OLDESOUTH FARM

Into a New Year

2012-01-15T13:05:00.000-06:00

Another year has arrived all to quickly. We reflect on 2011 and are Thankful for a great year. We look forward to 2012 as an even better year, hopefully finishing

some Championships on a few goats along the way.

We will be heading into our second year on DHIR. Our first year was very good, this year will be even better. Now we sort of know what we are doing and get the paper work correct most of the time. The General daughters are coming into their second freshening and we will see the milk come on! Oldesouth Blue Alexa 1*M,*D, +DAR has a daughter Oldesouth Blue Amber who is looking fantastic. She freshened with triplets, two does and a buck sired by Oldesouth SunRay, SG Sunra's son. Her udder is fantastic and she is in the milking string. Her first milk test will be next week. Sun Ray is pictured below.

LTE Olde Angel, Alexa's and Babette's dam has finally freshened with two does and a buck. She has had bucks for the last two years. These gals are sired by *B Lost Valley PG Superb *S. I expect them to milk even better then their sisters.

UDiamond will be kidding this month and I have purchased a web cam to keep an eye on her from work and on my phone. She will be moving into the garage at the house this week so she can be monitored via WIFI and the web cam. UDiamond is bred to Zyvox. Sunra will be another doe to be closely monitored, she is due late January into Feburay.

UDiamond's son *B Oldesouth Cognac Diamond *S (photo above) is in the breeding pen with some yearlings. He seems to have his act together and we will expect some kids in May. This fall we will use Cognac on several of my older does. We hope to use Oldesouth Lex Supreme as well, once his dam earns her milking stars, he will be *B, *S. Lex has a great conformation, chest, depth of chest, a powerful buckling and beautiful topline. He also has moonspots! His dam Brush Creek Liz is milking surprizingly well, with perfect teat placement, large, easy to milk teats, she is a super nice doe at 7 years. I even put up with her laying down after I take the milking inflations off. She is getting easier to milk, not dragging me to the stand or playing ring around the milk stand. I guess the animal crackers have convinced her I was not so bad...

UDiamond dry and pregnant pictured to left. She is beautiful.

Brat is being milked again, she is being almost good. If you know Brat, that is saying a lot. She must have had a trama when young, because she still is crazy if strangers come around or something changes. A lot of it is pure fear, she will tremble and cry like I was going to kill her. Then she settles down and comes into the milking parlor, gets on the stand and exits quickly.

The cows have calved. Christy and Beauty both calved heifers.

The photo to the right is Christy's Calf sired by Brutus, the Beef Master Bull we had.

The lovely calf to the left is Black Beauty's heifer calf by Brutus.

Beyonce and her calf Destiny to the right. Beyonce always has something to say about everything and is a first time mom with a beautiful fat calf.

We have a lovely pair of Geese For Sale. We have them priced at $75 for the pair. They have been raised on free range and are out with the sheep on pasture. Email for more information: Oldesouth@charter.net

I took these photos at the farm one evening when fog was rolling in. It made an interesting series of photos. It was a bit spooky as the fog rolled in like waves in the ocean.

One more photo of the fog rolling onto Oldesouth Farm.

Chistmas is HERE!

2011-12-25T08:54:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone! We are slow roasting the Christmas Goose for the family feast. Our home grown, free ranged Goose will be a great treat.

Oldesouth Blue Alexa 1*M, *D,+DAR has just freshened with twins. She is now in the milk string this weekend. LH Sweet Caroline 1*M,*D,+DAR also freshened with twin bucklings. One is blue eyed, very nice kids from these two does sired by *B Lost Valley PG Superb *S. All these bucklings will be *B,*S.. Will get photos and post on our sales website shortly. Link is listed below:
http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/catalog/item/3033880/5754520.htm

Two of our cows, Black Beauty and Christy have calved. Christy calved early the morning of the 23rd and have not had a chance to see if the calf is a bull or a heifer. Beauty had a dark, chocolate heifer. So far the bull I had sold has produced 100% heifers . Wish my bucks were like that. Need a bull calf to put in the freezer as a steer.

The weather has been rainy, but the temperatures mild. We are still a bit under normal rain fall for December at 3.85 inches, which is 0.87 an inch below average. I think we will go over by the end of the month. Hopefully not by much. I prefer dry weather. I still remember the winter of 2009 with a foot of rain in december. It sucked beyond words!

The rye grass is growing well, but has a ways to go to be considered grazing.

We will be at the end of another year all to soon. Again we are Thankful for the good folks we have met and the end of our first year on DHIR. Out of 20 does who started, 16 have made their stars this year, 14 in all three registries ADGA, AGS, and NDGA. One doe was a Nubian only registered with ADGA & Annie Oakley made her star through her butter fat in ADGA.

We have a Christmas Eve baby, just one, LTE Chelone "Brat" 1*M,*D,+DAR has kidded a lovely doe by *B Lost Valley PG Superb *S. Jet black like her mom, with a white star on her head. Perfict topline, what a little darling. May have to name her Oldesouth Christmas Cheer.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Oldesouth Girls are doing Great in the Milk Pail!

2011-12-09T15:56:00.004-06:00

Received the news today of six more does earning their milking stars with AGS, ADGA and NDGA! We have our first triple + buck as well! (General photo below) We may be the only triple + buck in the Nigerian History!! We are researching it and want to know if anyone knows of another triple + buck. NDGA requires the bucks to be 23 inches or less. The General is a bit under 22 1/2 inches, according to his LA 2011 appraisal.

Our star does are Oldesouth Babette 1*M, *D, +DAR (sister to Oldesouth Blue Alexa 1*M,*D,+DAR), Oldesouth Blue Reba 1*M,*D,+DAR, Oldesouth Alabama Summer 1*M,*D, *DAR, Oldesouth Galloway 1*M,*D, +DAR, Rosasharn GX UDiamond 3*M, 4*D, +DAR, and LTE Silene 1*M, *D,*DAR.

+*B Rosasharn MR General B +*S,+DAR has qualified for his + through his daughters on DHIR milk test in all three registries. (photo above) .

SG NC Promisedland SIA SunRa has just been dried off along with Oldesouth Cocoa Delight and Oldesouth Belladonna. They will have their final numbers on lactations early next month and the awards earned.

We are accepting reservations for 2012 Kids. Our Breeding schedule is at: http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/breedingschedule.html

Currently Oldesouth Silver Princess, Brush Creek Liz and Promisedland BHP Scandal are on DHIR until everyone freshens again. Some will freshen the end of December and most will freshen in January. Next year everyone will be dried up in November and we will be taking a break until February.

We have finally scheduled our Veterinarian to come out and pull blood for our annual CAE & John's testing. Our schedule and our Vet's schedule have been so crazy. But he is coming out December 12th for the blood draw and vaccinates my dogs & barn cat. Philip and his brother Evan will help with catching and holding while Dr Doug draws. I am the paper work queen and know who everyone is.

We all at Oldesouth Farm wish each and everyone a wonderful Holiday Season, Merry Christmas, and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-24T09:33:00.000-06:00

We give Thanks this day for all our friends and family. We at Oldesouth Farm especally would like to Thank our Clients and Customers for making this year a wonderful year!!! THANK YOU!

Once again the Turkey's are safe. These are a couple of Royal Palm Turkey's at Oldesouth Farm. To beautiful to eat, they have paid their way by producing young turkeys to sell. I do love my beautiful turkeys...

Had an interesting outing last night when the water well would not work. Yes, got off work at 830 pm and off to the farm to see what was going on. All electrical lines & plugs & breakers fine, removed the well house, opened the electrical box, shine the flash light and see a group of ants hanging out at one of the electrical points. Of course, when playing with electricity, always remember to turn the breakers off. Getting zapped like the ants is not fun.

Then I took a nail emery board to scrape the dead bodies melted to the electrical points. They are attracted to the current (heat) and their remains cause a short, where the two points can no longer connect, stopping the pump from working. Took about two minutes to clean them out. Once the breakers were flipped back on, the tank began to fill and we were in business once more. I guess I need to kill some ants. Will think about the options to not contaminate the well, but keep them out of the electrical components.

Back to the hospital at 0700 this morning, working the Holiday and will enjoy Turkey Dinner baked by the ladies in our cafeteria.

Thanksgiving is almost here...

2011-11-22T19:13:00.002-06:00

As we ready for the beginning of the Holiday Season, we give Thanks for our family and friends. November is flying by and Christmas will be here shortly. We especially Thank our clients and customers who purchased Livestock and Dairy Products from us. We also Thank the Lord for our good fortune and a great year. Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks and we are grateful.

We have dried off several does and are milking Scandal, Liz and Oldesouth Silver Princess has come home to be milked. She has two lovely daughters sired by Superb. SunRa is still milking, and insists on coming in to be milked, but will be dried off shortly. NC Promisedland SIA SunRa has just been awarded her SG (Superior Genetics) award!! She is an ELITE sweet girl now! SG is a combination of conformation and production, calculating out to be in the top 15% of the entire Nigerian Breed! It takes a pretty girl who can milk to receive this award!!! My sweet SunRa is pictured below doing what she does best, milk...

UDiamond, Oldesouth Belladonna, Oldesouth Babette, Oldesouth Cocoa Delight, Oldesouth Summer, Oldesouth Blue Reba have all been dried off and have earned their milk stars with CLASS!

UDiamond is very pregnant, probably with quads and was drying up for the show in Dothan. I think everyone has earned their star except for Little Tot's Estate Silene. Silene is an older doe, LAed 90, but has not been milked, so it is a big if as to if she will make her milking star. 2012 will be her make or break year. I hope to freshen her daughter mid 2012, sired by Oldesouth Shell Foop.

The girls will start freshening again in December, hopefully after Christmas to give me a break. Next year no one will be freshening until the end of February. UDiamond and Sunra are due to kid in January 2012. I do hope UDiamond has a couple of does. She had bucks this past year. The final numbers will come next week, but I believe she hit the 1000 pound mark as a first freshener. Will post the final numbers when we get the last milk test results. UDiamond is pictured below.

Our weather has been a bit up and down, with temps in the 70s and humid with rain, and now a cold front is passing through. We received some rain which I hope will make the planted winter grazing take off, reducing the need for so much Hay.

Oldesouth Blue Alexa is due to kid the middle to end of December. Her kids are sired by Superb. I am really excited about this and think Alexa will be my first home grown SG (Superior Genetics) doe. She milked over 700 pound of milk and LAed at 85. All this as a second freshener. I can not wait to see what she can do as a third freshener. This little doe is under 19 inches tall as well. She is a true Nigerian Dwarf!!

Most of the Icelandic sheep have gone to their new homes. I really miss old Havvah and that goofy Boing who would jump into the feed bucket and hook her horn in your pocket or bucket. I have their lambs and will keep a few Icelandics for myself. I do love their fleece and especially their lamb meat. I have three young rams going to the processor Nov 30th. Lamb is so healthy, sweet and good for you, one would be crazy not to keep a few. I held back Havvah's son by Snow Man as herd sire once Snow Man went to his new home. The Trump is still here, but went through some tough times. The Trump had to have his horns cut, had horrific fly strike and almost died. I scrapped maggots FOREVER off him and shot him with every antibiotic I had to save his life. Trump, not being all that friendly, would not get close to you to check him out. It was not until he was at deaths door did he let you know, all was not well.

I noticed him not out with the girls, his ewes. Had to run him down with the Kawasaki Mule to get a hold of him and see if he was OK. HE WAS NOT... and collapsed, thinking I had killed the stubborn SOB, had Philip, his brother Evan and myself gather him up and then we saw the full extent of his problem... OMG! Maggots like I have never seen in my life, all over his face, head, down into his horn beds, around his neck, down to his shoulders. I did not have to temp him to know he was in BIG TROUBLE! Trump was to the point of delirium. I got the reciprocating saw, lopped off the horns and started digging out maggots!!! Shot him up with Biomycin and Exenel to start, then switched to Biomycin and Extended Pen G. I sheared his head, down to his shoulders. It has been so cold here I darned not shear him completely in fear of loosing him to pneumonia. He looks goofy with his head and shoulders shorn, with the full puff of fleece over the rest of him. Trump has never been friendly, but knew he needed help and did not fight our doctoring and his recovery. I am happy to say, I think he will be OK and live to see another breeding season at least... I do love the beautiful Morrit lambs he produces...

This is the last photo of The Trump with his horns in August 2011, photo below.

Alabama Fall Continues...

2011-11-09T14:03:00.000-06:00

The temps have gone from cold to more pleasant. We have just returned from a Monday Goat Show at the National Peanut Festival in Dothan, Alabama. We came home with Grand Champion SR Doe in Milk and Grand Champion JR Doe! We were very pleased to also win best Nigerian Dam and Daughter, Sunra and Scandal, as well as Best Dairy Herd.

Brush Creek Liz is an older doe I had picked up in a group acquired in March. We are really impressed with her udder when she freshened the beginning of October and gave us a drop dead moon spotted little buckling. The buck will be retained, sired by *B Lost Valley PG Superb *S.

Liz is pictured to the left with Nick showing her to Grand Champion Sr Doe and Best of Breed in the Nigerians.

Liz from the side pictured to the right. She is a very dairy doe with a great topline, udder and will be going on DHIR mid November.

Our JR doe is Farm Oldesouth Sweet Donna, daughter of Oldesouth Belladonna, sired by *B Rosasharn MR General B *S. Donna is a sweet little Diva, photo below. She won Grand Champion JR Doe and has her first leg toward her championship. The judge was Daniel Young from Georgia.

It was a long day and we enjoyed fresh, boiled peanuts, which are a favorite of ours while watching the show.

We are Thankful for the wins and on the way home the truck broke down on 231. It suddenly started making a loud noise like a hole was in the muffler, then power was lost. We made it to a BP gas station, where I called Mr Paul and he drove from Selma with his truck, two hours away to pick up the trailer loaded with 13 goats. We arrived home safely at 130 Tuesday morning. The truck was towed to Selma and the Mechanic is working on it as I write this passage. It has been to 3 different shops, four times. Hopefully the problem will finally be diagnosed and fixed.

We have an intern volunteer helping us for 3 weeks, Joshua Spearing. He is from the WOOF program, learning about goats, sheep and goat showing. He helped prepare the goats and with the showing. He has learned a lot and we will have photos of him shortly. He also is quite the Chief and we are enjoying his cooking with lamb, beef and deer meat.

CRISP OCTOBER

2011-10-31T11:41:00.000-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

It has been unusually cold the last week or so of October. We have had several frosts already and nights in the 30s. We usually have these temps the end of November. I have waited to shear the Icelandics, hoping the night temperatures would get back into the 50s. I do not want to loose any sheep to pneumonia. If the temps remain, we may have missed the window to shear until spring.

The goats are mostly bred back and my best milkers are drying up before a final show. Next year we will breed a month to 6 weeks later to avoid this from happening. We have 4 lambs to be processed and will be making arrangements for them shortly.

Lots to do at the farm, preparing for winter and we are going to need another trailer of hay to make sure we have enough until next spring. It is the time of the year to pick up hay string and clean up downed branches in the orchard. We plan on harvesting some pecans as well. The trees are very old with small pecans. Holley's True Value will shell them for us. I have offered pecans to folks who can come and pick them up (for FREE). Funny how folks do not want to pick them, and then complain about the high prices. Folks are just to Lazy to bend over and pick them up off the ground. Some folks just do not appreciate what nature has to offer....

Love October!

2011-10-21T21:46:00.002-05:00

October is my favorite month, cool weather, beautiful sunny days and Fall Colors. Of course in the south, full Autumn color does not arrive until mid November. Oldesouth Blue AnnaLynn and Oldesouth FLA Amber Blue are enjoying the dry doe pen after earning their milking stars.

What have we been doing this month... Fall Kidding is over and we have had a buck fall. We did have a beautiful MOON SPOTTED buckling from Brush Creek Liz. Liz, for 7 years of age has a really nice udder. Brush Creek Charlie's Angel also had a really nice doe for a 9 year old. All these kids are sired by Superb.

The handsome young man to the right is Philip. He helps us out with feeding and caring for the livestock. He is a big help and enjoys working with the animals.

We traveled to Jackson, Mississippi for two days of goat showing and did fairly well. UDiamond won two Reserve Championships and Best Udder. Sunra won both her classes as well. Did not have a lot of time to take photos this time.

We are gearing up for the Peanut Festival which is on a Monday. This will be our last show of the year and most of my does will be dried off. Really need a break, I am tired of milking.... UDiamond is up to 950 pounds of milk as a first freshener. Oldesouth Cocoa Delight has 620 pounds as a yearling first freshener. Belladonna is up to 710 pounds as a 19 inch second freshener. Poor old Little Tot's Estate Silene is drying up and will not make her star this year. Maybe next time.

We are Dispersing our herd of Icelandic Sheep to focus more on the Nigerians. We can go to more spring and fall shows if we do not have to spend the time shearing. Check out our sheep sales page for more information: http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/sheepsales.html .

The Trump pictured to the left is for sale too. He is a beautiful ram and currently with the ewes until sold.

We will have several Nigerian Wethers For Sale over the Holiday Season. Since we wether all but the best bucklings, we will have several to offer. An example is the little fellow above. He is $75.

We also processed a couple of geese and David Powe came over to help out. We plucked and plucked and plucked till our fingers were raw. We processed two and left the other two for another time. Boy, there is goose down covering the entire farm.

Brush Creek Liz, one of the older Does kidded a really nice buckling with moon spots. Her udder was very impressive for 7 years. Below are some photos, not filled up of her udder.

Enough for now...

September Bliss...!!!

2011-09-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

Has it been a great September or what!!! The weather has cooled down and humidity has dropped! A bit of Fall color is starting to appear! Fall is my favorite time of Year!

We are all Very Happy!! The bucks are in rut and most of the girls are bred back for January kidding. We prefer our does to kid early, they do better in the cooler weather and the does milk like crazy when it is cold. We offer heated water trough so freezing is not an issue. Butter Fat is high in the cooler weather too.

Pinky and Angel are pictured to the left above.

The rams are starting to notice the cooler weather. The photo to the right is Victor, a mini cheviot and a young Icelandic Ram, Bandit.

Our last milk test had a herd average of 8% milk fat! That included the Nubian! We are trying to dry off Ariel, the Nubian, which is not easy. I am going to synchronize her with medications and AI her according to appointment. Heat checks with my schedule are next to impossible. I am going to attempt to breed Imani GAB Pink Ariel 2*M to SGCH Golthwaite Bonny's Black Tie *B. I will save the fancy semen for next year, once I have my Technique down.

Oldesouth Blue AnnaLynn 1*M has earned her ADGA star and is pending on her *D and NDGA stars. (left) Oldesouth FLA Amber Blue 1*M has also earned her milking stars, pending *D and DAR+. That makes 6 stared does to date. We will take UDiamond all the way to 305 to see if she can hit the 1000 pounds of milk mark.

AnnaLynn just made her star... she got out of the Milking Diva area and had partied with Superb, because I was not sure she was going to make her milk mark before kidding. She is very pregnant! She dried up in a week and is starting to bag up again! She will have some awesome blue eyed kids!

We will be going to some fall shows in October and November and will keep you updated on our adventures.

Check out our Fall Kidding Schedule at http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/ or call us at 334-327-9252.

The sheep will be going into their breeding groups shortly for next springs lambs. Lambs will be going into the finishing pen after shearing for a month of feed for spectacular tasting lamb. We have a couple of lambs available, call us if you would like to reserve one, they go really fast.

Our sheep herd lounging near the barn.

This lovely heifer is Beyonce. She is half Angus and half shorthorn. She will be calving shortly for the first time. She is bagging up, so it should not be to much longer...

Dog Days of August are Almost OVER!

2011-08-31T17:25:00.000-05:00

August has been HOT! But then we had several days with low humidity and we so enjoyed the pleasant days. But now back to the usual hot and muggy.
We lost our hay to the rain and humidity. It molded in the field and we left it there, not worth paying help to bale up rotten hay. We need to rethink the hay situation and have decided to sell the baler and purchase hay, since we have ended up purchasing hay the two years we have had the baler anyway.

We have our first load of hay, a semi trailer. Some 450 square bales of Coastal Hay. This is hay for the milkers and my goats. We will get some large bales for the cattle and sheep. Goats waste large bales because they jump on them, urinate and defecate all over it and then will not eat it. Sheep do not do this, which is good.

Trailer full of hay.

Hay stacked in the barn.

We have sold our Bull Brutus, a Beef Master to buy hay. We have 3 young heifers and 3 bred cows by him. We do not need to feed him through the winter and now all the cows and young heifers are pastured together to save on labor with the automatic watering system in the pasture. We will purchase another bull next year. I personally want a pure Angus Bull.

Brutus pictured to the right.

We look forward to fall coming and the weather cooling down. We have several does who will be kidding this fall and several more have come into season. Fall is a noisy time for goats, lots of hooting and hollering, snorting and grunting. The bucks are pretty stinky already. The urine perfume can make your eyes water if one gets to close to them. The girls think the boys are the rage in their odoriferous splendor...

Oldesouth Shell Foop, one of the Nigerian Bucks sired by The General. He is white, but the rut of fall has him showing the urine stains of a buck. He is mighty stinky.

Oldesouth Shell Foop in his glory of buck nasty mess. The yellow staining is urine... Yeah, the bucks spray urine all over their face and front. He even has urine stains on his back.

We have two more does who will be dried up next month and one the end of August. They have finished their 305 day lactation and have earned their milking stars. Ariel my Nubian looks like she will hit the 2000 pound mark, which is neat. That is 250 gallons of milk! Ariel is 6 years old and I hope to AI her with semen from SGCH +*B Lakeshore Farms Star Status LA 91 EEE. Photo below:

I bought his semen a couple of winters ago and now he is an elite sire and deceased! He was the 2010 ADGA National Premier Nubain Sire! It would be so cool to get a doe by this buck. We shall see how our AI skills play out... I have two other sires in the tank for Ariel down the road. I am not into Nubians, but have had Ariel for many years and she has fed many a bottle baby goat and lamb, not to mention our family. She is so cute getting on the milk stand, having to duck her head to get into the short, Nigerian stanchion. She is a family member like one of our dogs. She LAed 83, needing a fore udder and more rear udder. She is mostly teats, but has a nice body, topline, and great feet.

My Quarter Horse Gelding Joe, he is 5 years old. A beautiful horse, 16 hands and has not missed any meals.

We are offering my Quarter Horse Joe For Sale. He is pure Quarter Horse, but not registered. He is from a long line of Cattle Cutting Horses. He is broke, 5 years old, 16 hands and about 1200 pounds. He is a big boy. Loads easy, stands quietly for the blacksmith to trim hooves and easy going. He will trail ride and do what ever you ask of him. $1500.

We also had a wind storm the middle of August which brought down a tree in the Pecan Orchard. The Orchard is the ram pen and we counted and checked the rams to make sure they were all OK. Thankfully no one was hurt or under the tree. We are thankful the tree did not fall on the fence either. Usually any branch or tree that falls, seems to end up on the fence.

Pecan tree uprooted.

Rams are OK and accounted for.

Trump is OK too. He is pictured above.

September is upon us and we have just received our License to sell raw Goat Milk and Chevre Goat Cheese for animal usage. We are milking 10 does now with several to be dried up and several more freshening for fall. We will have Goat Milk and Cheese for the fall and winter. We will sell off the farm by appointment for pick up. Our number is: 334-327-9252. We will do some delivery, depending on the quantity purchased locally. We appreciate folks keeping their appointments out of courtesy to us and our busy schedule. No shows will be removed from our customer list.

We will also take reservations for Lambs. We will have several Icelandic and Shetland lambs for slaughter this fall. The sheep did well over the summer in spite of the heat.

Steam Bath Anyone?

2011-08-03T20:22:00.000-05:00

Humidity is 100%, temperature 99, heat index off the chart! Welcome to Alabama! The entire country is hot, with record breaking temps everywhere. So I guess we can not complain because we get this every year. It has rained almost daily, the last month and it is getting annoying.

We are trying to harvest hay and need 3 dry days to cut, dry and get it baled. We have our window and cut a couple of fields yesterday and hopefully will bale it Thursday evening. Hopefully Mr Paul will adjust the baler will make nice 50 pound bales and not 100 pound like last year!

We have dried off three of our does on DHIR who have earned their milking stars in ADGA, AGS, and NDGA. The three does are, Oldesouth Blue Alexa, LTE Chelone (our favorite Brat), and Lil Hill Farm Sweet Caroline. They are in the Honey Moon pen with *B Lost Valley PG Superb *S for next years kid crop and milking.

Oldesouth Blue Alexa *D, (*M, DAR+ pending)

Brat was promised she would not be milked again after getting her star. So it will be up to her if she wants to come into the DIVA pen and be milked next year. The milkers are fed twice a day, special, yummy feed and treated like the DIVA's they are. Most of the girls hate leaving to go into the dry girl's pen, which is also the DIET and Drying off pen. The extra weight put on to get the higher production, quickly comes off to get the girls ready for the breeding season. There is lots of Protest from the FAT GIRL pen.

Oldesouth Farm was show cased on a TV show. Time Well Spent is a TV show on AgTV, put on by the Alabama Coop. Tim Allen came out to film our goats and sheep. It was fun and hopefully we will talk Tim into coming back for fall Sheep Shearing of the Icelandics. The link to watch the program is: http://vimeo.com/26274829 .

We are taking reservations for 2012 kids, see our Breeding Schedule at: http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/breedingschedule.html

We will also have some fall kiddings. We have had several does exposed to *B Lost Valley PG Superb *S. Several of these does are older Brush Creek Does. I will have their info shortly. Because they were pasture bred, it is difficult to predict kidding dates. I usually wait for kids to hit the ground before listing. I will get a preliminary sheet with does and their pedigrees for everyone's consideration. I would like to put these does on DHIR but some are 7 to 9 years old. If a doe is not milked to their potential when young, sometimes they do not reach their potential. Thier bodied produce what is needed, they kick off the kids and go on with drying off. We will see how they freshen.

The photo to the right is Sage.

Brush Creek Charlies Angel is a lovely older doe. Her topline and build is ideal, photo below.

Will be drying off two more does next after the next milk test, Oldesouth Blue Annalynn and Oldesouth FLA Amber Blue. Both have made their stars, but I wanted them to milk a few more pounds of milk for good measure. That will be 5 does stared so far. My one Nubian Ariel is close to 2000 pounds of milk. I want to take her to the full 305 days to see if we can get there.

Got to go...

Summer is here to stay!

2011-07-14T18:05:00.000-05:00

Hot, you bet! With 105 & 115 heat index almost daily, it really has to get Hot to notice.

It trys to rain almost daily, but mostly just a lot of Huffing and Puffing kind of Thunder. I guess it is heat Thunder. Here and there we get some rain.

The Crape Myrtles are exploding with flowers so heavy they can just hold them up. They are SO beautiful and my favorite tree. You can totally neglect them and cut

them down to nothing and they come back like a weed. No pampering or fertilizer and look at them!

This one is growing on the side of my home. It is spectacular.

Deep Red Crape Myrtles.

The Crape Myrtle's to the right are pink and white.

My sister and her grown kids came to visit over the Fourth of July Holiday, along with my Son Tim. We had a great time. Tim and Mike both had birthdays so we had to have a birthday bash for them as well. Of course everyone wanted to come to the farm and Mike learned to milk a goat. We used my Nubian Ariel as the test subject below.

The Young Folks enjoyed feeding the not so little bottle baby lambs. Kayla, Mike and Tim are hard at work feeding the greedy little darlings.

My son Tim is riding Big Man, one of the old horses with my niece Jennifer helping out. They are pictured to the left.

The Photo to the right is my son Tim riding Big Man.

Another photo of the group feeding the starving little bottle babies. Micky is looking to see if there is any left for him...

My niece Jennifer has the Love for horses she inherited from me. It was to bad Joe would not let them catch him. He is a beautiful horse and rides very well. I would have got him if they had asked.

So Far the lambs are doing well in the heat and I have to picture a few of my favorites.

Valarie spotted Icelandic daughter.

Cover Girl again.

Havvah's Ram lamb, an Icelandic below.

Of course we will end with THE GRIZZLY. He is my Jack Russel Terror who is the man of the farm and protector of all...

Hot Hot Hot!!!

2011-06-07T18:12:00.001-05:00

It has been sooo HOT! 105, 100, 108 degrees every day for a couple of weeks. It is not even summer yet. What is the summer going to be like!

We just got back from a show in Georgia over the weekend and we did well. Arlene came along to help and between the two of us we showed 9 does. We decided to leave the stinkers (bucks) home and show more juniors. In spite of the heat we enjoyed ourselves.

We tried to get a photo shoot of Diamond and she was getting a bit tired of the whole thing. The photo to the left you can see the, "Come On, enough now..."

Diamond won her 2 to 3 year old class of does in milk and it was a very large class. Then she went in for the Grand Champion and Reserve Champion doe and she won Grand Champion! Then she went back into the ring one more time against a nice Champion Doe and won Best of Breed. Diamond came home with both AGS and ADGA Legs towards her championship. She has 2 more legs before she is an offical champion.

Our little Oldesouth Alabama Summer is a first freshener. She placed first in her class of yearling milkers. It was a large, very competititve class and we were thrilled with the win. She went back into the ring for the Grand, but did not make the cut. We were happy with her first place finish.

Our other goats placed in the upper part of the classes, but it is all a blur as to who did what. First place is what we remember the most.

Still tired from all the showing this weekend, I am going to make this one short and sweet.

Spring is over and summer takes the stage...

2011-05-24T13:23:00.002-05:00

We have enjoyed the cooler weather and the sheep loved it. But now we are back to reality with the 90 plus summer heat & humidity which will only get hotter over the summer. I am soooo thankful for the completion of our milking parlor and having a haven to cool off. We have no trouble getting the girls to come in to be milked. They enjoy the brief coolness as well.

SunRa (above) enjoying the cool milking parlor, says Hi!

We did Linear Appraisals this weekend on our goat herd, Everyone was done who was ADGA registered and in milk. We did have to scratch Annie Oakley, Butter, and a couple of others who were dry.

This was our first Appraisal, but I studied the information and felt ready and informed on how it worked. Our Appraiser was excellent. There is a rule as to not mention who the Appraiser is so we will honor that and not go there. I was very impressed in the knowledge and the " Hey, look at this, can you see what I am talking about", educational session. Worth every penny and the time to check every tattoo and make sure everyone matched their papers and the tattoos were readable (we did this a week ahead of time, which took the entire day). You do not want to be embarrassed, if your tattoo does not match the paper work or if the Appraiser can not read the faded tattoo on 7 year old Ariel.

The Appraiser wanted the does in milk to give them a fair and honest evaluation, which I appreciated. Anyone dry was excluded. We did a bunch of young stock as well to see how the appraisal fit with my own evaluation of the young stock. We were very close to my surprise. I hang on to young stock and grow them out because I am not sure who will be the next it girl or boy. Now I feel more confident in my evaluations. Maybe I am not so dumb after all... We had 24 adult goats and 16 young stock appraised. I wanted to know where we were and where we need to go with the young stock & our herd. A total of 40 goats were appraised.

Silene was a sleeper doe who I liked and had a daughter out of years ago. The daughter was very dairy and freshened with an udder to die for. But she was not friendly and got sick one day. I had to work out of town that day as a relief Pharmacist and had a hard time catching her. Got her into a stall and gave her some Pepto and went to work. Fourteen hours later when I got home, she was dead. So I called the breeder and asked her to rebred Silene to the same buck for me and I would buy all her daughters. Well, she had bucks and more bucks. Finally she said, why don't you just buy her and breed her to one of your bucks. So I did. She went a few years without being bred and I bred her to Oldesouth Shell Foop, A LTE Olde Butter son, sired by The General. She freshened with a high, tight udder for being 6 years old, twins, a buck and a doe. The Buck has blue eyes like his mom and the doe brown. I liked Silene, but did not realize she was an Excellent doe, scoring 90 on her linear appraisal.

Blue eyed Silene is pictured to the left.

Silene's rear udder.

Silene's side udder.

Busy as ever, we have shorn sheep the first weekend of May. Below are photo's of how to shear on a stand. I hope this helps others to shear on the stand. The stand is the way to go unless you are a macho person who has the back and athletic ump to shear the old way. When a stand it used, no matter if the ewe is pregnant or not, it is gentle for you and the sheep. Do not have to worry about setting a pregnant ewe on her butt, squashing her triplets in the womb. No worries, no trauma.

The photo to the right is myself beginning to shear a Shetland ewe. We start by shearing straight up the back, from the tail.

I get a lot of grief over my farmer jeans. But I love all the pockets for putting stuff in and my phone fits in the front chest pocket. Can also tuck bottles in the front and side. Love them...

Then you shear from back to front on each side. I am using the Oster Judge Shears. Oster does not make Clippers like they used to. These died by the end of the day, yeah, $300 clippers are junk! I do not recommend them. The Premier One 4000 clippers are lighter and easier to use and finished the day.

When you are shearing for no second cuts, for your hand spinning clients, make one pass and do not go back over the ewe. This way you will not have short pieces of wool, we call second cuts. We hate second cuts, they mess up the roving for hand spinners. Once the wool is off, then go back and clean up uneven areas to make the sheep nice and smooth.

Justin is learning to shear and has just gone down the back for the first pass on a yearling Icelandic ewe. He is using the Premier One 4000 Clippers.

Justin is now shearing the wool off from tail to head. This young Icelandic has a felted fleece and it is coming off easily like a rug. Spring fleece in the Icelandic is not prime. The fall fleece in the Icelandic Sheep is the Prime wool.

Justin is cleaning up the ewe and then we will pull her head out of the neck chain to clean up around her head for a nice smooth clip.

Moms are much cooler now. The photo to the right is a Mini Cheviot clipped with her lamb sneaking a snack. The little spotted ewe in the fore ground is an Shetland/Icelandic mix. She was nipping on this Cheviot as well when Mom was not paying attention...

These two lambs below are a couple of my bottle babies. I do love my bottle babies. The Horned, Badger Faced Icelandic is on the left. Her name is Angelina. She is one of my favorite colors. Her mother Angie is older and I pulled one of the lambs to hand raise. Her sister is a lovely gray.

My little Monkey Faced girl is a polled gray Shetland lamb. Her name is Baby Girl. She is a sweet and spoiled little darling. It is difficult to take photos of bottle babies because they are up your behind and do not get far enough away to get a good shot of. Everywhere one goes, the gang of baby lambs follows. We have 4 this year and they graze out with the group, but come a running to get their bottle when we are sighted.

Had to include a shot of Justin enjoying my Quarter Horse Joe. Joe is a fat lazy boy, my kind of horse. He is from a long line of cutting horses. Justin hopes to train Joe to cut cattle.

Last, but not least is Mommy Turkey. She is a Royal Palm turkey and she has hatched out 10 baby turkeys. What a good Mom! She has done very well with out our intervention. So far out of the 10, 6 are now 3 weeks old and going strong. She puts them up in the barn at night, tucking them to bed under her wings. She takes them out in the morning and you can see them grazing in the field. Turkey's are not so dumb after all.

Enough for now, I hope you enjoyed the visit...

April is already past...

2011-05-02T14:08:00.001-05:00

We have been very busy getting the Milking Parlor set up and finally going. It took a bit of time to train the girls to the new space as well. They have to step up three times to get onto the milking stand. Ariel, my one large goat (Nubian) had the roughest time. She is long and has to step up just right with her head down to get into the stanchion. The milk stand has a stanchion for small goats and Ariel has adapted to it. I do have a taller stanchion, but it is to tall for my yearling nigerians to reach the feed bucket. Ariel then has to come off the stand, swing around to come down the step ups. She has been doing great, but was a bit scared at first. She is up pretty high for me to milk standing up. It took some apple flavored treats to convince her she was not going to be eaten.

Clean room is pictured left.

Milking area with machine. The goats enter from the right and step up 3 levels to the stand. They are then the perfect height to clean and milk while standing in comfort.

UDiamond is pictured to the left showing the Milking Parlor in action.

The small goats got into the routine quickly because they like to climb on things anyway. So the higher the better for the little Diva's. Everyone comes into the Parlor one at a time except, of course Brat. Yeah, we are still putting up with her. She is last and after you go out to get her, she runs into the parlor and jumps up where she is suppose to go. Always has to be a Drama Queen & act stupid.

So far we have 3 goats who have qualified for stars with several others very close. Of course nothing is official until the lactation ends and the results are submitted and approved by the Goat Associations. Even Ariel is close and milking quite well. Her last test was 8.1 pounds. She is a Nubian now, not a Nigerian. My top Nigerian is UDiamond who milked 4.1 pounds on her last test as a first freshener. Alexa's sister Babette, who I need to get a good photo of, milked 4 pounds on her first test, raising triplet sons sired by Fairlea Jean Louis *S.

The photo to the right is Oldesouth Babette. She is not clipped, but her udder can be seen fairly well. She has a lovely fore udder too. She is pictured at the Goat & Sheep Expo in March where she was on display with her triplet sons.

We attended a couple of Goat Shows. One in South Carolina at Teena's Farm and another at Carrolton, Ga. We were so busy showing, I did not get but a few decent pictures. Arlene and I showed. Our young Jr Buck, Lost Valley PG Superb *S won Grand Champion Jr buck in one show and Reserve Champion Jr Buck in the other show. Sunra took 2 first places and we had several 2nd, 3rds, etc with some stiff competition. UDiamond took 3rd and 2nds in both shows, with her class being one of the largest. Each show we attend, we get better at presenting our goats and move up the line.

I guess I was having an off day and my photo's were blurry and had to dump most of them. Oldesouth Sweet Mocha is pictured in her Jr Doe class. Look at her beautiful topline and dairy character. The photo above shows how wide she is in the rear as well.

We are preparing for sheep shearing this up coming weekend. We hope to get most of them done. We shear on a stand and I do it. I tried hiring a pro, or so he called himself. He did not do an acceptable job and cut off a teat and cut a penis on one of my rams. Of course he tried to blame his incompetence on my sheep. Sorry my sheep have teats and male genitals that were in your way... NOT! Why can I shear the entire herd and everyone was still in tact when it was over? It does not take that much time to be careful and do a good job. The Icelandic's especally must be smoothly shorn with no chunks left to felt and ruin the new fleece coming up underneath. The photo below is what a group of yearling Cheviots looked like after that IDIOT was done with them. Not only were they cut up, but look at the chunks of wool left... (a picture is worth a thousand words...)

We were lucky to be missed by the Tornado's that hit Tuskaloosa, Alabama. We are thankful and are praying for the folks who have lost loved ones and property. It was terrifying to watch the Tornado live on the news as it was hitting Tuskaloosa with the weather woman frantic for people to take cover. We were at the hospital monitoring the news while working to make sure our patients were safe if we needed to move folks to interior areas.

Spring Continues and we love it!

2011-04-04T16:04:00.003-05:00

Oh, My, there is nothing better then spring and the new life it brings forth. The south is exploding with flowers blooming and pollen to the max. I thank the lord pollen does not bother me personally, but many of my friends are suffering. I recommend goat milk and they scoff... Oh well to each their own...

My mom and I planted this white Wisteria 12 years ago in front of a Cedar tree in front of my home. It has grown and taken over the tree. Each spring we get this magnificent flush of white that fills the air with heavenly scent. It is spectacular. White Wisteria is rare and we love it.

I forget what kind of vine this is, but the little yellow flowers it has are so cute and colorful. My mom planted this as well. Once it is done blooming, we cut it back and it grows like crazy all summer long.

This is an up close photo of the White Wisteria. We planted it at the base of the tree and it wrapped itself around the tree and has huge 6 inch vines which have grown into the tree trunk. If anyone would like a part of this to root and grow your own, just let us know.

We have been able to acquire some of the rare Brush Creek Nigerian Dwarf foundation stock. We like the breeding and pedigrees. The does are older and have not been bred for a few years. We have them in isolation and drew blood work on them last week. I called Washington State Lab and all the girls are clean. The tests were all negative for CAE, CL, and Johnes. Three Brush Creek Does are very rare. We were able to get 7 does. Not all Brush Creek, but nice does with nice pedigrees. We want to worm the girls once more before putting them with the rest of our herd. We plan on breeding some for fall and the rest for next Spring.

The photo to the right is part of the group in isolation. The White doe is Brush Creek's Liz, a Caesar's Villa CBS Mae West daughter. The lovely Charmoisee doe in the front is Sugar Valley Farm Harmony, a polled doe. Brush Creek Olive is hiding in the middle, She is sired by CH Buttin' Heads Red Branch Legend *S, out of BC Charlie's Angel. The lovely blue eyed doe in the back is LTE Perovskia (Sage).

This is the Grand Dam, Brush Creek Charlie's Angel. She is sired by Buttin' Heads Cardiologist, out of BS Charlie. A perfect top line this old gal has and nice width. She is black with tan on her underbelly, which is unusual.

The photo to the right is LTE Perovskia (Sage) She is a lovely blue eyed doe sired by Promisedland CP Zippo *S, out of Echo Point Lady Bug. I saw her at a show as a yearling milker and she has matured very well. Her daughter is to her right by Power stroke.

I have had folks ask for me to post a photo of Victor, our Mini Cheviot ram from Smokey Valley in Washington State.

He is a little guy and threw some awesome lambs, built like teddy bears. We will get a new photo when we have him sheared. We will start shearing toward the end of April, beginning of May. We like to wait so the sheep are nice and short for the hottest months, June, July and August.

We have more beautiful lambs. Victor is tiny, barely 19 inches tall and he bred everyone. He is the man. He is built like a tank, very compact and his disposition is perfect. No trouble out of this boy and I keep him with the ewes. He is so small I am afraid to put him with the Icelandic rams for fear he will be injured. At about 35 pounds, it would not take much to kill the little guy... He is safe with the ewes and they like him... Victor's lambs look like mini tanks. They are fantastic!!

More lambs have arrived.

Angie is an older Icelandic Ewe. She had twin ewes, one gray and one Badger Faced. We will be retaining the Badger Face ewe and the Gray ewe lamb is for sale. Angie is so proud of her lambs.

Old Luthen is another elderly Icelandic ewe from Icelandic AI, imported semen. She did not lamb last year, but had twins this year. She had my favorite color, Black Mouflon ewe lamb! She also had a white ram lamb. You can see how pleased she is with her baby girl! These old ewes are so great and they love their babies.

Here is an Oops. Does this Cheviot lamb look a bit different? Yeah, he is a Sheliot, Shetland and Cheviot mix. His mom is a yearling Cheviot. The young Shetland ram (Amos) we left with the ewes must have talked this yearling into a bit of romance. The fleece is very soft and his build is finer then the other teddy bear Cheviot's. It was very obvious who sired this little man.

To the right is Beauty 401. She is a two year old Icelandic ewe and her new lamb by Snow Man is behind her. She is a beautiful ewe with a great horn set.

Luthen, an Icelandic ewe, wanted to make sure everyone knew she had twins and her baby boy was pictured on the blog. The little white ram is Luthen's pride and joy. Last year when she did not lamb, she was depressed and sullen for a couple of months. These old ewes live to care for their lambs.

What a regal Icelandic ewe! This is Valarie, who carries Leader genetics. She is a heavy milker, with large, easy to milk teats. She is with her two ewe lambs which will be retained.

Yes, we have more action going on. No one is getting bored around our farm. We have been searching for some carpenters to convert a large storage shed into a milking parlor and clean area. It will have hot and cold running water and AC/heat. I have struggled for several years, sweating to death and being eaten alive by flys while trying to milk. Last year I quit in June because I could not stay hydrated long enough to milk. Sweat poured off me and it was so miserable, I said the heck with it. We milked from October to June and did not start back until November.

Anyway we have been planning this for some time and all my soap making junk will be moved out of my kitchen to the farm. This will unclutter my kitchen which is very small to begin with.

The photo to the left is where the goats will enter and exit. We put a roof over the waiting area because we know how the Diva's do not like to get wet when it rains. I will put a grate at the entrance to clean dirty hooves before entering the milking area. The door closest is the exit door. We will put up pens and gates to make it so the pigs can not sneak around to come back through for more feed and cause trouble.

The clean area has a stainless steel 3 sink area we found locally at a reasonable price. We will have hot and cold water, shelving for the soap to cure on and a large frig for milk and a small frig for medications. We will be storing all our meds and wormers in this climate controlled area as well.

We won't have to drag our milking equipment back and forth from the house to the farm. Of course we are not Grade A or anything, just organized and clean with NO ?%%@ Flies!!! I hate flies and they bite me and the goats. We will probably set up a small fly spray system. They are inexpensive and can have a timer that sprays when we are not there to kill any flies who come in when the doors are opened for the goats.

We are going to lay down new lanolium and have it go up the wall about 6 inches so we can hose the milking area if need be. I like my milk clean and the area clean. I grew up around grade A cattle Dairies and that is how it should be. We drink our milk raw and make cheese for the family. We want the milk collection as clean as possible and comfortable for myself and my helpers. No body wants to work in a sweat shop, especally me.

Enough for now...

Spring is in full swing!

2011-03-25T22:46:00.000-05:00

Spring is here and we love it. The weather cool, dry and the grass is growing in the pastures. We have one more Cheviot to lamb, two Shetlands and seven Icelandics. It is so nice, we have been letting them lamb on pasture and putting them up overnight to worm mom, ear tag and give BoSe injections. Then we let them go and everyone is doing great. The new grass is rich and moms producing plenty of milk for the lambs. They are all fat and sassy.

The photo to the left is Havvah, an Icelandic ewe. She had her third set of triplets this year. Look at her udder. This is why the Icelandic is used for milk and why thier lambs are so nice and fat. Some dairy's are using the Icelandic as well and crossing them with other Sheep Dairy Breeds.

The photo below is Boing and her two ram lambs. She is a good milker as well and one can see how large the white ram lamb is. Two very nice rams and both are For Sale on our web site at: http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/.

We went to the Elmore Sheep and Goat Expo March 19th. We took Boing and her two lambs (above) and Babette with her triplet Fairlea Juan Louie kids. She is a lovely doe and we will be entering her on DHIR shortly.

The photo to the right is an exhibit with a Jersey Cow and her friend who takes Daisy around to show kids and other folks where milk comes from and does a milking deminstration. Daisy is a lovely cow and seemed to enjoy the attention of the crowd.

The grass is green and growing and the ewes with their lambs are thriving...

Boing's Son, a spotted Icelandic ram.

Valarie's twin ewe lambs, one beautiful spotted ewe and a gray, maybe Gray Mouflon. The Gray Mouflon is very rare. Snow man is the sire to this years group of lambs.

Another photo of the future Cover Girl.

I do enjoy the lambs of spring. This year we have a lot of color and I love the white Icelandic lambs. Thier fleece is so soft an wonderful.

Enough for now...

Spring brings on the lambs...

2011-03-15T21:51:00.000-05:00

Oh, I do love baby lambs. They are beyond cute and so special. Ewes are great moms as well. We let our ewes lamb on pasture then pick up the lambs and mom follows to a pen for worming and ear tagging before mom and lambs are returned to pasture. The weather has be wonderful and the green grass is growing, making for rich milk for the babies.

The photo to the left is Sunshine babysitting the group of lambs. Two are hers. Moms will look out for each others lambs and all the lambs play together.

Group of lovely Mini Cheviot Lambs.

These ewe lambs are out of Spot. She is a Mini Cheviot ewe and she had these beautiful twins.

One of the sisters have found lunch and is happy to report all is good...

Mini Long Tail and her son sired by Victor. Her ram lamb is spectacular and he is a future herd sire.

He knows he is special. We may just call him King, because he looks and acts like one. Mini Long tail is a great mom with plenty of milk, so this little man is growing beautifully.

One more photo of our future king...

Our first Icelandic ram lamb is out of Boing, sired by Snow Man. Snow man carries spots, so this little fellow has spots and looks like a masked bandit.

Brother is white and both ram lambs are very nice, with nice horn buds. We will see how they grow out.

Our last ram lamb is a Shetland. He is pictured to the right. His mom is a first timer and rather small ewe. I found her in the field with this head sticking out her behind. He is a big boy with a large head. I assisted his birth and saw he was still alive. Hang in there little fella I told him. He was to large to bring both legs out, so I was able to get one and pull on his neck wool and leg. Suddenly he slid out to say Hi. He was exhausted, a rough day hanging out of mom's behind. But it was over and with some stimulation, he came around to be quite a handsome young man. Mom is recovering as well and received some antibiotics for several days due to my hand up her behind. Bless her heart... Anyway, a word of caution to anyone helping to birth lambs. Never pull on their head. Pulling on their head will snap their neck like a tooth pick. Ask me how I know this... Yeah, so a word of caution, do not pull on a lamb's head. One can pull on the wool of the shoulders or manipulate a leg and pull on that. Now in goats, you can pull the head with in reason. I try to avoid head pulling period after snapping a lamb's neck once. I could hear it snap too. A hard lesson to learn. It was an ewe lamb & she was alive, until I came along, Icelandic. I still kick myself when I think about it, but did not know until later, when I sat through a 2 hour video on lambing, that you do not pull on the head. SO, DO NOT PULL ON A Lamb's HEAD!!

The Mini Cheviots are the only breed we need to dock tails. Their tails are quit long and my original breeding stock from Smokey Valley did not have their tails docked. I left the tails on and most of the time it does not cause problems. But in the south, we get fly strike, which is where flys lay eggs and maggots will eat flesh. The long tail can cause this due to feces and urine getting in the tail. To prevent this, we dock the tail. The two Cheviots who do have long tails are monitored all summer closely and we shear them in May to keep everything short enough to prevent fly strike. I usually put a bit of fly spray on the tails when we work the sheep over the summer. So far, so good.

We band the young lamb's tails and they fall off in a week or two. The Icelandics and Shetlands are shortailed sheep and we do not band their tails. The Shetlands have a bit longer tail then the Icelandics, but one leaves them alone. The Shetland registry will not register a lamb who has had its tail docked.

Enough for now, the time change has me all messed up and sooo tired. More later...

New Calves...

2011-03-06T10:54:00.001-06:00

I like cows and all, but they are personally to large for me to handle, in comparison to a goats or sheep. When a bull weighes 1800 pounds, what the hell do you do with him if he needs to be stiched up or something, or has a snotty nose... Yeah...

We are looking into a recent USDA program to loan money for a cattle working facility with very low interest rate over 4 years. Then can get a pro out here to build something to keep me from being killed and doing the Vet work on the cows and bull. I will look into a gate to divert and put the sheep shoot as well. Alright! Like cows, just know they can kill you without even meaning to...

These are two of the new heifer calves, telling each other secrets...

Christy with her new born calf, need followers to offer names for the new heifers. What shall we name them. They will be retained for breeding stock. Email us some names at Oldesouthfarm@gmail.com, will go to my phone.

They are half sisters, the two were born a few days apart. It is really cool to see how the herd protects the young and everyone cares for the calves...

Even big Daddy, Brutus, looks out for his calves. His expression says it all, "Got a Problem?"

He is a Beef master bull from Charlie Dunkin's Herd. This bull's daddy is a high dollar bull. Brutus is not perfect, but we are happy with him and he throws the polled gene, so I do not have to dehorn. HIs calves have been nice and small as well. Beyonce, our half Angus heifer should be able to calve easy by this big boy. Beyonce is beautiful and reminded me of Beyonce the singer... Hate dehorning cattle, a barbaric and bloody mess. Did it as a kid riding with an old Veterinarin who dehorned Dairy Cattle. We would be covered with blood by the end of the day. Breed polled cattle is my sugession!

Have more new lambs and will be taking pictures shortly to let everyone know what was born and what is for sale... All our Cheviots are sired by Victor, a Smokey Valley, tiny ram. We will be retaining a ram lamb and a few ewe lambs by him, but he was bred to 9 ewes, so should have several to sell. This is a tiny line of Cheviots, sought after for the type, stocky, fine boned with a nice fleece. Stay tuned for more info.

We sent 3 ram lambs to be processed, 2 shetland and 1 icelandic. The Shetlands are as tasty as the Icelandic, just not as large. Shetland can take the heat better then the Icelandics, may be another option for folks who want mild flavored lamb and know they will live to be processed.

Spring wants to come...

2011-03-02T12:25:00.000-06:00

The beautiful weather we have had for the last couple of weeks is a welcomed change from the unseasonably cold weather. It has been up to 70s during the day and 40s at night. Hopefully the nice weather will continue for a while. Oldesouth Amber Blue and her son by Mr General are enjoying the pleasant weather...

Below is a photo of some Daffodils my neighbors had at their mail box.

Below are photos of UDiamond and her first freshening udder. We have decided to name her two sons Oldesouth Cognac Diamond and Oldesouth Marquise Diamond. UDiamond's first test she gave 3.3 pounds of milk. She was a bit under the weather due to some digestive upsets. We think she will easily give 4 pound her next test. We will see. She is a dream to milk and her udder is buttery soft and milks down like a glove.

We conducted our DHIR test this past weekend with a Verification Test. A Verification test is where a certified DHIR technician comes to weigh and sample the individual does. This individual also measures and records the heights of the does to make sure they are with in the ADGA standard. There is a weighed premilk out and two more milkings which are weighed and sampled 12 hours apart, over a 24 hour period. It makes for a long day. Then the samples and paperwork is sent off to the lab and usually by the end of the week the results are emailed.

This service keeps track of the doe's lactation, recording weights, milk fat, protein and somatic cell count. The somatic cell count is a measure of udder health. My Nubian Ariel came back with a very high Somatic Cell Count (SCC) on her first test. She showed no signs of mastitis, except she had backed off on production. We treated her for mastitis and are awaiting this test to come back and see where she is. Her production is back up and all seems well.

The SCC is a good way of catching sub clinical mastitis before it turns into full blown nasty mastitis.

The DHIR reports are really cool. They also have projected production, which lets you know after a couple of tests, if your doe is on track or needs to be culled. The doe can earn her milking star and SG (superior genetic) award if she meets minimum standards for the star and is in the upper 15% for the SG. With the ADGA the doe can earn her star on production (amount of milk), milk fat, and or protein. AGS the doe can earn her star on production or milk fat, but must make a certain % milk fat.

Why bother with all this you ask? These are dairy goats and when one says this goat milks well, what does that mean? Well, as to how much exactly and over how long? The DHIR answers all those questions and is a great tool in measuring where your herd is and where one needs to improve. Yes it is a lot of work, but we are dedicated to improving the breed and make a difference. Getting on DHIR is confusing and complicated. I think I will write an E Book on the subject and offer it to others who are interested in getting their herds on test. It does not need to be so complicated and it is difficult to get help. Let me ruminate on it for awhile...

What do we do with all that milk? We drink it and our family enjoys fresh Formage Chevre cheese, Brie, Camembert and others. We also make a lot of our signature "Blue's Goat Milk Soap and Lotion" which is sold seasonally in the fall and winter. We will have some for May this year as well and it is sold locally at Mark's Mart in Selma and Dallas County Seafood and Produce. We have been asked to expand our sales, but we do not have the time to make more. We have all the sales we can handle. We make it in between the farm and our full time employment.

We will be at the Goat and Sheep Expo March 19 in Wetumpka again this year. I have whipped up some Sheep Milk Soap to sell. So, come by and check it out. We will bringing some sheep and of course baby goats to sell as well.

Spring is near when the first lambs begin to arrive...

The first lamb is a Mini Cheviot ram lamb out of 54 Tina. These lambs are all sired by Victor, a Smokey Valley Ram from Washington state. He is very tiny and we are pleased with the nice lamb.

Mom thinks enough is enough and leaves quickly to enjoy the sunshine and the new grass with her son.

Below are photos of Mr Paul on his tractor reworking some cattle areas. He put down some cloth and gravel to get his steers out of the mud. His helper is Daniel, who enjoys the farm and driving the Mule.

With the warmer weather, it is time to get farm chores done and do repairs, etc, before the hot weather sets it.

Below is a picture of Oldesouth Blue Amber with her blue eyed son. He is for sale. Kids love their moms and goats are very personable.

Milking the girls...

2011-02-06T09:22:00.000-06:00

We are milking the girls twice a day and I have to show photos of Oldesouth Blue Alexa. She has a lovely udder and teat placement. She is very small, under 19 inches and milking around 3 pounds of milk a day. This is her second freshening.

I want to thank ITok for fixing our blog so we can upload photos once more. They are a computer company you contract with to take care of your computer.

The picture to the right is another view of Alex's udder. We breed for milk and conformation. This is an example of what we are shooting for. The Nigerian Dwarf is a small dairy goat. Her sister Babette is a taller doe and should be freshening the end of Feb, first part of March. Both these girls are very nice and Babette being larger, out milks her sister.

We are hip deep in kidding and UDiamond has kidded twin bucks. She kidded the 28th at 1230 am. I paid for it at work the next day... boy was I tired. I have some pictures, but waiting for better shots a couple of weeks fresh. We are bottle feeding the kids so we can measure her milk and keep her udder perfect for the show ring. Both boys are spoken for, will make fantastic herd sires. UDiamond needs to prove herself in the milk production so the boys will be stared. Her udder and fore udder are looking fantastic and we hope everything holds together to get her into the show ring.

I am working on individual pages for our does. I have some done, but want to get them all done before bringing them live to the website.

Above is one more photo of Alexa's lovely udder with 12 hours of milk.

We have bad news about our Blue. Her cancer (squamous cell) had come back after treatment and she raised her kids. We are sad to announce her passing due to the cancer. She was humanely euthanized. She had a rectal lesion which had spread to the lymph nodes. Blue was my first goat and the Cover Girl to our Goat Milk Products. We miss her and retained two of her daughters, AnnaLynn and her last daughter Blue Ice.

Our last farewell to our beloved Blue pictured about with her last set of triplets...

Cold Start to 2011

2011-01-18T13:17:00.000-06:00

The weather has been very cold (17 to 25 degrees at night) and we have weaned the kids off of the current milkers. Now we are milking twice daily with our machine. DHIR is going well, testing monthly. We have purchased several heated water tubs to keep the girls drinking water to produce milk.
The blog still will not upload pictures.

UDiamond is bagged up nicely and we are waiting for her to kid. Next time, we will hand breed her so we will know exactly when she will kid.

The first freshening yearling daughter of Mr General is being milked twice daily now. She is small, but producing more then expected. We will be doing our Jan test shortly and will have an idea of how much. Her name is Princess and she is taking to the stand very well. We are going to milk her for several months to really stimulate the udder, then dry her up and let her grow out some more before breeding her back for next year.

It looks like our Linear Appraisals will be in May this year. That will be good. Last year they were scheduled for Fall which was not real convenient (shearing sheep and going to fall shows) and most of my does were dry. This is a tool we use to evaluate conformation for herd improvement. After all, we are breeding to improve the Nigerians and The Linear Appraisal is a trained person from ADGA who comes and using the ADGA score card, evaluates your herd. This is a tool to improve conformation.

Our cows, Christy and Beauty have both calved. Chisty had a brown Heifer and Beauty, not sure yet. Could not get close enough to really see if the calf is male or female. The calf is jet black like her mom. Good thing she waited until it warmed up a bit before calving.

We have several yearlings sired by Mr General who will be freshening this month or early next month.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

2010-12-31T09:14:00.001-06:00

We reflect on the past year and give thanks for all the good times and good people we have had the opportunity to meet. 2011 will be another beginning to improve our milking herd of Nigerians even more. The milk test will let us know how we are doing.

We are on the edge of our seats waiting for UDiamond to kid. We call her Diamond and she is a Diva. She is a Uni Daughter sired by Galaxy. She will be two in February and she is bagged up and ready to kid by Mr General. Her udder is really nice already and she is such a beautiful doe. This breeding is bringing together Eclipse, Tiger and Uni. Mr General is line bred on Eclipse and has produced very consistent wide rears and beautiful toplines. Diamond is already perfect and really is spectacular when she is clipped up with her golden, glistening coat. We just need to verify her greatness in the milk pail. She knows she is special and struts her stuff like the queen she is. She is a sweet heart and loves her mom...

Mr General's first daughters as yearlings will be kidding in 2011. Galloway is bagging up (BOB and Jr Doe), Brat's daughter by Mr General, Rosa, and several others. Pay Off is just starting to bag up by Mr General son, Mr Marine. One daughter out of Silver by Mr General has kidded, but she is very small (snow granddaughter) and her udder is good, but not spectacular. She kidded before a year old and was a triplet. She had a single doe who is so fat she can hardly walk. I plan on milking her a bit to see how much she is producing, but will wait until next year to see what she can really do in the milk pail. The baby doe is beautiful and we will grow her out a bit to see how she matures. Both the mom and baby are very friendly and the baby pesky. It is neat how some goats are just friendly and seek out attention, while others prefer to stay at a distance and just watch you...

Have a Great New Year and be safe!!!

Christmas Wishes to All...

2010-12-24T14:23:00.003-06:00

It is Christmas Eve and we are working to milk the girls and get everyone ready for the Christmas Holiday. We want to thank all our Clients and Customers for a wonderful 2010. We could not have accomplished our goals without your support. Thank You Everyone!!
We plan to work even harder for 2011 and bring you more GOATS THAT MILK and sheep and goat products of outstanding quality.

Since our Blogger does not seem to give a darn about the picture upload not working, we are not sure what to do. We may just do a monthly newsletter to let folks know what is happening. We have so many folks who enjoy our blog, but if we can no longer up load pictures... It is of little value. Especally since I love to photograph everything and let folks see through my eyes...

We appreciate you all and want to wish you a Merry Christmas and an even better New Year for 2011!!
Thank you,Terry Babb
Oldesouth Farm

Heading into the Holidays...

2010-12-05T18:57:00.004-06:00

Time moves to fast for me... Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas Season is upon us. Our weather went from warm to cold again and we are checking for snotty noses on our young kids. Extra bedding and full bellies keep the babies warm.

We are preparing to go on DHIR (Dairy Herd Improvement Registry) Test and working out the many details. Once we get going, things will sort themselves out. We have been milking with the Capralite Machine, which has been wonderful, once a day, until the kids are weaned. We will milk twice a day once the kids are weaned. We are milking 8 does now, until several others freshen. We have several kids who are half bottle babies. What does that mean?? We are milking mom in the morning and if she has triplets, we need to bottle them to keep the kids from attacking mom and biting teats while they fight for a teat. We have a couple of kids who have just decided they want some bottle too and show up for a snack. This tames the kids, but gives us the flexibity to not have to bottle them while at work. The kids have mom during the day, until moms are locked up at night for morning milking.

The fresh Nigerian milk is wonderful and the cheese even better. The yield of cheese, with the Nigerians, compared to the Nubian is almost double. Nigerians have more milk fat and protein. The smaller teats of the Nigerian makes it difficult to hand milk. My hands are large and shot from hand milking. My Nubian Ariel is hand milked because she has large teats and it takes just a few minutes to milk her. We will be the FIRST and ONLY Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Herd on DHI test in Alabama!

As our does freshen, we will milk them and decide who to keep and who to move on. These does will be used to milking both with a machine and by hand. We do have a waiting list for milk stand trained goats. If you are interested in a home milker, let us know and we will add you to the list. These will not be record breaking producers, but will give enough milk for the average family. Some may even end up quite nice down the road if one continues to milk them. The more you milk your goats, the more milk they will produce. The less you milk, the less they produce. It looks like the blogger photo insertion is not working, so we will cut this short and add photos at another time. I have some great shots of Oldesouth Blue Alexa's second freshening udder. It is really nice and she is milking over a pound and a half once a day. She may just qualify for her star this year. We will wait and see. The cold weather has the girls giving less milk. They milk the best at about 50 to 70 degrees. I think this will ease up once the girls get used to the colder weather.

We are going to move in another large storage shed type building to make into a milking Parlor and clean up area. It will be heated and cooled and have hot & cold running water. It will be a joy to milk, no matter the weather. It will not be Grade A or anything, but comfortable for us and the girls. We won't have the water dripping on our heads either. When we have frost on the metal buildings, as soon as the sun comes up and it begins to thaw, it is like a rain forest dripping on us. It is absolutely miserable... Enough for now...

Thanksgiving is near...

2010-11-14T19:20:00.000-06:00

As Thanksgiving approaches, Mr Paul tells me we are going to have one of the Tom Turkeys for dinner. I can not eat either one of them and they would dress out at a huge weight. Who is going to eat all that turkey? We still have turkey and ham vacuum packed from last year. That was my excuse for not killing my beautiful Turkeys. The one below is suppose to be a Royal Palm. But he has some tan on him as well. His build is lighter then the Broad Breasted Bronze Turkey. The Palm and his hen can roost on the gates. The Bronze Turkeys are to big to fly or even roost up high and sleep on the ground with the guardian dogs.

This is the group of Toms, pictured below. You can see the difference in size and width of the two different breeds.

Another shot of the three Toms. The Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys are molting and still growing new tail feathers. The Royal Palm in the back is a younger Tom, probably 3 months younger then the big boys.

My favorite Tom is this one to the right. He looks like he has apples hanging. They are very tame and will let you pet them and will come running up to you like a herd of dinosaurs. Tom is still bringing in new tail feathers and wing feathers. He will be really beautiful next year when he has a beard.

The weather keeps fluctuating from Hot to Cold and we have had some frost. With the hot and cold fluctuations, the young kids get snotty noses. We have to watch closely or we can loose a baby or two to pneumonia. We have a bunch of kids at the moment.

The last blog had Annie Oakley very pregnant and she had quad bucks. Two will be offered as bucks and Annie has one heck of an udder this year. Then things really got going and Thundersnow, Silver Queen, Brat, AnnaLynn, Sweet Caroline, Onyx, and then Amber Blue kidded within days of each other. We had the lambing pens full of goat moms with kids. They sure are handy and recommend them for kidding or lambing. They fold up and can be stacked alongside a building when not in use. Will get pictures of everyone For Sale on the Goat Sales Page shortly.

We have finally made the decision to bite the bullet and go for the Capralite Milker from Furney Register. We considered a reworked cow milker from a fella on EBay who collects the old bellie cow milkers and retro fits them for goats with a reworked pump. The price was half of a new milker, but upon further questioning the fella, he did not respond to emails. That, to me, was a good indication of after the purchase service. It would really suck if it was junk and I would have to pay for the new milker anyway.

Furney from Capralite is a character and even answers his own phone when you call him. We received the machine and called Furney and he talked us through the set up and was fantastic. I highly recommend him and the machine has been working great. I am milking ten Nigerian does in the morning. Their kids are a bit over 2 weeks of age. I have one, Amber Blue who was being hand milked and was trained to the stand when we received the machine. She is a first freshener and is taking to the machine well. She is a daughter of Butter and we hope to get her miking like her mom who has given half a gallon when she first freshened. The other does are still getting used to the whole thing and of course we have Brat in the line up. Actually she is doing well, not throwing herself on the ground anymore... I am milking Blue as well and her baby is ready to wean. Blue is used to being hand milked and does not mind the machine at all.

Alexa, Brat, AnnaLynn, and Sweet Caroline are milking the best so Far. We are working the details out to go on test DHIA in January 2011. Our Alabama DHIA is out of Auburn and we are working on details to become certified DHIA testers and arrange verification testing through our Alabama DHIA. I was more then thrilled to learn we even had an Alabama DHIA!!

We have also made arrangements for a couple of One Day Milk Tests in January and February. It is amazing how the girls are improving with their milk in just a weekend of machine milking. I have some Chevre cheese going as I am typing and will drain it when I finish this blog... Nigerian Milk is so rich and creamy, it makes spectacular cheese.

We went to the Peanut Festival at Dothan, Alabama and our Oldesouth Girls did very well. We came home with Grand and Reserve Senior and JR does and Brat took Best of Breed. She had just freshened two days prior to the show and is milked out in her picture.

We are done showing for this year and will put together a calender for next year shows. We are also planning linear appraisals (Physical Evaluations of each goat) for our herd and young stock. ADGA does rounds in the fall to Alabama, but most of my herd is dry during that time. We will either milk into that time, change breeding dates or do a special session. Still considering options to get it all done.

Blue Amber, daughter of Oldesouth Blue Alexa won Reserve Champion Jr Doe. She is a lovely doe like her mother and she is pregnant as well.

We will have pictures of the new babies shortly and will post the For Sale pictures as well. The babies are all together and it is difficult to get pictures with out help to hold each kid to take a good picture of them, rather then a group of gangsters running around like a herd of bratty baby goats.

More later... it has been a busy week and need to go drain my Chevre cheese.

Fall needs to stay and Summer go away...

2010-10-27T15:35:00.000-05:00

It has been HOT the last few days and humid. Boy, I hate humid weather. Still waiting for goats to kid. Mr General sure took his time in getting the girls in a motherly way... Big belly's everywhere, but still no babies. Annie is pictured to the right and below.

Have checked on Annie Oakley twice, she is huge. She is clipped up to go to a couple of shows, thinking she would kid prior to the show. But she is holding out and is way to pregnant to stress at a show. She has been left home. Annie herself is a quintuplet. She had a single her first freshening, a beautiful doe, Oldesouth Galloway. She looks like she has at least quads this time...

Annie is a really nice doe and so Dairy. Her udder is great and she has perfect teat placement. She is pictured very close to her second freshening. Maybe she will kid today, will check her again shortly.

Fall color is coming slowly and photo to the right

shows the Pecan trees turning color.

Hannah our newest Heifer calf is pictured to the left.

These bantam chickens are an elderly couple. Not sure exactly how old they are, but I have had them over 3 years and they were given to me. Have not had eggs out of the hen in years so can only guess their age. They are together all the time, like Grandma and Grandpa.

This is AnnaLynn, Blue's daughter by Buddy. She is one of the does we are waiting on. She will be freshening for her second time. Her sister was beautiful and had a single doe, we named Reba. Her udder was outstanding and I was sooo excited to have a yearling for the show ring. Well, that was not meant to be and I found sister, who looked asleep, dead (never did find out the cause). Reba was jumping on her back, trying to awaken her mom. We started to bottle feed Reba and she was doing great. When Reba was about a month old, AnnaLynn lost her kid and I had to help with the miscarriage. I kept AnnaLynn in a stall with Reba, so I could check her and treat her if necessary. Well, AnnaLynn adopted Reba and ended up raising her, milking fairly well for not being full term. This pregnancy AnnaLynn looks really good and may even be as nice as her sister was.

This little rooster is a bantam brought to me by a friend. Is he not beautiful, such color!

These two characters are Father(front) and Son (back). This is Bubba and The Politician. Both of these Nigerian Bucks are For Sale. Check out our Goat Sales Page. They are nice bucks, their height is within the standard, I estimate 22-23 inches and The Politician was shown last fall and they have the bucks pass under a measure stick as they enter the ring at most shows. I have used these two bucks for years, Bubba is 5, Politician is 4 and they are ready to move on to another farm.

Enough for now, need to go check Annie...

We love October!!

2010-10-18T21:52:00.000-05:00

October is my favorite month of the year. I love the cooler weather and generally love Fall! In the south we do not see fall colors until late October into November. So, what have we been doing since the last post. We have done a bunch.... I have been off from the hospital since October 1st and just went back today, the 18th. Are you ready... We did more then lay on a beach somewhere...

We sheared the Icelandics and the pictures following are the before pictures. It is amazing at how much fleece can be grown since April. The ewe to the right is Black Berry, with a yearling white ewe in the back ground.

The photo to the left is Sarah and a couple of yearling Icelandics waiting to she sheared.

This is The Trump, before shearing. He is always spectacular. He was to big for me to put on a stand to shear and I sheared him tied to the fence. He was no trouble and stood like the gentleman he is.

This is Saxon to the left. His fleece was awsome this year. Clean and sooo soft. He has a golden color to his white wool. It reminds me of the golden fleece fable. When the sun hits it just right, his fleece will glisen in the sunlight.

My older ewe, Angie had a decent fleece, nothing to brag about. But we had to reshear her from the half assed job the pro did, so she did not produce a long enough fleece this year. But, she made it through the summer and is a great old gal.

This character is Havvah, our spotted leader sheep ewe. She is a chow hound and you can see she is the first to check out the feed bowl. She had a great fleece this year and her daughter is behind her with a perfect horn set. Havvah is one of my favorite ewes and our hardiest.

The photo to the left is Havvah again with her daughter Ulani, enjoying the cool fall after being shorn.

This beautiful ewe is Black Berry. She is a spectacular ewe and my favorite color is the gray. Her lambs sired by Phantom were the only ones to survive the summer. Her genetics are a treasure as well as her beautiful fleece. She is built like a truck and has a nice hornset as well.

The ewe to the left is Crazy. She is scurred and crazy as a bed bug. But, she has an absolutely spectcular fleece and is very well built. She leaps in the air like a horse jumping a fence and is the hardest one to catch. Once caught, she is no problem, but gives us a run for our money...

The photo to the right is Snow Man sheared. He is a sweet heart, could use more butt, but is a long and thick ram. His fleece was one of our best and he will stick around for awhile. Our lamb crop for 2011 will be sired by Trump and Snow Man, with Saxon as clean up ram.

This is Sarah, a gray morrit ewe pictured to the left.

This is goofy old Saxon sheared. His fleece is why we keep him around and his disposition is the best I have ever seen. I thought he was a bottle baby and emailed his breeder to find out he was not. Saxon is just himself a sweet boy. There is nothing he enjoys more then a scratch under the chin and a back scratch after being sheared.

This is a photo of the Trump as he was leaving. The Trump is not mean, but not thrilled with handling. He puts up with it all, but makes a quick exit when he has the chance. He has a great build and is an easy keeper, requiring very little care, worming or general fuss.

The little guy to the right is Amos. He is a white Shetland ram lamb from Tenn. We are going to use him as a back up sire behind Duncan. We will remove Duncan from the ewes this week and put in this young ram to cover any ewes missed by Duncan. He is very friendly little guy with a beautiful hornset and a super fine fleece. He is pictured sheared.

The photo to the left is Saxon instructing the ram lambs on the rules of the pasture. These are Trump sired lambs.

The picture to the right are some ram lambs sired by The Trump. They show the main Icelandic colors, Black in the front, morrit in the middle and white at the rear.

We sheared 27 sheep, mostly Icelandics. My son, Tim and I sheared 13 in one day and I did the lambs and the rams after he went back to New Mexico. He is in the Air Force. We also sheared several Shetland lambs, harvesting the best lamb wool in the fall. Now the shetlands will be sheared once a year, in the spring. The Trump has a thick beautiful fleece, but it is not as soft as Snow man and Saxon.

October 1st, Fairla Jean-Louis finally was flown in from Harvard, Mass.. After all the details, he finally arrived. He is a beautiful Nigerian Dwarf Buck and worth the effort. He is a sweet heart on top of it all and now out of isolation, having a party with the ladies. Louie, as we call him is a great little guy. I have clipped him up a bit, but his coat was so thick, he was like trying to clip a wool sheep. I did not want to clip him to short, because it is getting cold, in the high 40s at night. He was rough on the small clipper blades, but looks decent. I almost broke out The Judge (Oster Sheep Shears), we call the heavy monster clippers The Judge. But, I did not want him that closely shorn. Just wanted to see what he looked like under all that hair.

We also shaved 10 goats for the show in Montgomery and another show coming up in November at Dothan, Alabama. Of the 10, two were to pregnant to show. The does are all pregnant and have not kidded when I expected. Even Sweet Caroline has not kidded yet. We showed them dry and we came home with Grand Champion Sr and Jr doe, Reserve Champion Sr and Jr doe, and Best of breed Nigerian. We made some cash as well. We will be traveling to the Dothan Peanut Festival Goat show in November and that will be the last show of the season.

The photo to the right is Brat taking Grand Champion Sr Doe at the Alabama National Fair in Mongtomery as a dry doe.

This is Sweet Caroline taking Reserve Champion Sr Doe at the Alabama National Fair in Montgomery.

This is Oldesouth Galloway taking Grand Champion Jr Doe and Best of Breed in the Nigerian Dwarf Goats. The show was the Alabama National Fair.

The picture to the left is UDiamond taking Reserve Jr Doe at the Alabama National Fair. UDiamond is a Diva and you can see how proud she is for her win. She is very jealous and does not like to place at the end of the line. She is a special girl and we enjoy showing her as much as she enjoys showing. She is pregnant with Mr General kids.

So while preparing goats, working with goats, etc, we also made a trip to Auburn to pick up a couple of older Nigerian Does from a friend of mine who is in nursing school. The does are older, but good does and I would like to add them to my breeding program. They are in isolation until their blood work comes back, CAE and Johnes. We had the entire herd tested again, October 6. 2010, an annual event to make sure our goats are CAE and Johne's FREE. We have a CAE negative herd and intend to keep it that way. Dr Doug Halbrook came out to draw the blood and it was sent directly to Washington State for the testing. We should hear back this week with the results. The two does missed the original testing and I hauled them to a local vet and sent their blood off as well.

Sunday, we traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to the Mississippi Fair to pick up our lastest buck. He is Lost Valley PG Superb *S (right). His dam is the number 1 top producing doe for 2009 AGS in Milk, Butterfat, and Protein. ARMCH Lost Valley BDC Serabi 4*D/3*M. His sire is also a champion, a Madison son. He is a beautiful buck and we look forward to showing him next spring.

Yes, it is time to take a break and go back to work and rest. The final photo is some fall color peaking out of the spanish moss of the oak trees out at the farm. We hope you enjoyed our vacation and will stop by again to see what is going on at Oldesouth Farm....

Fall is Finally Here...!!!

2010-10-03T15:08:00.000-05:00

Wow the weather has been wonderful, 70 to 80 degrees and low humidity. All the sheep are happy and the goats are out sunning themselves. We had a new calf born Sept 30th to our old cow Daisy. She did not calve with the other cows this February and was a bit depressed over it. Now she is strutting around like a queen with her new Heifer Calf. She is small, Brutus calf, which is what we want, small calves that grow like crazy and are easy on the cows.

The picture below and to the right is the new Heifer calf. She is black with white on her tail and white on her belly. She is beautiful. These photos were taken from a distance with a 200 lens. Getting to close to a cow's new calf is not a good idea....

Look at the expression of the cow, below. Can you see "That Look". Daisy is a shy, unassuming cow who minds her own business. Once the cow has a calf she switches to protector mode and can be very dangerous. Daisy is pictured below with her new calf. The name of the calf is Hannah, named after Mr Paul's grand daughter, Hannah. Mom has a nice full udder and this baby girl will grow like crazy.

See Daisy looking at me looking at her. She is waiting to see if I am going to make a move on her calf. You can see "The Look", which is hard to miss. I saw the look in action when one of the protection dogs barked at her new calf. Within a second she bellowed like a bull and charged at the fence the dog was behind. It startled me to see her bellow and did not know she could move that fast. She continued to bellow and pushed the bull out of the way during her BF. The bull was startled as to what was going on. Daisy immediately rounded up her calf and left, still snorting and had a couple more bellows to voice while rushing off.

Final words of wisdom. Do not mess with a cow and her new calf, unless you have a pickup to keep her between you and the calf and keep the dogs out of the pasture. Daisy taking her calf to safety below.

Below is a picture of our new buck Fairlea Jean-Louis *S. He has jetted in from Harvard, Mass and is our Ivy League buck. He has come from a long line of Milking, ARMCH dams and we have high hopes he will add to the udders and milk of our Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. He is really wide in the rear and has an awesome top line. Check out the Buck Page on our website for more info and pictures of his mom, grand mom, and great grand mom. They are awesome does who milk. http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/.

Blue is pictured below with her triplets. She had two bucks and a doe. The bucks are in the back and the doe is up front with blue. The doe is reserved, but the two bucks are available. They are listed on our website in the Goat Sales Page. http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/.

We have 10 goats to prepare for a couple of shows and the Icelandics to shear. We will be very busy the next week. Our Vet is coming out next week as well to pull blood for our annual CAE testing. We are going to test 8 sheep for OPP too.

Enough for now, must get back to work....

The Wait for Fall Continues...

2010-09-28T21:10:00.000-05:00

The short break in the weather is over and we went back to HOT. Saturday we had some rain and now we are cooled off and it is beautiful. I love this fall, low humidity weather. It is in the 80s during the day and down to 55 at night, which is a bit chilly for us. We need more rain and am gearing up for October shearing. I am going to shear Icelandic sheep and lambs and the shetland lambs. Already have 4 done.

One of our icelandic lambs is pictured to the left. The Icelandics are sheared in the fall and the spring. The fall fleece is the best fleece. We make the spring fleece into felting sheets.

Duncan, our shetland ram is pictured to the right and his fleece will be sheared next spring. He is in his breeding pen with his ewes. We had to cut his horns because they were pushing into his face. He is much happier and doing great with them removed. We tried to keep as much as we could to keep him comfortable and him still be handsome.

We have worked the Icelandic Sheep and removed the CIDR inserts. We put the rams out as planned. Did not see anyone in heat, so we are not sure if it worked or not. The Icelandics are secretive and shy with their honey mooning, so we will not know if they worked until next spring.

The Trump is pictured above and really has a nice fleece this year.

Our herd of goats are gearing up for October kidding. Blue kidded Sept. 18th with triplets. The bucks are For Sale and the doe is reserved. Blue is pictured to the right with her daughter AnnaLynn who is very pregnant. She is sired by Buddy and is bred to Mr General.

The triplets pictured to the left are Blue's kids sired by Oldesouth Black Panther. The bucks in the fore ground are for sale.

I think the two Boer does (Hestia & Sally) will kid soon as well,  my guess is the end of October, first part of November. Sweet Caroline and  Blue's Daughter "AnnaLynn" are bagging up too. Thundersnow is starting to bag up (that means they are getting milk in their udders). Butter's daughter is just beginning to bag.  UDiamond looks pregnant, but not bagging yet. This doe has been giving me heartburn for some time, waiting for kids and dying to see what her udder will look like. UDiamond is a Diva and struts around like a rock star. I keep asking her when she is going to have some kids and she just parades off like a queen...

Mr Paul has cut more hay and we have round baled this cutting for the cows, horses and pastured sheep for winter. We will plant rye grass on these pastures for winter grazing. We want to disc up a pasture and reseed with coastal and winter wheat.  As usual, the weather has not been in favor for winter pasture.  It is ether to wet or to dry.

We need to run electric and water to the new barn. We will trench to the barn and put both water and power lines into the same trench. With the days getting shorter, we will need lighting shortly.

Have been pricing and looking at different milking machines for the goats. I hope to milk 10 to 15 goats this fall and winter. We have not decided on which one yet, but will let everyone know once we freshen several does. Milking the small goats by hand is very difficult. I have been breeding for larger teats and have some who are easy to milk, but the first fresheners are still pretty small.  Ariel, my Nubian is a breeze to milk with her large teats. She will be milked by hand. She is due to freshen in November. We will be doing more one day milk tests and still trying to figure out the DHI. There are several ways of doing the DHI and it is confusing.

Enough for now...

Happy Labor Day...

2010-09-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

I hope everone has had a wonderful Holiday Weekend. What spectacular weather we have had! It really is to bad I have had to work Friday through Labor Day! The weather has been in the 80's, humidity not to bad and it feels like fall. My bucks are going CRAZY with this cool spell. They are snorting, hollaring and generally being old Billy Goats! Love is in the air... at Oldesouth Farm.

I have sent a young Nigerian doe home with a friend of mine here near Selma. Her name is Oldesouth Blue Freckles and she is out of Oldesouth Christmas Eve, sired by Rosasharn MR General B *S. She had been a problem child for some time with a few health problems which have worked themselves out. She has the signature topline and wide rear The General puts on all his kids. Freckles has bright blue eyes and with her red spotting on a white back ground makes her stand out in a crowd. She will be another one to watch for the future. She is pictured to the left and below, standing natural without positioning.

These pictures were taken by Kerri Dutreil and emailed to me. She is enjoying Freckles and has a couple other goats from Oldesouth, Reba & Sequoia who are rotten girls. We are working on a competive show string for 2011 and this young doe may be one of the contenders.

I am still working out the details on bringing two new young sires into our Nigerian Herd. I can not say who they are until everything is finalized and they arrive at the farm. I really need a couple of nice bucks to breed to my General daughters and then line breed from there. Both new bucks will have to have MEGA milk in their pedigrees and Conformation. Both bucks are stared and I love ARMCH moms. I hope to have an entire herd of ARMCH goats in the future. That is our goal...

What is an ARMCH? This is actually two awards given to both bucks and does who earn their conformation Championship and Advanced Registry Program requirements (MILK). These does participate in DHIR (Dairy Herd Improvement Registry), which is a lactation usually of 305 days. This is with the American Goat Society. A doe can earn both her AR and a star title *D. The star means the doe has met the minimum requirements with milk or butterfat during any 305 day or less lactation. It is a measure of both milk production and conformational excellence. Bucks earn the AR titles through their daughters and inherit their stars from their moms. Of course the conformation MCH is earned by the buck.

We have already put the Cheviots into their breeding pen with a young ram from Washington State. His name is Victor and he is tiny. Even smaller then Mini Long Tail. He came from the Washington State Herd of tiny Mini Cheviots. I bought two rams last year and one did not survive. Victor did and he is ready for the girls. We will leave him with the 7 ewes. The ewes, 4 new ones from Missouri, our 2 original ewes from Mississippi and Mini Long tail from Washington State. We will switch out rams the third week of October with Goober. He is back up and will take care of anyone missed by Victor. We are working to refine the Cheviots a bit and Victor is the ram man to do it.

We have gathered the Icelandics and inserted Vaginal CIDR Sheep Inserts. They are progesterone inserts, kind of like tampons that stay in the sheep for 5 days to bring them into heat sooner. This is a new product, from New Zealand, for bringing sheep into estrus out of season. We want our Icelandics to lamb about a month sooner then usual. If we can get the Icelandics to lamb in Febuary in the south, they will be weaned by May and shipped to their new farms before the heat and parasites hit. Moms can be milked until June & dried up to ready themselves for the stress of summer, especally if we have a summer like this year. The picture to the left is the bag of inserts. The picture to the right is the doo hickie to insert them with. You have to have both or I am not sure how one would get them in. It was quick and easy. We inserted 10 CIDR in 10 ewes yesterday evening and will remove them 5 days later, which is Saturday, then we will put the first ram with the group. We are going to use Snow Man. He is a beautiful huge, white ram, just turned 2 years. His snow white fleece is so soft and thick. I will be shearing him the beginning of October. He carries spots and we are hoping for some spotted sheep. Mid October we will switch out with The Trump and Clean up ram will be Saxon. We pull the rams the end of December. This is an experiment and do not know if it will work or mess up the ewes and get no lambs. We will keep everyone posted. It would be nice to get all 10 ewes to lamb within a few days of each other as well. We have 3 Icelandic ewes who are yearlings and will be bred for the first time this fall. They will not be induced. The CIDR is for ewes who have lambed in the past, not for virgin ewes.

I will be going to TN to pick up another Shetland ram. I need to get some new and better pictures of the Shetland herd. They are nicer then the current pictures. The new ram will be white to add more genetics and give folks a choice to have a ram and ewe lamb who are not related. I do not have any white Shetlands, so this will add some variety.

I am off today writting this blog and of course the heat is back and we are hot, hot, hot again. But it will not be long before cooler weather will arrive.

We have made reservations for Dr Doug Halbrook to make his annual trip to the farm to draw blood on everyone (goats) for CAE. We may do Cl this year because we did Johne's last year, but that is yet to be determined. We want to test some sheep for OPP as well. I have tested some of the Shetlands and they were negative and will test the Cheviots this year. We will have everyone tested eventually and then will close the herd and only test incoming new rams. I do not think anyone in Alabama tests their sheep, but we are upscale and want folks to know our herds are clean.

The Cheviots are mini baby faced little sheep. Their wool is medium and they are sheared once a year. The little baby ram to the left is Madeline's ram lamb and he is For Sale on the Sheep page. He has grown into a really nice ram.

The picture below are the three lambs we had this year. Two were twin ewes out of Sunshine and the ram lamb. They are playing on an old hay bale. They are really cute lambs.

We are working out a schedule for some fall Goat Shows and have sanctioned the Nigerian Dwarf Goats at the National Alabama Fair in Montgomery this year. They had not been sanctioned in the past and now they are. We hope to make this a major deep south show for the Nigerians in the future.

Enough for now...

Ready for the Dog Days to End...

2010-08-29T17:35:00.000-05:00

It is still HOT, but a bit cooler today. In the high eightys with humidity due to the recent rain. Our turkeys are doing great. They have made it to their free-range freedome and are now ranging on the front pasture. The picture to the right is Tom, he is about 4 months old and is very friendly. He likes to display when we come to the farm and waits calmly for me to bring him some grain. We really are enjoying the turkeys and do not know if they will be Thanksgiving dinner or not...

We finally were able to separate out the two steers to wean last weekend. They are 6 months old and we put them with our yearling heifer Beyonce. Beyonce is a daughter of Christy and she is sired by a really nice black angus bull. We bought the cows and they were pregnant with the two steers by the same bull.

I believe in gentle weaning. We wean by putting the babies in a field next to their moms. They can see each other, touch and chat with each other, but they can not nurse their moms. Moms are less stressed as well because they can see their calves. There is very little hollaring and stress to either calves or mom. Moms of course swell up with milk and will have to dry off. But that is part of the weaning process. We can feed some grain to the calves to help with their weaning. Beyonce is big sister to both. The calves and moms are pictured below.

Beyonce was named after the beautiful black singer, Beyonce of Destiny's Child. She is beautiful and when she is 16 months, she will be joining the regular herd and honey mooning with Brutus.

We plan on raising up the steers and selling them as home grown beef. We will raise them between 800 and 1000 pounds (a year to a year & 1/2 if age) and sell them for $1.25 per pound live. We will transport them to Reed's in Clanton for processing. Our Clients will pay the processing fee and pick up their beef.

We are currently taking reservations for whole or halfs. We will raise the calves on pasture with Corn and Soy Bean Hull pellets to finish them out and they will be great eatting. We are taking reservations now. Call us at 334-327-9252.

The steer above is Christy's calf, full bother to Beyonce. He is half Angus and half Shorthorn mix.

The steer to the left is Beauty's steer calf who is half Angus and half Angus/Beefmaster mix. Both steers are going to prime out quite well for home grown beef.

The picture to the right is Beyonce and the two weaned steer calves. The short one is Christy's calf, Beyonce's brother and the taller one is Beauty's steer calf.

We have been enjoying the steer we had processed in July. We have eatten more steaks then we have eatten in a long time. The quality of home grown beef has no comparison to the hormone grown junk in the store. I plan on doing a blog about beef cattle implants to inform people as to what they are getting in the store. The Veterinary supply catalogs have 2 pages of different types and brands. We refuse to use them and our beef is not raised in confinement and handled gently.

Since we are on the beef subject, I must show a recent picture of Brutus. The photo makes him look blue. A unique effect due to his black coat, the shade and lighting. We will see how his calves look before long. Daisy is pregnant by him and both Beauty and Christy are bred back to him.

Brutus is a Beef Master Bull, almost 3 years old. He has been on just pasture all summer and looks great.

Have to show a cute picture of a Boer Kid and a couple of Boer Mixed kids having a king of the mountain session going on in the hay wagon. The young Boer billy was holding his own for awhile.

One more picture of Athena's 100% Boer Kids sired by The Rock. Two Buck kids, pictured at a week of age. They are meaty, little tanks. They are offered FOR SALE with the Boer Group. See the Goat Sales page on our website at: http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/, or call us at: 334-327-9252.

Dog days of August...

2010-08-04T22:27:00.000-05:00

Yes, it is still Hot, 115 heat index and we were crazy enough to hay last weekend. But we must hay and do the best we can. We cut the hay Thursday and let it dry until Sunday and baled around 10 am, took a break at 230 because it was sooo HOT! Then came back at 630 pm and finished picking up hay and stacking it in the trailer.

PJ was in the Tractor with the AC running while he baled the hay. It has been real dry and the hay cured perfectly.

The picture to the right is the old New Holland square baler putting out the bales. This is an old but good baler. It can make really large bales or whatever size you want. I prefer bales 50 to 60 pounds. These were a bit large and we will adjust for smaller ones when we bale the other fields. We cut and baled two fields. One field had sheep on it all winter and it was the thickest hay on the farm. The sheep manure did the grass good. The other field had cows on it all winter and it was good, but not nearly as thick as the sheep field.

There is nothing nicer then the smell of fresh cut hay and seeing the bales out in a field before picking them up. They look even better once put under cover.

Kyle & Ken are Mr Paul's grandsons from Ill. They have come down south for a couple of weeks to visit and wanted to help with hay. The heat was pretty tough on them, but they worked hard and we got the hay put up.

Grizzly thinks he is a big farm dog and was with us every step of the way. He is a bit hot and ready to take a break in the shade.

I also took a quick trip to South Carolina this past weekend to pick up a couple of nice goats to help improve our milking herd of Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. The picture to the right is NC Promisedland SIA Sunra, sired by NC Promisedland SS Sam I am *S, her dam is GCH ARMCH NC Promisedland Sunni-Beau-No 3*D AR 2063. This doe has one leg of her championship, ADGA GCh doe as a first freshener. She is pictured dry and we plan to breed her to Mr General for early 2011 kids.

We were also able to purchase a yearling doe, NC Promisedland PayOff. She is pictured below. She is sired by NC Promisedland Paypal *S, her dam is NC Promisedland SS Peepshow 2*M 2*D,VG 87. This is a very nice yearling and we plan on breeding her to Oldesouth Mr Marine. We are slowly adding new bloodlines to our herd to produce more milk and be competitive in the show ring.

We are committed to producing some of the best milking Nigerians in the south. We will be offering some adult does as family milkers shortly. We will be reducing our herd to make room for new stock and up coming young does sired by Mr General who will be freshening this fall. Keep an eye on the sales page as we post adults and new kids.

We are offering both Little Tot's Estate Olde Bubba For Sale and Oldesouth Loud Politician For Sale. Both are proven bucks we have used for some time now. We need to bring in new blood lines and offer these boys to new homes. Take advantage of our Herd Reduction Sale and pick up some nice bucks.

Farm Adventure...

2010-07-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

We have been very hot, humid and a good thing , dry. I prefer dry over the wet horrible summer we had last year. Parasites have not been to bad and the goat herd and sheep flock are holding their own.

Our new puppy, Lucy is doing well and fitting into the grove of the farm. She is half Anatolian and half Pyrenees. She is shorter haired with a wide broad head. She likes to sit in the water trough and is usually muddy. She is good with chickens, goats, sheep, but does want to mess with those cats. Even when she gets slapped by a paw full of claws. Have had to fuss at her several times to leave the cat alone, she is not a toy.

All the lambs are weaned and have some of them in the Pecan Orchard under a tree. The last of the lambs are all sired by Trump and he throws mostly Moorit (brown) lambs. A lot of them were solid morrit and just one or two gray morrit. The picture to the right are a couple of lambs, the ewe (left) is out of a yearling and the ram (right) is out of Valarie.
With the heat indexes in the 105 to 110 range, I have the lambs in the shade until it cools down a bit.

Had a bit of an adventure when I opened a chicken coup door to find a snake looking at me. I jumped back, and saw the color and knew it was not one of the green snakes we had seen in the past and it had a color pattern & was brown & gray. Well, I ran to the feed room for my shovel collection and called to Mr Paul to get the shepard's crook. I thought it was a Cotton Mouth... but any snake is guilty of being poisenous until proven otherwise and that is usually post mortem. Needless to say, the shovel is my weapon of choice, long handles, wide surface are for chopping and the added broad blade in case of a strike. The picture to the left is the severed head, yes it is gross, but I am trying to educate everyone on what these things look like. The head had a bit of a shine to it and is trianglular in shape. I had seen the snake before, but it dissapeared before I could get my shovel. The right picture shows the shape more. I opened its mouth to see the fangs and they were there, about 1/2 inch, looked like fine hyperdermic needles. After removing the head, we buried it so kids and animals could not play with it and come in contact with any venium. I am told a dead snake can cause problems if someone or a puppy was poked with the fang. The picture above and to the left is the body with the color pattern. We estimate it at being 3 foot long or a bit under. It is on top of a medium dog house.

Snow Man, one of our Icelandic rams was watching the ordeal with the snake. Last summer he was bit by a snake under the chin and swelled up like a basket ball. We almost lost him and it took a month for him to recover. I am sure he was happy to see us finally catch that guy... Snow man has recovered and we hope to use him for breeding this fall. He is long, wide and has the beefy butt we like. Had to take off the horns though, grew to close to his head. He carries spots and we want his build and spots this year. Will breed him to the ewes with the best horns and Havvah.

More later... Oh, do not worry Ken, the boys were not at the farm when Mr Paul and I took care of the snake. Mr Paul's grandsons are visiting from Ill.. Mr Paul did fuss at young Ken to not wear flip flops out at the farm and he is wearing shoes now... Especally after seeing the snake... Don't worry, the hospital carries Antivenin. We deal with several snake bites every summer. Antivenin covers rattle snake and cotton mouth snakes, all the viper group.

WOW!! The Sauna Summer Continues...

2010-07-18T17:39:00.000-05:00

We have named this year, Sauna Summer, due to the humidity and heat. I am just now getting used to the heat and we are out early and late to care for critters. We take lots of water and work in the shade and wear our straw hats. It is dangerous hot. I have the AC in the house on 80 so we do not have such a hot, cold difference. The 80 degrees seems cold when you come in soaking wet and cool down.

The picture to the left is Blue with Ariel's collar and bell. For some reason, Blue liked Ariel's bell and collar and took it from Ariel. Ariel is a Nubian and the collar is loose around her neck. Blue used her horns to take the collar and bell & work it off Ariel. She is a pretty smart critter and is the herd queen. She wears it proudly like she is wearing a diamond. She makes it clang and struts her stuff, even though it is to big, she does not care. We will eventually get her a smaller collar and attach the bell to it. But for now, it is a conversation piece....

I have had some folks emailing me wondering how Earl was doing. He is doing great and to the right is a picture I took of him yesterday. We have had him for about 2 weeks and he has gained quite a bit of weight. He is a cute little guy. We will be neutering him shortly and he will be going in with our young heifer after he is neutered and Barbacue goes to the processor. Earl is a mini Jersey that we aquired. He was a bottle baby and is very tame. His cute factor is very strong and he will more then likely end up a pet...

Barbacue the steer (above) has missed no meals and has an appointment in a couple of weeks to go to the processor. He is on pasture and getting corn mixed with soybean hull pellets once a day. He is prime to say the least. We have been raising him up, since a calf for this moment and we can not wait for the home grown beef he will provide. No hormones, pastured freely, no cruel handling, corn fed, he will provide for us and our family after having a wonderful, but short life. His girl friend is a heifer calf and Earl will be her buddy when Barbacue leaves. We have two more calves out in the field with there moms who will be weaned shortly. Both are steers and one will be sold and the other raised up for next years beef supply. There is nothing better then home grown beef.

PJ came to the farm Sunday to help work the ewes. We work them every 3 weeks during the heat of the summer. We check for worms and give BoSe injections as needed and check hooves as well.

This is the work area in the shade under the new barn. The shoot is a Billy Goat Gruff shoot I traded some goats for awhile back. It has come in very handy and really saves your back.

The picture to the right is PJ getting the sheep up to ready them into the shoot. He squeezes them in with the cow panel to push into the shoot.

This is the shoot in action. The sheep goes into the ramp and has a door that closes behind them. Then they go into the shoot and their head is secured in the head gate. Then the sides can be opened on both sides to trim hooves, give shots, even shear. We do have to remember before the next working to replace the springs on the head gate. They are wore out and do not always close as they should.

After the sheep are worked, they go into a waiting area where they get some hay and a bit of grain and wait for the rest of the herd to be done. There was a nice breeze today and it was not to bad working the flock. We love the new barn and it has come in really handy for several needs. After everyone is finished, we open the gate and with a bucket, the herd follows me back to their pasture.

The ewes are done for another 3 weeks and we are off to other things that need to be done. The above set up will be really nice for the fall shearing of the Icelandics. We will be able to put them up if it rains and shear come rain or shine.

Enough for now...

July is here...

2010-07-06T21:04:00.000-05:00

We have been sooo hot, but did have a couple of days around the 4th which were low in humidity and were great. We have had some rain as well and need to cut some more hay.

We finally got the turkey hut done and transfered the turkeys to it.

We have 5 Broad Breasted Turkeys who are about 3 months old now. The Turkey hut is a trampolene which was given to me and we removed the netting around the top and put wire around the bottom frame. It makes a perfect pen for them. We did put a tarp over the top, because it is not water proof. We used the netting that keeps kids from falling off as shade cloth on the west side. It can be moved daily for the turkeys to get fresh grass.

We think we have 3 toms and 2 hens, but still are not sure what is what with them. This is an expermental turkey project to see how it goes.

This little fella to the right is Earl. He is a yearling Jersey Bull calf. He was not in the best of conditions and was given to us. Not sure what to do with him, we brought him home for some good feed and see where his temperment was. Earl was a bottle baby calf raised for a pet to a little girl. He is very tame, but has grown up enough to be large enough to cause problems. His horns are a problem to and can cause damage to a person without meaning to.

The pictures show the sharp horns which may seem small, but are very sharp and can hurt one easily. The story we had about Earl was he butted the girl in play and knocked her down. Thank goodness she was not hurt, but the incident scared them. This calf should have been dehorned as a young calf and castrated when he was a month old, especally if he was to be kept as a pet.

I took him the Marion Clinic to Dr Doug Halbrook and he dehorned Earl. We plan on castrating him once he recovers from the dehorning and puts on a bit more weight.

Earl is not real happy in the photo, but he is safe now and we do not need to worry about him hurting us by rubbing his head on us and catching a horn on us.

We will keep fly spray on him and watch the wounds closely for any infection or problems. He is eatting well and is a bit sore. We had wormed him a couple of days ago and gave him a cattle 7 in one vaccine with tetnus. Now it is just a matter of time for him to heal up and get to know he is in a good home.

We think he is a mini Jersey becasue he is so small and once he is made into a steer, we will offer him for sale to a petting zoo or some type of simular home. He is very friendly and leads and loves to be scatched. His cute factor is pretty strong and there is no way I could butcher the little guy. We will find him a nice pet home.

HOT HOT HOT!!!

2010-06-19T17:42:00.000-05:00

Wow, has it been HOT or WHAT!!! It has been in the upper 90's with heat indexes of 105! Last weekend Mr Paul and PJ and some young guys hayed the front field. It was the first time they used the square baler and it did a great job. Now we have fresh hay. We have weaned half of the Icelandic Lambs and I am going to put my breeding groups together early this year as well. All the lambs who were born in March have done great. I am thinking about trying some hormone inserts made for sheep to bring them into estrus out of season. Perfect, maybe I can get most to lamb in Febuary and the rest of the herd in March. The lastest lambing I had this year was the middle of April. That group of ewes was from up north and used to being bred in November, a couple did lamb in March. We will use this from now on and pull the rams the first of December. We will cull any ewes who do not breed early or try and induce estrus if they are a really nice ewe. The Icelandics are a really flexible breed. They are adapting well and dealing with the heat quite well in my opinion. The Mini Cheviots and Shetlands do not even notice the heat.

The picture above is one of our Icelandic Ram Lambs. He is sired by The Trump and is a rich Moorit color and his mom is a lovely silver gray. The picture to the

right is another Icelandic Ram lamb who is probably going to be gray Moorit and his mom is gray, sired by The Trump.

We are dealing with the heat by getting out early in the morning, which is like walking into a sauna and doing what needs to be done. Then heading indoors until after 630 pm in the evening and taking care of things. One is soaking wet 5 minutes out in the air and quite often there is no breeze. It rained a bit this afternoon and cooled off things a bit. The problem with the rain is the humidity is now 100% instead of 85%. I really do hate the months of Jun, July and August here in the south. They are almost unbearable...

Wanted to show everyone a cute picture of Mr General rubbing up to Raisen as if to say, "I Love You!" This picture shows his topline really well. We took this right after we clipped him up for the show and he is out with the herd now breeding does for fall.

Here is a cute picture of a young man I took at the Goat Show. He is in a Showmanship class and getting a bit bored. His Nubian goat was adorable and so was he. He did really well and I thought it was great when he won his class. We need more things for young kids to be interested in and goats is a cheap thing for kids to do. Cattle and Horses are expensive, but goats are not and kids have a great time training and showing them. Kids can do dairy or meat goats and they are easy to handle, even for the youngest of kids. I thought everyone would enjoy this picture as I did watching him win his class.

Last, but not least, here is Grizzly driving Mr Paul's truck. He has turned into quite the farm dog and really enjoys going to the farm.

Have a great Father's Day everyone...

Weekend adventure...

2010-06-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

We have been out and about at a Goat Show. We went to an ADGA Goat show in Georgia this last weekend. We took 5 Nigerian Dwarf Goats, 3 does and 2 bucks. We did well, considering the tough competition. Oldesouth Blue Alexa is our yearling doe in milk. She won first place and 3rd place in the 1 year and under two year class. She is pictured below.

Oldesouth Mr Marine is a son of Mr General and his dam is our PromisedLand Thundersnow. He is very dairy and has the signature topline Mr General throws. Mr Marine won both his Jr Buck classes and is pictured above.

Oldesouth Galloway did well in a huge class of Jr does and placed 2nd and 4th. She is a bit over conditioned and we will slim her down a bit before her next show. She is pictured below and to the left.

Mr General won 2nd and 3rd place in the 2 to 3 year old bucks. He has just turned two and needs to mature a bit, but really is turning out to be a stunning young buck. He is pictured below and to the right.

I have to thank Mr Paul for taking most of these pictures with the new camera. He did a great job and they turned out very nice.

The picture below is Udiamond, my Uni daughter. She is growing into a beautiful doe and is pregnant by Mr General. She placed 3rd and 4th in a very competitive class of Sr yearlings. She is over conditioned according to the judges. With a much wanted pregnancy, a little extra weight is alright for now, but we will keep it under control.

Mr Paul and PJ have set up the shoot to work the sheep. It was set up in the new barn for shelter during any weather condition. I had traded some goats a year or so ago for this Billy Goat Gruff shoot and head gate. It has been sitting in one of the sheds waiting for us to decide where to put it. Now that the barn is up, we put it on the west side and have built a catch pen in front. The shoot is built for Boer Goats. The few Boers we have left do not need to be put through a shoot, but could be for hoof trimming to save the back. They just stand there for hoof trimming, etc. We planned to use the shoot on the sheep so we would not have to chase them and lift them onto a stand to be worked or hoof trimmed. Pictured below and to the right.

Sunday after we returned from the Goat Show on Saturday we worked all the ewes and lambs. The shoot worked very well. A couple of springs that operate the head gate door need to be replaced. A couple of times it did not hold and the sheep escaped. But overall, it worked great and my back was able to trim everyone's hooves. The height of the shoot is perfect for me. We eartagged for Scrapie, vaccinated, wormed if needed, trimmed hooves and resheered several of the sheep that were botched up by a so called pro sheerer. The chunks of wool left behind was bunching up and ruining the fleece underneath and needed to be removed for a clean fleece to grow out. We also weaned all the lambs which were old enough to be weaned.

Well, that is enough for now... I need to go back to work to rest....

How to Show Clip a Nigerian Goat

2010-05-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

I have had several folks ask me how I clip my goats. I personally hate to see naked goats. If one clips a goat with a 10 or 15 blade, they are naked. My suggestion is invest in some combs and clip with a comb. I wish I could get some combs for my sheep shears to control the length of cut with them in the fall.

Anyway, I use a 10 or 15 blade and depending on the time of year, either a 1/8th, 1/4th or 1/2 inch comb. If it is fall, I use the longer combs so the goats do not get cold, but the hair is trimmed short and looks neat. Baby goats have a tendency to be hairy and Bucks, well, we know about the mohawk thing they have. Buck Nigerians have a huge Mohawk along their back, which they can make stand up when they want to look the "tough guy" part. The bucks also need to have the front legs trimmed, which can be saturated in pee pee in the fall. I suggest washing the stinky boys and allowing the hair to dry. If you just clip off the pee pee, there is major clipper trauma and grundgy dull blades. Bucks usually need a bath first, but the does are very clean and usually do not need a bath before clipping.

In the late spring and summer, I clip with a 10 blade with a 1/8th inch comb. This leaves a nice, smooth clip and enough hair to make the animal slick and pretty and cover them so they do not get sun burned. With this clip they can go graze and be a regular goat without being shut up until they grow back enough to not get sun burned. Yes, a goat can get sunburned, even the dark skinned ones... I like to use just the clippers without a comb for the hooves and legs and around the head. Do not forget to clip out the ears so the tattoos can be easily seen.

I have an example of a non clipped goat above who is Oldesouth Galloway. She is in the raw with her baby coat trying to shed out and the rough looking apparance. One can see her topline and that she is nice, but she looks coarse and could have more dairy character. Dairy character is basically refinement. After clipping, Galloway is a new woman. She is clean and her dairy character stands out to impress. I used a # 10 blade and a 1/8th inch comb to clip her. The entire body is clipped and the legs and hooves are done without the comb. We leave the little poof for the tail and this baby girl is ready for the show...

The summer is coming to fast...

2010-05-20T14:56:00.000-05:00

It has warmed up to quickly. Today it will be in the high 80s to 90 with high humidity. Yesterday I was off and clipped up 3 Nigerian does I plan to show in a couple of weeks in Georgia. Galloway, a young doe, sired by Mr General really stands out in the group. She was dam raised, out of Oldesouth Annie Oakley and not as friendly as I would like, but Wow, she is nice. We named her Galloway because she is belted like a Belted Galloway cow.

We are taking Mr General and a young buck sired by Mr General out of Thundersnow. I had planned on taking Black Panther, a son of Brat, but he is to hard to handle right now and needs more training and taming. He is a brat boy to say the least. We really need to bottle feed all our kids and this would not be a problem. The time factor really limits who we can bottle feed. Some goats, even though dam raised just decide to be tame. Thundersnows kids are that way and even her grand daughter has decided to be tame. Sometimes it depends on the dam and how tame she is, other times, who knows. I have had a couple of bottle babies who grew up to be not tame, so go figure... Flash was a bottle buck who never was real tame and Blake, a nubian was the same way. But most of the time, the bottle babies are very tame and a down right pain in the neck.

Oldesouth Alexa has really turned out nice and her daughter by Mr General is very nice as well. I clipped Alexa, Galloway and UDiamond yesterday to see what they looked like under the fur. Wow, Alexa is nice for a yearling. Her sister Babette is really nice as well, but not as friendly. She may be better then Alexa, just stand offish. I choose the easier to handle goats and went with Alexa. We will work with Babette for later down the road and Babette's daughter is for sale on the website: http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/.

The picture to the right is Alexa and her daughter
by Mr General. His signature is his topline and width of body. Mr General is line bred on Eclipse who is a fantastic doe. We had Mr General flown in from up
north almost 2 years ago as a kid. His first kids will
be freshening hopefully this fall.

The picture to the left is of Alexa's daughter by Mr General. She is blue eyed like her mom with a beautiful front and lovely wide rear. He has produced some really nice kids. I have had a hard time parting with any of them.

I have to show everyone a picture of my PIA dog, Grizzly II. I had Grizzly I, also a Jack Russel for 8 years before he decided to get himself killed by not lisening... Something Jack Russels have a hard time doing. Grizzly II is no different and I am surprized he has lived this long. I think he will be 3 years this August. The cute factor goes a long ways with dogs. He is cute and is good with cats, goats, sheep and even chickens. He has raised countless baby goats and a lamb. He was raised with a cat and even though some folks say Jack Russels can not be trained to not kill, he is the exception. My Grizzly I was good as well and I have taken the time to train him from a pup to leave things alone and not chase chickens or cats, etc... Both my

Jacks have been great family dogs and can even herd to some extent.

Grizzly II is short legged, has all his teeth and has been a good natured little guy. We do offer him for stud on occation to select females for $250. We do not breed the short legged Jacks, but Grizzly II does sire pups on occation. We are looking for a nice female Jack of quality and good disposition for the future. Let us know of possible canidates...

Spring continues through a new eye...

2010-05-04T21:30:00.000-05:00

I am so excited. I have worn out two Olympus digital cameras and when my sister came to visit from Texas, noticed the great photo's her camera took. Wow, the clarity of the kids (human) playing was fantastic. It was a Nikon D60 camera. My Nikon was delivered Tuesday and the on line site at Nikon has instruction and video demonstrations for the cameras. I am ready to shoot by the time the Camera arrives. It is a Nikon D3000. It is in a kit and has the 55-200mm zoom lens as well. The picture to the left is Blake (nubian buck) looking at me looking at him. Look how clear the photo is.

Wow... no delay in the picture snap or blurry baby goat pictures. Look at the baby blue eyed Nigerian to the right.

I want to revamp the web site and get some good udder shots of my dairy goats. I really want to get some nice lamb shots playing in the field. The zoom lens should work great for that as well as the faster shutter speed. I am not a pro photographer, but have learned a bit over the years. My son Tim when he raced bicycles was a great challenge. My 45mm Cannon took great pictures, but it uses film, which as we all know is so expensive to process and put on a disk for editing. Not only that, only 20% of the shots are worth keeping, no matter how good you are.

Action shots look great too. Below is Thundersnow's daughter sired by Mr General.

We plan on milking a couple of Icelandic Sheep as well this spring to make some Sheep Milk Soap. We will use it with our Goat Milk Soap formula and compare the two. Have to include a picture of The Trump, one of our Icelandic Rams. His horns are spectacular. This photo was taken in the shade of one of the Pecan trees.

We have some nice Nigerian Dwarf Kids For Sale and a couple of adults as well. We are reducing the herd a bit to allow us room to keep more young stock. Check out the Goat Sales Page to see what is available. The new camera will help catch some better pictures to give everyone a better idea of what we have to offer. Goats and kids are tough to photograph. Look at blue eyed Dawn to the left. She is a bit pregnant. She is For Sale, bred to Mr. General.

Ultram is shown with his beautiful hornset. He is a two year old Icelandic ram. He is shown after shearing.

The ewe below is Mini Long Tail. I love the way the photo's are turning out.

The photo below is of my horse, Joe. He is a quarter horse from a cutting horse background. He will be 5 this June and is a big beautiful, sweet gelding.

We can not forget a picture of Brutus. He is our bull and he sure has filled out. We will see his first calves next January. I hope everyone has enjoyed the photos and we will be working on updating our farm website with new and better photography.

Lambing is almost over...

2010-04-29T22:18:00.000-05:00

Yes it is great to be almost done with Lambing. I prefer the lambs to be born early and will try and get everyone lambing in Feb and Mar next year. The lambs and ewes do better in the cooler weather before it gets to hot. It would be nice to wean the lambs by the end of May. We wean all our lambs at 3 months of age.

Today it is in the 80s and a nice breeze is blowing. It has been dry with low humidity, so it is nice. We still have 3 ewes to lamb. One is old Luthien who is bagging up, but probably will not lamb until May. The other two are 2 year olds, one is the lovely Ulani and the other Blackie. Neither one lambed as a yearling and Ulani may be pregnant, but Blackie I do not think so. We will have to wait and see.

The barn is finished and we have put in over half the garden. To date, we have tomatos, lettuce, cucumbers, sweet corn, collards, sweet potatos, squash, some herbs, and green beans planted. I hate to say this, after all the rain this winter, but we could really use some rain. The pastures could use some rain to get the grass to jump a bit and we hope to cut our first hay in May. The garden could use a bit of rain as well. We are watering from the well to get the crops going.

We will be skirting fleece and sending it off to the processor. If there is enough, I would like to have socks made. I am thinking large and extra large socks, mid calf height. Let us know what you think. We will only be able to carry a couple of sizes and right now, everyone we know has big feet like me...

We are experimenting with raising some turkeys. They are Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys. We have six turkey poults, which are baby turkeys. They are straight run, meaning both male and female. We have had them for a week now and they are growing quickly. We are feeding chicken starter 18% plus a bit of soybean meal to up the protein to 22%. We will make a moveable pen out of an old trampoline and place wire around it. It will keep them safe, give shade and shelter, and can be moved daily for them to free range on pasture. We will keep everyone posted on how it works.

We took the two lambs I bought from a friend to the processor and we have had lamb chops and steaks the last couple of nights. Wow! They are good, not as sweet as the Icelandic, but pretty darn good. We grilled the steaks on the grill and boy, they were worth the effort to run to the other farm and carry feed and water over there as well.

Oh, Mr Paul has fixed the water lines and we were able to move the cows to the back pasture. I had been fusing at Mr Paul for hitting the line with a trencher. When we dug it up, it had been crushed, more then likely by the fence builders when they put in the cross fencing. No matter... We now have water to the back pasture and several water access points to fill water quicker and finally put in the auto waters.

My little lamb Baby Girl is sooo cute (the picture above and to the right is of Baby Girl.) She is a shetland ewe lamb. She is black now, but will gray out. She is a pure Shetland ewe lamb and is my baby. She follows me everywhere and hollars if I get out of site. She even helped me catch a yearling Icelandic Lamb with her newborn by hollaring and getting the young mom to follow her up to the barn. She is more help then the herding dog. Baby Girl is now at the farm. I wanted to pen her with Hill Billy, who is now a nigerian wether and have him teach her to eat better. Hill Billy wanted to knock the baby around and be mean, so Baby Girl is by herself until we come up with a solution. She is nibbling grain & eatting some hay, but needs to learn to eat more.

Spring has arrived...

2010-04-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

We have been busy with spring Lambing and Kidding. The ewe to the left is Blackberry with her twins by Phanom.

In between we did some shearing. I had a pro come in to shear the sheep and was not pleased with the results. The picture to the left are the four new Mini Cheviots and what they looked like after the Pro Shearing. Yeah, a picture is worth a thousand words...

I am still not sure if our Shetland Ram will be able to breed. His penis was cut and he developed an infection and then had trouble urinating. I think we finally have him straight and hopefully he will be able to breed this fall. We also had a really nice Icelandic ewe lamb who lost a teat. Yeah.... and that is not all. I will be reshearing most of the flock due to the uneven, chunks of wool left behind. My disappointment in the shearing can not be expressed and the stress of almost loosing my ram is not worth bringing in another to shear. The young ewe had the tip of the teat cut off, which means I will be raising bottle babies off of her, which is added stress and work. I have put in for two weeks of Vacation in October and will be shearing the entire herd myself. I did it last spring and no one was missing any body parts. The awful weather last fall caused us to loose most of our prime Icelandic Fleece, which felts by spring.

We have had two sets of triplet Nigerian Dwarf kids from first time fresheners. They are both producing plenty of milk for the kids and all are doing well. All the yearlings we have For Sale have kidded. We will be selling some with their kids and some without.

Our barn is being built today and will look like the picture to the left. It will be 60 x 80 and we will have an area to put the entire flock, no matter the weather, to get everyone shorn and be able to put them up to grow some fleece if the weather turns cold, like it did last year. We will add the sides over time and enclose part of it for kidding and lambing and have a nice milking area. With the hot climate of Alabama, we will leave it open for the summer and enclose the North side this fall. The pictures below are of the building in progress.

We will be storing hay and this year plan to do all square bales, which are easier for me to handle. We have purchased a square baler and are ready to bale when the fields are ready. I hate round bales and really hate unwrapping them. I find they waste a lot of hay and the goats, forget it, they waste 50% of the bale. The goats climb on and have a field day tearing it up, urinating and deficating all over it. You can also bet whoever may have a bit of loose stool will have a blow out all over the bale as well...

We have also cleaned out the goat shed and put crushed ashfault down in order to keep the goats dry and out of the water if we get weather like last fall and winter. I had let the bedding build up to have a dry spot for the herd. The bedding is in a huge pile by the garden. We tried to burn it, but there is enough manure to not burn well and it has been smoldering for a week now. It will need to compost this year and maybe next year will be able to use it in the garden.

I am getting spring fever big time and am ready to start digging in the garden. We still need to add dirt to build up the garden and keep it out of the water. I do not want everything to drown like last year if we get a ton of rain again. Hopefully the garden will be ready by the end of the month. I have onions and garlic from last fall which never got into the ground and want to plant some lettuce before it gets to hot and bolts. Sweet corn of course and this year I want to try some potatos and sweet potatos as well.

We have also worked the rams, trimming hooves, worming if needed and we trimmed some horns as well. Snow man is pictured to the left and below. His horn was growing into his face on the left. We decided to take both sides because the other was so close as well and would eventually need to be cut. Duncan the Shetland Ram and Snow man one of the Icelandic rams needed horns trimmed. PJ, Mr Paul's son helped us by using the saw. DO NOT USE A CUTTING WIRE TO TAKE OFF HORNS! I tried this in the past and it was a horrible bloody mess and took me almost 30 minutes to cut the horn off as blood flowed. Both myself and the poor ram were a bloody mess by the time the horn cut through. A reciprocating saw is ideal and takes a couple of seconds. Unfortunately the horns have a vast blood supply and bleed like crazy.

We wrap the horn end with vet wrap and then put blood stop on the vet wrap as the blood soaks through. It does not work the other way because the horns bleed to much and wash the blood stop away. I usually leave the vet wrap on until it falls off. We have cut Saxon's horns, Snow man and Duncan. Duncan had the horns growning into his jaw and he was having difficulty eatting and had lost weight. Once they were removed he was doing great, gaining weight and having a brighter outlook, until his penis was cut by the careless shearer. Bless his heart... he has had a tough year so far.

PJ is shown to the left with the saw to remove the horns. PJ is a BIG FELLA and is a huge help around the farm.

Mr Paul went to Missouri to pick up 4 more Mini Cheviot ewe yearlings. We will breed them this fall for more spring Mini Cheviot Lambs. The demand for these little darlings has been really great and worth the trip to purchase some nice stock from Show-Me-Sheep-Farm. Thank you Russ & Gwen Jackson.

Spring has sprung and we are all enjoying the warmer weather. There for a week or so, it was a bit hot, but as long as the humidity is low and a breeze is blowing... all is well. This week we are back to normal temps for April in the south with more babies to come.

The picture on the right is Posie with her new ram lambs by The Trump. She lambed today around lunch time with Dorie/Valarie right behind her.

Dorie/Valarie is lambing for the first time. She had a ram lamb and an ewe lamb. She has a lovely udder and I may just try and milk her down the road. She has teats like my Nubian goat does.

Yes, it has been a busy day... Time to hit the hay...

Elmore County Goat & Sheep Expo...

2010-03-24T14:04:00.000-05:00

We had a great time at the Expo, March 13th, selling some wool, making Goat and Sheep sales contacts and generally having a good time. We took a momma Icelandic ewe and her ram lamb by Phantom. We also took little Hilly Billy, a Nigerian Dwarf bottle baby. It rained most of the day, but the event was indoors. Like last year, the weather was not great, but the turnout was good. We enjoyed free Hot Dogs and Goat Burgers. The cook off had some great goat dishes as well. There were guest speakers and the Goat Show for kids. The costume class is always fun to watch how the kids dress up their goats. Every year the Expo gets better and next year there will be more farm products to see and purchase. We will have Sheep milk soap and eggs for sale as well as poultry.

The pictures below & above are of some of our Icelandic Roving and Saxon in full fleece.

Sunday after the Expo one of our horses, Dawn, an old Arabian coliced on us. We called all the Vet clinics in the area and the one on call refused to come out. The Farm is 1.5 miles and no more then 4 miles from any area Vet Clinic. The Veterinarian on call said he did not work on horses at Northside Animal Hospital in Selma. We could not reach our regular vet, so Dawn received Banamine, an injection for pain and inflamation. We tried to walk her, but she did not improve. By Monday morning she had twisted a gut and Dr Lawrence from Selma Animal Clinic examined her and put her down.

Old Bertha, Mr Paul's Belgan Draft horse seemed to be doing better after a week of treating her for pneumonia. Bertha was close to 20 years old, which is old for a draft horse. After the ordeal with Dawn, I came over to Bertha's stall to check on her and she was laying down and looked as if asleep in the stall. Well, she was not asleep and had passed away.

The rest of the morning was arranging a back hoe to come out and dig a hole large enough to lay the two to rest at the back of the farm. I must compliment the men who dug the grave and placed the two old mares together. They were able to use the back hoe to position them in a resting posture. It is not easy to get large animals into a grave without them becoming contorted. The extra time spent to respect the old mares was a comfort to us.

Lambing is in full swing and the Cheviots are finished with one more Shetland to go. We have 5 of the Icelandic ewes who have lambed with many more to lamb anytime and into April. I will get pictures of the new babies as soon as I can.

We have one bottle baby Shetland ewe lamb we call Tiny Baby Girl. Her mom had mastitis in her udder and we needed to pull the baby for mom to recover. Mom is recovered and Tiny is rotten spoiled. We are feeding her goat milk, good old Ariel has raised 6 kids and now a lamb. Ariel is a Nubain doe and if her daughter can not reach her udder, we milk a gallon a day. Her daughter is an escape artist, long necked, half nigerian brat. I have even considered taking her to processor, but I know she will milk like her mom in a smaller body with a bit higher milk fat. I have added some Nigerian milk to the lamb's bottle as well and will soon be adding Lamb replacer to make the goat milk richer. Tiny is black now, but will turn gray as she grows and ages. Her mom is gray and so is her dad. Tiny Baby Girl knows her name and comes a running when called. This is the first lamb we have had to bottle feed, with this being our 4th year. We will see if she turns into a hudlum like the baby goats and so far has not tried to jump on the furniture.

The weather has been better then expected, but still below average temperatures and this morning, friday, there was frost on the ground, when the weather perdiction was for the 40s. We are preparing for our Sheep Shearing day. We have finally been able to get a professional shearer to come and the date is March 27th. We are cleaning out a part of the shed to pen up the sheep to keep them dry because rain is forcasted for Thursday and maybe Friday, with shearing on Saturday. The wool must be dry to shear. We will put the rams into one shed and the ewes with lambs into another. We will put the lambs in a pen during shearing, which will be a loud protest session from the moms and babies, but the babies will not be trampled and safe.

The picture to the left is a friend of mine, Gary who has helped us shear in the past.

WOW! We have been busy, busy, busy...

2010-02-27T21:46:00.000-06:00

We have been Busy Bees to say the least. We had a bit of snow early Febuary, but it was just a bit and did not stay long, even with warning of 5 to 7 inches, we were disappointed to say the least. We have been waiting for the rain to dry up enough to put in a road at the farm. Finally, it was time and after 12 truck loads of crushed pavement, we have a dry road!! Hooray! I can actually wash my truck.

The picture below is the road to the farm, minus the mud holes and sloppy areas.

Febuary 20th we had a surprise of our first Icelandic Lamb being born to Sarah, one of my ewes. I had put the rams in with the ewes in September hoping they would breed and lamb earlier. The thought is to breed earlier and wean before the parasite season of June, July and August. The little ram lamb is sired by Phantom and is jet black now, but may gray out and doing very well. The picture below is a week later and he looks as if to say... Watch me, I am special....

While messing with Sarah, I noticed one of the cows, Beauty with some mucus on her tail. The next morning she calved a large black bull calf Feb 21st. (left) Then on Feb 25th Christy calved a dark brown bull calf. (right)We have one more cow, Daisy the old cow to have her calf. We are not sure if she is bred and will wait and see. We have not noticed her coming into heat and Brutus is with the cows.

Both daughters of Angel, sired by Buddy have kidded as well. Babette and Alexis both had single doelings. Both are blue eyed. One sired by Flash out of Babette and the other by Mr General out of blue eyed Alexis. The sisters have really nice udders and I am milking them once daily and hope to show them this spring.

We have also been busy building lambing pens out of treated wood. Mr Paul and Billy put together 4 pens before the rain last Sunday and will finish 6 more this Saturday. After messing with hog panels and looking into pricing for metal now, wood was the option. We can fold up the lambing pens when not in use or use them to wean Nigerians in. The wood is close enough not to allow kids to stick their heads through and continue to nurse their moms. Cow and hog panels have enough room for a long neck to reach mom's udder and cow panels are large enough for the Nigerians to squeeze through until they are 5 or 6 months.

We hope the weather will improve and be a bit dryer and warmer. We are still above average for this month's rainfall and the temperature has averaged 15 to 20 degrees cooler then average as well.

The Saga Continues...

2010-02-05T13:58:00.000-06:00

Yes, another 3.1 inches of rain... and the usual foot or so of water to slop through. You all can see where I have to park the truck and walk into the water to care for the livestock. Sometimes I wonder why we do this... I know we have a major screw loose, if you know what I mean. Instead of a 4 wheeler, perhaps an air boat would be useful for getting around the farm.

We may need to put the feed room up a bit higher... The water is over the blocks we put it on, but at least the feed is dry for now. The square bales of hay are in the semi trailer shown above. The goats have enough bedding in the shed built up to be on their little island inside the sheds.

We have considered moving the buildings to higher ground, but since the property is flat, that really is not an option. The sheds are car ports and can be moved by removing the pins and taking the sheds apart. But the ground gets compacted and that is where the pooling comes in. So, we have decided to raise the buildings and add fill and gravel, that is, when it drys up enough to get the gravel and equipment in. We want to build a road as well, but again the weather has not been in our favor. The ground is so saturated, the water just sits there until the wind evaporates it. The flooding in the pictures has been an ongoing saga since October.

The poor ram taking shelter (picture below) in the hay feeder is a perfect example of the awful fall and winter we have had. March is our wettest month of the year and we cringe to see what is yet to come...

If the chickens do not drown (just kidding), we will be offering Free Ranged Eggs this spring. We are getting some eggs now, but not enough non muddy ones to sell. We are offering a limited supply of free stained eggs if you want to try some to see the difference for yourself. The mud gets on the eggs and stains them and does not always wash off. We usually eat or give away the stained eggs and sell the pretty ones. We will be offering the eggs for $3.00 a dozen.

If anyone in Selma knows of a farm close by to move some of our livestock to, please let us know. A large barn with several horse stalls which is high and dry would be perfect. We would like to rent for the next 3 or 4 months until we can get into and fill in our barn yard and raise the barn areas. Our phone number is: 334-327-9252. Our email is: oldesouth@charter.net .

Wet Sunday...

2010-01-24T12:54:00.000-06:00

As it pours down rain outside, we are reflecting on the Year so far and above are pictures of new kids. The left shows the lovely Silver Queen with her triplets by Mr General and other kids to the right by Mr General as well. We have been very pleased with Mr General's Kids, showing beautiful toplines, width and nice straight legs. His first daughter is Oldesouth Summer and she will not be freshening until late summer.

The nice Nubian is a buckling out of Raisen, sired by Blake. He is very colorful with a nice topline. His mom has a nice udder and very good milk production. We will be retaining his sister and offer him For Sale for $250. He is a registered Nubian. He is being bottle fed and is very tame. Email us at oldesouth@charter.net or call us at: 334-327-9252 if you are interested in him.

The picture above is Mr Paul's tractor. This was taken in December and I was a bit slow at getting it published. Mr Paul was moving a large dog house for me to put out for the rams to use as shelter. With 11.7 inches of rain in December, it was a bit wet to say the least. Anyway, on returning from placing the dog house, the tractor bogged down and sunk like a stone. It was close to dusk and was dark when I took the photo. The tractor had to be pulled out by a large tow truck. Mr Paul has friends in the right places and the tractor was pulled out the next morning.

The weather went from wet to cold and now back to wet. We received 2.5 inches of rain Wed/Thurs and now we are being drenched again. I have been waiting for the weather to clear a bit before slopping through the mud to care for the herd and mik.

The picture below is our new feed room, which by the way, the old room is under water once more. We had this 12 X 14 building moved in and put on blocks to keep us high and dry. We had electricity run to it and moved the small Frig and a heater into the room. I can keep my cold meds in the frig and regular meds can be kept from freezing with the heater. It was nice to have a warm place to retreat to when we had that Artic Blast. The goats of course could not help themselves from exploring the building and tasting it. So far they have not been able to figure out how to open the doors. We have a latch and double turns to keep them out. Eventually we will put up a fence to keep the brats out of the area all together.

We had a friend of ours who had purchased a new incubabtor. One of those fancy high dollar ones to breed and hatch their pure bred chickens. At the time, their chickens were not laying and mine were laying like crazy. I have some Red Production, Black Production and my favorites, Americaunas. We have two Americauna Roosters and I gathered up some eggs to hatch and we set them according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, December 29th. I had 23 eggs and had put them in a turner until we had enough to try a hatch. When the date to hatch came, I was a bit surprised to see that 22 of the 23 eggs hatched!!! They are a combo of Red Production and Americauna. They all have the beard and sideburns of the Americauna and we will see what color eggs the hens lay come July. We plan on eatting the roosters, but it will be a bit before we figure which are which. The Americauna's lay blue and green eggs. I picked nice blue eggs to hatch. The pure Americauna's have strips down the length of their bodies, so they are easy to pick out. Some are pure white, which may be the roosters (production reds are sexed by the red hens and white roosters) and the rest are redish. But we will wait and see what is what. Some of the white ones have black speckles. Will get a picture to put on the blog.

I am itching to plant a garden, but the mud puts all that on hold. Would love to grow some lettuce and collards and plant some carrots. Even with the added soil, the garden spot is under water. I think we are going to move it, but have not made up our minds. I like the location now and it is close to the water. We will have to run water to the new spot and that is what we have not decided to do yet.

We are also looking at barns and want to build a 40 by 80 barn to store hay in and the sides would be good for livestock and lambing/kidding pens. We have decided where to put it, now it is gathering up the $$$ to do it and get it done. Hopefully by the end of 2010, it will be a reality.

We have a few nice Nigerian Yearlings still available who are bred to Mr General For Sale. We are also going to offer Oldesouth Christmas Eve and Oldesouth Blue Dawn For Sale as well. They are both proven does with nice udders. Eve has the lovely black and white pattern so popular and she is blue eyed. Blue Dawn is a daughter of Blue, sired by Ceasar and is blue eyed as well. We are offering them after their current kids are weaned for $300 each. Give us a ring if you would like more information. Both are AGS and NDGA registered.

Blue had two daughters by Buddy who are spectacular. One was drop dead and had a baby doe by Mr General who is blue eyed. All of blue's kids are blue eyed. Anyway, I was excited to show her with such a nice udder and perfect topline. Then, one morning I go out to milk and feed and she is dead. We still do not know what happened to that lovely doe, Oldesouth Blue Annabelle. Her sister, a week ago miscarried and thankfully she decided to mother Annabelle's daughter. We have named the daughter Reba. She is a blue eyed pistal. She is half bottle baby and nurses off of sister Anna Lynn. Anna Lynn just decided to take over Reba and is very happy.

We are going to keep back several doelings and bucklings from the breedings to Mr General to grow them out and see what he produces. We have so many nice ones, it is hard to just pick out one or two. We will need to make room for the young ones and sell off a few of the older favorites.

We will be offering Buddy (blue eyed) and Bubba For Sale probably next summer or fall. I want to breed Bubba to Brat once more and Buddy to Blue once more. We will keep the Politician and several young bucks.

The Arctic Blast

2010-01-07T15:57:00.000-06:00

We hope everyone had a great Holiday Season. Now we are awaiting the Arctic Blast. It has been real cold all this week and we have had several days of 18 and 17 degrees at night. The mud is all frozen and we are having to deal with frozen water buckets and troughs, which is my least favorite thing in the world. We had been breaking ice for the livestock to drink and yesterday the temps went above freezing so we could thaw the hose and fill the troughs. I pulled out the ice and refilled. We may end up ordering warmers if this weather keeps up. We have not had to deal with this before. Usually it is cold at night and warms up during the day and we just wait to refill water. It has been almost a week where temps are not getting much above freezing. We are some 20 degrees below our normal temps.

We have had several kids with snotty noses and our buildings are open, not equipped to deal with the cold north and west wind. We have put up some tarps to cut down on the wind chill. Deep bedding and extra feed is about all one can do. We have lost a few kids due to chilling at night. We do not use heat lamps due to the fire hazzard. It is better to loose a baby, then loose the entire herd due to a fire. Our well is covered with a light to keep it from freezing. We have underground pipes to pipe water out to the pastures, but that is all turned off for the winter. This cold would only bust them.

We have had several Nigerian Kids born and my Nubian Raisen is due to kid shortly as well. She will more then likely have a purebred Nubian sired by Blake, my huge black Nubian Buck. Brat had twins by Mr General, a buck and a doe. Thundersnow had twins, a buck and a doe by Mr General. Blue had triplets one cold night and lost one of the bucks. She was acting strange and did not want to take care of her kids this year. I guess the quintuplets did her in. I pulled the kids and one went to her new home as a Christmas Angel present for Christmas. We still have a buckling available who is Blue eyed, sired by Bubba and very colorful.

We sell a lot of babies for Christmas. They are great gifts and easier to deal with then dogs. If they are bottle babies, they are very tame and follow one around like a dog. Some folks put diapers on them and dress them like children. I have put oneseys on The Rock, when he was a Boer baby with a diaper. Oneseys are like a tea shirt with bottom snaps. You put it on back wards and snap over the back. It will hold the diaper in place to catch urine. When the diaper sags a bunch, you know it is time to change. The Rock is over 2 years now (200 pounds) and is as tame as any dog and knows his name. Bottle babies are the best... If the baby is for a child, they learn to feed them and care for them like a baby. The goat bonds to the caregiver like a child and will even ride in a car and learn tricks. There is nothing cutier then a baby Nigerian Goat.

We have set eggs from our chickens to try a hatch. A friend of mine has a fancy incubator. I have never had much luck with the incubator I have and will let her try to hatch some. I would like more Ameraucana's and as soon as I decided to collect the eggs for hatching, they stopped laying all of a sudden. Before, there were eggs everywhere. What is with that??? Maybe it is the cold weather. I am a good detective and have found all their laying spots. We did get some and will hatch them and the Ameraucana mixes. I have two Ameraucana Roosters. The Ameraucana are the chickens which lay blue and green eggs.

Got to go for now and will try to get pictures of the cold snap.

The Year with no Fall... The first day of Winter... The Winter Solstice.

2009-12-21T12:00:00.000-06:00

The weather has been aweful... and we are Wet, Wet, Wet. We have not had any Fall, just winter since October. Today is the first day of winter, but we have had enough winter and are getting tired of it. To date we are 12 inches over our normal rain fall for the last 6 months. We have had almost 8 inches of rain so far this month. Wed and Thursday, we had almost 3 inches. Everything is flooded and the goats hate being wet.

The temperature has been 10 to 12 degrees below average as well. We have been low 50s and 40s when we are usually in the 60s during the day. The Nights are in the 30s. Cold and Wet makes for poopy butts on baby goats and snotty noses. The picture to the right and below is the herd not looking to happy and a very unhappy baby goat one cold morning after two days of rain.

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year. At least it has not rained today, and we are thankful. We have actually had 3 full days with out rain and a bit of sun, Hurray!!!

The farm is drying out, but we are scheduled for more rain on Thursday, Christmas Eve and maybe Christmas Day. Hopefully it will miss us...

We received our building early this morning. It is made by the Menninites and is made of wood, with a metal roof, 12 X 14. It has double doors and a window and vents to get circulation. We put it up on blocks, so should need a biblical flood to wreak the feed. Plus with the wood, can hang halters and put up selves a bit easier then the metal area. We will put in another window into the metal building, fill in the space with sand and use it for kidding and lambing in the spring. Hopefully it will have dryed out by then...

The picture to the left is the water standing at the entrance to the goat shed. We put a pad in front of the gate to allow us to park and deliver feed without getting stuck. That tuck is my Nissan Frontier, which I get a lot of flack for. Folks tell me I need a real truck. But it has served me well and can pull the 16 foot trailer, gets great gas milage, so I will keep it until it gives me problems...

The picture to the right is the feed room. It is so moldy and wet, it is not worth dealing with. It depresses me to even go in there.

The wet bags of used feed and so much water has made it so bad, it smells like a sewer and one can see the feed is barely above the water with all kinds of stuff floating about. It is a health hassard and that is why we need to move. I know this has been an unusual year for rain, but we can not continue to put the herd and us in danger, with the nasty water and conditions which may cause an outbreak of disease we are not prepared for. It is best to be proactive and move to higher ground.

The picture to the left is of the Pecan Orchard. It is flooded and the pecan crop is floating in the water. Yea, need a net to pick up the pecans. Maybe when it drys out, we can pick some up and have them shelled for relatives and to sell. We have a ton of the pecans, the trees were loaded to the point of breaking, but the water has them floating away and more then likely rotting in their shells.

My fancy boots have saved me a lot of heart ache with all the water. I get a lot of guff with the high water boots, but my feet are dry and others are not as lucky...

Had to include a picture of Brutus. He is that scruffy bull we bought. A bit of TLC and good feed, thank goodness he is gentle and shy. He had put on some weight and is down right handsome. This photo and most of the photo's have been the first we have had sun for some time. Brutus is doing well and our old cow Daisy thinks he is quit handsome... We think the other two are bred. Brutus is no trouble and carries genetics we want and are thankful to have been able to purchase him. I will continue to post pictures of him, he is 26 months and will let folks know how he grows out to his full potential. He is from some outstanding stock and will beef up over time. I personally love the clean polled head. If one has ever had the bloody experience of dehorning cattle, will know exactally what I am talking about. I just hope he throws the clean, polled heads in his calves.

The pictures to the left are of the sheep herd. Most are Icelandic. Some are sheared and some not, due to the lovely weather. We will get the rest in March, if the weather allows. If not, it will felt and we will use it to insulate my garage at the house. But that is how things go...

Ultram, Havvah's son is the clean up ram and we have one more breeding group to put with the ewe group. They are the shetlands.

We took The Trump and Phantom and a Boer Goat, The Rock to get semen collected. The Rock was no problem, they had a goat in heat and he did his job, a tough one and he was tired by the end of the collection. Rocky was ready to go home. Rocky is a bottle baby boer with great meat qualities and disposition. He is short, wide and long and a big baby. We also collect The Trump, an Icelandic Ram. The Trump likes goats and does not care if they are lame, blind or not sheep, he will breed them. We were able to get 50 straws off of Trump and 32 off of The Rock. Old Phantom did not like the goats and wanted nothing to do with anything. We ended up electro ejaculating the poor guy, but the semen was old and not of good quality. So we did not freeze it. The Trump had some young ewes who came into heat later then Phantom. Phantom had mature ewes who probably came into season earlier and that is why his semen was old. Usually to collect, the ram is cleaned out and then allowed to collect semen for a week or so before collection. If they go a month or so, the semen is not of as good a quality. Next year we will take an ewe in season and make sure Phantom gets a few young ewes to get a good draw fall of 2010
.

The sheep shelter on a finally sunny day. We put a large round bale into the shelter so the sheep and goats can eat while staying dry and be happy. Also the hay is not messed up by the rain. All these shelters are nothing more then Car Ports. It was more cost effective to put up Car Ports then it was to construct buildings.

We are taking deposits for sheep for spring 2010. The Cheviots are booked full and the Shetlands are too. We have openings for the Icelandic sheep remaining. If you are looking for sheep for meat, let me know and we will make arrangements. Sometimes we have folks who beat around the bush and we sell something to them that is good enough to breed and later suspect they were lunch. Be honest with us and we will be honest with you. Do not butcher that nice ram for meat when we have others to eat. I just recently sold a nice young ram and heard through the grape vine he was butchered. The buyers paid a high price for him when I have others who I have no problem going to the processor.

Be a bit proactive, put your order in for the spring lambs and we will raise them up and get what you want for the freezer. We eat lamb and goat and have no problem processing them or sell for slaughter. Just be honest with us, that is all I ask. Do not eat the high dollar ram, use him for breeding... Eat the sons and daughters who do not make the cut... I know of some goat breeders who will not sell goats for slaughter. In my opinion, that is crazy. There are a lot of wethers and other goats who are not good enough to breed, are bad moms, have messed up teats, are just plain sickly, or are hoodlums (bad goat syndrome, where the monsters, unfriendly to humans, get into everything, eat wires, dance on your cars, are on the roof of the house and cause general mayhem) and need to go... Before you whip out the shot gun and blast the brats from hell... Yes, I have had wethers who I was glad to send to the processor. They were unfriendly, mean to the other goats, hogs to the feed trough and would tear up everything and poop in the feed troughs and water troughs. They are the fat ones and the best eatting I might add...

Ok, enough of all that... But there have been a few goats I actually hated and almost shot. The ones that stay are the sweet hearts and great producers. That is what farming is all about. The last picture in the set here is the back side of the farm and the flooding after all the rain. This area has never flooded before and you can see the water standing. Boy it has been a rough year. It can only get better from here.

We at Oldesouth Farms wish each and everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay dry and warm and if we get a chance, we will post another blog before the end of the year.
God Bless...

Terry

The Holidays are a coming.... Fall is past...

2009-12-06T20:33:00.000-06:00

The Trump is pictured above and to the left and to the right with Phantom. These are the two Icelandic Rams we are going to have semen collected from next weekend. Phantom is larger and longer then The Trump, but the Trump is more handsome. Both have thick, soft fleece. Phantom has a small horn growing out of the middle of his forehead. It gets bumped and tore when ever he head butts. This makes him a bit rough looking. Phantom is a Macbeth Son, with both his parents being AI from Iceland. The Trump combines Macbeth on his mom's side with the AI lines of Laeker and Bambi. I personally think the Bambi line is the most parasite resistant and just a nice hardy line.

I feel these two rams are as good as any in Iceland and want to collect them and put into my semen tank for the future and to offer For Sale to other breeders. If the sheep can survive and thrive in the south, with the heat, humidity and parasite heaven, they will thrive anywhere. We offer genetics homegrown with the parasite immunity our breed needs. The Icelandic genetics are great, do not get me wrong, but the immunity to our American Parasites is something the Icelandic born sheep do not have to deal with. Therefore, the natural genetic immunity has not been developed. Conformationally our sheep are as good, some even better then what is in Iceland. I feel our time has come to improve our American stock with American born rams and semen.

With December just starting and knowing it will be gone in a flash, we have been reflecting over the past year. I went back over the pictures from last winter and fall. We had a beautiful fall and winter last year. It was not until the middle of March that the weather changed and we have been wet ever since. We have gone from summer to winter, missing fall. Now we are wet and cold with more rain in the forecast. We are very tired of the rain and pray for some decent weather. We have missed the window for fall shearing for half the Icelandics. We will have to wait until March.

There is so much mud and mildew in my feed room, we are going to have to abandon it as a feed room. We are pricing the Mennonite Built Small Wooden Storage barns. We are going to put in up on blocks and will have a dry area for our feed storage. It is getting to the point of concern. The roof of the metal shed drips like rain after a frost and makes for even wetter conditions. We have been having frosts since the middle of October. Now, the metal sweats and all, but with the satuation of the ground and no floor, we have to move the feed elsewhere or risk loosing it. We can use the shed for kidding and lambing jugs in the spring, if we can get everything out and let it dry enough to raise the floor with gravel or sand and put in another, larger window for air flow.

We put up the carports and storage room April 08 at the end of the 2 year drought. It did great until this March, which was the first of the flooding with over 5 inches of rain. Then it dryed up and all was well for some time. Since September, with the rain increasing each month, it is now unbearable and any metal in the storage unit is rusted. Hoof clippers, any blades or shears, forget it, all rusted in a weeks time.

I have been recording our rainfall since July 09 and to date we have had 30.48 inchs. July had 6.20 inches, October 6.10 and last month 6.5 inches, which has been the wettest, so far. The average for Selma is 23.5 inches for Jul through Dec. We are already 6.98 inches over with a month to go. The web site: http://www.rainfallreports.com/ is a free site to record rainfall and it has been quite handy since July.

My friend Mr Paul is very happy. He had his Bull Delivered yesterday, before the latest 2 inches of rain. We put him in the Ewe pasture, which we had rotated the ewes out of. There is a nice shelter with hay in it. The big boy had just come in from the range and is a bit bewildered. He went through the indignities of semen testing (you do not want to know the details), shots, worming, etc.. We are giving him a few days to chill out by himself, the next field over from some Boer Goats. He could use some weight, is long and wide, with a polled (hornless head). I think he is a Beef Master. I call him Brutus until Mr Paul decides what to name him.

We have also been busy with Christmas preparation and hopefully will get around to putting up a tree. I have to work at the hospital Christmas day and that weekend. But I am off Christmas Eve and hope to not have to cook. I am still wore out from Thanksgiving. This holiday season is going by so fast, I have seemed to miss it somehow. But we have enjoyed it all, in spite of the cold and the mud.

We wish everyone a Great Holiday Season and and even better New Year...!

A late Happy Thanksgiving Everyone...

2009-12-02T05:18:00.000-06:00

We hope all had a great Thanksgiving. I had the fortune to roast a Bates Turkey. Of course I had to doctor it up a bit, after all, I can not help myself. We purchased a free ranged turkey from Bates Farm located in Fort Deposit, Alabama. Their website is: http://www.batesturkey.com/. Anyway, the turkey's are raised in a Pecan Orchard and are free ranged. They do not use feed additives or antibiotics or hormones. They are totally awesome. They also have natural spiral cut hams which are wonderful as well.

The pictures above are of Hay Making which I have been trying to load for a bit now. The horse in the picture is Mr Paul's Baby Girl, Big Bertha. She is a draft horse. We were able to harvest some of the hay into small bales, the begining of November.

We had a lot of trouble getting the hay this fall, with 6 1/2 inches of rain in November. The garden has not dryed out enough to plant garlic and onions or greens. We even brought in more dirt to fill it in and added goat do do, but it is still a muddy mess and more rain is coming.

My son has hooked me up to a new computer.... Yeah, a fancy, super fast, super dooper, monster. Well, my photo programs do not work with it and my old computer is mad at me for switching to this new one. So it has slowed down even more, cussing at me and taking it's sweet time to load anything. My son was to hook the old computer to wireless and the new to the fast internet. Yeah, well the darn thing does not work properly and I am having to switch cables which is a PIA.

Anyway, it maybe a bit before I can get any photo's to the BLOG. My son is in the Airforce in New Mexico and it is a bit of a problem to get his behind back over here to fix things and make them right... I am not computer stupid, but not a wiz like him and his uncle. My brother Mike was a Computer Genius. Unfortunately he lived in Michigan and passed away in 2000 with a heart attack at 45 years of age. I miss him dearly, because he was a Computer Wisper and could dial in and fix anything from anywhere... My brother was one of those special guys you do not appreciate until they are suddenly taken away from you. Especally when my computer is acting up... My brother Mike was the first Computer Whisperer... You know, like the Horse Whiperer... He had a way and knack, I can not explain. Sometimes I think God needed him to work on his computers and that is why he was taken at such a young age...

Well, If we can ever get this old computer to get over being POed, we have pictures of The Trump and Phantom, ready to be collected. We are going to be the first folks in the United States to collect an Icelandic Ram for semen and freezing it in Liquid Nitrogen. I hope to do both rams and my Boer Goat Buck, The Rock. We have an appointment the 13 of December, north of Montgomery. I also have pictures of Ariel, my Nubian and her awesome udder and Angel, one of my Nigerians and her awsome udder. I know, the udder thing is weird, but when you are breeding for milk and milk production, the udder is the boss...

I am just going to use the old computer for the picture loads and posts. I really need to off load a bunch of pictures and I bet the old computer will be a lot faster.

Oh, we have a ton of free ranged brown and blue/green eggs from our hens. We have several dozen we are selling. They are $3 per dozen if you bring back the carton. If not, the next dozen is $4.00. Those darn cartons have really gone up... Anyway, the real free ranged eggs are wonderful. The yolks are a bright orange yellow and the taste out of this world. The free ranged eggs sold in the store, are not free ranged. You will know immediately by the anemic yellow egg yolks. My hens are loose with the protection of the guardian dogs. They eat grass and the left overs from the goats and sheep and cows. They are healthy and happy and lay in a 6 box nesting area I put out for them. I suggest trying their eggs and you will know exactly what I am talking about...

This blog update is a bit late I know, but life moves a bit to fast for me. We have pulled the rams from their breeding groups and most of the ewes are together with one clean up ram Ultram. More about all that later and we hope you did not eat to much turkey. I know I did....

Fall is almost gone...

2009-11-17T12:57:00.000-06:00

Somehow, I feel as if I missed October, my favorite month... We have been going in high gear and actually have harvested some hay in between the tropical storm and regular too much rain...

I love the fall, it is my favorite time of year. I just wish it would last longer and not have all this rain. I know we need rain, but come on... To much is too much...

We were able to cut 15 acres of hay and bale it up in square bales. I have trouble dealing with the large round bales and feel the small bales are of better quality. They smell sooo good... Even though as soon as they were cut, that evening we had frost... Frost will discolor the hay and make it dark and look like it is bad. As long as hay smells good, it is good.... Stick your nose into it, if it is sweet smelling, all is well...

The cows are doing well, I have some recent pictures to share with our fans. It seems weird to me, so many folks really enjoy seeing what is going on at Oldesouth Farm. But we really enjoy our farm folks, so it is OK. Black Beauty above is pregnant and waiting for her to calve next spring. Daisy, the red cow, should be pregnant and raising a steer calf.

This is the little heifer calf out of Christy who is growing well and the youngest of our Bovine Group. She is a bit shy, but hopefully will tame down to handle easily.

This is Barbecue,the little steer we are raising up for the freezer. We have a half of him reserved and a front quarter. We are looking to reserve the rear quarter as well. We hope to finish him and process him by fall 2010. If you are interested in reserving some home grown beef, let us know. He is mostly Brahmin and he is getting spoiled with all the goodies he gets to eat. He will be treated like a king and when his time to go is here, it will be quick and he will nurish our family and our extended family. That is what home grown meat is all about. I truely believe in treating my animals with due respect and good food. I only hope God will give me the same end as these animals, quick and with a great life.

We processed Chops the Icelandic Ram Lamb and he was worth the wait. Oh my... My friend Mr Paul and I have truly enjoyed the Icelandic Lamb. It is what everyone claimes and more! We only processed him in October and he is almost gone... We will process at least 3 lambs next year. The goat is almost gone as well. I love slow cooked, soups and stews and will share one of my most favorite soups...

This can be made with Lamb, Goat or Beef or even Chicken.

In a slow cooker, coat the bottom with fresh cut Onions, any type. Also cut up garlic or buy the cut Garlic and put a good 2 tablespoons of Garlic in the bottom of the slow cooker. I love Garlic and the more the better. If it ever drys up, I have garlic to plant in the garden for next year...

Anyway.... Put ground Lamb, Goat, Beef, whatever onto the onions and add enough water to cover and up to the top of the slow cooker. Add a couple of handfuls of beans (I have big hands, so 3/4 cup per handful), any type or the mixed beans available for soup. Add a handful of SHORT grained brown rice, can get at the Kushi Institute. The short grain brown rice is loaded with B vitamines and is more like a grain and will thicken the soup. The Kushi Institute in Mass. is the only place I know of on line to order. I went to their Institute back in October 2004 to learn macrobiotic cooking. Very interesting and I highly recommend them. The Macrobiotic cooking is great for treating Cancer and other problems. They cook everything fresh and is mostly a vegitarian diet. It works and I have met folks who had recovered from Cancer with their diet and methods. I followed the diet for a long time, but missed the meat and dairy. So I incorporate their methods with my own meat and dairy ...

But if I were to be diagnosed with Cancer, would follow it completely and dump the meat and dairy.

But for now... I do enjoy my meat and dairy, especally the goat milk and cheese.

Ariel, my brat Nubian Drama Queen is milking like mad, giving me 4.5 pounds (4 pounds is half a gallon) per morning. I put her up at night and milk her in the morning and leave her out with her mini nubian (half Nigerian) kids during the day. Her milk is great for cheese, drinking, etc. I will keep her daughter for a future milker. I am thinking about purchasing some Nubian semen and AI her for next year and keep her doe kids. She is an excellent milker and has a nice udder. She is a bit of a Drama Queen and pushy though...

OK, where were we... Back to the slow cooker, add sea salt (has more minerals and nutrition) and fresh ground pepper. Also add a pinch of Rosemary, Sage, Basil, a bit of Soy Sauce and what ever else you prefer. Let this slow cook all day, at least 8 hours on low and you will be sooo pleased. This is a hardy, wonderful and easy recipe for any meat for those of us with not a lot of time or energy.... With the cooler temperatures, this is a great and easy meal for the entire family.

We have 3 bottle babies, one is a Boer/Nigerian Mix white doe, one Nigerian Doe buckskin with blue eyes(Molly) and another little white doe Nigerian who lost her mom. They are For Sale on the Goat For Sale page and can contact us at: 334-327-9252 for information. We will have several wethers and young goats for sale for meat or pets next spring. Cabrito (young goat) is excellent and healthy. We are taking reservations. They are being reserved for $1.50 per pound live and we will deliver them to a local processor. You pay us and pick up your meat at the processor after paying the processing fee of $65.00. They will cut and package anyway you prefer.

I have had many requests for Goat Milk Soap and Lotion.

If you need some, email me at: oldesouth@charter.net and I will get you what you want. Most of my soap and lotion is at Mark's Mart here in Selma, Alabama. They have purchased all I can make and deal with the tax end of things... Which really makes retailing on the internet difficult and a PIA. But, I will take care of you, just let me know what you want. We have the 4 oz Goat Milk Lotion (Passion Scent) $6 and the Bar Goat Milk Soap, large $6 and small $4-$5. Hopefully in the future I can hire someone who can help and follow simple directions to make the soap and lotion. With the farm expanding, it is difficult for me to keep up and do it all with out deligation. A lot of folks can not read a digital scale, I do not know why and do not have a lot of patience for those who can not... That is why we have backed off the soap and only made a few batches this year. Dealing with the Lye turns off a lot of folks, can be dangerous and it takes 6 weeks to cure the soap properly before use...

I have to add The Man to the Blog. The Trump... He is honey mooning with a group of 10 ewes and I look forward to his lambs. The Icelandic Lamb is soooo good to eat and the fleece is out of this world. I hope to collect the Trump and put him into my semen tank as well for future use after his short life is no more. I love this ram and want to keep him around for future generations long after his life span. We hope to collect him in December after he has the girls taken care of. I want to collect Phantom as well.

This little lamb is a Superb SRX8685 daughter sired by the monster Icelandic Ram Ragnar LF194S. She is a twin, but a bit on the small side. I was thrilled to get her when I went to Lavender Fleece in Michigan. I think she will add some excellent genetics to the Icelandic Flock. She is a white, white and I have not sheared her. Due to her small size, will shear her in the spring and let her grow and not stress her with fall shearing. She is meaty and has an awesome fleece.

We have several yearling bred Nigerian Does, most bred to Mr General if anyone is looking for a good family milker. Contact us by phone: 334-327-9252 or email at: oldesouth@charter.net.

Take care everyone...