A birth on One Moon Farm

Congratulations to Miss Moon and family! Sunday marked the birth of twin doe kids by her yearling doe, Capra Lane Zofi Arrow Moon. These are the first kids born under the One Moon Farm herd name. Zofi did an excellent job during the kidding and is looking forward to being spoiled on the milkstand.

Living the goat life

The kidding craziness is settling down now and we’re trying to settle into a routine. Some of the 1^st time milkers insist on rushing the gate at every opportunity and we’ve turned goat wrestling into a daily event. Typically we settle into a routine, which the goats appreciate, as far as milking order, coming when called, etc. But with milkers for sale that have not yet been picked up, we’ve hesitated to enforce it, as the order will be changing again as they move out.

Catalpa, Lola, Matilda, Serafina and Petunia have moved on to new herds, Stella and Willow will be moving to Kentucky very soon. Although we’re happy to re-home some of our excess milkers, ironically, now we have to buy milk! Lots and lots of milk! The girls had been providing us with about 12 gallons of milk per day, which the kids are just demolishing. Buying cow’s milk regularly now to supplement helped us realize what everyone is complaining about- milk prices are definitely high. We are able to sneak a quart or two from the goats every now and then for ourselves. We just decreased the frequency of milk feeding and started the babies on grain and it’s awfully cute to watch them chew on one pellet of grain for hours on end. 

 

Most of the available kids are spoken for, we still have Saanen babies available out of Masquerade, Serafina and twin bucks out of Hilary. Also, one Togg doe kid out of CH Elina (aka ‘Queen Bitch’of the barn). Additional photos available on request.

This year we will have market wethers in Ashland, Huron, Lorain and Crawford counties, best of luck to the 4H’ers!

The does are certainly enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and feasting on the new growth clover in the pasture. Its amazing how milk production skyrockets with a day or two of sunshine. It does look more like May around here than March, hopefully the new growth, budding trees and perennials will be saved when the next big freeze comes…we all know this won’t last! It is northern Ohio after all, where picnics can be followed by blizzards in the blink of an eye!

Help! Our farm is infested with baby goats!

It has been a very busy week, our kid count is at 31! 18 doe kids and 13 buck kids. Willow will kid tomorrow and then we have a break for about a week or so. We already have a few 'keepers' picked out, and 4H kids are making their picks as well. It seemed like a great idea, kidding as many as possible (14!) in a 5 day span, but turns out sleeplessness and goat wrangling makes you feel like crap! I missed my bed, my shower and having clean fingernails. My vocabulary centered on 'goo' and 'bubbles' and 'I see feet'! You can only make so many jokes about eating placenta and having slime in your hair before it gets really gross and you consider putting a cork in the goats yet to kid. I've never been so tired, despite having incredibly wonderful assistants- so tired, in fact, that the stockpile of wine and chocolate I had set up went almost completely untouched...

So far, everyone is healthy and happy, all of the new mommas are milking well and the first timers are slowly getting over their tremendous fear of the milkstands. They don't look that heavy until you have to lift them onto the stand twice a day. A few of the girls, Masquerade, Luna and Emilene are trying their hand at motherood and are dam raising a few of the extra buck kids for us. We had fairly good success with grafting kids onto their new 'moms', though it looks a little odd to see a Togg raising a solid black Alpine.

Wouldn't you just love to crawl into that pile-up?



Macy and Lunetta, nesting as they prepare to kid.



A leopard Alpine? Is that allowed? Our kids are always at the height of fashion...

You would not believe the day I've had. . .

Sale ads go out today, pre-reservations are being filled. More kids are coming, staggered through April. It's so nice to have fresh goats' milk again- already looking forward to weaning time so I can try out my newfound cheesemaking skills.