PhoenixDown Farm: I kid will eat Ivy, too, wouldn't you?

Well, we are still waiting on the test results on the twins but Tsu took pity on me and we went and got my dairy doeling yesterday. The lady I was buying her from was heading out of town and if I didn't get her last night or early this morning I would have to wait a week.

This complicates management because with the twins going out and the new doeling coming in I need to practice immaculate biosecurity on the farm. They are in the same barn about 15 feet apart, but with an almost solid wall between them and all of their equipment is completely segregated. I take care of the twins first, then the new girl, since I am making sure to protect the twins from the new goat not the other way around. After handling the new girl I wash my hands in antibacterial soap and rubbing alcohol.

Now, I'm kinda weird about biosecurity anyway. I have a pair of shoes that i only ever use when going to someone else's farm where they have goats, sheep or chickens. I wash them off with bleach after any trip around someone else's farm. I keep a jar with udderwash and bleach and rags to wash my hands before and after handling someone else's livestock. Sure, it's overkill. The bad diseases are passed through things like body fluids and burst abscesses. It's not LIKELY that just walking through someones farm and petting their goats would put MY animals at risk. But still. I'm careful. Not just for me, but for the people I visit as well.

What doesn't make sense is that I'm not nearly as concerned about other people coming on MY property as I am with ME going on other people's property. But still....

Anyway. I don't consider Rosemary and Thyme "mine" anymore so I am acting as I would if i were going to someone else's farm. It's more labor intensive but I feel better about it.

Last night I kept the new doeling in the bachelor pad pen. I had stripped it down to the dirt and bleached and pine-soled it well before bedding it with grass hay and bringing Ivy home. She wasn't weaned, and it was her first time away from her mom and sister. So I took my sleeping bag and fluffed up some hay and made a bed in her stall. This worked well until the wee hours of the morning when I woke up and she was urinating on my feet. *falls over laughing* So I moved out of her stall and put my now wet sleeping bag between the pen and the run in so she could rest her head on my hand and Brego could sniff my feet and spent the rest of the night there, safe from goat pee.

Today once I was sure she was doing well and not suffering from any shock from riding for a half hour in the back seat of a car or sleeping with a crazy lady in her stall. We'd dosed her with probiotics and nutri-drench and I'd given her some free choice minerals and baking soda. She didn't seem to have any ill effects from her travels so i put her and Sage out in the yard close enough to sniff noses so they could spend the entire day nibbling grass and getting to know each other. Tonight they went in to their stall together. My entire dairy herd of two goats. Well, one goat and a second goat that hopefully has another doe or two IN HER BELLLLY!!!!

THIS belly:

She isn't due until the first week in October. Seriously.

Either she has babies in there or she has opened a European youth hostel in there in her uterus. These babies are sired by Parsley who has lovely teat structure and whose three previous kids had lovely teat structure even if they were all boys. No clue what is dam's udder was like, but he produces very clean nice sized teats on his male kids, lol. If I can get at least one female kid from the pair i will be blissfully delighted. If not, I'm looking for a Nubian or something else known for producing large amounts of sweet delicious milk. If I get two doelings i may just explode with bliss. Mama is only half dairy doe and gives up to 3 quarts at peak production. With a decent dairy daddy they may clear 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 gallons a day. And be as cute as Chickory. Win win win!!!

OK. so. all this talk about goats and the new goat and no pictures yet??? What is UP with that??

Hey, I'm climbin' on stuff i shouldn't climb on because I'm a GOAT and it's FUN!

Good heavens, look at these ears.

and even better, wattles.

her daddy has all kinds of + and * things on his papers which means the ladies in his line know how to fill a bucket with gads of milk. She is a registered American Toggenburg. She has lovely fluffy bloomers.