Winter 2006/2007
In December 2006 we bought a pregnant, registered, pure-bred Saanen doe and a Nigerian Dwarf wether. Nettie, the Saanen, came from a very nice local gal who raised Saanens for commercial milk. She’s no longer in the goat business, which is a shame as the bucks she had were great sires & gave us beautiful kids. She raises dairy cows now if I’m correct. Last time we saw her she was chucking a big ‘ole rock at one of her cantankerous cows. The wether, which Paul named Chop Suey, came from another local lady. Here are pics of Nettie & Suey their first day at our place. The goats went into the shed we originally built for the chickens & we put up electric fence around about ¾ of an acre around the shed for them to roam & browse.
Nettie kidded on Easter Sunday 2007 with our first goat baby, a female named Ishtar. We knew her due date was coming up, so for the week beforehand I was checking on her day & night, sometimes even napping out in the barn. It was our first time being midwives to a farm animal & I thought we did pretty well. Nettie has kidded four times now, so I'm more aware of the signs of impending labor and don't have to nap in the cold barn. Although I do use a baby monitor now. Wish I thought of that before.
We still have Nettie's first kid, Ishtar, and her third & forth doe kids. The three male kids she gave us are (or will soon be) going to be in the freezer for our dinner table. We also adopted a Nigerian Dwarf buck, Pan, from a friend of ours who was moving out of state. So we’re up to eight goats right now; one buck, one freezer goat, one wether, three does & two doelings. Getting a bit crowded around here.
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