Dixie Came Back for a Visit!

If you have visited our website recently - you may have seen the cutest goat EVER as our Home page Mascot! I sold little Miss Dixie to the sweetest family and they brought Dixie over to visit our local StudMuffin (Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm). She is hoping for a repeat of this year: 2 does and a buck (who is now a wether and lives with the same family) Or....even better....3 doelings?

I still think she is CUTE!!!

Look at that beautiful mug. She isn't quite in heat but is due in the next few days and she's NOT happy being in with the buck - well, maybe she isn't happy being away from her little herd (She IS the queen you know!) We are happy to have Dixie back even for a short visit - can't wait to see what she produces for the D Family

Hana Allen

We have been getting regular updates from Heather on her daughter Hana. It appears that things are going much better and Hana is doing very well. They were released from the Ronald McDonald House after they performed a surgery to remove Hana's ureter catheters which apparently were causing both the leak and the bladder spasms. It wasn't a scheduled thing but a frustrated mom who is concerned about her child's pain and discomfort moved mountains.
Thankfully the Dr.'s listened to her and they got this child in a place where she isn't miserable.
The next surgery is scheduled for Dec.1, 2009 and at this time will remove the rest of the tubes from Hana, do a minor fix up job on something and then HOPEFULLY after healing up Hana can go home. The Allen's have met a lot of really wonderful folks at RMH and the hospital and thankfully family members have been able to go to Ohio to help Heather out. Her hubby was there for the first couple of weeks, then Heather's sister came for several weeks and now their eldest son is there helping out. Hana is in much better spirits now that she isn't being plagued by those aweful spasms. Because of the Allen's, my next Organization of the week will be Ronald McDonald House (after I do some research!) even though we didn't use them it is apparent that they are a blessing to families who are dealing with very ill children and bring relief to their families in the form of a safe and often less expensive place to stay with a much nicer atmosphere than a hospital.

More Breeding News.

Dreams coming true! I had Tirzah in with Storm for 5 weeks in April/May and then again for a week recently and miss Tirzah wasn't cooperating AT ALL.

Finally, after a friend brought her doe over to breed to Storm, Tirzah decided he might be a stud muffin after all let him breed her. WE have had a sonogram confirming she is pregnant (about 40 days) now. This has to be one of my most waited for freshenings. We owned Tirzah's mom for about a year and she did not like us. We traded her (MCH Esperanza SJ Patience - she should be in the archives from 2 years ago) for 2 doelings and Tirzah was one of them. I had to wait a while for her but she was worth the wait!!!! I love this little doe. Her due date is Feb 27 (DH's birthday!)2010 and we are keeping a doe kid form this pair if we get one. Storm usually throws triplets and Tirzah was one of triplets so I'm hoping.....


Joie is also pregnant and looking so already - she usually throws me triplets. She is also bred to Storm so I have hopes there as well! Joie is due Feb 5th. I am looking forward to a bunch O little chocolates this year! We now have everyone we are breeding for spring kids. WE are now taking reservations on Joie's kids (we aren't planning on keeping any this year as we have several already and I want to keep some from other does this year) and I will take 1 verbal doe reservation on Tirzah in hopes that she'll throw me 2 does this year.

Joie may also be for sale when the babies are weaned. This will be a VERY hard decision for me as Joie is a foundation doe and one of my favorites but we seem to be at a crossroads in our herd. Needing to keep the herd small and wanting to keep several babies this year with our herd name on them.



Other breeding News: After a lot of thought and consideration we have decided we will no longer breed for Oberhaslis or mini Obs. We are keeping Miss Priss until she should leave us (probably not soon - she's only 5 this coming year) and breed her to a Kinder buck for meat for our family. Because Miss Priss has a few glaring conformation flaws (underbite, horribly attached udder and funky back hooves that require a lot of care) we decided it really isn't worth trying to breed her to sell quality Oberhaslis or Minis. We decided this was the best compromise for our family and for our customers. I do know where to get some decent Oberhaslis and Mini Oberhaslis so if you are interested email me - NMgoatgal (AT) gmail.com and I will gladly help you find one if that is what you want.



Last bit of News: We are buying a new buck. I had my heart set on a buck kid out of Agape Oaks Nigerians. Pam is awesome and has put together a wonderful herd of milky and show quality does and bucks. She has done an excellent job of proving her herd through 305 day testing (milk), Linear Appraisal and showing. I am super duper impressed with Pam's herd and when she bought a new buck this spring I knew I had to have one of his kids. After a lot of thought and conversations with Pam I settled on a few excellent choices but then tragedy happened. Ghiradelli died and several of the does I wanted the buck kid out of weren't settled by him. When I found out he was sick I began looking for a back up plan and found a few herds that met my requirements but still held onto hope that Mica or Catie were bred to Ghiradelli before he passed. Pam was super kind in letting me have a buck if the girls were bred despite so few being bred to him before he passed. When Pam let me know Mica and Catie were not among those bred to Ghiradelli I began talking with the other herds. I have settled on Ironwood Ranch.

I think that they have worked incredibly hard on their little herd and I'm am just as excited about working with them as I was with Pam at Agape Oaks. They have done Linear Appraisals, 305 day milk tests and do show their goats and have some nice genetics going on in their herd.

After talking at length with the Carpenters, I have settled on a buck kid out of Ironwood SJ Pecan2 *D/2*M and Ironwood SJ Snickerdoodle *S or Ironwood Ranch SJ Minnie and Jedidiah. The buck will inherit his star if he's out of Pecan and Snickerdoodle. Probably will get one eventually if he's out of Minnie and Jed. These pairs have already proven themselves and their genetics are wonderful. Like with Pam I know I am probably getting a buck with lovely conformation who is carrying some very milky genes! You can see them at http://ironwoodranch.weebly.com

Thank you Ironwood Ranch and Agape Oaks for working with me. CBF Nigerians is excited about bringing in this new boy when the time comes. Part of me wishes I could have had them both but that was not to be.

Day 4 - Six Flags! and Day 5 - back home.

seeing the Joyce's was the point of our trip but of all the activities, I think Six Flags was the highlight. I hadn't been to Six Flags since I was about 11 years old - BOY has it changed. There were a few rides there from when I went as a child: Parachutes, Crazy Legs (seen here) Shock Wave and Judge Roy Scream. We did go on a few of these for Nostalgia's sake.

But really, nothing beat most of the new rides and of course, I was so busy riding rides - I didn't take pictures. Silly ME! this is the Superman (one I did not ride)
so I took pics of those riding it - Nik, Alyssa, Marissa, and Aaron. Yeah, I know you can't actually see them - but they are there in that little car!!!!


Oh, here are the parachutes. But the best ride of all (which I did NOT get a picture of - was the Batman. the Titan was pretty awesome too. I would ride them all again and then the ones I didn't get to - Tony Hawk's Big Spin, Texas Giant, Boomerang, Log ride and a few others. Darn those one hour waits - Plus, some of us wanted to ride Batman again. YEP - we closed down the park and next time (if we ever go again) we are going when it opens instead of piddling around in the morning and not making it there until almost noon!
We could have ridden at least two more rides for crying out loud!!!!!

Day 5 - this was our last day in Texas - I really wanted to go out and meet Pam Ebert of Agape Oaks where I was hoping to buy a buck from this year but alas it was not to be. The Joyce's Son, Conner, had a playoff game and we wanted to go watch. I guess ya just can't get everything in on one little trip! It was, all in all, a wonderful trip. Thank you a TRILLION to Make A Wish
for making this wish of Alyssa's come true - We were all blessed beyond measure to go spend 5 days with our dear friends and get to do some "playing" while we were there. Something we could not have done on our own. Thank you, Thank you, Thank YOU!!!!

Day 3 - Medieval Times and time with friends.

Well, on day 3 we went to our friend's the Joyces' again - here is their house. They are renting and it's is a nice home in Grand Prairie. We spent most of the day hanging with the Joyce's (OH how I miss our regular days hanging with them!!!!) Then in the evening we went to the Medieval Times. NOW - silly me - I forgot my camara when we went to the Medieval times show. So of course - No pictures. But wow, the horses were so beautiful and well trained. I wanted to take the Friesian home in my suitcase but Alas, they wouldn't give him to me and really, I couldn't fit him in (over the weight limit for Southwest - SIGH!) It made me miss my horses a little bit. Well, a lot. Especially Ransom the dressage horse. Maybe someday.