A few days ago when I was dropping off my oldest daughter at school (darn it, she decided not to homeschool this year…high school is apparently very enticing), I got a phone call from our first goat breeder that sold us Kissy (my favorite goat! BFF) and the Mini La Mancha twins. I couldn’t answer as I was driving and then heading straight into an appointment thereafter, so she texted me a quick message to let me know that she decided not to take her two goats with her when she moves out of Texas and that she wanted to gift them to us because she feels like we can offer them the very best home. She wondered if we would we give her milk when she visits in return. MILK? Sheesh, I’ll send soap every week (see soap comments at the bottom of this post). 🙂
Okay, so her goats are the healthiest goats we have and the healthiest we’ve come across. (Also interesting to note that last week I saw a post on a goat board talking about how La Manchas are the healthiest goat breed and everyone with a mixed herd agreed that their La Manchas are the hardiest, so this may be one reason. But she also stays on top of giving them all kinds of herbs to keep them healthy.) We have not had to worm the twins ever and their eyelids stay a watermelon color. It’s kind of amazing. Anyway, the thought of gaining their mama
and one other goat (actually this other one is a Nigerian Dwarf) is amazing! What a fabulous gift.
We are also sad that they are moving away. We grew close to them and I’ve appreciated her taking me under her wing and always helping me with my endless goat questions. I also send her probably way too many pictures of the goats and my younger daughter with the goats but she is so sweet and patient. I’m sad to lose them as “neighbors” (an hour and a half drive is nothing when you’re from Texas).
Anyway, goats…GOATS!
This also means that our twin, previously called Kerry after her mama, Kerrygold, will now need a new name. I’ve decided to call her Goldie (Kerry and Goldie…it’s not that complicated there). So the three orange Mini La Manchas are Kerry, Goldie, and Peaches. It works, though still we stray from our Firefly theme, heh.
Dory, the Nigerian Dwarf, is HUGE for a ND. She is about the same size as Kissy (100 lbs) rather than our other adult Nigie, Felicia (67 lbs according to the weight tape we have).
Both are very human centric and sweet as pie, but Kerry is very alpha with the other goats and Kissy will likely NOT be happy to see her again. Kissy has really enjoyed being top goat around here; she’s mean to every other goat and just a glance at them sends them running in the opposite direction. But Kerry makes Kissy quake in her little goat boots. Rumor has it (okay, the breeder told me this) Kerry would stare into the window in the milking room while Kissy was being milked and Kissy would no longer be milkable out of fear and tensing up.
Well, there’s no window in our milking room so that won’t be an issue. But we are considering maybe doing separate pastures now that we will have 10 does and so many are on the submissive side. May be wise to separate some out so they aren’t so picked upon.
What’s happening next week on the farm? I’ll be making goat’s milk soap for the first time! Come to think of it I’ve never made soap at all. Something about lye and fumes and burning skin…seems a bit frightening. But I’m going to brave it because we have so much milk that we aren’t drinking due to the newest goats having had corn and soy and wheat in their diet before we got them. Because of food sensitivities in our family it’s best to wait until that stuff is out of their system, which just means we’re freezing lots of milk and it’s pushing me to make soap! I can’t wait. Even my vegan daughter is excited because she plans to learn how to make almond milk soap and wants to sell that. We’ll have something for everyone!