Road Trip!

How to start? I am writing this later than I meant to and so this is all colored with retrospective insight. Since some not great stuff was sprinkled in to this trip and the days after, it is hard to write this with all of the excitement it deserves. Anyway, after we finished up Thanksgiving we had a few spare days, some helpful volunteers, and a run of good weather so we decided that it was time to go get the goats. The ladies have been patiently waiting for us in Northeastern Oregon.

First we had a few projects to finish up to get the place goat-ready. We spent two days building a shelter for the Mule (all the stuff was in the barn, so we had to build it to free up some space), finish some fencing, secure some of the indoor goat pen, go and pick up hay and straw, move a million pound metal table out of the way of the barn door (which very nearly resulted in my death or at least a traumatic brain injury), and just clean up the barn. With all that done we packed up the SUV, created a goat barrier in the back and headed out.

We left on Sunday and drove up Milton-Freewater, spent the night in an empty hotel, and then got up early to meet the ladies at milking time and learn how to trim hooves before we brought the ladies home. It turns out we are adequate milkers (or else it's not very hard). We signed papers, learned some things about American Dairy Goat Association registration, handed over the money, wrangled the girls into the back of the truck.



We brought home three goats. I changed the names of two big girls, but the baby I got to name from the first. I would like to introduce Ruth (formerly S'Mora), Fanny Mavis (formerly Caramel), and Millicent, called Millie.

Ruth is one of our milkers and hopefully pregnant too. She and Fanny were bred in November. Ruth is having the hardest time adjusting to her new home I think. She seems to think that the grain is not good enough, we don't milk her right, and it is too wet. She is very fussy at milking and stamps her foot at us, but she is calming down a little more each day. She is getting better, but I think maybe she is homesick. She is also queen of the goats and kind of a bossy bitch. Mike likes her best of the three and she likes him back. She kisses his chin when he comes in to see her.

Fanny Mavis is a lovely blond who is very motivated by food. She is also a milker and hopefully bred. She is more placid that Ruth and maybe a little dim. She seems to forget that the fence is electric more than the others and is always leaning up against it and then glaring at us when she gets shocked. She does great at milking time. Just stands still and horks down her grain while we finish up.

Millie is the little one. She is only about six months old and she is beautiful and sweet and funny and affectionate (and my favorite). She is brown and black with huge soft with ears and the sweetest face ever. She will follow you anywhere and cries and cries when you leave the barn. We are hoping that we can breed her later this year, but she was born at kind of a funny time and may not come into season this year. We'll see. We have a few months before she is big enough anyway. Our plan was to breed the goats at the beginning and end of the season so that we would never have a lapse in milk production. But of course it depends on her.

Since we have been home the milking is getting easier and easier. The first night we used six separate containers to milk in; the goats kept stepping in the milk or kicking stuff over. But we are getting better and making fewer dishes and more (usable) milk every time. We got all our fancy milking equipment too so now we don't have to milk into a pot and strain with a funnel and cheese cloth. Now we have a milk bucket and a milk strainer and a strip cup, ooooohhhhhh. We are settling in to our new routine and getting to know each other. Next week we will make cheese galore! And ice cream! And yogurt!


Goats!!!