Goat Commune

Catching Up

2011-10-05T09:29:00.000-06:00

Wow! It has been a long time since anyone has posted anything about our experiment. Here's the brief run down:

Bought more goats, now at 8
Milking goats
Lost some people
Milking goats
Cleaning the machine at the farm
Milking goats
Getting Hay
Milking goats

The weather is turning into Autumn so the temperature is dropping a bit which is a time we all look forward to as it means we are getting close to drying up the goats and taking a break.

Planning for the Future

2011-06-23T12:05:00.000-06:00

We have sold all of the baby goats that we were planning to sell. We are keeping two, a boy and a girl. The boy we are keeping in order to have a breeder on hand instead of having to round one up each year. One of the members has some family that has some area that we will be able to keep it so that we won't have to have it mixing with the females while they are milking. He will remain 'out to pasture' until his specialized skills are needed.

The female, one of us will take home and keep until next breeding season, when we will add her to the milking herd. She is a white Saanen, which seem to give the most volume of milk, so that should increase our production.

We have also added several families to the Coop. They are each taking a milking time. Some of them travel quite a distance so I'm hoping they are really liking the milk or else they are wasting their time. Nevertheless, I'm happy to have them aboard.

Milk Machine Cleaning

2011-06-02T10:47:00.000-06:00

We are looking at changing the way we clean our milking machine and handle the pass-off from family to family. Currently, we milk the goats, take the machine home to hand clean it, then drop it off to the person doing the milking the next day. We are experimenting with leaving the machine at the farm so we don't have to keep doing the pass-off.

We have cleared out an area near the milking stands which has a gate to keep the goats out. We will have a few buckets and cleaner there. Once we are done with the milking, we will empty the machine into our own container, and fill up one bucket with water and cleaner(we use Clorox) and the other with clean water. We can then use the pump to suck the water through the machine. Swish it around to make sure we don't miss any spots, then dump it out and repeat the process with the rinse water. We will then hang it up to dry. Some of us have set up a drying station with curtains and covers to keep any dust/insects/racoons out of the machine while it is drying.

Way back at the beginning I used the pump to clean the machine and it goes through the water lickity split. If this turns out to do a satisfactory cleaning job, it will cut more time off the milking process. Which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Once more into the Breach

2011-05-16T15:25:00.000-06:00

It has been some time since anyone has posted anything, but that is mostly because life is pretty quiet during the wintertime with the goats. We get them pregnant during the winter so there isn't any milking going on. Which means that it is quick trip to feed them only. We've had our minions doing that feeding after their school so it has been quite a while since I have been over to the farm.

The last month has been somewhat exciting as all the goats have delivered their babies. We had some hard luck with the first few birthings. We lost several of the baby goats which we think might be because of some of the cold weather we had during this time.

We also had our Spring cleanup which was very needed due to all the buildup of muck in the manger area. I don't quite know why all the goats love to go to the bathroom where they eat, but that seems to be where they all do their business. Things are much nicer now.

The goats are still nursing their babies so we are only milking them lightly, not getting much milk from them. They should be getting old enough to wean pretty soon and we'll start selling them off and going into full milk production.

But until then, we'll enjoy having them around the farm.

Fall Cleaning at the Farm

2010-11-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

We had our semi-annual Farm Clean-Up Day a little bit ago. When we got there in the morning we had a herd of friends waiting for us, but they didn't seem to want to really stay and help out but that was ok because that kind of help isn't very useful anyway.

We had lots of other hands to help out in all the work that we had planned. Which wasn't really all the much, but it took quite a bit of work to get it all done. We mostly just cleaned up the farm and moved in the ton bales of hay that we have gotten in the past few weeks

One of the things I'm glad the minions did was to muck out the manger area. That is always a dirty, dusty, smelly job. Trents minion took to it with gusto though and was having a great time digging all that stuff out. The only good thing about that is that we now have a large pile of excellent compost for gardens come Springtime.

. Moving the hay was a real hassle. Since there wasn't any way to move the ton bales themselves through the narrow doorway, we had to move them a slice at a time. We would set up a tarp next to the bale, pull off a bunch of hay onto the tarp, and then drag it into the barn. It sure is amazing how much hay 1 ton actually is when it is all spread out instead of bunched up tightly into a bale.

These are 2 different pictures of the spot we store the hay in. The left is after about 1 1/2 bales have been moved in. The right is after all 3 bales were moved. They are from different angles but you can see how much further out the stack is by comparing the other stack of regular bales on right hand side of the storage area.

Naturally, once the hay was all moved, everyone had to take turns swinging on the rope and landing in the hay.

2010-09-24T12:50:00.001-06:00

Well I think the motor is now working properly, I checked it this morning and it has stopped binding up. It may have just needed to be broken in. Let me know if there is a problem.

Problems at the Pump

2010-09-23T21:27:00.002-06:00

Apparently our pump broke down a few days ago. I didn't hear anything about it until it was fixed, but I feel for those that had to hand milk for the time that it was being repaired. Now that it is fixed, it sometimes binds up and the internal motor won't spin. It is easily fixed by manually turning the motor back a few degrees. The best way to do that is to use a metal rod and get some leverage on the fins attached to the internal windings. Then push them clockwise. Looking at the end of the pump face on, here is what to look for.

To further illustrate this process we have a short training video to become familiar with in case you are called upon to perform this procedure in the course of your duties.

Hopefully this will not be necessary once the new parts become worn in. If it continues, it'll have to be taken apart and re-examined to see what is causing the internal winding to become bound up. I have left a metal rod that works well for this on the left side of the pump.

Stuffed Zuchini for dinner

2010-09-23T09:11:00.002-06:00

I applaud you in your efforts of trying to be 100% self sufficient. I have tried to find ways to do that myself, but often get some crazy looks at my house.

If you are looking for a dinner that is made all homemade I think I have found one for you if you like zucchini. Here is a recipe that a neighbor just told me about and we tried last week. Since I have only made this once I haven't perfected it quite yet, but it definitely has potential. If anyone has any adjustments please post them so we can all benefit from them.

Take a large zucchini (we used two medium sized ones for our family of 7)
Cut it lengthwise in half. clean out the seeds, making a trench.
You may want to steam it for about 10 minutes in the microwave to soften it. (you can make your stuffing while you do this)
Use your yummy sausage from you newly slaughtered pig, fry it up and place in the bottom of the zucchini trench you have made.

Stuffing:
1/2 c finely diced onion
3/4 c chopped celery (I passed on celery since I didn't have any, still turned out delicious)
1/2 c butter
4 cups homemade bread cut into cubes
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Saute onion and celery in butter (and sausage drippings if you would like) until softened, but not browned.
Stir in about 1/3 of the bread cubes. Pour onion mixture into a large bowl and stir in remaining bread cubes, poultry seasoning, and pepper. Mix well, this stuffing is ready for baking.

After you have heaped stuffing on the top of each of the zucchini halves, place in the oven on a cookie sheet, uncovered, on 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes (or until zuchini is tender and stuffing is crunchy).

2010-09-13T11:38:00.002-06:00

Well I have looked forward to this day for a while now, although the dream is not quite realized yet, I'll explain that a little further on.

This morning I ate a meal that was (almost) completely home-grown produced by us. I had sausage from our pigs (which by the way, far exceeded my expectations, it was awesome), eggs from our chickens, patty pan squash (sometimes called peter pan squash) cooked up with the eggs, home made bread with honey from our bees and unfortunately the butter was Tillamook butter so it was not produced or grown by us, I will work on that and see what I can do. Fresh awesome raw goat milk from our goats, that's pretty good ,I think coming from a suburban home in the middle of a neighborhood that's really good. So except for the butter (and the salt and pepper) everything came from our own production.

I am working to have a full blown real meal completely produced by us, that is the real dream, seems that breakfast is easiest but I want to produce a full dinner without skimping. I will keep everyone posted and by the way if you have some good recipes please post them here on the site, thanks.

Kill The Beast!

2010-09-02T22:31:00.001-06:00

For quite some time now there has been a rash of chicken slayings at our farm. Nearly 50 chickens have lost their lives to some fearsome creatures that have been preying on them whilst they slept. In the dead of night it would slink through the woods, coming ever nearer to the poor ladies who were trembling in fear, as they did each night. Terrified of the scratching that would come at the door, more terrified of the beasts that would come through the door and visit blood and horror upon them. They would run stark raving mad, each trying to escape the death that came each evening. Yet in the morning, each would look upon the sunrise with relief, delighted to live another day, yet ashamed that a sister had to meet a terrible fate of claws and fangs, in order for them to live a while longer.

Trent had been trying to trap the unknown creatures with the bear-claw type traps but he wasn't having much luck. As a matter of fact, the creatures absconded with one of his traps, which had been staked deep in the earth. Letting us know that this was no ordinary beast we were up against.

Some futile days of effort later, a kindly neighbor put out another kind of trap. A little less deadly, but it was more effective because the culprit was soon apprehended.

It seems that a family of raccoons had discovered the buffet that an unguarded chicken coup can be. There seems to have been quite a family of them because 8 have been trapped, and 2 have been seen dead on the road. We saw another one tonight as we were finishing up milking. This little monster was thrashing at growling me as I came near the cage, giving me the evil eye. I suppose that I wouldn't be too happy to be stuck in a cage either. But for the death and destruction it and his ilk have caused, there is only one sentence...DEATH!

As I've said before, I used to think Trent was a soft-hearted guy but I might have to adjust my thinking. When I first saw Frankenstein and how the townsfolk destroyed him so easily, I found it hard to believe, however, seeing Trent the Vengeful wielding a pitchfork made me rethink how deadly it is to be on the receiving end of one of them during a peasant rebellion. No wonder the Devil uses them to spread misery and agony.

Red Letter Day

2010-08-07T22:07:00.000-06:00

Today was a Red Letter Day. I'm not exactly sure why that means a good day, at least, I wasn't sure, but after looking it up, I am sure why it means that, gotta love the Internet......

So Anyways, it was a Red Letter Day for a couple of reasons today. First and foremost, we sold off the Moocher. That is what I have been calling the little horned goat that has been mooching food, water, and lodging from us for the past several months without giving us anything in return. We had a guy come a pick her up tonight as we were milking. She wasn't a bad goat, for a moocher, but I think that as a group we are much to easily taken advantage of. We keep falling for the big eyes, and sad stories, and keep letting these non-productive members of the commune moocher off of our tender hearts. There were the ones last year, and this one this year. Most people would just turn them on the street but we never seem to do that. It is time we learn some tough love regarding these things.

The other good thing is that the Moochers friend, the littlest goat, has finally gone through the whole milking routine without any intervention or help. She is still a little shy, but did it all on her lonesome. She is always in the last set to be milked, so I was getting her companion going and seeming to ignore her. In reality I was keep a sideways eye on her to see what she would do. So she comes into the milking area and back to the eating area a few times, kinda like she is waiting for me to do something. I've got my hands full at the moment and she finally gets tired of waiting for me and walks in, jumps up on the stand, and starting eating. She didn't even jump when I closed the stocks around her head. After the milking was done, she jumped on down and joined her compatriots. Gold Star for me! The next step in her training is to get her to fight to be the first one in like the others do.

The other night it was time to trim the toenails. That is another nasty job that I'm glad Mike does. But it isn't nearly as simple as it seems. Here is a picture of the crew that it took to get it all done. You wouldn't think that those things could put up such a fight, but apparently for a woman, breaking a nail can be a catastrophe!

Growth Spurt

2010-07-19T12:40:00.000-06:00

We have had a growth spurt here in the Commune, but instead of goats, it is with new ~~sucker~~s..err members. A few weeks ago Dan joined the group, and now Jen and Desi are joining in the experience as well. The more the merrier, spread the wealth, many hands make light work, and all that. For me it just means less times I have to milk. This is the time of the year that my hay fever reaches a fevered (hah) pitch and as soon as I walk into the barn I start to get that itch in my throat, that one that sits right near the back where you can only scratch it with your tongue and while scratching it feels ohh soo nice, but the second you stop it is torture so you don't want to stop but while that itching feels good, it sounds like you are choking so everyone nearby looks at your funny and runs over and starts giving you the Heimlich. Then the sneezes start and the snot faucet turns on. Pure misery.

I know Trent would say that it is because I'm not drinking the goat milk, if I did it would cure my allergies, as well as my greying hair. To that I say: I've been taking a spoon full each morning along with my vitamins. So far no luck. However I don't think my heart is really in it so that could be holding me back.

Nevertheless, welcome new members!

Training Day

2010-07-12T15:30:00.000-06:00

We have sold off the White Saanen that was giving us grief due to the mastitis that it had. It is too bad that we didn't handle that better, but it is a lesson learned for next time.

The next task is to teach our newest goat to come in and get up on the milking stand all by herself. She is still pretty shy of me, I have to lure her into the barn, then grab her collar and lead her over to the milk stands. This last time, she only needed a bit of prompting to jump up onto the stand herself. The times before that I had to drag up so she is slowly learning. The first one of us that can get her to do the whole process by herself gets a medal.

The heat is here to stay and it looks like the milk is slowing down a bit. One of the pastures is mostly dry and I'm not sure if the goats are eating anything out of it anymore. We are getting low on hay and will have to make another hay run at some point in the near future. With just 1 more goat to sell, things are looking pretty stable for the time being.

The Farm has a Visitor

2010-06-24T22:44:00.002-06:00

While driving up to do the milking this morning we saw this visitor. It isn't unusual to see deer at the farm, but normally they run away as soon as we pull in. This one just slowly meandered along the road as we drove in, only moving when I just about ran it over.

Milking has stabilized a bit for now. We seem to be getting between 33-38 lbs depending on the time of day. The heat has been cranking up but it hasn't seemed to affected the milk out put yet. We'll see if it does as our hot streak continues.

We have sold off the last baby goat, the little spotted one. We are now just looking to sell off the horned one and the other Saanen that had problems with it's udder. It is probably only good for meat now. We don't milk it, obviously, but it keeps poking its nose in, watching the whole process. I sometimes feel that it is just watching me, waiting for the moment that it can take revenge for all the pain and suffering I put it through when trying to work the mastitis out. It still won't let me near it, just runs away when I walk towards it, or even look at it with my steely gaze.

As a side note, the pigs that we got a while back are getting big. I can just about taste them now. We had a brief meeting about them and it seems like in about another month they will be ~180 lbs, which from the research that has been done, is about the right weight to butcher them.

We went to feed them today(milk the goats, feed the pigs, get all the unpleasantness over in the same day) and I see that they have a mud wallow now. They were really loving it in today's heat. I hope they are enjoying it while they can, because I'm certainly going to enjoy them for breakfast in just a few weeks.

One question we, at least Will and I have this question, has to do with the bacon. I've had bacon that was pretty much straight off the pig and it was horrible! Tasteless, bland, almost made me want to give it up. I'm hoping the butcher handles the hickory smoking of it. If not, we are going to have to figure out something to turn it into the deliciousness that it should be. Same thing goes for the ham I suppose. I don't think it honey glazes itself. One of us has a butcher for an uncle so hopefully we'll get some information on that.

One other incident happened while up at the pigs. We have an electric fence around it and after we were done and I had hooked it back up I didn't hear the normally sparking of it. I was wondering if it had become unplugged or something so I'm following the power and find it all looks normal so I touched the fence and got a slight zap. Very slight, almost tube sock on carpet slight. Since it was so light, I talked my minion into touching it, something his rivals have done before which led to much bragging at home. So my youngest minion puts his finger on it and I hear this big *Zap*! He jerks his finger away and starts crying. I think the capacitors must have had time to charge up with all the time it took me to convince him it didn't hurt and that he should touch it. Well, that is some trust broken right there. Although he did brag about it to his rivals later that night.

Making Cheese

2010-06-23T13:43:00.004-06:00

We've been getting about four gallons of milk per day (two gallons per milking, two milkings per day: Once before I go to work, and once in the evening. You do the math.) This is approximately two gallons too many for what we consume as a family. Yes, we have a family of six (two adults, four children... or maybe we should count that as one adult (my wife) and five child-like people), but we aren't big dairy consumers. Not enough chocolate chip cookies, I guess, for dunking.

So... what to do with the extra milk? Well, we do lots of neat things, but this post is going to focus on how I make cheese with it. So far, I have made several batches of Feta cheese and am trying out some Amish Roquefort, but that last one requires some time to age. I'll keep you updated.

First, I went to the grocery store and found myself some culture in the form of some crumbled Feta cheese that still looked pretty active. This process wasn't painful. I like to buy cheese!

Second, I got out my Large Orange Pot, a three gallon ceramic coated pot I located in some bygone era at TJ Max, nicely colored a pumpkin orange. This is what I use for large amounts of cooking, usually chicken stock, but in this case, it works great for cheese. I placed it on my most powerful burner on the stove, poured in two and a half gallons of goat milk, and lit the flame!

Oh, but first I put a digital thermometer in the milk so I can keep track of the temperature. A digital thermometer is the most useful kitchen device I can imagine, outside of a good chef's knife. I own several, with one still in its packaging, so I can properly grow culture(s) in my kitchen, such as bread, yogurt, and CHEESE! And you thought culture was something you had to go to finishing school for. Wrong! You just need a little starter and the right temperature. And time. And medium to grow it in. And patience... Ah, just keep reading!

I set the alarm on the digital thermometer for 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot enough to kill off any competing bacteria, but not hot enough to break up or denature the sugars and proteins my culture will feed on. Once that alarm went off, I turned off the stove and let the whole thing cool down.

I look for everything to get down to 100-105 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a perfectly cromulous temperature for bacteria to grow in. This also happens to be the temperature at which I start the yeast for my bread making, but that is a different post (and maybe a different blog). This cooling takes a while. Go do something else and walk by the stove now and again.

Once you are at 100-105 degrees, pull your starter out of the fridge. I took out about a fourth of a cup and mashed it up into a bowl so all potential culture was exposed, and then whisked it into the warm milk. The pot then went into my oven, a Kitchen Aid (oh, fancy!) that has an outstanding feature: a bread proofing setting! Yep, I can set my oven to stay at 100 degrees, although it only stays on only for twelve hours at a time. For bread making you I can't see why you would ever proof for more than a hour (pizza dough?), but for cheese making this is wonderful!

If you don't have such an oven on hand, I have heard of other cheese makers using a heating pad, placing the pot on that, and then fiddling with the heat settings to keep it right in that sweet zone of bacterial happiness and growth (the SZOBHAG ("zop hag") for those of you following along at home).

I often put the milk in the oven before bedtime, and turn it off and then back on again in the morning so I can get a full twenty four hours in as a minimum. Sometimes I've let it go up to thirty six hours of SZOBHAG.

Here is the cool thing about this method: most cheeses require an acid (rennet, lemon juice or vinegar, usually) to clot or curd up. If I let my Feta culture go this long, it curds up nicely all on it's own, and when I remove the pot I find an island of raw cheese floating on the top of a couple gallons of whey. Sweet! No extra ingredients! No extra expense! Cheap cheese with no additives!

I now set out a mesh colander, set inside a large bowl or five gallon bucket. If the grating is too wide on your colander, you might need some cheesecloth, but mine is fine enough that it catches the curds just fine. I scoop the cheese out using a "spider" I also use for pulling stuff out of broths and hot oil. But in this process I have also used a large kitchen spoon and just let the extra whey drain through. I find that I can get 98% of the curds out this way, and I just leave the rest of the curds in the whey, still in the big orange pot.

I now need to let the curds drain for at least a half hour. But since cheese without salt is really bland, and since I've been known to forget to add salt until it is much too late, I sprinkle on some kosher salt at this point; the ratio that works for me is one teaspoon of salt per gallon of goat milk. But I only want to add salt at this point (after the culture has grown) because bacteria generally don't like salt and if the milk is too salty, they won't grow, with the result that you have no curds, and no curds means no cheese.

So go do some other stuff (the bees need tending to, don't you know), and when you next drift past the cheese, you can give it a light stir to mix in the salt and let it drain more.

Once it is dry enough for your taste, you can sprinkle in some herbs (basil, thyme, mint, and oregano all are nice), and then do one of two things:

Put it in an airtight container, and store it in your refrigerator. Crumbled Feta is lovely in a salad.

OR

Put it in a cheese press, compress it, and make a nice round cake of cheese, perfect for your next social event along side some crackers and fresh sliced vegetables.

You'll want to keep this cheese in the fridge, because it has no preservatives, and although you pasteurized the milk by bringing it almost to a boil, I do note that it does tend to go bad rather quickly (within three weeks) in my fridge. That is, if it lasts that long before being consumed.

And that whey? Gold, baby!

Use it to feed your chickens or pigs. Use it to water your garden. Use it (instead of water) to make some lovely tangy imitation sourdough bread. Feed your house plants. Grow your vineyard. It is packed with protein and nutrients that other living things just love. Heck, I know someone that sweetened it up and made something kinda like lemonade. But that last idea sounds pretty nasty to me, so I just convert it into other food (eggs, grapes, tomatoes, bread, etc.). I might make some whey-ade if I have a visitor that is staying too long, though. Nothing like the tangy smell of sweaty feet to drive the unwanted away!

Getting back to Normal

2010-05-27T09:08:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since our last update but there has been quite a bit of activity within the Commune in the past while. We have finally sold off all the LaManchas(short eared) goats!! Hurrah for that. We have 3 new Nubians (a bit redundant there), 1 of which we are milking, 1 just had a baby, and the last is supposed to be pregnant but she doesn't look like it. Not sure if we got ripped off on her or not, time will tell.

Now while the baby LaMancha's were kinda cute, they don't really compare to the cuteness of the Nubians babies. I would never have thought that ears make that much of a difference, but they surely do.
With getting rid of all the LaMancha's the farm seems quite a bit more empty and the milking times seem less like a circus than before. Our milk production has been pretty good, consistently over 40lbs, a few drops below every now and then, but the 6 goats that are currently being milked are doing better than this time last year. If it remains at this production level, we may get rid of the 2 Nubians we are currently not milking; the new Mom and the Not-Sure-If-She-Is-Pregnant one.

Our other new Nubian is a dark chocolate brown and gives a lot of milk. One odd thing about her is that if you touch her, she immediately starts to lean against where she is being touched. The first time I milked her I had her up on the stand and my shoulder was just barely rubbing against her side as I put the milkers on. She started leaning into me and I gave way a little, she just kept leaning and nearly leaned herself right off the side of the stand. I've learned to not touch her when milking her anymore, but if I do need to move her, I just put my hand on her side in the direction I want her to move and she starts leaning. When she is where I need her to be, I just remove my hand. Interesting conditioned response she has learned.

The white Saanen that had the bad udder took a turn for the worse. Her udder just didn't get better, and eventually it seemed to split open or something. Some sort of protuberance has burst through the udder wall. It is quite disgusting looking, kind of like in Alien when the implanted egg finally hatches and rips it's way out of the guys chest. We're not sure what to do about it, but we suspect that her milk days are over.

We are losing one of our new families that started milking with us a few months ago. They have some other things happening and goat ranching is not something they can do right now. That means that we are going to either have to find a replacement, or start rotating the extra day as we did before. I'm hoping we can find someone to fill their spot.

This is quite a commitment and responsibility that someone takes on when they get involved in something like this. As I've stated before, I've got respect for those that do this full time for a living. This once a week is more than I enjoy most times. But in an emergency/tragedy/disaster, we'll be able to drink some nice warm goat milk, which is more than many will be able to do.

We're havin' a Barn Raisin'

2010-04-26T09:07:00.002-06:00

Part of our arrangement with the owner of the farm area is that twice a year we would put in a work day. He has some tasks he needs completed so we would handle those as well as anything else we see that needs to be done to maintain the place. Our work day was this past Saturday and there were lots of helping hands. The only task the owner had for us was to paint this little out building. This is the place we originally milked the goats but we've moved them over to the bigger barn. We currently have 2 billy goats here, we need to keep them separate from the nanny goats or they ruin the taste of the milk. Needless to say, with this many willing hands, the painting went quite quickly, I think much more than the building got painted though. Many of the kids came home with speckled faces from paint rollers, others were almost covered from head to toe in paint. The ground got a coat, so did the wire fence, the tin roof, the goats, and 2 or 3 roosters. The kids seemed to be smiling but I think the painting fore(wo)man was nearly pulling her hair out in frustration with some of the kids. But she exercised patience and let them have their fun.

Some of the other things we did was to muck out the barns. What a nasty job this is. I've done this quite a few times in my life and it is never fun, the only thing I'm grateful for is that it wasn't pigs. Out of pigs, cows, horses, chickens, and goats, pigs are by far the worst. Even at the best of times, it is still a horrible job. There was one corner that we must have dug down 2 feet to hit the bottom. There were two digging and two running the wheel barrows. I knew those diggers had some stories, but they way they were slinging that morning was something to be seen!

There was some general maintenance work done as well. In replacing some boards we came across a bunch of old nails. The handmade kind where each nail is its own unique masterpiece, different from all the rest. I am so grateful for standardization and the assembly line, it makes everyone's life that much better. Those old nails do give a bit of a timeline for how old this barn is though. I'm not sure when hand-made nails went out of fashion, but it was definitely after this barn was built.

All in all it was a good few hours of work. Some much needed mucking was done, painting, and general repairs to make life easier for all. If that darn baseball and soccer season hadn't gotten in the way, we could have gotten more done, but we did get all the necessary stuff, and some extra, completed.

If anyone needs some compost or fertilizer, thanks to the Sharp and Allsup minions, we have a great big pile ripe for the taking.

Certified Goat Ranchers

2010-04-15T13:04:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what is happening, but my last post was about selling off some of our goats and shrinking the size of our herd. I go back to milk today and I find that we have doubled in size! We have added 16 goats to our herd. I'm wondering if goats and rabbits have similar breeding patterns. One of us found a great deal 2 Bucks and 4 Nannys, with the 4 Nannys being pregnant. That was a few days ago and they have all given birth. These are LaMancha goats and are Ugly with a capital U. If you look closely, you can see the evilness shining out of the eyes of them. I can understand why we got such a great deal for the whole bunch of them. There is something about those human looking ears that is disturbing. Goats should have big floppy ears, not little nubs like these ones do.

The kids are not so repulsive, in fact the kid in this picture is downright adorable...so is the goat. We have 10 baby LaManchas running around, they are quite a bit smaller than the others that we still have and it is amusing to see them frolicking together

We have sold all the females from our first batch and are trying to sell the males. With this new bunch, we have way more than we bargained for. We are going to try and sell them all together, and are giving a really great deal on them so if you are interested, or know someone who is, then check this out.

The good news is that the little blind goat, seems to be getting better. It's eye's are clearing up and it is reacting to movement in front of it's face. I think this is fantastic, being blind would be lousy. The weather is warming up and hopefully last weeks snow was the last we'll see till November. I'm fine with it raining more, but I've had enough of the snow and cold.

The bad news is that one of the white saanens that we have is in bad shape. She is a first time mother and only gave birth to 1 goat. She has been skittish about getting milked and as such I think we neglected her a bit. Now one side of her udder is hard as a rock. Her kid seems to be still eating of the other side, but she is in constant pain. I've been able to milk some out of her bad side, but it is so painful she stands there and maa's the whole time. When I try to massage her udder she is jumping all around to get me to stop. We have put the machine on her a few times and she does give some milk, but then it starts to get blood in it. I'm not sure what is wrong with her, but all the women in the group are especially sympathetic to her plight. I think we are going to have to get rid of her.

I think the problem is that we didn't regulate their milk enough to begin with. Next time we'll need to do a better job of it.

Raising chickens with goats

2010-04-11T17:15:00.005-06:00

I have seen from my next-door neighbor how raising chickens and cows together are a perfect match. The chickens learn to stay away from the cows so they don't get trampled, but they pick through the feed that the cows drop, eating what would otherwise get wasted. Chickens will even pick through the cow manure looking for fly larvae, supplementing their diet with extra protein. With enough chickens, your fly problem will be reduced significantly. However, they can't dig deep through the stuff, so chickens aren't going to solve a growing manure problem for you.

What about goats? You are going to have a few more challenges mixing chickens and goats, but you will have many of the same benefits that you do with cattle when they share the same yard. Here are a few issues that you will want to think about when considering combining your flock and herd:

Goats are high-energy, curious, and adventurous eaters. While it may be OK for the chickens to pick through the alfalfa that you feed the goats, you don't want the goats to get into the chicken feed. Goats will abandon their own feed in favor of the higher grain content from chicken feed. If you feed the chickens where the goats can't get access, this should solve the problem. In addition, I doubt that the goats would bother the hen's eggs, but it is probably safest if the goats don't have access to these either.
Both goats and chickens can spread coccidiosis to each other, a parasite that comes from picking through their manure. It can be devastating to both kids and chicks. This is the biggest reason why chicks are often fed medicated feed as a precaution while they are under the biggest danger (3 to 7 weeks). From the Goat Handbook, M. C. Smith; Cornell U., Ithaca, NY, "...although most goats carry coccidia and will have positive fecal exams, normally only the young kids become sick with coccidiosis. Deaths and stunted kids result. Raising kids separately from adults, keeping pens clean and dry, preventing fecal contamination of water or feed, and, in some herds, continuous preventative medication are necessary to prevent the disease. It is neither possible nor desirable to completely eradicate coccidia from the adult goats. A low level infection with the parasite serves to keep these goats immune to the disease."

Over all, I think that the benefits of raising chickens and goats together outweigh the challenges.

Thinning the herd

2010-04-09T08:59:00.000-06:00

We've had quite a few kids sold in the past week or so. I think we are down to 1 female now, but none of the males have been sold. We also got rid of the goat that didn't get pregnant this time around, known by some as Little Red. Diane also sent out an email she received from someone stating that they had 2 goats they would give to us. They are none milking goats, but if someone knows of anyone wanting mature goats, these are freebies, they will even be delivered.

We are going to start weaning them starting Monday so we will start the full milking schedule again. We milked them with the machine yesterday, but several of them are so empty from the kids that we didn't get more than a few drops. I am glad that it is warming up though, I'm just hoping that this Spring weather continues to get nicer and nicer.

The kids are starting to eat solid foods. You can see them nibbling on everything they can reach. It is kind of funny to see all the kids climbing through the holes in the manger to eat on the bale of hay while all the Nanny goats are fighting over whatever remains are left in the manger itself from their feeding frenzy.

IT"S BEEN A YEAR

2010-04-07T15:43:00.012-06:00

Well thanks to Marc I now look like a Big, Tough sissy boy, I just hope everyone in my -Ballet- & -how to cry on the inside- classes, don't read this blog, it could really ruin my reputation.

I hope things start to dry out and it stops raining and snowing, there's no way you can tell it's spring.

Everyone is doing a great job and I know we all appreciate the help, it makes the work load light when we all pitch in.

Some of you need to be flogged with a wet noodle, giving your milk to the pigs, what's wrong with you, you know they sell that for $12.00 a gallon, when and if you can find it, those are going to be some expensive pigs and I don't think they even appreciate it.

I was just thinking how great it has been this last year, we all got to have the great experience of owning and caring for the goats and having raw milk (by the way Marc said he was going to be posting some great information on raw milk and also some great research done on the benefits vs the dangers of raw milk and the benefits of goats milk over cows milk, so if you don't see it just ask him for it) and we eliminated most of the drawbacks of owning and caring for the goats with the co-op, I hope everyone appreciates only milking once a week, believe me the other way is not fun. I was thinking we really should co-op more things, we all have talents, abilities, skills and personal access to opportunities that we can provide to others, by combining all these we really could have access to some great things, kind of like the -toy share- philosophy. This really is a great asset for all of us, for example if you ever need a new vehicle, I have started to go back to attending the wholesale sales through out the U.S. and I can get great deals on vehicles, I know that others of you have other talents and access to opportunities in other areas, this is a GREAT concept and we really need to take advantage of it. So whoever is going to buy a nice new boat (-wink wink-) you should open it up to everyone and co-op the costs.

Well any way, thanks, Trent

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-----(I think this is a great first contribution from Marc and Diane )

Grabbing the Goat by the Horns

2010-04-02T12:06:00.006-06:00

Yesterday, we disbudded the baby goats. What a nasty job that was! We have a little tool that works pretty much like a soldering iron. I didn't take any pictures as my hands were busy holding the things down but here is a site that looks like is uses the same tool we did and went through the same process. Trent, Janina, Diane, and I were the ones there with Trent doing all the mean stuff. I used to think Trent was a vicious, cold hearted killer, and the way he efficiently went about the business of burning the horns, then deftly wielding the knife to cut off the caps, reinforced that. Then I looked up, a little daunted at meeting the eyes of someone who could inflict such pain and suffering on these cuddly little animals with such detachment. The tears on his cheeks, frozen from the cold wind howling through the slats in the barn on this overcast and dreary day, made me realize that he was feeling as much pain in his heart as those poor little goats were on their heads. I believe Trent just maintains a hard and forbidding facade to hide the fragile and tender soul he has on the inside.

It isn't as bad as branding, castrating, and de-horning, cows but whereas cows are ugly animals, those baby goats are kinda endearing. One of them sounded just like a little person that was hurt. All but one are complete. The one we didn't debud has got other problems. We think he is blind. He had gunky eyes since the time he was born and it looks like his actual eyes are getting cloudy. He doesn't really react to sudden movement in front of his eyes either. We're not sure what is going to happen with him, but we'll see how things work out.

In other items, it was our turn to feed the pigs yesterday and with all the snow we've had, it is easy to see that the electric fence is working just fine. There were not any tracks, either the inside or outside, that came close to the fence. I did walk the perimeter to make sure that it was clear of snow and wind-blown branches, this is something that should be done every day.

Broken Families

2010-03-31T09:24:00.000-06:00

The baby goats are at the point where we are trying to sell them off. Within the first few hours we got a buyer for one of them. She was going to get a boy goat, but little Trident, a female and friendliest of the bunch, kept nuzzling her legs until the lady said that she needed to get her instead. We're hoping that the rest sell as quickly. We are going to start weaning them from their mothers next week as well as de-horn (disbud in goateese) them this week.

In other news, we are having 2 other families try out milking the goats to see if it is something they are willing to commit some time to. This would bring the number of milkers up to 7, 1 for each day of the week, which works out really well for everyone involved.

Preparedness Fair

2010-03-23T16:26:00.005-06:00

Our area had a Preparedness Fair a while back and one of us put together a booth to show what we have been doing. There was some good information on the benefits of Goat Milk(we'll add these to this blog) and some details of how our group is handling the duties. There were several people who expressed some interest in our group. I think we are going to let some of them give it a go to see if it is something they would have some commitment to.

Expanding our Interests

2010-03-23T16:15:00.004-06:00

In addition to these goats, most everyone in our group is coming together to try out hog raising. We're not too sure how well it is going to work out but we have the highest hope for a harvest of ham and bacon in the fall. Some of us spent some time earlier this week getting a shelter and fence put up, and then last night we met and did more to complete it and also moved the pigs to their new home(they had been staying in the small shelter where we first had the goats). There is some final work to be done before it is as we have envisioned, but it is mostly complete.

We are running some electrical fence around both the inside(to keep the pigs in) and outside(to keep predators out) and that is the piece that is taking some tweaking to get complete.

As a kid we had pigs and they stank to high heavens, so luckily the location we have is up on top of a mountain outside of town. I'm hoping this works out well, ham and bacon win out over goat milk every time.

Frolicing Friends

2010-03-23T15:55:00.010-06:00

Now that all the goat kids are up and active it is easy to see why people buy baby goats. They are pretty fun to watch running around on their spindly little legs, exploring their new homes. It seems like most of them got the shape of their heads from the Billy Goat we had we had earlier, which is to be expected.

They do seem to get tired pretty quickly but when they start growing a little more I'm sure that they will get past that. They are all nursing off their mothers. Some were worried about that for a bit, but nature knows what it is doing and all is well.

Baby Goats!

2010-03-23T15:20:00.006-06:00

There hasn't been much activity for the past few months as the goats were no longer milking. But now that winter is coming to a close and all the goats are having their kids, things are starting to pick up. Our first nanny goat to give birth lost all 3 babies. We're not sure what happened as they were found after the fact, but since then there has been much more concern and attentiveness by the group. Over the last 3 weeks, all the pregnant goats have delivered. So we now have 13 baby goats running around.

Here are a couple pictures of the second goat to give birth. It was a regular festival-like atmosphere. She had 3 babies in about 30 minutes. Most of the kids seemed pretty fascinated by the whole process.

Here is the actual birth of the first goat.

The group has been spending a good amount of time with the animals, making sure that they are all ok, feeding well, and just generally having fun with the baby goats. We are hand milking the goat that lost her kids and plan to start weaning all the others in another week or two. We hear that it takes about 2 weeks and then we should be able to move them to a bottle. At approximately 4 weeks they start eating real food, at least that is about how long it took last time. We are still new to this goat ranching stuff, but with 1 year under out belts we are learning.

I'm not looking forward to starting to fully milk them again, but some have been really missing having the fresh, cold, goat milk to drink.

Getting ready for the kids

2010-01-22T09:33:00.003-07:00

We need to start feeding about a pound of grain per goat per day starting about the middle of February. If you have any ideas how to do this the most efficiently I would like you to share them. Right now what I have thought of is just put each one on the milk stand and feed them, this way we can make sure each one gets their proper amount. Let us know your ideas and we wish Janina the best with her marathon run, don't know if anyone else is also running but best to all of you crazies.

Great job All

2010-01-06T10:52:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to tell everyone what a great job you have done this whole year, I know sometimes groups can have little quirks and tiffs but everyone has done a great job with spreading the work and accommodating everyone's differences in opinion at times.

I for one really miss the milk, I know some of you don't feel the same way but if you watch Food Inc. or Fresh the Movie or read the Omnivore's Dilema I think you might change your mind, not only is the milk better for what it does not have in it, it is great for what it does have in it, if you do the research you will find that about the only thing "milk" in the store and our milk have in common is that they are both kind of the same color. I know the billy goat kind of messed with the taste but with a little tweaking next year I believe we can totally eliminate that and keep the sweeter taste all year. Thanks for the great work and help all year and now we can look forward to the kids coming, they are always fun to have around.

It's a Dry Country!

2010-01-04T15:44:00.002-07:00

We have finally dried up the goats so no more milking for the next few months. I must say that it is quite a relief to me. Now we just need to feed them, but that seems like nothing...load a little hay up in their feeding bin, fill the water, and bam! it's Miller time.

We are planning on the goats delivering in the Spring and we may have 1 or 2 more people join our group. That would be about perfect(or as perfect as it can get) for this setup. We also don't expect any capital costs this year so that will be some additional saving, which is what this is all about anyway.

The Lame Goat is moving around just fine now. I don't notice any limp in her anymore. In fact except for the giant joint (looks like someone who pops their knuckles a lot) you would never know she was in mortal combat and nearly slaughtered by a fierce predator. She still hasn't regained her place in the pecking order yet though. Might take some more time for that to happen.

I did take the pump and bring it home to keep it out of the weather, we don't really want to have to buy another one of those if a little shelter will help keep it in tip top shape. I might be underestimating it's hardiness, but taking up a little shelf space is worth the peace of mind to me.

Cold Snap

2009-12-04T09:12:00.002-07:00

The weather here has taken a turn for the colder. Our last milking was pretty cold. We use Bag Balm on the goats teats to stop them from getting chapped. During out morning milking, the Bag Balm was almost frozen solid, it took some scrapping to get enough to use. So, we took it home with us so it would be warm for the evening and that worked out pretty well. I'm sure the goats appreciated it being warm and easily spreadable instead of the frozen mass we were using in the morning.

Is everyone else doing something similar or just making do with it nearly frozen?

We are still keeping the Billy Goat separated during the evening time and I'm hoping that it doesn't die of the cold. The others all huddle together but he doesn't have anyone to huddle up to. I'd hate to have yet another goat, that isn't ours, die while in our keeping.

I do think the Billy Goat has done his job. All the goats seem to be getting fatter and fatter, and that isn't from the amount of hay we are giving them. The only questionable one is the injured one. She is moving around pretty well but we're not sure if she was stable enough during the time the Billy Goat was interested in her or not. He has lost all interest in them now.

We are planning on tapering off the milking and letting them dry up beginning at Christmas. Hopefully that will take about 2 weeks so when Winters Burden is fully upon us we won't have to deal with the milkings anymore. We'll just have to keep them fed which seems like much less of a hassle than milking them.

New American Gothic

2009-11-24T12:28:00.003-07:00

Our milking this week went without incident although we've made a new observation. The Billy Goat is tired and losing interest in the women! He no longer runs over to the corral where we keep them, I had to put the collar on him and drag him over. At the end of the day, he was plenty ready to go back to his own pen. I guess that those Nanny's are getting old hat after a month or two, he is ready for something new. Maybe that are starting to make "Honey Do" lists for him...Whatever the reason there isn't that excitement anymore.

We are getting snow now and it is starting to cool down enough to stick to the ground. That means more and more mud until it really gets cold and starts to freeze. We've had some big rubber goat milking boots for awhile now, but a while back we got some coveralls. Helps keep all the goat off of us. I really like them and recommend that everyone get a pair. I no longer feel so contaminated after I get home from milking the goats. I got a picture that reminds me of the American Gothic painting that everyone has seen. I feel about as happy as those olden day farmers appear to.

One thing about that I've started to do when I'm milking is that I no longer need to close the gate between the milking area and the feeding area. When the goats are done milking and I let them off the stand, they jump down and go over to eat. I can then let 2 more in to milk them. I used to close the separator gate to keep the goats that are done milking from coming back into the milking area. I don't have to do that anymore, the will sometimes come to the line and look in, but I just have to give them a steely gaze and they don't dare cross into the milking area. Once in a while I'll have to kick one if they get daring, but it has worked pretty well and eliminated having to keep opening and closing the gate. We went to the movies the other night and I saw a preview for "The Men Who Stare at Goats". I'm going to have to go see it to see if I can get any tips for staring them down.

Another use for Goat Milk.

2009-11-19T17:23:00.003-07:00

A while back Diane was at a family auction, no not a place to pick up new family members for cheap, but where each family member brought something to auction off to raise money for family activities. She got a bar of goat milk soap that one of her distant relatives had made. The person was quite secretive about it and wouldn't divulge much information, but apparently she makes a tidy sum of money from it.

This got me to thinking, that with some of our group complaining/whining/bellyaching about the taste of the milk and instead of just drinking it, pouring it down the drain, or giving it to chickens, this would be a great use for that milk and earn them some extra money. Doing a quick search brings lots of links but not much of it was straight forward so here are some links that should tie it together for those that want to try.

All soap is made using a lye/water solution, since we have the surplus goat milk, it needs to be a lye/milk solution. This link describes how to go about that How to make goat milk/lye solution. That seems to be the only difference in using milk as opposed to water so once you have that, you can proceed with the other steps. Here is a easy recipe for the beginners Soap recipies. Once you have got that down this sites seems to have some good additional information, plus many more links to resources Soap making site. To get real fancy you could make your own soap molds.

I suppose that once you have whipped up some lovely goat milk soap (which goes for over $5 a bar) you can run over to Oh! Sweet Sadie and sell it at their shin-digs.

Bum Leg

2009-11-16T15:13:00.004-07:00

Here is a picture of the injury that is still plaguing our goat. She can't seem to bend her leg past that angle yet, but even this much is better than it was before. As she keeps moving on it, it will continue to limber up.

The other thing this goat is trying to recover, is her dignity. All the other goats, but the white one in particular, are pushing her around all the time. She tries to eat with the rest and they will butt her away. She will hobble over to another spot and the white goat will follow her just to keep her from eating. She doesn't quite have the mobility to be knocking heads with them like she used to. I've also noticed that one of the little brown goats seems to have it in for her. I've seen that little brown one come flying across the pen and crash right into the injured goat to keep it from eating. I think that it is getting it's revenge for when the injured goat was healthy and kept knocking the little goats around. The other day I did see this injured goat start the fighting, she got knocked over, but it looks like she is starting to feel good enough to begin mixing it up again.

On the Mend

2009-11-13T14:56:00.002-07:00

After the ravaging that happened to the herd a while back, the one goat that was seriously hurt is on the mend. She still has a leg that she is limping on but she has rejoined the herd and redefining her place in it. Being solo while she healed left an opening in the hierarchy and the little goats were quick to usurp it. Now that she is back and still not 100%, she is relegated to the bottom of the pack. I think when(if?) her leg fully heals she'll spend some time butting the little goats around and take her spot back, but until she has the stability of 4 good legs, she'll be stuck in the lowest spot.

We've decided to let the goats start drying up towards the end of December and hope to have them deliver in March. That puts the worst months of the winter out of the milking cycle so we don't have to deal with the cold and the snow as much. The billy goat is still with us but he seems exhausted. He no longer immediately gets to work when he joins the other goats during the day, he goes and eats first to build up his strength. Those demanding women are really wearing him out! The only questionable one is the injured goat. I'm not sure if her leg has been able to support those rough and tumble encounters, but she does seem willing. Only time will tell.

The milk production has been down, but stable, right around 30 lbs or so. This is almost a full gallon less then what we seemed to peak at during the summer months. Our sales pool has seemed to fallen as well. We've lost 1 person and the remaining have been cutting back somewhat. Ah well, we didn't really get in this to make money, just trying to save some.

Double Tragedy!!!

2009-10-23T11:42:00.004-06:00

A Double Tragedy struck this past week here in our little group!

The first part of this tragedy is that Tuesday evening when one of the members was milking, they found that someone, or something, had killed one of our goats. They were getting set up to milk and found that one of the goats was missing. Not thinking much of it, they began milking. When it was the turn of one of the goats, it wouldn't get up, examining it she found that the goat was injured. Looking at the other goats she found that several more of them were showing marks of being attacked also. Looking around the area more carefully, she found the mangled body of a goat laying where it had apparently fought valiantly to defend itself from it's attacker. She immediately summoned some of the more animal savvy of our group to help care for the brave but injured goats that remained.

The second part of the tragedy is that the goat that was killed wasn't even part of our commune. One of our neighbors had a goat that they needed to get pregnant so they could milk her again. Since we have this billy goat on loan, they made arrangements to keep their goat with ours. The new goat had only been there for a day or two when this disaster struck! Mournful are they who lost their goat.

Our initial thoughts were that this was a Chupracabra, a fearsome creature if there ever was one! Luckily someone close to the farm came over and admitted that it was her dog. Whew! I don't know what we would have done to discourage a Chupracabra from returning. Animal Control came over and ~~shot the dog~~ spoke with the neighbor about the dog and their responsibility. Hopefully this will not occur again.

The real question that the people want to have answered is: Where was the Billy Goat during this time? We all know that a Billy Goat Gruff can handle a Troll, so a dog should be easy. Was he not Gruff enough? Was he scared of the intruder? Was he too busy doing the job we have him there to do that he didn't notice? Or was he in collusion with the intruder?

While most of the goats had some trauma from the attack, a few days in therapy has made them right as rain. The one goat that was injured seems to be doing better and is listed in stable condition. We are hoping that there will not be any complications.

Billy Goat Gruff

2009-10-16T12:17:00.003-06:00

Someone in our goat group somehow found out about someone that needed to store their billy goat someplace for a while. Coincidentally, we need a billy goat because it is time to get our goats pregnant. Amazing how things work out sometimes isn't it?

One thing I don't think anyone realized, I certainly didn't, was how unpleasantly fragrant goats in heat can be. Unfortunately, the billy goat is even worse. Together, they really stink the place up. To help keep this as minimally as possible, we are keeping the billy goat away from the nannys during the night and letting them be together during the daytime. We want to keep them out of the milking barn as much as possible so it doesn't make an already unpleasant situation worse.

I'm not sure how anyone else is handling this, but when I milk in the morning, I do the milking as normal, letting the nannys eat as normal. But when I'm done, I kick(sometimes literally) them out of the milking barn, lock it up and take a bunch of feed over to the sleeping barn. I then get the billy goat out of his holding pen and let him loose on the unsuspecting, but always affable, nannys. For the evening milking, I put the billy back in his holding pen, dump some feed for him there so he can eat as he wants during the evening. I then proceed to milk as normal.

I'm not sure how long until we know if all the goats are pregnant but I'll let Trent worry about those details. He and Mike seem to be the brains behind this operation. I do know that the taste of the milk has not improved at all since the billy goats arrival. I'm not sure how much more it can deteriorate until my minions start an uprising over it.

Bad day at the Farm.

2009-08-27T11:32:00.004-06:00

The last few weeks, we've seen a drop in milk production. It has been pretty consistent across the board for all of us milking. We're not sure what is causing it. They seem to be eating plenty, we have a new field opened up for them to graze in. They don't eat too much of the hay we lay out for them. So I don't think it is a lack of food. They do love to gobble up the grain that we give them while milking, but according to one of the books that the others have been reading, we are giving them about the right amount of that. It is a mystery...

Our last milking didn't go very well. The goats were acting up like crazy. They were antsy the whole time and kept trying to break out of the milking stands. The big old goat was struggling something fierce, causing the whole thing to shake, we might have to put some supporting cross braces on it if this behavior keeps up. Anyway, one of my minions was running the gate between the feed area and the milking area. He wasn't doing the best job of keep them in the feed area once they got down from the milk stands. They kept sneaking back hoping for some more grain.

I'm fine with the goats when they are behaving, but once they start acting up, I lose all patience with them. One of them jumped back up on the milk stand and stuck it's head in the grain bin. I grabbed it's collar and started to pull it out. I've noticed that they don't liked to be pulled back, doesn't matter the situation, but as soon as I pull on them, they start fighting against me. So this time, already a little annoyed by the other goats, I wasn't putting up with it. I grabbed it by the collar and threw it off the stand. I didn't know it, but Diane was right behind me. She was bending over to do something and all of a sudden a flying goat slammed into her side and they all went down in a tumble of arms, legs, hooves and hair. Needless to say, now SHE was annoyed by everything as well.

Just a bit later, my minion was again having trouble with the gate and the goats. Diane went over to help out. The goats picked that time to all make a run for the opening, which is where she was standing. Spitting out hay and dust, she slowly got back to her feet from being trampled by the stampede of wild goats....

It was a bad day at the farm.

Don't Fence me In

2009-07-29T08:41:00.004-06:00

Now that the routine for milking the goats is pretty much....well routine, I've been looking around our farm area a bit, checking things out to see what's there and if it is something that will make our life easier. The other day I noticed this gate (it isn't like I didn't know it was there before and would think "this fence could really use a gate." ) but really noticed it.

Like a lot of barn areas, there is a lot of hodge-podge stuff around so this gate fits in with the general randomness of how things are. Opening and closing it isn't very easy as the gate is slightly wider than the one post that it latches to, so you kinda have to slam it shut.

Upon closer inspection I realized the posts to this thing are made out railroad rails! Rails are anywhere from 39-60 feet long, so unless they dug a really big hole, they have cut this thing off, but what kind of animals did they keep in this place that they needed something as strong as railway rails to make the posts out of? Locomotives weigh over 150 tons, the size of the pig that would require fences that strong, would keep us in bacon for a lifetime!

Open Fields

2009-07-23T08:11:00.002-06:00

Last week we got a bit of a setback in our grazing area. We were going to have 2 large additional fields to graze the goats in. We heard from the owner that we would be able to graze them in the new fields when the grass was tall. One morning we opened the gate and let the goats in. They seemed to love it, they were running and jumping around like crazy. That afternoon we spoke with the owners son(the owner is on an extended leave) and he said that the goats shouldn't be in the big fields as they are going to graze horses in them instead. The cuts the goat grazing by 2/3, with it being the better 2/3 that is going to the horses now. We can let them graze in the original area we had them in(which has been significantly expanded with new fence lines) so that is good, but not as good as we originally had thought it would be. So, we have been opening up the new area in the day time and closing them back into the corral during the evenings. I'm not sure that we need to do that and I'm not sure if that will have an impact on milk production or not. We'll have to let it go for a few days and see how the milk numbers come out.

It has been very hot(in the upper 90's) the past week or two. I thought that might have some affect on how much milk the goats produce, but I haven't seen any trends to show that. Some days have been low, but then others have been very high. Have to keep tracking it.

Final Stretch

2009-07-18T20:49:00.003-06:00

Ok, we just finished our last day of milking on this marathon milking session (3 days in a row). I can't say it has been a joy, but it has made me realize that there is no way I could be a dairyman. The time commitment is more than I could handle. My Dad worked at a diary for a time when I was growing up and this makes me appreciate his efforts for us even more than I did before. Hats off to all those who work in a dairy, I certainly appreciate all the milk you've worked morning and nights, weekends and holidays, with never a break, so that I could drink it up.

This mornings milking was the worst..."What? Time to milk again? We just got done milking those goats!" At least I didn't dream about doing it...although, those aliens I was blasting with my BFG 9000 last night did look kinda of goaty....

One the bright side, we did get the most milk tonight than we(meaning me, I'll have to check the milk log against everyone else) have ever gotten before: 38.8lbs!

2009-07-16T09:01:00.004-06:00

We have the next few days of milking due to vacations and other scheduling so we'll see how my allergies stand up to the constant assault, but I'm hoping it goes OK. We are pretty efficient and this morning went fast so if I we can sneak in and out before those allergens know we are there so much the better.

Some of these goats have always been more of a bully than others but it is usually been to see who gets to be milked first. This morning they were keeping this one goat from eating after all the milking was done. I think this goat tried to get in between all the other goats in order to eat. I only caught the last few attempts on the camera. It finally got its spot but even then the goat on the end kept leaning it's body into it to keep it from reaching the hay.

Biggest day so far

2009-07-01T09:01:00.003-06:00

Well we are finally getting on track, I think the biggest difference was the bad hay that we were using because the milk production is going up. Since Janina put in the scale and we have been keeping track we have gone up pretty good, we started out at about 34. 4 pounds and our best so far was this morning at 38.6 which ended up being just over 2 gallons and 1 quart. This weight of course includes the complete milker, the other difference is that I am adding the strip milk in which actually makes a big difference, bigger than I would have thought anyway. When I first weighed it this morning it came up to 37.2 then I remembered to add in the strip milk and it raised it almost 1 and a half pounds so remember that when weighing. I think that we should be up to 2 and a half gallons pretty soon. That hay makes a big difference.

Life is good in the Barn.

2009-06-30T08:37:00.003-06:00

Just did our first milking in the new barn. While the old setup worked pretty well, this is so much nicer. No more hunching over so I don't get a nail in the scalp or break a lightbulb with my head.

The only thing the old had that the new is missing is the double gates. But with the goats learning the routine, I don't see that as too much of a problem.

Twice this morning I forgot to put grain in the feed buckets before letting the next pair of goats in. As soon as they saw the bucket empty they jumped off the stands and started wandering all around and it took a few minutes to get them back up on the stands. I must remember to put the grain in each time BEFORE letting the goats in to milk. I found that if they don't jump up on the stands by themselves, if I grab their collar and lead them to the back of the stand, they would jump up by themselves. I had to do this a couple times with each goat before they realized what I was expecting them to do. I stand by the side of the goat stand so they can't sidle around and only put their front legs up in order to reach the grain. Since the stands are now raised up higher, and they don't really have a way to get around to the front, if they want the grain, they have to jump up. Most of them were pretty good about jumping up, but when I forgot the grain and they got back down, they didn't go up so nicely the second time.

Last night Lisa dropped off the bucket and most of the hoses were disconnected. I didn't think much of it until this morning when I was rinsing it out and realized that disconnecting all the milk hoses makes cleaning it so much easier. I don't know why I didn't do that before. But more to the point, Lisa, once you realized it, why didn't you let the rest of us know? So now when cleaning, we just disconnect the milk hoses from the lid and wash the lid. Then when we start cleaning the hoses (which are the real hassle) we don't worry about getting the blue pulsator all wet. We've left the air hoses still connected, but being able to put the lid off to the side while doing the hoses is much easier. Maybe tonight I'll try removing the air hoses as well. Not sure how much of a hassle that will be putting them on and off.

With all the space in the barn, I'm all for setting up a cleaning system right there. If we get some bucket heaters, we can start the water warming when we start milking and by the time the goats are done, it should be hot enough to clean the bucket. The first time I cleaned the bucket I did it that way; put a bunch of hot water in a bucket and let it suck through the hoses. It went through a 2 gallon bucket in seconds. We can run a cleaning cycle a few times and then rinse it the same way. Seems to me that it will make it much easier. It will also relieve us from having to drop the bucket off to the next person each time. Not that doing that is a problem, but it would be another step we could eliminate in all this. What do you guys think?

Better set location

2009-06-24T09:44:00.007-06:00

We are able to start milking in and using the barn, this is a much better setup, also if you need a big bunch of dried manure for your gardens or whatever else let me know we have access to a bunch of it, it is actually straw/manure compost. We also have alfalfa hay in the barn and this should be much better than what we had been using before, I believe that is why the production dropped off so much just bad grass hay. Now when we milk we just need to use one silver can scoop of grain per goat per milking and we will adjust it later if we need to. I don't see any post besides Marc and Diane, come on people you need to post your experiences even (and especially for the rest of us) if they are not the best most special positive experiences. I know how much Marc likes to spend time playing with the goats while he is milking, I am kinda surprised you want to get done so fast, I mean you like to run and chase them and then hug them, that's what it looks like anyway.

Setting a Record

2009-06-23T08:54:00.003-06:00

This morning we got all done in about 45 minutes. That is a new record for us! I'm not too sure if we'll be able to drop that time very much, things went pretty smoothly. One thing that did help was that the goats are learning to get up on the stands all the way by themselves. I only had to lift up 1 of them today. The last two we did ran in, jumped up, and stuck their heads in to start eating. It was almost like they were synchronized swimmers. I'm hoping that all of them will be able to do that soon. They are almost there.

Getting the Rhythm

2009-06-17T08:29:00.003-06:00

This morning we did another milking. This machine makes it so much easier and faster. From door to door it was just under 1 hour and with a few more turns at it, I'm sure we'll cut off another 10-15 minutes.

One thing we've learned is to put the grain in the buckets before we let the goats in. When they come in they immediately go to the buckets to eat, if they are empty, they start wandering around looking for something to eat. Grabbing them and getting them back to the stands takes some time, especially the Big Goat.

Lets talk about that Big Goat (more accurately, I'll type and you read). Most of our goats are yearlings, but the Big Goat is 3 years old. She is quite a bit larger than the others and she is a cantankerous ol' cuss. She is the only one that seems to kick. The others will raise their legs and dance around but the Big Goat seems to actually try to kick. I think she got Trent upside the head the other day when we were doing the machine 'show-n-tell'. She kept trying to kick off the milkers this morning, and when I was hand milking the last bit, she kicked the bucket out of my hand. I only lost a few squirts, but it is irritating nonetheless.

We are also starting to get all the little things that are making life more convenient: Trent and his minions built us 2 goat stands(you can notice the one in the pictures), we have a stand for the pump and milker, the feeding buckets...Now that we are settling in we are noticing things that will help us out, not necessary, but nice to have things.

We have several other families we are going to give milk to. They will pay some of the feed costs and we will give them milk. If this works out well enough, we'll get 1 or 2 more goats and see if we can get to the point that the only cost we incur is time and labor.

Time for the Machine!

2009-06-15T13:11:00.005-06:00

With 6 milking goats and most of us being novice milkers, it was finally time to break out the machine. I don't know what brand, model, or serial number it has, but it works very well. Trent and I (as well as 2 of his minions) gave it a go last night. It was amazingly fast! Probably less than 5 minutes per goat. Since we can get 2 at once, that will drop milking time down to about 20 minutes once we get the system down. It took us a while longer last night because of trying to figure out the best/fastest/easiest way to get this done and it will probably take a few more times to hit on the best way, but it is substantially more pleasant than hand milking.

Although the milking itself is a huge improvement, the cleanup time has gone up. However, I'd much rather have more time on the cleanup than on the milking. The sooner I can get away from the goats and hay, the better for my allergies. Once we get a better system of cleaning down, that will go much faster as well. All in all, this is going to make our turn of milking much much nicer, save for the fact of having to get up earlier to get it done!

The Milking bucket is pretty cool, in an octopussy, squidy, Cthulhu type of way, tubes and tentacles, and unknown appendages of all types springing from everywhere. I felt like Captain Nemo for a bit. But once we got it all straightened out, it works smooth as butter. It doesn't quite get all the milk out, you need to do a bit of hand milking to empty the udders, but not much. We're guessing it is only a cup or two at the most. Next time we'll bring a small bucket to catch all that extra so we can get a more accurate measure, but I don't believe it will be very much. Even without getting those few extra squirts, we got just shy of 2 gallons so we are right close to where we were expecting.

2009-06-13T15:30:00.005-06:00

Here is Mike getting mauled. I think we are finally getting adjusted and the goats are feeling more at home. The first night of milking was the most difficult, everything was new and the new goats were trying to figure out what had just happened to them, but for the most part this was an easier transition than the last new additions had been at least as far as the goats getting use to each other, the first milking session, well I only wish that upon those that wouldn't let me have seconds in the school lunch line.

2009-06-13T15:27:00.004-06:00

2009-06-13T15:25:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone, here are a few updated pictures. And EVERYONE, please put your experiences, thoughts, feelings and comments here. I know of a few stories that I'm sure a lot of other people would really benefit from hearing, so please make it a habit of posting. If anyone has any questions please ask, maybe you are interested in getting a group started yourself, we have learned a lot and can probably save you some time and headache, just ask, thanks.

More & More & More Goats

2009-06-12T10:04:00.003-06:00

We are now up to 6 milking goats. The group picked up 3 more so now we have 7 goats. Now let's see how is going to be the Alpha Doe. The 3 new goats are Nubians and Trent went all the way to Idaho to get them. He got a really good price as he was able to get 3 goats for the same price as 1 of the first original goats, Kendra/Lilly. We are going to have to come up with names for all of the goats now.

Settling In

2009-06-10T08:33:00.003-06:00

We've had quite a bit of rain in the last few days so things are pretty wet with the Goats. The area where they are being kept has a nice shelter for the goats to get out of the weather, it also has an area that we can milk with the milkers keeping out of the weather as well. All in all a pretty good setup.

With the new goats we got recently, it seems as if the the pecking order still hasn't been decided. One of the brown goats and the white goat that is milking seem to be butting heads(literally and figuratively) constantly. When we show up to milk those two are going at it to see who will be the first on the stand. I have also noticed that while they are fighting, the other brown goat often sneaks to the front of the line. That has happened twice that I've seen so far. When the bossy brown goat notices this, she leaves the white goat and tries to get in, but by that time I've usually got the gate shut to the milking area and started the process...it makes me chuckle. After I've finished the first goat, the other brown goat is waiting and ready to go, it isn't going to miss it's chance again!

I have noticed that the other white goat that isn't milking yet, seems to be low rung on the totem pole. She gets pushed out of the way all the time by the other goats. But either she has accepted her role or doesn't mind. I kinda feel sorry for it, it will stand by the gate and watch the other goats getting milked and eating their grain (we give them grain while milking). Since it never gets milked it never gets any, but I try to give it a handful every now and then. Today she didn't want any at all. Not sure what that means, but we'll see if she doesn't want any tonight either.

We are regularly getting 1 gallon of milk from the 3 goats with the white goat giving 1/2 gallon by herself. We haven't noticed any taste differences, but we are mixing the milk during the milking and not keeping them separate, that would be way more hassle.

Increasing the Herd

2009-06-02T13:12:00.005-06:00

We got quite a surprise this morning when we showed up to milk. There were 2 more goats there!

We now have 4 goats. These 2 white ones are Saanen(had to look up that spelling) and are supposed to produce lots of milk.

Only 1 of the new goats is producing right now, but she is producing as much as the 2 others are combined. She seems to produce a much bigger stream of milk also, bigger holes in the teats or something I suppose.

Our original 2 I believe are Nubian or more properly, Anglo-Nubian, according to this site. http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/goats/

So this morning we got right around 1 gallon of milk. We haven't tasted it yet to see if we notice a difference in the taste or not, but since it is all mixed, I'm not sure if we would be able to tell a difference or not. We might have to keep the milk separate one time to notice a difference.

First Full Milking

2009-06-01T08:55:00.003-06:00

So last Thursday we did our first full milking. It was a little slow but no real problems. The old granny goat did step in the bucket twice so I was all for throwing it out, but my wife says that if it doesn't kill us it'll make us stronger. She handles the filtering of the milk so I'll put my life into her hands on that one. Or more appropriately, I'll put my kids life into her hands....

I've milked cows when I was younger so it isn't totally new to me, but it will take a bit to get used to it again. Probably by that time we'll start with the machine...which is fine with me. No matter how good I get with my hands, I'll not be able to compete with a machine.

Goat Setup

2009-05-27T15:35:00.000-06:00

We currently have 2 goats. They recently had kids so we have a few baby goats running around. I believe that there are 2 females, 2 males, and 1 ex-male (unlike a steer, I'm not sure what you call a castrated goat). We have a good setup for housing them, it has shelter, easily accessible water, and plenty of open land for grazing. We supplement their diet with hay and grain, but so far, most of it has come from eating whatever is growing in the fields.

We are planning on getting 2-4 more goats to go into full milk production so that each family involved can get enough milk to last them a week.

We do have a milking machine, but haven't bothered to break it out since it is faster to milk by hand just the 2 goats than it would be to use and clean the milker. Once we get the other goats, that'll change.

I haven't milked the goats yet, but the others say we are getting about 1/2 gallon right now. That should go up as things stabilize and settle down.

Goat Commune

2009-05-27T15:21:00.000-06:00

We are part of a local group that has decided that we want to try something that will be more healthy for us and our families. We will detail the experiences of buying, handling, and milking goats.