Changes- After the Fact.

In January I added two La Mancha does to my herd. Their names are Tea Thyme and Little Alaska. Tea Thyme is my favorite goat ever. Her personality is as sweet as can be. She is friendly without being overbearing, and she is an excellent milker. Her behavior on the stand is absolutely fabulous. 

Tea Thyme

Little Alaska is also a dear. She has the warmest personality, and will win you with her charms. She is also the most conformationally correct goat I've ever owned. She does have one little quirk. About once a week she will stick her foot in the milk pail, and then look at you with a completely innocent expression, as if to say, "Why is my leg wet?" Despite this, she is a treasure of a goat, producing as much as the big girls, even though she is about 30% smaller than the rest.

Little Alaska

On March 8th Miracle kidded with twin doelings. I don't have pictures of them when they are tiny because I was at my grandfather's funeral 8+ hours away when they were born. Thankfully, Wayne was home and my dear friend, Michele, came down to assist with the birth. I named the girls Blessing and Anise. They are both little dolls with interesting personalities all their own. Blessing is very friendly and always curious. She nibbles at clothing and will climb on you if you let her. Anise is friendly, but not in-your-face. She enjoys being with you without having to be on top of you constantly.

Blessing

Anise

Baby continues to grow and flourish. She has the potential to be a wonderful milker. I am very eager to have her bred this fall and see how she freshens in the spring.

Willow Whip, aka "Baby"

And then there's Miracle. Bless her heart. I am loathe to put this picture up for you to see, but I try to always be honest about what is happening on our homestead. Miracle's condition has been deteriorating for about six weeks. No matter what I do (and believe me, she has been getting LOTS of extra everything), she cannot gain weight and in fact, seems to be losing weight. This past Tuesday I finally got an answer to the problem. She was infected with brown stomach worms. I have been deworming faithfully with Safeguard, but brown stomach worms are not susceptible to the standard dosage. When we ran a fecal exam on her she had no other parasites whatsoever, it was just the brown stomach worms. Just to be safe, since there is a good chance they've developed resistance to the Safeguard anyway, I dewormed her (well, the whole herd, actually) with Valbazen. I will repeat this in ten days and then again in another ten days to ensure I catch all the worms in the necessary life phase. In only five days she is already showing improvement. Her demeanor is better, she already seems to be picking up a few pounds, and her coat is starting to look less coarse.

Miracle

Six standard sized goats is a lot of mouths to feed for this little homestead. I was not prepared for the impact switching from Nigies to LaManchas was going to make on our pasture. I knew that they were bigger and needed more, but WOW! They burned through the pasture at more than double the rate of an equal number of Nigerian Dwarfs. I was also getting way more milk than we could use. I decided that downsizing the herd was not optional. I listed all of the goats for sale individually on both Craigslist and a couple of Facebook dairy goat groups. I prayed about which goats would sell and that they would go to good homes where they would be well cared for. Tea Thyme and Little Alaska have already moved on to their new homes. I need to sell at least one more, and my little herd will be just right for this little homestead. The proceeds from their sale is being used to complete the fencing of our property so that every available inch of pasture will be utilized. If I sell two more, then I will use the money to buy a Nubian doe. I've decided I'm ready to dip my toes in that water. Despite all the warnings of my non-Nubian loving friends, I really think I will like them. However, I am not ready to make a big leap. I'd like to get just one doe and see how it goes. Then I will be better equipped to make more decisions about the direction my herd needs to go.