First Milking

Thank goodness for all the YouTube milking videos!  I would be lost without them!  We let the goats get used to their new home for a few days before separating the babies at night to milk in the morning.  We didn't have a stanchion built yet so it was a little bit difficult with one of us having to keep her still while the other tried to milk. It didn't make it any easier that the babies were crying for their mama, but we did it!

Donyea's first time milking!

Our first raw goats milk!  We got about half a pint...good enough for the first attempt!  We didn't milk her all the way down because I wanted the babies to have plenty too.  We brought it in the house to strain and get chilled right away.  Everyone was leery to taste it (Tay still refuses) but whad'ya know it's delicious. :)





Here we are on the second day of milking.  Tay finished the stanchion the night before.  It sure makes all the difference! She was such a good girl hopping right up and standing the whole time.  This time we got more than a pint. 

Kegan did his first milking today and was pretty excited about it.  :)

Kiki the Dairy Goat

We bit the bullet and got goats! Meet Kiki our new dairy girl, and her babies Little Bit and Camo (born 12/31/12).  Kiki is Boer/Kiko and was bred to a Lamancha.  We're hoping Little Bit will have good Lamancha milking lines to be our second dairy girl.  We're still trying to talk Tay into keeping Camo for a pet...he's just too darn sweet.    

Little Bit

Camo

This is how we brought them home!  We put down a tarp and straw for Kiki in the back.  They were so good!  We even went through the Taco Bell drive thru. =P

Bryden's Video

Whenever I need a good laugh, this is a no brainer.

P.S. Our favorite part is when he says "we need to get the harvest ones!" He's pointing to the bucket of tomatoes on the porch that we had harvested earlier that day. :)

Sad Day for Chicken Little

I've been avoiding the blog lately...my most favorite little chookie was killed by a coyote on January 15th.  I never thought in a hundred years that I would get attached to a CHICKEN....a CHICKEN of all things!  C'mon!  But I did...so I spent a few days moping around and feeling sorry for myself.  Maybe I'll feel better when I get another Chicken Little in the spring.  Like when Trenton lost Tiger, he named his next one New Tiger, and the next one, Brand New Tiger...and so on. I think that's what I'll have to do to keep Chicken Little's legacy going.

Here's the sad story ~
Tay was walking the pasture near the compost pile (the chookies favorite spot, besides the kitchen door where they love to wait for scraps) and came upon a pile of black and white feathers.  :(  When he came inside and told me, I secretly hoped it was KFC and not my Chicken Little.  But when I checked in on the girls, she was the one missing.  We tracked the feathers to the tree line and then it was like she vanished.  So sad.  I hate coyotes.  We needed to do something.

My husband being the weapon loving man that he is decided we needed a different rifle for the job.  His were too big and would blow the thing to pieces.  So he went out and bought one that night.  Came home with a shiny new 17 HMR,  just my size he said.  He'd been wanting to buy something smaller for me so this was his perfect excuse.  He names all of his guns ladies, so I thought mine could be a man.  So I named him Batboy (Battalion slang for Rangers).

We waited for the Coyote to come back and yesterday was the day.  I was upstairs playing wordsbypost with my mom on our iPhones when I learned the sound of a chicken about to be eaten.  So sad!  I ran to the window and saw the coyote right outside the pigs fence, slowly creeping up to the chickens, who had run for cover under the trampoline.  Batboy wasn't by the window and I didn't want to scream for Taylor and scare the coyote away so I kind of screamed for him under my breath if that's possible.  He grabbed the gun and told me to slowly open the window because that's how I scared the darn thing off last time.  But the coyote heard us and ran off behind the trees, up into the pasture.  Still in clear sight but paused right near my horses (which were terrified)!  I yelled and told him not to take the shot so close to them, and he gave me this look like, "woman, do you know me at all?"  Then took aim and BOOM!  He got him dead center but the bullet isn't big enough to drop him dead, so he ran off into the trees.  We tracked him and found where he enters through the upper pasture because there were a bunch of - black and white feathers - right on his trail.  Hopefully he died quickly because even though he killed my favorite chicken, I don't want any animal to suffer.

Don't worry Chicken Little, we got the big bad wolf for you.