Please POP

STILL no kids from Poit. Her ligaments are very soft this evening and her udder feels tight, although not as tight as possible. She has had wax on her teats for a week and looks miserable. I swore I put her in with the buck on the 17th of January and left her for a week. The only thing I can think is that I got the date wrong or left her for more than a week. Both are very possible. I really dropped the ball on this one in terms of keeping records! I'm being extremely vigilant, however, and she gets checked several times a night. So I have no doubts that I will be there if she needs assistance. She hasn't shown any signs of impending labor, but as soon as those ligs are totally gone I will be staying home until I see babies. I am very happy with her udder at this point, and I think it has plenty of filling left to do before it is properly strutted. The teats point out somewhat, but not excessively, and they are a nice size. The udder itself is very balanced with a great medial. We will see how nice the attachments are once she fills up top.

I should have some posed photos of my buck kid in the next few days. I want to clip him tomorrow and get a friend of mine to snap some pictures while I give him a bottle. He is such a loving little cutie. I just saw some photos of a friend of mine's buck she took recently. I'm really stunned by him. He is so gorgeous! I'm trying to convince her to stud him out to me on a few does, but she wants to see how he scores on his LA first. That and we live quite a distance from one another, so I'm not sure how the whole thing would work, especially if a doe didn't take the first cover and we had to try again. Maybe I can "board" my does there for cost of care, but that always a risk to her goats and mine as far as getting ill goes. The stress, the different environments, and the different types of bacterias they are exposed to. But a show environment is just as risky, and we both show. I dunno. I know a lot of farms use outside bucks, I just don't know how they go about doing it. With a horse I know the ropes. If live cover you can bring your mare up when she is in heat and hand breed her for several days, but that only works if you are close. OR, you leave your mare for as long as it takes to cover her and pay mare care per day. You generally leave her for two weeks after the cover to get an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy. For me, its just a wait and see with the goats as I don't ultrasound.

I sold Westley and Gizmo in the same day. The family who bought Gizmo are very happy with him and have joined the GoatSpot forum per my recommendation. It sounds like they are planning on breeding him to one of their girls in the very near future. I can't wait to see pictures of his kids! He is such a friendly, spoiled buck and I was very sad to see him go. But I think I'm doing the right thing by my herd. He is nice, but I'm not sure how the mammary systems will be on his doe kids and I'd have to wait a long time to figure that out, breeding him at least another year in the process. I decided to keep his half-sister by the same buck in any case (Jolie) and it will be nice to have another buck that isn't related to any of my current does. I want to add as much diversity as possible.

HORSES:

So I haven't said anything about the horses lately. My mare foaled in May, and little Pandora is now about six weeks old. I should have posted the news and the photos here, but I often forget that I decided this isn't simply a goat blog. I have found myself calling her Panda for short, at least when she is being nice. She is a little spitfire! She has kicked me twice so far. Both times she got a quick, harsh reminder that its not alright. She is leading well and is very brave. You can touch her anywhere you like. I can't get over how beautiful she is, and her conformation is to die for. She is a red dun tobiano, and I'm convinced she is also a roan on top of that. So her colored body parts will be much lighter than her head. The dun will make her much more "pink" than a normal chestnut and she has dark tips on her ears and a nearly black streak in her tail. She also has a black muzzle coming in and black around her eyes. I'm going to take a few photos of her tomorrow, but here are some as a newborn, still wobbly and skeletal looking.

She is super muscular now. She has a perfect shoulder and hip angle. Her hip is just gorgeous! I think her only conformational flaw is that her neck may tie in a bit too low, but I don't think it is enough to make her heavy on the forehand. Her eye is strange, however. She was born with a defect. The vet said it isn't genetic, and that it's just a fluke in which skin cells grow on the eyeball.

She is a little jumpy on that side and nearly runs into stuff once in awhile because of it. But she seems to have adapted quickly and manages to run about just fine without hurting herself. He says she can see, but its impeding her field of vision. He thinks he can easily remove it without hurting the eye itself when she is a weanling. I have to start saving as I'm sure it will be spendy.

I may be trading Chief for my mom's very flashy overo gelding. He is too much horse for her, but he is very well trained and just needs a firm hand. He is gorgeous!

I really hope she decides to go through with the trade, but we'll see.

Just Kid Already!

Well, Poit still hasn't kidded. She was in with the buck for a week, but I'm thinking now that I put her in with him around the 16th, so she would be right on time to be due this week. I unfortunately forgot to write down her second breeding dates, so am trying to go off of memory. I've been checking her several times a day. Her udder has been large for over a week but still no progress with her ligaments. They seemed pretty soft last night for the first time, so it was the first night of getting up and doing checks. I'm prepared for several sleepless nights, and then no more kids this year. I'm glad. I will have Poit's kids to play with and will still have Fae, who I need to spend more time gentling. She has come a long ways. She doesn't mind me petting her while she is eating and equates me with grain, but if it isn't food time she still tries to run. I'd like to show her at the county fair next month, so I have a lot of work to do to calm her down enough.

I brought my new boy home last weekend. He is so very adorable and he looks like he will be a very strong buck for me. I'm most excited about the beautiful udders behind him and I really adore his sire. Introducing Camanna LI Odins Eclipse.

This is the best "confo" picture I could get of him. He would much rather be in my lap than keep his distance and have his picture taken. He has better rear leg angulation than this, but he is lacking a bit in that department. But Anna told me that before I purchased him. She is very honest and knowledgeable. He is already long and uphill and quite thick for his age. I love his extension of brisket. Thats a big deal for me as I see so many goats in the show ring lacking in that area.

I love his colors and his spotting as well. He is a buckskin, with the traditional cape and brown back end with the black points on his rear legs. Yet his front end is a really dark chocolate with gold markings instead of a normal buckskin shade. It is quite neat. He takes a bottle really well and I plan to keep supplementing him with goat's milk until the end of this month.

I sold Dakota and Lady yesterday. I feel a little sad because I'd become quite used to Dakota. However, I think she went to a really nice home with a woman who is very interested in learning all she can about the breed and about conformation. She might even get into showing them. Lady bit me before she went to her new home! She was sucking on my finger and then worked into it her back teeth and clamped down like there is no tomorrow. She absolutely refused to let go. My finger is still half numb and she cracked through the top of my fingernail and made it bleed. The little brat! Maybe she knew that in only a few minutes I would be tattooing her for her new owner. The person who reserved Westley, my last remaining wether, decided not to buy him. I have someone coming to see him this afternoon who is very set on taking him home with her. I also have someone coming from California to look at Gizmo. I certainly am doing a complete overhaul of my herd! Once Jolie has grown enough to come out of her weird stage and sell, I will only have Poit and Banshee left from my original herd! I still have Sherry whom I bought this spring and will have Fae. I have Angel coming from Bellafire in July. Then I have Latifa, Prayer and one other bred doe coming home hopefully in September or October. So I will be back up to eight does and will be retaining some doe kids from the pregnant girls along with a buck kid as well.

Shows, Sunshine and Sales

After raining non-stop for a couple of weeks, the sun decided to come out for the show in Salem. The show was certainly stressful for me. The goats, on the other hand, were perfectly fine with hanging out. There were way more Nigerians than I expected, and of very high quality. I believe there was a total of thirty-seven senior does. They all seemed overly tall and large to me, and after wandering around and looking at the competition, I realized I had no chance. I wished then that I had taken the advice of a friend of mine and went to watch rather than to show. Dakota's udder ended up looking great, but she couldn't measure up to any of the other animals in terms of body capacity and size. Many barely came in under the maximum height.

I brought Jolie to simply help me decide if I want to wait for her to mature further or sell her as a nice family milker. The decision was cemented for me quite easily at the show. I don't think Jolie will ever have an udder large enough to compete, and that comes from her dam. It is a beautiful udder, and larger than her dam's but I don't think she will ever rise to that level. Of course I am looking at a very high level of competition. She should do well at county fairs, but she needs to grow some more. I won't be offering her for sale until she has put on some additional weight. I pulled her kids and sold one, and am letting her dry up. Without her kids draining her energy she should start looking better.

I was very pleased with how well Dakota behaved, however. She walked like a champ and set up immediately and held her stance. She might not be able to win in such a large, tough competition with goats that have went top ten at nationals....but I think she should be able to hold her own well at smaller shows. Beyond that, she is a great mom, kids easily, and gives me a lot of milk. She crosses very well on bucks who are very sturdy with a lot of body capacity. I decided that if she isn't going to place well at large shows, then I am going to sell her. I have three bred does coming in this year, all of whom I plan to retain a kid from (hopefully a buck from one as well), a very nice doeling, and a buck kid that I am picking up tomorrow. I could definitely use the additional space. I will also be selling the doeling from Dakota I was planning on retaining and my buck out of her.

I suppose when you improve your herd by adding better animals, you have to "cull" those who no longer meet the quality of the rest of your herd. All of the animals I am selling are nice, but the ones I am buying are better. Poit is due anytime. I'm still worried her kids will have crooked legs, and if not, that her udder isn't nice enough for a brood doe due to her (so far) smallish teats. However, I don't think I could ever sell her. There are some animals that have permanent homes here no matter what.

-Poit looking very pregnant yesterday.-

The show wasn't a complete bust, however. Banshee did very well, and I was very proud of her behavior in the ring. She placed 6th and 9th in two rings out of a very large class of dry yearlings (I believe 17-20.) I was ecstatic, especially seeing as she is so very small.

-Banshee posing and looking quite grumpy about it.-

Also, just watching everyone show was fun. Maybe not for my husband, but for me. I kept noticing one white doe who had faint grey spotting on her coat. I thought it was quiet neat, and she ended up winning a GCH. She is one of Camanna's doe, and I came home and immediately reserved a buck kid out of her. I am picking him up tomorrow at the show in Roseburg. He is by Dill's D Lucky's Image, who is an outstanding buck. I'm very excited about him! He will definitely have a date with Banshee and Fae this winter. I will get some photos of him when we get him home tomorrow.