Our first Lambs have arrived on Valentine's Day...

We are very excited with the first lambs of the year. The ewe is Sunshine, one of our Mini Cheviots. This was an accidental breeding of our Icelandic Ram, The Trump and Sunshine. When we were separating out breeding groups, we noticed the honey mooning couple. I wrote down the date and quickly divided up the breeding groups.


The Icelandic ewes come into season in November and lamb April to May. The Cheviot's come in earlier, as we found out. Our other Cheviot ewe should lamb end of march, first part of April bred to our Cheviot Ram.


The interesting cross has produced a ram and ewe lamb of beautiful quality. They have medium length tails, which I am not sure if we will need to dock them or not. The Cheviot's have long tails and need to be docked. I will need to measure them and decide in a day or two. The coats are a mix between the medium wool of the cheviot and the double coat of the Icelandic. It is extremely soft and will be interesting to see how it develops. The lambs have extreme high bred vigor and were lambed on pasture during the cold early morning and were up and nursing, still wet when I came up to check on the ewe.

Sunshine will be two this month and this is her first lambing. She is a lovely ewe and has a wonderful fleece. Her lamb fleece from last spring is available in roving on our website. I have dyed some of it with Koolaid and spun it up and made a couple of hats out of it. It is very soft and easy to spin.

The Cheviot's are sheared once a year in the spring and are very heat and parasite resistant. I only wormed the Cheviot's once last summer and they have been on pasture without grain most of the year. I did start giving them a bit of grain before they were due to lamb, just to make sure they were getting enough nutrition. As you can see in the pictures, Sunshine is in great shape and milking well.

We have also had some more goats born and I will detail that at a later time. We have been working on getting an electrician out to wire the barns. We have had electricity brought to the farm and have a yard light now, but still waiting on the electrician to wire us. We anticipate this being completed next week, which will be great for checking on mom ma's and we will have everything ready for spring lambing in April. The lambs come all at once, which can be a crazy time. I do not have any goats scheduled to kid in April, and a couple toward the end of May. This should keep the craziness down to a minimum.

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and we are open to suggestions on naming the two lambs. So far, the suggestions are Cupid and Valentine. Does anyone else have any names?

Take care...

A little winter thaw...

We had a good day today, the temperature went up to 67, a nice change from the 40s and 50s. We had a Boer % doe kid a nice 75% Boer Nubian. The Nubian cross is really nice and what a nice udder she has. I will get a picture of the two in a day or so.

The picture to the right is one of my Terry Goats. She is a 50% Boer and 50% Nigerian. She is a medium sized, meaty, very wide young yearling doe. She weights about 90 pounds. She is two teated and is shown a few days before having her first kid. She has an excellent udder, good milk volume, and is parasite resistant as well as an easy keeper. My friends tease me about this goofy eared little goat, but she was able to kid at 14 months instead of 24 months like a Boer and has the beef. I will breed her to a Full blood Boer at her next breeding and see how she does. She was bred to a Nigerian her first time and had a little buck. I like to breed all my first time does to the small bucks. I have no trouble with kidding, no ketosis or pregnancy toxemia and the kids are tough as nails.

We had a nice article which was written about our Icelandic Sheep in the Alabama Coop Farm News. Click on the article below and you will be able to read it.





http://www.alafarmnews.com/index.php?view=article&id=1325%3Aicelandic-sheep-thrive-in-dallas-co&option=com_content&Itemid=23


More later... Enjoy the nice weather...

February is already here...

Wow, January is over and off into February we go! We have had some kidding's since the last post. Thundersnow had a lovely baby doe sired by The Loud Politician. She is beautiful.

The pictures above are of Dixie, Snow's little doeling. The picture to the above right is my neighbor, Anna, who really enjoys helping out and playing with the babies. The lower left picture is Dixie climbing on Snow's back. She loves to play and jump and climb and Snow is very patient and very proud of her beautiful daughter.

This morning Dawn kidded twins, a doe and a buck. The buck is a chocolate beauty with blue eyes. The doe is lovely as well and has the Agouti Grey color, which looks like a Pygmy coloration. This is the first time we have had this pattern and it is beautiful, especially with the white ears and white spot on her head.

We have a couple of other does who are Boers and percentage Boers who will be kidding this month or next month. But they are spaced out, so will not be a bunch at once.

We do have a ewe who is due to lamb February 14th. She is a Mini Cheviot who is bred to The Trump (Icelandic). We were separating the ewes and rams into breeding groups when we noticed The Trump breeding the ewe. So, we will find out what the Cheviot/Icelandic cross will look like. The other ewe was put out with the Cheviot Ram and should lamb toward the end of March. I have caught up the ewes and the Cheviot is pregnant and bagging up, right on schedule.

We have ordered our seed for spring planting and I have planted my tomato seed. I enjoy heirloom tomatoes and the only way to get them is to grow them from seed. I have tried to mail order them, but they are so beat up by the time they arrive, most die. So I order seed and start my own the end of January and transplant them into a small green house by March and go from there. I have had tomatoes all winter in the green house, but with everything going on at the farm, did not have time last year. This year we plan to have a good sized garden out at the farm. I have electric netting to string around it to keep bad horses and goats from getting into trouble.

Enough for now and enjoy the romantic month of February.

The Cold is getting old...

We are getting a bit tired of the cold and sure hope for a warm up soon. We did have a couple of days of warmth, with rain. Then back to the cold. This cold, warm, cold weather gets some of the baby goats sick and we have to treat for the snotty noses. Sometimes when I send babies to their new owners, I will send antibiotics just in case they start getting sick. Goats are susceptible to shipping fever, which usually looks like a cold with the runny, snotty noses. This can happen to any goat, regardless of age. It is always best to plan and look for this, so as to treat quickly and avoid future problems.

This week has been very busy with cross fencing and power coming to the farm. Every morning has had thick frost. The fence company did our cross fencing in 3 days. The above picture is some of the new fence. The frost has been heavy every morning and the men worked hard in the cold to finish the job.

The picture to the left is the machine used to drive the wooden posts into the ground. They did a great job and we should never have to replace the fence in our life time. It was expensive, but worth it.

We were delighted when Alabama Power showed up to put in posts and run our power lines. Our property is dryer then the farm next to us, so they put up our wire and will hook us up when they can get into the field on the other side of our property line. So, it will be up to the weather when we are actually turned on.

The pictures below are of the crew and nice young man who did the work for us. We really appreciate all the work everyone has done to make our dream come true and our farm progress into the future.

Once the power is on, an electrician will come in and wire the barns and well. We will then be able to hook up automatic waters to the troughs. This will save a lot of time and labor keeping everyone watered and the farm running smoothly. The lights will save me from having to shine truck lights into the barn at 6 am to feed. Milking will be much easier with power as well.

The farm is progressing slowly but surely. We hope to put up a pole barn next year, but for now we will make due with the sheds we have and make improvements as we can afford them.

I want to thank all of our Clients who have purchased goats and we are here to help everyone when they need it. It is really rewarding to see people enjoy their goats like I do. I can still remember my first goats and how excited I was with them. I still feel the excitement with each new kidding and never get tired of spending time with them. It is rewarding to see the flock come a running when they see your truck approaching and holler a welcome, come feed us... It is all worth while to see others enjoy what I enjoy. The fresh wonderful goat milk is worth the effort as well. There is nothing as good as ice cold fresh raw goat milk.

You all take care now and more later...

The Cold Continues...

Wow, it has been cold the last couple of days. I have been off from work Monday and today. The north west wind has been rough. Even though sunny, it has been cold, officially in the 40s but the wind chill is much colder.


I was following Thunder Snow around to get a shot of her lady beard when she stuck her tongue out at me. I think she was getting annoyed... She is pictured to the left. I also noticed in the picture my orange handled hoof nippers are in the photo. I had wondered where they went, and yes I did find them...


The fence men are out doing my cross fencing. J & J fencing out of Tuscaloosa, Al. They have done all my fencing. Fencing, if one has ever tried it is one of the most difficult jobs. These folks do the job and are quick and do a great job. They are NOT CHEAP, but worth every penny. Remember this... Good Fences Make Good Neighbors... I am sure my neighbors, which my property is on the edge of a subdivision, would not appreciate my goats dancing on their cars and eating their roses and vegetable gardens.



I had misplaced my camera for a couple of days... But found it. I will get pictures to share of the machinery used to put in the fence. The posts are put in by a vibrating machine. These folks do this for a living and are very efficient at what they do. My cross fencing will be complete shortly. The cross fencing is so we can rotate pastures and control parasites. The worst parasites have a 28 day cycle. Moving the livestock to clean pasture saves on wormer, prevents resistance, and the animals are healthier. The livestock does not over graze either. We will continue to hay the fields as well which will also cut down on parasites. In sheep and goats, parasites are the number one problem and is the number one cause of mortality in young stock especially.




The picture to the left are of one of my young 100% Boer does with her Nigerian crossed does. They are so hardy and even though their ears are a bit goofy, are growning like little weeds. I dehorned them with the rest of the Nigerians. I prefer not having horns and eventually my entire herd will be hornless. This reduces injuries to other goats, especially young stock from the larger does and to me when I handle them. Some folks like horns and that is fine with me. I sometimes leave the horns when individuals ask me to do so. I usually leave the horns on the 100% Boers because it is preferred in the show ring if one wants to show one of my stock. But the dairy goats are shown without horns and are disqualified if they have them. If I leave the horns on for an individual and they decide to not purchase the goat, then I usually have to ship them for meat. Once the window to remove the horns safely and humanly is passed, it is a bloody mess to remove the horns of an older goat. I recommend having them removed by a veterinarian who is experienced in this process.



I have seen articles on banding off horns and knew a man who tried this technique. It was difficult to keep the bands in place and when the horns finally fell off, it was very painful and still a bloody mess. I do not want to put one of my goats through this. That is why I dehorn when babies, if not, they keep their horns. Blue was my first Nigerian. She had horns and I accepted the fact I would not be able to show her because of the horns. She can be a bit mean to the other goats, spiking them with her sharp horns and hooking them.



The picture to the right is Blue, my one Nigerians who has her horns. See how long they are, she is five or six now and they continue to grow. Blue is pictured here with her two blue eyed daughters sired by Buddy. Also, the horns can be problematic when one milks because you bend over the goat and can get a horn hooked in your eye. This has and does happen on occasion. This is why most dairy goats are dehorned.

The Boer's horns are curved under and do not go straight back like a dairy goat. It is less likely one would get hooked by a horn on a meat goat. But like I said, I do leave horns on when requested.

I will be glad when the temperatures increase a bit and have several goats going to new homes this weekend. You 'all take care...

Getting Ready for the DEEP FREEZE...

We are getting ready for a really cold next couple of days... I have wrapped the well in extra insulation, the water lines are turned off and drained, and I fed everyone a bit more corn to generate some heat for the night. The north wind is starting to pick up and we are expecting temperatures to dip into the teens.

I have included a picture of URosie in full fleece to warm us all up. We can all use a nice warm fleece right now. It is almost 6pm here in Alabama and the temperature is already down to the 30's. It really has been a cold winter here in the south. Between the cold and the rain, it has been a tough winter all around. We are thankful we are not up north where those poor souls are dealing with below zero temperatures. I am from up north and have experienced that kind of cold. That kind of cold is beautiful and deadly all at the same time. I remember the air never being cleaner or clearer then when the temps dipped below zero. But I have experienced slight frost bite and do not ever want to go there again.

I have experienced some hot, hot and muggy days here in Alabama, but they were still manageable and unless one had some medical problem, would not terminate one.

Enough for now, need to add some logs to the fire. You'all take care and stay warm...

Icelandic Sheep continued...

We had sent off to a tannery in Penn. a couple of pelts to see how they turned out.

The pelt on the left is a badger faced ram lamb.
We were very pleased with the beautiful pelts and will offer them for sale at the March 14th Goat and Sheep event being planned in Wetumpka.

The event will include sheep and I will bring an Icelandic or two. We will have some sheep shearing and have Angora rabbit fleece, some Mohair from the Angora Goat, some Cheviot lamb Fleece and of course Icelandic Sheep roving hopefully will be back in time for the March 14th show.

The event will also have a youth only goat show for wethers and commercial does. It is open to all age kids. I believe it will be a meat goat show. When I get more details, I will post it on the blog. We will also have a goat meat cook off. I plan on entering a dish with Goat Sausage and a dish with Goat Chops. There will be hot dogs and other food as well. If I remember correctly, after the winner is announced, the goat dishes will be offered for tasting by the public. YUM!!


The pelt on the right is a gray moorit ewe. She had a lot of color in her fleece. Both these sheep died of natural causes and were not slaughtered.

On occasion if I loose one of my sheep and they have a really nice pelt, I will remove it to have it processed. This is an easy way for people to see and feel the wool of these beautiful sheep without stressing the live animals. It was unfortunate we lost these two sheep, but saved a small part of them.

It has been a good day to catch up on paperwork and stay in the warm house. It was in the 40s when I fed today. I wormed a bunch of babies and put purple yarn around Brat's doeling's necks. Both Brat, and her two daughters have kids so similar and all are does, it is difficult to tell them apart. I marked the kids with an orange paint stick to keep track of who was treated and who I need to catch and treat. I have about 6 more little stinkers to catch and worm. I also need to put some yarn on Onyx's kids. I will then know who is who when it come time for registration. I am looking into purchasing some really small ear tags, but still have not found ones small enough to suit me and not cause to much stress to the small goats. They must be small and not big and ugly. Tattoos seem to fade and are hard to read sometimes. The goats will be tattooed because it is required to register, but If I can find a small tag, will make identification so much easier.

Enough for now...