What's A Couple More Kids?

Golden Rain "Goldie"

    We have been thinking of get goats for a while now, actually before Mr. T was born. Recently though, I started doing some research about different breeds and such, with the idea that we get them next year. We decide on the nigerian drawfs, with their high butterfat content and small size we thought that they we make a great addition to our farm. Even though they are small they still give a little more then a quart of milk a day.

Aspen "Penny"

    I went to go visit a breeder in New Hampshire who had a couple baby goats, because I wanted to see them and talk about what it takes to raise them. I was very adamant about how we were just looking and wanted to wait tell next year. She was very nice and told me everything I wanted to know. One of the things she told me was that the does take a year before you can breed them. When I left, she dangle the carrot in front of me and said that she still has one baby doe left and she'll throw in a baby whether to keep her company for a good price. A whether is a neutered buck. On the drive home a started thinking about how long it would be until we would have milk. If we waited tell next year, it would be a year before we could breed and we wanted babies in the spring. That means it would be 18 months before we would breed and all total three years from now until we would have milk. Way too long to wait. When I got home, with the wheels turning in my mine, I talked to my wife and decide to look into getting the two goats. When I emailed the woman about the goats, she  responded that right after I left someone called and put a deposit on the doe. Some would say that was a sign not to get goats right now. Not us.

   I contacted a breeder that was a lot closer to us and, some one who I talked to a couple years earlier about buying goat milk from her. She had a couple of baby does left and one that was 10 months old that would be ready to breed this winter, which means we could have milk next spring. She also said that we could use one of her bucks when it comes time to breed. The whole family went to visit the goats and everyone fell in love with them right then and there. The kids were not intimidated at all and were running around the yard with them, feed them anything they could. My wife was concerned about the taste of the milk because the milk we tried at the store had a funny after taste to it. I put a deposit down on the two that we wanted when we left, without trying any of the milk yet. The woman gave us a half a gallon of milk as we left. We went down the road a little bit and stopped to try the milk. My wife took a sip and gave me a thumbs up. Nothing like shooting from the hip. I tried the milk when we got home and it was very good. I actually had a big bowl of cereal for dinner with the milk, something I haven't done in years due to cow's milk bothering my stomach, and it didn't bother me at all.
   One of the reasons I was thinking of waiting a year was, now I had to put together a place for them to sleep and pen for them to run in. Now with everything else going on, I had to get something ready soon . I ended up making a stale underneath the lean-to of my shop, the same place where I made a quick pen for the pigs when they were young. I also put three cattle panels together to make a 16' x 16' run for them. With the short amount of time it actually came out all right. I made a hay feeder and water bucket holder for them and was ready to pick them up.

   Two weeks after we saw them I went to get them. The breeder let me use a crate she had lying around to put them in so they could ride together. We did some paper work, gave me some more milk, and put the goats in the crate and I was off. They did very good on the ride home all things considered. I put them in there new home and they seemed alright. When I would sit down with them Golden Rain (the little brown one)would jump right in my lap like she was a cat. Aspen seemed more content on eating the new leaves in the run. When I left to go in the house, Goldie would let out this awful cry. I thought she would settle down after awhile but, a couple hours after I left to go to work my wife called me and said that she had been crying the whole time. I left work early to see what was going on and ended up stay with them tell night time when they settled down. Its been a couple days now that we've had them and Goldie still cries for her mother, but every day gets less and less time she does it. It may take a little bit before she settles in completely.