (unless they don't settle this time).  I do need to take Maggie up to Frank and Caroline's, but I think I'll wait until after the hurricane since they live pretty close to the river.

I have a cheese to make today - I've been making 2-4 cheeses per week with the amount of milk brought in.  My cheddars have been sharper than I like, but hubby loves a seriously sharp cheddar and has been snacking on them when he hasn't been incorporating them in our meals.  Something was off with the Monterey Jacks, but the Colby cheeses ... they are gone and certainly did not last long at all.  I am making more, but they do need about eight weeks of aging in the wine refrigerator.  When hubby unwaxed and cut into the first one, he commented, "I think you're gonna be very pleased with this one."  My response: "Oh yeah, THIS is the real Colby flavor!"  It really is sad that not even the blocks of "colby" at the grocery taste right these days, and it has been a while since I've seen a real longhorn Colby in the deli case.  I do sometimes see a real Swiss cheese - in fact, it even has the name the Swiss call it on the label: Emmental.  The regular ladies at the deli counter know about my dairy goats and that I make cheeses, but sometimes don't recall that I don't make Swiss.  They do love hearing about the goats' antics.  When we turn off the AC later this month, I'll need to make some Butterkases (there's an umlatt over the a, but I don't know how to make it show up on my keyboard), as that is what the in-laws have asked for as a Christmas present.  They tried my one Butterkase last year, and said while it was drier than it should be, the flavor was spot-on.

Okay, break time is over.  I'll get caught up after the summer of silence eventually.

Crazy critter week

Very, very busy week with the critters here, starting on Monday with first baby Silkie chicks that had to come out into the brooder tub because the two black dragons were so deep into nest setting mode they pecked at anything moving too close to their nest ... including the newly hatched chicks.  Then Monday afternoon, hubby called to me to come outside and identify something ... "Baby bunnies!"  Except only one of the three was still alive.  I hadn't put the nest box in because Brooke gave no hint of impending labor or delivery.

We've had some heavy downpours this week (though no flooding, thankfully) and the first really heavy wall-of-water rain flooded the brooder tub.  Hubby just happened to hear baby chicks cheeping, and went out and saved three of the four in the tub, which he moved into his workshop until last night.

The squirmy little bunny kit started off a bit chilled, then I held Brooke on her back, cradled in my arm like a babe, so the kit could nurse.  The kit kept going from teat to teat, and I could hear it sucking vigorously, but it would take 20-30 minutes before I could see the milk belly.  Brooke wasn't making much milk.  We also caught her using the nest box as a litterbox, so I pulled the nest box out and set it in the brooder tub so baby bunny would stay warm and dry.  When I got home Thursday afternoon from Tractor Supply to pick up some feed and kitten bottles, the kit was lethargic, barely responsive, and looked emaciated ... so I called up Lynn, who used to breed and raise a LOT of meat rabbits.  She told me Brooke sounded like the textbook problem "newbie" mother, and that she usually figured her first timers would have small litters and then lose them all through clumsiness or benign neglect.  I found the kit cold, stiff, and dead the next morning.  Lynn says I can breed Brooke back two weeks after the kits were born, and she ought to do better with the next litter.  If she doesn't, Lynn recommends "into the frying pan with her!"

I sold Harry Houdini and Cocoa to my friends Caroline and Frank yesterday, then today I drove to the other side of Gainesville (good grief, there are a lot of goat people on that side of Gainesville!) to pick a new Nigerian Dwarf doe/nanny, who is registered and looks to be a great compliment to Brownie if I feel inclined to sell registered kids.  The option is there.  Here she is, Honey Road FRP Tangie, or just Tangie for short.

Honey Road FRP Tangie, Nigerian Dwarf doe

Ain't she purty?  She's technically oversized, as in too tall and would be disqualified from the show ring, but I didn't buy her to show.  While she hasn't been milked this year, the lady said she did milk her last year and Tangie produced quite decently with tolerably good milk stand manners (especially when grain is involved).  She's two years old, a couple months younger than Chocolate, and kidded twice now - single birth both times - with this year's kid born four weeks ago.  The lady said she wanted to finish this year's kids on the bottle, as that makes them a lot more people-friendly.

So, two kids leave here, and one nanny sans kid arrives ... and all that milk will be MINE!  Mine to make all sorts of cheese with, and still have plenty to keep us in caramel coffee creamer and me in yogurt.  Now all I need is a decent cheese press, so I can make colby, cheddar, brick, swiss, and whatnot.

Oh, almost forgot to mention sending out guinea eggs - 45 to Lynn (who also has my incubator to hatch them with, along with her whites) and then 15 went home with Frank and the kids, but he probably won't let the kids have anything to do with them.  LOL

Just think - this is the short version, and doesn't cover planting.  It's been quite the busy week.