January 12, 2011

    It's hard  believe that it is almost time to get out there and prune all the berries and get the blackberries wrapped back on our support wires.  We usually prune in February and I am hoping we will have some mild temperatures for working in the berries. 

    We have 10 new baby goats on the ground already and 6 more does who are still expectant mothers.  We are going to send our bucklings that are born out of these 6 does to the buck tests in Oklahoma, Maryland, and Kentucky if at all possible.  That is where they compete to see how they measure up against other bucklings in parasite resistance and average daily gain.  We have been doing fecal egg tests to see the parasite resistance of our herd.  So far we are very pleased with the results of the tests.  I think our herd sires pass their excellent average daily gain and parasite resistance on to their young.

    Our turkey peep peep is growing like a weed and we have discovered that he is not a girl!!  He still likes attention and he always runs to the garage along with our 8 dogs to greet me when I get home.  We still have our 9 ducks and I am thankful we haven'tlost any to coyotes.  Our free range chickens are still laying big beautiful brown eggs and are surving the cold weather.  I had my doubts about them since the roosters made them look like a breed without feathers.  I thought I was going to have to take up knitting and make them sweaters!!  

    We had a goatfeast in November and had about 40 friends show up to eat goat for the first time.  It tasted alot like beef and had excellent flavor.

    I meationed that we now have 8 dogs..... our newest being a Great Pyranese who is just a 4 1/2 month old 68+ pound puppy.  He enjoys the new babies but the older goats have  butted him and he is afraid of them.  Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and we see you this summer.