Fresh Start

I haven't been updating this blog whatsoever. Mostly because life has bitten me in the bum. I finally made the move to Idaho, the move I've been wanting to make for a couple of years..minus one husband. But this blog isn't about my personal life, its about the goats, the horses and the part of my life that belongs to farming and country life. And I have to say that being in Idaho is making that infinitely more possible. I'm going to gather cattle tomorrow in the middle of nowhere, for the third time in the past month. Its a blast!

That being said, I had to sell all of my goats. It made me very sad, because I had become attached to a few and had worked hard to build a better program and have quality animals. I'd even managed a grand championship with one of my does. The good news is that I've found a pasture for Nigerians here that is almost completely prepared. I also got my nicest buck back and a stellar doe kid I had born earlier this year. And....

This girl! (Photo by October Road) ... She will be in milk, a first freshening doe heavy on the Rosaharn lines, with some Odeon and Sandy Hollow thrown in. She has one of the most level toplines I've ever seen on a Nigerian and great length and depth of body. She also has wattles, which I love. AND she's friendly! I'll have two friendly does to breed for 2015 kids. In the past I've purchased some wild ones for the quality, so it'll be nice to have entirely sweet girls. I have a feeling this farm would never let go of this girl if they didn't own her full sister, so I'm quite delighted with the opportunity! If I'm not too late by the time I pick her up I might try and hit a show late this summer. :)

And because I was able to get my yearling buck back when I last visited Oregon and give him a shave, his newest photo! Although he isn't very cooperative at all and kept wanting to either hunker down or over-stretch:

Even though he's a bratt, I love stinky little "Jareth". His full name is Firelight FW Goblin King so hopefully someone gets The Labyrinth references. (1980s Jim Henson fantasy film featuring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly)

AND, since I started this entry a day before I went to push cattle over about 50 acres of mountain...and am now finishing it a few weeks later sitting in Southern Oregon... I am at the point where I am bringing two of my three horses to Idaho in a few days! The fence is fully prepared for horses and only needs more electric tape put up and tested to be ready for the does. :) Little Panda (who is still little, honestly a pony) will be coming with me to be trained on cattle and sold, and her dam to be my cow pony. By fall I plan to have her sold and bring up my big half Arabian mare and have my buck pen set up for Jareth to come be with his ladies.

And because its all goats, goats, goats on here, some photos from my ranch work. This is what happens when you run haphazardly through willow brush after wayward bulls:

Your clothes don't survive too well! And..after all the hard work we came back with only seven sale cows. Keeping them on the road and going the right direction was much more relaxing than collecting and driving the 50 something cows my partner and I had to grab on the way up:

Have a great rest of the summer!

My how time flies! It's been nearly a year since I've made an entry. All of the kids I was excited about have been born, and the two doe kids I retained by Fireworks are now eight months old! Not only that, but all my does are bred for the 2014 season as well. We now have two adult bucks, a junior buck, and a little buckling prospect. I'm thinking I need to scale back on the stinky boys.

We took a few does to the Lelia Berry show in May, and they did very well for us! Angel took first place in her age groups, and Dakota took a best of breed and a grand championiship! We were very ecstatic about that! This spring we are hoping to have our herd go through a linear appraisal, and that is very exciting.

And because a blog entry is useless without a cute picture, one of the cutest kiddos of this last spring:

-We wethered this guy and named him Rumpelstilskin, he's still here. :)-

We have nine does to kid in 2014, including Sherry, my older doe who was supposed to kid out for her last time before retirement LAST spring. She skipped last year and refused to conceive. She had some interesting discharge so I gave her a round of antibiotics, thinking a dirty repro tract. Tried one more time, no dice. I decided to hang up her breeding hooves so to speak as I feel over 10 is too old to keep the poor dears producing babies. She had other ideas and interfered with a leash breeding with Densil and is due the end of January. I can feel the kiddos doing somersaults to I know they are really in there! I also did go ahead and purchase a wattled girl, AND a 2013 doe kid out of a Baywatch daughter (I need to figure out how much I still owe on her so I can pay her off and get those papers!) So my pasture is a bit full. Hopefully I don't insist on retaining too many doe kids this season. :)

A New Year, New Plans

Well, some new plans...but so far we are doing a good job of following through with last seasons goals! Goldenbrook Farm MR Fireworks has been with us since the week before Thanksgiving. He covered four of our does the end of November, and all four have come back positive! I tested them for CAE/CL as part of the lease agreement, so went ahead and tested everyone and we are still a CAE/CL free herd. :)

-Goldenbrook Farm MR Fireworks-

Not only is Fireworks a gorgeous buck to look at....extremely level, angular, dairy, WIDE, and uphill with beautifully sharp shoulders and extension of brisket....but he has blue eyes AND moonspots, so I'm expecting some killer babies. It will be all I can do to not keep every doe kid that hits the ground. But not only would my husband kill me, but I will make no money on kids sales and have too many related does. I'm going to try and make sure any doe kids go to show homes that will get them in the pen, these kids will be very nice!

My two yearlings also conceived and were tested positive by Biotracking, Winry (Cupcake..hate her registered name..) to Densil and Lady to my Jr. buck, Mad Hatter...which proves his "tackle" works well! I also may be announcing a new addition soon, with wattles and from some gorgeous animals behind her. I'll be very excited to see wattles in my herd!!! But you don't count your chickens before they hatch, so I'll hold off on the official announcement until I have a deposit down. 

Sherry fooled me twice, and has gone past both of her due dates from the heat cycles I saw while she was rooming with Densil. I am positive she was covered the first one, along with her daughter..who happened to kid for her new owner right on time for that date...Saw her come in three weeks later and saw evidence of the deed..passed that date. As it is, it looks like she is due based on the last week or so with Densil. Talk about waiting for the last minute to conceive. Her ligaments are getting soft and she is losing her plug like crazy. Hoping to have photos of newborns this time next week! Everyone else is due the same week in April, and my new wattle girl might be bred for me before she comes home if everything goes as I hope which would mean I would have some summer kids as well. I'm thinking about breeding Yuna next month as she will be a year old, but we shall see. 

And newer pictures of Panda, looking like a HORSE and not a giraffe!

 

She will be two in May! I can't believe it! I can't wait to stat bitting her up and doing the prep work for her training this summer. :) ... I plan to breed Chardonnay to Rhocky Rhoad in June, so fingers crossed its an easy AI experience..it will be my first and more than one try gets spendy fast. 

Kidding Season Over - Looking Forward to 2013!

We have come to the end of the kidding season here at Firelight Ranch. I'm happy to announce that Apothecary Farm Banshee Wail kidded with quadruplets! She must have caught her second cycle with Odin as she waited until July 20th. Lucky for me this was a Sunday and I was able to be there through the entire delivery. Odin has really been a "buck" buck for me as Banshee's kids tallied three boys and one girl. Out of three does, that is six bucks and one doe from Odin. I'm glad I have one doe from the little stinker to retain, however, and Banshee freshened with a huge, stunning udder. Two of the buck kids will be for sale in tact. Mom has such a shockingly amazing udder as a FF that I feel confident these boys would make amazing herd sires.

-Firelight Ranch OD Huntsman-



-Firelight Ranch OD Hawkeye-

-"Tuvok" who went as a bottle baby to a friend of mine. He will be one spoiled pet wether.-

-And my keeper, Firelight Ranch OD Valkyrie-

And...because she is gorgeous and my favorite doe, momma and her udder only hours before kidding:

We picked up Densil and he immediately got to meet a couple of the ladies. Both Fae and Winry turned up open. Fae and Sherry went on a date with my new guy and are due in December. Neither have come back in heat so I'm hopeful they caught. Normally I wouldn't breed a doe so soon after weaning her kids (Sherry's kids were weaned in May), but I would like one more kidding out of her before she retires. She is fat and sassy and in great health, having no troubles with this year's twins. So I would like to see her have her last batch before she is actually ten and starting to get "elderly." I am VERY much hoping for a doe kid to keep from my old fuddy duddy. She has had girls the last two times, so I'm hoping that it doesn't mean she has exceeded her quota. 

I am working on a breeding lease for Goldenbrook Farm MR Fireworks, sire to Yuna. He would be used on Winry, Banshee, Klover and Angel in hopes for plenty of options for retainee daughters. Poit is up for sale simply due to the fact that I can't show her and would really like to get into the show pen next year. Also, because I am FINALLY going to use my breeding to Rhocky Rhoad on my half Arabian mare this spring! So the sales price on Poit will go towards a shipment of cooled semen. ;)

And just because I like eye candy, a photo of Chardonnay (my dam to be) followed by a picture of one of Rhocky's new 2012 foals:

-Hoping to have one of THESE in my pasture come 2014! So long to wait!-

And speaking of foals, Pandora (who we fondly call Panda around here) got some nice, gangly and awkward yearling photos the other day. Her mane is so ridiculous I have to keep it braided or it tangles into horrid witches knots. Its longer than her dam's at this point in comparison to her own neck/body. She is going to have some luscious locks as an adult!

Her FACE is growing really fast along-side her legs this month. Amazingly her body has almost caught up in the short couple of weeks since I took these pictures. Ah, the crazy giraffe like growth of a yearling. She looks stupendous one minute and like all the wrong parts were glued together two days later. Can't wait for my little Pandy to be three and under saddle and filling out with all the muscle she had as a foal.

MIA

I'm really not MIA, I swear. I just haven't bothered to update my blog because I've lost the ability to compose sentences that don't sound completely stupid lately. I will give the majority of the news in a brief re-cap simply because a lot has happened since March! 

Klover, one of my newer purchases this year, kidded quadruplets on Easter. The fourth kid was DOA and I was left with two bucklings and a doe. I retained one of the bucks because Klover's udder was simply amazing and I love his genetics (daddy is a Caesar's Villa boy.) He is a pretty little gold and white guy who is exceedingly dairy and angular with perfect legs, tons of rear angulation, a great extension of brisket and loads of uphill body length. Once I finally get the service memo he will be KK Snowd'n Mad Hatter. I call him Jefferson.

-Only a few days old-


I do not believe Fae is pregnant, but she could be fooling me. I've had a FF develop an udder out of nowhere the day she kidded and tummy size is never an indicator for me in a youngster...but her pooch does not look bred. We are moving at some point in the next six months, so I need to cut back and at this point the only doe I've forced myself to part with is Fae (and I mean forced.) She has a buyer once we reach her due date and we find out if babies happen. She is due the 10th of July so she doesn't have long to make some changes. I do think Winry is bred, but I'm doubtful Northfork's buck is the sire which is disappointing because I loved his dam. I'm thinking Odin is the proud poppa so she will be the latest to pop.


Speaking of Odin, I am bringing in a moon spotted buck from Diji farms, and I am on a strict two buck limit, so Odin has gone bye-bye. Banshee or Fae better have a doe as I plan to keep one from my little Odin and I'm sure I'll kick myself if they end up with amazing udders...but he was a little on the small size for my taste and I couldn't pass up Denzil. We are picking him up Saturday!




Diji Farms CG Denzil Washington


I will get some new pictures as soon as he gets home. I love chocolate goats to death, and the fact that he has moon spots is icing on the cake. His dam's udder is capacious with huge, forward pointing teats and tiny teats on Nigerians has become a pet peeve of mine (alongside the lack of rear angulation in a lot of show animals), so he has both points. He also has an LA score as a yearling of +V+83 so I'm excited!


Poit kidded the 20th with some darling buck kids. I really wanted a doe to retain from her, but had a buck reservation she filled for me, and couldn't have asked for more correct, robust and colorful little kids from her. What a good mother too, although I admit she is a fat cow, I expected quads as big as she was and all she had in there was twins.







I call them Loki and Buffalo Bill, but the new owners want to name the darker boy Thor...which really fits since his brother is Loki, so they will be papered as Firelight Ranch OD Loki and Firelight Ranch OD Thor. They are both very correct, uphill, the works. And Poit's udder is enormous this go round!


Banshee is next up to bat and I'm impatiently waiting. She is on day 149 and she better darn well go tomorrow because we are supposed to be going up to my mother-in-laws tomorrow night about 5:30 and staying the night, then picking Denzil up and driving home Saturday. 

Monster Milkers!

I know this blog was created with the intention of being a sort of diary for my little farm. There isn't much inter-activity to be had with readers (not that I think many people actually read these ramblings.) But today I pose a question. Have you ever had a "monster milker", and what was your response? How did you feel about her and what did you end up doing?

I ask because I now have a "monster milker." She is the most horrid beast! I have had milkers who stomp, kick and even attempt to lay down now and then, but I've been able to work through their issues with patience and training. This girl is a total freak! She screams bloody murder the entire time I'm milking. You would think I was out there stabbing her with a knife. She repeatedly lies down, even if I put an upside down bucket under her chest or poke her with my thumb. She kicks and bucks, and I mean like a rodeo horse, constantly. Grain doesn't appease her, gentle scratches and patience doesn't get me anywhere. I've resorted to tying one hind leg to the back corner of the milk stand and that only marginally helps thing. I think she has a screw loose! I couldn't begin to tell you how much she gives me since she spills most of the milk. This morning she tossed the entire bucket.

The good news is that she is learning to lead and stand for the show pen. The previous owner said she was hopeless as far as that went. I've just given her a swat or an ear tweak here or there when she starts throwing a giant tantrum, and I've insisted she allow me to handle her rear legs. She has gotten to the point where she will stand still and allow me to position her properly. Her leading can be iffy if she doesn't want to go where you are pointing her, but a swift and sharp swat on the behind has seemed to help a great deal. She has a beautiful udder although I'm having some troubles with it being a little lopsided due to her twins favoring one side. Milking her out to empty in the evenings and trying to milk the "less favored" side a little more every morning to encourage production. I would really like to try and show her!

I picked up "Cupcake" this last week. She is adorable and such a sweetie! And she has the coolest color. She looked white in her photos, but she is actually a very pale gold with white spotting. Almost pink looking! I'll have to get photos when the weather stops being horrid. I am going to call her Winry, after a character in a show I watch. Just don't like the name Cupcake. 

-Yuna, at 1 1/2 weeks old!-

Leap Day Kids!

 Tifa kidded around 3 p.m. on 2/29 with twin doelings! Both are buckskin, which was a little surprising to me considering the colors of the parents. But it makes sense genetically looking at grand-parents. Both have blue eyes! The one with the white belt also has a tiny moon spot on her right hip near her tail. They are being called Yuna and Rikku since I am keeping to a Final Fantasy theme with Tifa's kids.

-Yuna, 1 Day Old-

-Rikku, 1 Day Old-

I am retaining Yuna. I think I found another moon spot on her left side,  peeking out of the white band. I am very excited to have a doe kid from this buck. As always, I can't wait to see an eventual udder on this girl. I'm always impatient to see if my decision keeping/buying doe kids results in a good udder. I am content to have them stay adorable, cuddly kids for now. I love my "snuggle time" with the newborns. Rikku is reserved and her new owner will be picking her up in June. My friend Wendy is already attached and she will hate to see her go. They are two days old now and already leap into my lap every time I sit in the pen. It is amazing how quickly young kids discover that humans are awesome jungle gyms and beds. Tifa is a wonderful mother with a gorgeous udder. I just can't believe how much I lover her udder! I can't thank Traci enough for allowing me to purchase this awesome girl!


-Chewy making friends with Yuna.-

In other news, I am picking Klover up tomorrow. Expect another blog entry with more pictures. Until I can get a bander to begin the slow removal of her horn, she will be my unicorn goat. I plan to name her kids after mythical creatures because of this. I don't know how stressful it is on a goat to have a horn banded, and I know there is risk of infection...so she won't be banded until after she has given birth. No need to stress her out further or endanger her kiddos. I am very excited to bring her home!

Ginny (Sugar) came up lame today. She ran through a particularly deep patch of mud to escape me when I came out to halter her...so I'm hoping she just pulled something a little. She was only lame trotting a circle to the left. Lets cross fingers that she is fine Monday when I take her out again. A problem larger than that would mean vet bills and would kill my chances of selling her should it be something that isn't easily fixable. Grrr... I forgot to check for an abscess or sole bruise, so I will do that tomorrow. Annoying, but common and treatable. So I rode Chardonnay instead today. So much energy,  but such a fun horse!


-Charry's beautiful Quarter/Arab face!-