Summer is here to stay!

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!!!

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...

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...

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!

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...