Vision of what is to come...GoGo has a family meeting with her kids who are just a few minutes old.
Each year, our holiday gift to the does in our herd (11 are of legal age this year, 18 next year!) is a month long visit from a leased buck. When they are ready to visit with him (in heat) they stand at the fence making faces and we send them over for a date.
Right now our buck Hopkins is on the ride home to our farm with Chris and by nightfall tonight, likely one doe will be bred. This is the first step towards all those adorable snuggly kids who will follow in 5 months (April this year) and a fresh start of another milking and cheesemaking season. Who knows what it will bring.
We have met so many wonderful people in our first year as a licensed creamery. The folks at Bow Street Market, Walnut Hill Market, and Sweetser's Apple Barrel have been so much fun to work with and we had a great time collaborating with OxBow Brewery and Ruth Miller for a beer and cheese tasting at The Lion's Pride, Ferry Beach Ecology School for a fundraiser at Cinque Terre, and Skyline Farm for their Harvest Dinner. And then there are the families who brought home goat kids from our farm this past summer or visited this fall for Open Creamery Day, a cheese class or just because they were in the neighborhood. Hoping these connections continue to grow next season and it all begins with the buck.
We have met so many wonderful people in our first year as a licensed creamery. The folks at Bow Street Market, Walnut Hill Market, and Sweetser's Apple Barrel have been so much fun to work with and we had a great time collaborating with OxBow Brewery and Ruth Miller for a beer and cheese tasting at The Lion's Pride, Ferry Beach Ecology School for a fundraiser at Cinque Terre, and Skyline Farm for their Harvest Dinner. And then there are the families who brought home goat kids from our farm this past summer or visited this fall for Open Creamery Day, a cheese class or just because they were in the neighborhood. Hoping these connections continue to grow next season and it all begins with the buck.
If you are thinking about buying a couple of goat kids this spring for pets of milking goats, then this is the eve of an exciting time in your life too. In hours your little goat of the future may be more than a twinkle in your goat farm dreaming eyes, it may be a goat kid brewing through these cool months and ready for a new home in early June.
If you would like to come visit the girls this winter or to reserve first pick of the kids, or just want to talk about how amazing goats are and what it entails to take care of them, please feel free to come visit.
I'm off to go watch the goat show. Bucky boy is likely just minutes away! More news on the romance soon!
Fall 2013 Update:
Last year 11 goats ended up bred and kidded successfully, producing a total of 29 kids (we kept Poppy & Fern). It was a pretty even split between doelings and bucklings and they found amazing homes with 13 families across the state.
This year, our buck Tex has his work cut out for him. We plan to breed 15-17 does, so if our average of 2.5 kids per goat holds we should have 37+ kids in the last couple weeks of April and the first week of May. It never gets old. I am a whirlwind of excited energy knowing that by this time tomorrow night, a few goats might be bred! The first 12 does are already spoken for with deposits as are 8 wethers, again a cool bunch of families who we look forward to getting to know better through the process. I could not feel any more lucky and grateful to have discovered goats.
It is incredible how fully they have found places in our hearts. Sometimes people ask us if they all have names and when we say "Of course!" are amazed that we remember who each one is. That is always funny to me. We have watched most of them be born and grow up, know each of their distinct calls without looking out the window, love each quirky personality. All 21 are family and we can not imagine the day when we start to lose them to old age, but for now enjoy every day that we share the farm with them...especially during breeding season when the magic of all that is farming is so crystal clear. The eager anticipation of spring kids is enough to pull us through even the darkest winter days.
Interested in checking out the wild rodeo that is goat mating? Swing on by for a look over the fence between Thanksgiving and New Years. ;)
Fall 2013 Update:
Last year 11 goats ended up bred and kidded successfully, producing a total of 29 kids (we kept Poppy & Fern). It was a pretty even split between doelings and bucklings and they found amazing homes with 13 families across the state.
This year, our buck Tex has his work cut out for him. We plan to breed 15-17 does, so if our average of 2.5 kids per goat holds we should have 37+ kids in the last couple weeks of April and the first week of May. It never gets old. I am a whirlwind of excited energy knowing that by this time tomorrow night, a few goats might be bred! The first 12 does are already spoken for with deposits as are 8 wethers, again a cool bunch of families who we look forward to getting to know better through the process. I could not feel any more lucky and grateful to have discovered goats.
It is incredible how fully they have found places in our hearts. Sometimes people ask us if they all have names and when we say "Of course!" are amazed that we remember who each one is. That is always funny to me. We have watched most of them be born and grow up, know each of their distinct calls without looking out the window, love each quirky personality. All 21 are family and we can not imagine the day when we start to lose them to old age, but for now enjoy every day that we share the farm with them...especially during breeding season when the magic of all that is farming is so crystal clear. The eager anticipation of spring kids is enough to pull us through even the darkest winter days.
Interested in checking out the wild rodeo that is goat mating? Swing on by for a look over the fence between Thanksgiving and New Years. ;)
