D is for DIXIE

This pretty little Doe is Dixie - she is out of our Foundation dam El Cerro Wind in the Willows who we parted with this year (that hurt!)to a sweetheart - Janice.
Dixie is only one of two daughters and so far a keeper. She's beautiful!

At 6 weeks Dixie (AKA: CBF Ent's Whistling Dixie) won Jr. Champion at the March Mini Madness Goat show in Albuquerque, NM - my favorite comment by the judge was "sometimes good things really do come in small packages" I knew that when I first saw her precious little impish face when she was born.

See - how could anyone deny that this is the cutest little goat EVER

she just stole my heart. I was only planning on keeping one doe this year and ended up keeping TWO.

This is Miss Dixie now - at almost 11 month old and about 8 weeks into her first pregnancy - she still has the cutest face of all of my goats. Of course we are praying for doe from all of the girls (except the Alpine - we want boys there!)

I am just starting to see a little bit of a baby bump (not that you can tell in this picture since she's eating - haha.

Dixie is the culmanation of several of our breeding decisions (and some rather painful partings as i've had to sell her sire and her sire's dam to make room) We hope that Dixie throws us some fantastic milking babies and that she lives up to her older sister's example - a milking star as a first freshener!

C is for CHEESE

Like many goat owners, we milk our goats and we make Cheese. We make 3 different cheeses around here: Chevre, Ricotta and Mozarella. Occassionally we will make Feta and we rarely make chevre anymore as we can do any chevre recipe with Ricotta and we like the taste better. We bought Mary Jan Toth's book Goat's Produce Too! The Udder Real Thing which has a lot of Cheese, yogurt, ice cream and (not for the faint of heart/vegetarians) Chevon recipes (Chevon is goat meat). This is our Ricotta draining. We like ours drier than some folks and we like to mix it with herbs to spread on crackers. My favorite herbal/cheese mixes are Garlic and Dill and Mediterranian: Sun Dried Tomatoes, Artichokes, Oregano, Kalamata Olives and Garlic. Also we use our Cheese for making Pizzas and Lasagnes. YUMMO! This post is making me hungry for dinner. If you want any of our recipes - feel free to email me and I'll send you our goat cheese mix recipes for free! I do cheesemaking classes for folks but it's not hard, we taught ourselves to make the cheeses we make - it just takes TIME.
Cheese is probably the most common product we make from our goat milk - along with Soap - but you'll have to wait for that post for S!

A is for Alpine, Alfalfa, and Australian Shepherds

So, while checking my post for "B" I realized that my post for "A" was not there - it is lost in CYBERSPACE.... So I have to re-do "A" A is for Australian Shepherds who are the farm guardians around CBF. We don't have much in the way of predators here (except for maybe evil garbage trucks and the late night dog walking neighbor). But these two fearless mutts still alert us when ANYTHING get near the homestead.

A is also for Alpine enjoying her Alfalfa - This is Narnia the newest addition to CBF who is (we hope) carrying 2 Boer/Alpine crosses for the Children to show Market goats this year in 4H. she has great milk genetics (Mom Nivasha, is standing at Harmody Alpines in Colorado is a 3000lb plus milker on 305 day test) Narnia's littermate sister is standing at her breeder's farm still - Pearl Valley Nakuru. Alpine goats are a Swiss Breed originating in Switzerland and are the goat from which we get Oberhaslis (more on that later - when we get to "O") We love our Alpine and are glad she's here but truthfully, not sure what I'm going to do with all that milk from her if she follows in her mom's hoofsteps.

B is for Blue Eyed Bucky Boy (the Big Bad Buck of CBF)

Okay, so I had a moment of exaggeration - He isn't Big and he's not really bad at all - more or less kind of shy. But he is the king of Goatie world here at CBF - Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm. THE BUCK. and he is blue eyed. So, he gets his own "B" day here on the blog. For those of you who don't own bucks, I don't recommend it to the faint hearted, they are nasty but sweet critters! How is that possible you ask - well, if you've ever been around a buck in rut, well, they are rather UNPLEASANT - peeing all over themselves and generally stinking up the airspace (for quite a distance) around them(even though the girl's LOVE the buck cologne)Not to mention the noises - trust me, being woken up (or kept awake half the night) by some rather obnoxious noises out in the goat pen isn't fun.

Most of you who know me, know I'm not really BIG on blue eyes but this year the blue eyed bucks just came my way. I really prefer MILK genetics as I'd really like to be known as the little herd that has lots of milk - we will see! Anyway, I did not go out looking for Blue eyed bucks but was in the market for a new buck so I bought a buck from Arizona who did not work out for me, I was given a blue eyed black and white (for those of you who follow my blog - Flying goat Jazzy Blues, who now resides at PrairieWood Ranch) who drove me nuts singing to the girls ALL NIGHT LONG. Then, this little guy came my way. I jumped at the chance since my best milking Nigerian has similar lineage as this guy. JUST so happens, he too has blue eyes. Now that the other two bucks are gone, he is here to pave the way for a new generation of CBF babies. I don't care if he throws me a single blue eyed baby but if he passes down some of those milky genetics he's carrying from both PiddlinAcres and Lost Valley we will be very happy campers indeed!

Updated Tirzah - 4 mo.

Getting Pictures (esp. good ones) on overly friendly goats isn't easy!
I hadn't gotten a good one of Tirzah in a while and I certainly wouldn't say this is a good one.
She is 4 mo in this picture. She is long and level with nice feet and legs. Nice shoulders and a fairly long neck. She appears to be very dairy but she's a little "overly conditioned" at this point.
Despite being the youngest goat in the Food chain here we know she's getting plenty to eat. Right now she is the only doe not pregnant. She will wait until March for her hot date with (we hope) Lost Valley ML Nekoda *S.

FUN Idea

I love what my friend Lisa did at LaughingOrcaRanch (see link on right)
on her blog. She did an Alphabet BlogSchool. Too much fun. I am going to copy her
but keep all thinks goatie - it will make the wait until BABIES go faster. I won't guarantee an everyday blog but I plan on making it fun and interesting. And EDUCATIONAL!!!!
IF you want some fun and educational reading visit Lisa at Laughing Orca Ranch. she REALLY did a great job - I'm inspired!
Thanks Lisa for always have such creative ideas and interesting reading on your blog. I don't get on often enough and then when I do - I spend so much time there I don't get all my chores done!
BAD MOMMY!

Update on Goats.

We finally have all the tests done on all the goats: All goats have tested NEGATIVE for CAE.
Joie, Miss Priss, Dixie and Malina were also tested for Johnne's and are NEGATIVE. The reason why the other goats weren't tested for Johnnes is that I didn't own them at the time and they were all tested for CAE before they came on my property so we will get tests on Storm, Narnia, and of course little Tirzah in the spring (Tirzah isn't done at all because she's too young).
We believe that all the does are bred now except Tirzah who is too young to be bred yet.
Due dates are as follows:
1. Narnia - Due March 1, 2oo9 For Boer/Alpine crosses - NONE FOR SALE
2. Joie de Vivre - Due March 24, 2009 to PiddlinAcres KR TapDance
3. Twinkle Lil Star -Due March 26, 2009 to PiddlinAcres H Calm the Storm
4. Whistling Dixie - Due March 27, 2009 to PiddlinAcres H Calm the Storm
2 Does and 2 wethers are reserved already out of these 3 does - I may have a limited number of does and wethers for sale. NO BUCKS available this year.
5. Miss Priss - Due May14th, 2009 to Piddlin Acres H. Calm the Storm for Mini Oberhaslis - does will be available but no bucks/wethers
6. Tirzah - will be bred in March to Lost Valley ML Nekoda *S of PrairieWood Ranch if all goes according to plan. You can see pics of Nekoda on the Herd sires page of Prairie Wood Ranch website -links on top left of the blog page.