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.

Goats can form accents, study finds...

Experts had thought only a select group of mammals had the ability to modify vocal sounds to reflect surroundings

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/goats-form-accents-study-finds-article-1.1024196#ixzz1mvr5hA7Y

Kidding explosion

Pop bottles are washed and draining, thermoses line my kitchen counter, the pasteurizer hums in the background, the electronic thermometer beeps annoyingly from the stove and I think I need another shower. That can only mean one thing- the babies have started arriving!

A kidding 'explosion' can mean a few things - multiple births, sometimes simultaneous births, or quite literally, having an amniotic sac burst and drain down your coat sleeve trickling all the way to your undergarments. Or all of the above, like yesterday, for instance. Our kidding season at Capra Lane began yesterday with the birth of 5 saanen babies from Luci and Masquerade.

Both mommas were troopers and did an excellent job of delivering their kids. Luci had one big buck and one tiny doe, the doe will be hand raised and the buck was immediately grafted on to Masquerade for dam raising. It was surprisingly easy and she accepted him without a hitch. We planned to dam raise many of the extra buck kids this year to cut down on the workload a bit. The doe kid is named 'Lupe" and is very tiny, only a little over 2 lbs, she's still finding her legs a bit but is eating well.

Massey (Masquerade) then delivered triplet doelings, 3 big girls, each weighing 7-8 lbs. After losing at least 50 lbs in about an hour, Massey is getting around much easier now and doting on her adopted son / grandson from Luci. My very dedicated goat midwife assistants helped to name the triplets, Sirra, Mona Lisa and 'feisty' Flora who is full of spunk and earned her name by hopping and running at only a few hours old.

As usual, Kaelyn took her role of helping dry the babies very seriously, Tinder's not sure what to think of the chorus of 'meh-mehhhh' coming from the basement. Massey is being an excellent mother and Luci is wondering what on earth she ate yesterday as she looks back at her rear.

Few days off then the real explosion begins, 14 does due in a 7 day span next week. Thank goodness for coffee! And wine...

A weekend of cheese

I've made no secret of my failures in the hard / aged cheese department. Soft / fresh cheeses, no problem. Feta, ricotta, mozzerella, queso fresco, no problem. Aged cheese = smells like ass. And death. Late last year a friend and I decided to take a class to help unravel the mystery. At first we were tempted by locale, it would certainly be more fun to make cheese at the beach, or maybe in New England or the Pacific Northwest, but it seemed most appropriate to stay in the midwest considering techniques, etc may vary.

This is Merryl Winstein, our fearless leader who welcomed us into her home for a day of cheesemaking. We really enjoyed spending the day with the other members of our class, it was fun to share our cheese-disaster stories and talk about our future plans. Merryl's approach to cheesemaking was calm and casual, her vast knowledge about the process as well as the science behind it was impressive. She simplified the process in such a way that our fear of failure dissipated through the day. She talked about the many intensive courses she has attended as well as the many more she plans to attend. We learned that many of our cheesemaking bibles just aren't correct and by breaking the process down by pH and texture alone, we will be eating a perfect goats milk tomme in no time. We also were encouraged to stop panicking about smells and visuals and were encouraged to see each cheese through till the end, because chances are they will turn out just fine. I hope my days of rotten ass-cheese are behind me...

Milo looks on in wonder...

We stopped at each step so every member of the class could feel the texture, the firmness and the smell as the cheese was born. We found out quickly that many recipes have very important 'missing links'...

Merryl was gracious enough to allow us to sample many of her cheeses, some aged only a week and others, many months. Most were cow's milk cheeses and included cloth-bound cheddar, a fresh basic tomme as well as an aged basic tomme, fresh soft cheese, camembert, toscano pepato, kefalotyri and 2 varieties of bleu. From the whey created during class, we made a basket of creamy, warm fresh ricotta which we enjoyed with dried cherries, figs and pineapple that magically appeared in someone's bag...*ahem*

We met Merryl's lovely goats, became green with envy while hearing about the lax milk sale laws in Missouri, and started emphatically planning meals around this spring's many perfectly aged cheeses. Thank you very much, Merryl, we look forward to reading your upcoming book.

It can't be all work and no play, naturally, so we set off to find the best of St. Louis.

We spent a lovely morning at the Art Museum in Forest Park.

First we found a bag of $9.00 potato chips. For the record, they were worth every penny, and come on! What goat girls could resist that label?

I also discovered my new favorite beer. A grapefruit ale. Now the search begins in Ohio...

This is a church adjacent to the Gateway Arch. I don't know anything about it except that its parking lot clearly stated "NO ARCH PARKING" so I stealthily took a picture to hide my true intent.

And here is the picture I was really intending to get. This particular parking lot was the only place we could get a picture of the whole thing so we had to risk it. We soon decided there was no way in hell we were going up to the top of it and that a photo from the ground would suffice.

We took recommendations from the locals in our class and had a late dinner at a fabulous restaurant called The Shaved Duck, where we ate piggy and ducky, and cow and chick-y too. So good, in fact, that our leftovers made an excellent breakfast with organic cheddar bunny crackers.

We are the cheese masters!!!!! Or so we think...after the exceptional beer...

Enjoying the winter lull

The goats have been dried off for several weeks now and we are enjoying our break, especially since the weather has been strangely pleasant. We've used our free time to stock up on hay, clean and rearrange pens and build some hay feeders for the new batch of kids. Living with goats is an unending game of 'trial and error' as far as efficiency in feeding and milking and maximizing floor space in the barn.

We will soon be overun with hungry mouths, and although they are exceptionally cute, we are expecting at least 50 kids this year - we are anticipating 2-3 difficult, tiring months ahead of us. We are still accepting reservations on kids, they start arriving in a little over a month. Here is a link to our website and 'planned breedings / kidding schedule' page. It will be updated as kids arrive, photos will be uploaded to the blog as soon as possible. Also, 6-7 milkers will be for sale soon after kidding, email to inquire.

                                  http://www.capralane.com/planned-breedings

As far as the rest of our menagerie, Kaelyn is pouting because its been too muddy for her to go outside to the barns for chores. Rosie is helping me blog and soaking up heat from the back of my laptop. Tinder is following the sunbeam across the living room and glaring at me,  wondering when I'm going to force her to go outside in the snow again.

                    It's coming!!! At this rate we will have snow on the ground in May.