Own your own dairy goat herd!!! *Update*

*The good news is all of the girls are sold (pending pickup in a couple of cases), the other good news is that we will have more to sell next year!!! We do still have a Hopps the buck, and one of the weathers avalable*

It’s never easy to say good by, but if we don’t we are going to end up being eaten off our land.  We are excited to see these girls go to good homes, and hope to hear back on how well they milk for you!  I’m no Dairy Goat judge, so I’m not going to wax poetic about their lines or dairy character (too much) come out and see them for yourself!!  All our goats are bottle raised, disbudded, and given CDT and booster.  Other than that, they are fed organic feed and hay, and we only medicate if they are sick, or show an intolerable parasite level in their fecal samples.

We have a one year old Buck for sale, “Adalyn Farm’s Hopps”.  He’s a sweet fella, but not one we can use for breeding (because of his relationship to our other girls).  He’s been on pasture, and is probably a bit on the “well fed” side of life.  He is registered, Sire is here, Dam is here.  We are asking $250.

** Picture to follow **

Next we have Yonkers (we call her Ruth) info here.  She wasn’t in shape to freshen for us this fall, but she is ready now, and should do well for you!  We purchased her in a group from a goat dairy herd on one of the San Juan Islands, she is unbelievably friendly, and eats anything!  Asking $125. SOLD PENDING PICKUP

Goldie aka Goldielocks or “The Tank” has a great personality, her info is here.  She was a first freshener for us, and has been giving a steady 4# per day.  She threw a beautiful doeling, and came from the same great Whidbey Island goat dairy.  You need to be careful, if she likes you, she’ll climb in the car before you leave.  Asking $175 in milk. SOLD PENDING PICKUP

“Adalyn Farm’s Orchid” is one of our babies from this year.  She is out of “Marbles” one of our best behaved milkers.  She is a sweetheart, and had beautiful lines.  $175 or $200 registered.  SOLD PENDING PICKUP AFTER WEANING

We also have several weathers for sale.  We are careful with them, as we don’t want someone to buy them to steak out on brush (we call goats staked out meat on a rope, because they have no protection from predators).  We would rather they be sold for meat than end up neglected in a back pasture for the 10-15 years that they can live.  It can be helpful to have a weather in a heard of does, as they will often let you know when one of the does is in season, or for folks who only want one or two milk does, they can be a good friend and heard mate for the doe.  On the concept of meat, if you are interested, we require that you use Del Fox to  butcher the goat.  That way we know they have had a fun, relaxed life, right up till the last second.  And Del Fox does a great job on farm butchering (they do all our pigs and beef).

Want to know more?  Shoot us an e-mail farmers (at) adalynfarm.com or give us a call on the farm phone 36zero 474 742Seven.

 

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Firgus. Or, the stinky boy…

Here he is. Although you will probably smell him before you see him. Intact male goats are a bit stinky. Or a lot. But then you would be too, if you peed all over yourself. They also have a stronger ‘goaty’ smell, in part from the pheromones that help will all those non-verbal communications that help them figure out the ‘who, when and where’ of becoming a daddy goat.

I had sworn that we would never have a buck on our property.  They do smell, and badly.  However the prospect of hauling three does around the state, trying to catch the two or three day window of them being ‘open’ was not appealing.  Especially as that would have fallen to Farmer J.  With her two little ‘helpers’….  Not going to happen.

So we went shopping, and found Cuipu (the name he came with) down in Auburn.  He comes from RubyStarDairyGoats, from a great line of milkers.  The attempts that our three year old made at pronouncing “Cuipu” on the way home sealed his fate.  A name change was in order, for all our sakes.  Having just watched “Brave” the king Fergus kept coming around as an option…  Sticking with the floral theme, Firgus it was, and he now is.

Snow Day!

Most of you in the PNW will get that today was a big day.  Big snow day that is!  We normally get a little dusting once or twice each year, but with a touch over a foot on the ground at our place now, and more supposedly on it’s way, we have been loving it.  Not to say it’s without hardship.  My lunch hour today was spent pushing snow around.  Our loafing sheds were not built with the intent of supporting more than a foot or so of snow, and so, as I wrapped up with some of the day job work, and had a quick bite, I had to commit the next hour to snow clearing.  The last time I had to do this was several years ago, at about 11pm, with my wife in the hospital (20 weeks pregnant with our second child) and our first, at 4 years old, tucked into bed.  I had the baby monitor on my hip and as I struggled to the top of the step ladder with the push broom, I though to myself “please Lord, just don’t let the power go out” cue the drums, and snap lights out.  3, 2, 1…  and back on again.  I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry…

Today was much better.  I didn’t drag the SLR around with me, but snapped a few quick shots with the cell phone…

Chickens don’t mind the snow, if cracked corn is involved.  Ducks don’t seem to mind either way.  Unless large globs of snow are falling off the trees, then it’s every duck for herself!

That would be the pygora (with the high end thick warm coat) coming out of the loafing shed.  The Nubians? no thank you.

I managed to break the handle off the broom (I supposed they are not meant to push 14″ of snow around), and while in the new tool shed replacing it (can you believe I actually had a spare?) a House Wren managed to fly in the open door…  Very confused about getting out, but he finally figured it out.

Paths were cleared for the turkeys to get to the water as well.  Apparently they don’t have the ground clearance for deep snow…

The two edged sword of working from home?  I ended up working till right before dinner, cause well, I was almost done, right?

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‘Tis the winter of our discontent’

Probably better to say ‘we hope the winter of our discontent is behind us’.  I know it’s still winter, in fact we had our first snow yesterday, and they say more is on it’s way, and frankly I have a lot of hope for this winter (or what’s left of if) and for the rest of 2012.  That’s not to say 2012 has gotten off to an auspicious start.  I am cautiously optimistic that the five plus days of influenza that completely leveled the oldest and youngest members of the family are behind us.  The past week has not been without excitement, a 105 fever in our youngest was her first chance to go to a hospital as the patient (my girls do love to go to the hospital!).  Her stay was brief (less than two hours on site), and I was grateful to see them home, as I had my own 103 fever.  The only one to emerge unscathed was Mommy (Mom’s never get a break do they?)

We are as always hopeful about what the future may hold.  Our goat Pollyanna is back from her boyfriends, and although she doesn’t look pregnant, our little weather is about as disinterested in her as he could be.  She brought a friend with her as well.  Eloise has come to live with us.  And heavy with child is probably an understatement.  I’ll get some photos for her own post, but she is now the largest goat in out herd, and Polly looks small next to her…  We are looking forward to late spring, and fresh milk from our own goats again!

We have also made some feed changes at the farm.  Although we will not be getting ‘Organic Certified’ (probably worth it’s own post) we will be feeding an all organic diet to the food animals on the farm.  The chickens went Organic around Christmas, and the goats are down to the last 8-12# of 100% natural but non-organic feed.  My goal is to source as much raw organic feed locally as we can (grains and such) for all the animals.  A hoop house and more gardening are also in the plans, along with cutting out some things that we have deemed ‘time sucks’ for us.  More on that later as well…

For now, it’s a warm fire, food and waiting till things start growing outside again.

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We can’t keep them all….

It’s been hard to put this up.  She’s so cute.  So cuddly.  So zippy and full of mischief.  “Curious” Georgia is one of the two twin girls born to our herd boss “Crescendo”.  We have a limit to the number of moults that we feed especially if we can’t eat them or drink their milk..  And Georgia is just too cute to eat.  Please e-mail me if you are interested, she will need to go to a home with other goats.

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Goat milk….

So this really is just another part of the dream coming true.  One of our primary goals in living on, managing and having a farm is to be able to provide the safest, most wholesome, humanly treated, lovingly cared for food we possibly can for our family.  Yes.  We take it seriously.  Well, except for apologizing to each and every carrot we pull out of the ground.  Everything from the economics of getting a chicken from ‘fuzzy’ to freezer, in feed cost and time commitment, to the value we place on knowing how they were treated…

Some of the animals on the farm are more pet the livestock.  Really, until a month ago, the goats fit that bill.  Fiber is fun, but neither Farmer ‘J’ or I knit with any diligence.  Enter Ariosa.  We are ‘borrowing’ her at the moment, and she will return home by the end of July (for fair season).  She is a fiber goat, not a dairy breed, but she does well despite this ‘flaw’.  Our biggest hang up with transitioning from a ‘work for money, buy food’ to ‘spend time, harvest food’ has been the impact on our schedule.  We both grew up in ‘the White Ghetto’, and the flexibility to run here, and there, and back over there again is deeply engrained in our subconscious.  Dairy animals have a way of impacting that.  Even if you leave the kids on mom for a few months, you still have to be there, once a day, at the same time, to milk.  It’s kind of like having another job.  We weren’t sure how well it would work for us, and after several weeks, the novelty has worn off, and really, it’s cool.  We all like the milk (even the baby, who will tell you “No” if you ask her, but at the moment she can only say “No”, unless it’s candy).  We have made some yummy yogurt, and once we’ve gotten back up to a gallon in ‘reserve’ we will run a batch of feta and see how that comes out.

We are only getting a shy half gallon a day, and could use more, but we’ve heard of dairy goats giving up to a gallon per milking..  So we’ll just see what comes.  Next up is saving the $ for a good bottle raised dairy goat.  We’ll get her freshened in the fall and be counting the days till next spring…

Oh, and as far as the raw milk (gasp!) thing goes, read up on it if you want to pick a fight.  I still think what we bring in from the goat yard is safer than the half gallon of organic milk we buy from the store.  I know what the goat is eating, how she’s feeling, how the milk was handled, and soooo much more.  In my mind, pasteurization is a band aid for a lack of trust and faith in our food system (probably well placed).

So here it is.  One half gallon half gone, another one behind, and the morning quart chilling in an ice bath.

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Baby Goats!!

I am not sure of any other animal on our farm that has brought us as much happiness as our goats have.  (Don’t tell the dogs, or then again, go ahead.  Maybe then they’ll stop puking on the floor after eating too much grass…)  They are happy to see us, and are friendly and full of personality.  Our herd has risen and dropped in number over the last few years.  Most of this is in reaction to the pure cuteness of them, or having too many mouths to feed (see this post, and this one,  …)  And here we go again.

“Crazy-chendo” (really Crescendo) and Legato have both kidded over the past week.  Crescendo threw twin girls (YEA!) and Legatto had a single buckling.  It’s going to be interesting to see how this summer progresses, and it’s already been worth it to see the little ones scamper about like wind up toys…

Answering the age old question ‘him or her?’

Sweet little girl…

Poor little boy, soaking wet and sticky…  Momma had to take some talking to before she got to work licking him…

Meeting our guard Llama ‘Sampson’.

What a week….

It has been. A long week. I was really hoping to have some photos to post of the new little critters, but when I finally drop back into the house after chores at midnight, and have a 5am wake up for morning chores so I can go off farm to work for half the day, some things just don’t happen… In fact sometimes a lot of things just don’t happen. Especially when you add in a golden retriever with the trots…. Who doesn’t love carpet cleaning at midnight?

It’s been good though, One of our two does has kidded (twin girls YEA!) and the other looks like she’s ready to go. OK so I’ve been saying that to our nephew for the past two days (he’s staying with us till she pops, he wants to see the babies, and loves doing some ‘part time’ farming). We still have a brooder full of growing chicks on the porch. The garden is a slow start this year (we have had hard frosts for the past two nights), but I think once it get’s rolling, it will explode! Bees come in a week (or so..) and this weekend is gong to be a lot of mowing!

Hopefully we will also be posting some photos of the last week or so here by the end of the weekend, before we dive back into another full week of work, and farming.