More Great News regarding our buck.

Our little buck Ironwoodranch A Good Intrigue *S/*B 's dam Ironwoodranch SJ Pecan 2*D/2*M made it to ADGA's Superior Genetics list for 2010. Exciting because this is the first year Nigerians are included in the SG program and she earned it through her herd participating in the 305 day milk testing program as well as Linear Appraisal program.

She is one leg away from being a permanent champion also so her SG status can be upgraded once she earns that leg.
WE sure are happy with our stinky little guy! he's bred several of our does and several outside does now for spring 2010 babies. WE really are looking forward to seeing what his kids do this coming year and the years to follow. Thank you so much Ironwood Ranch for our Intrigue. He is a little treasure for us and will be happy to use him for the years to come!

There is also a possibility that a new buck will join our herd this year. His Granddam is Pecan's herdmate Minnie who also made it to the SG list. I won't say much more until this new little guy comes to join our herd as he isn't even born yet. Minnie is also tied with one other doe for the highest milk quantity on a one day test at 7.0#s. NOT that I want that much milk but the genetics are there to sustain a good milking herd of Nigerians.

I think we have a lot to look forward to in 2011 and beyond thanks to the addition of some excellent animals joining our little herd. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! See you and your herd in 2011. PS - we are currently updating our website now. Check soon for breeding page updates as well as the arrival of new kids starting in Feb 2011.

More Farm photos

Here is little Lucky, the smallest member of the herd. Hippity Hooves GD Lucky Star is the daughter of beautiful little Lost Valley PG Bebe (a double Kingwood bred doe and daughter of ARMCH Lost Valley KW Bridges Burn. ) and Rosasharn's HB Gideon *S/*B . She is possibly the sweetest little doe I own. I love her calm personality.
This is lovely Cleo - half sister to Lucky out of Gideon and Nizhoni's BB Lila Fay. Lila was a mega milker but didn't particularly care for being handled or milked. WE do hope that Cleo is not following her momma - she doesn't appear to yet! She is also very calm and laid back and lets us handle her very easily. I cannot wait to milk her. She is bred to Dragonfly USH Ten Zen (Rosasharn's Ushikai and Twin Creeks BW Pacifica). We hope that Zen will be a good balanced linebreeding for our little Cleo.
Cleo and Hope playing . I love watching the girls play and have fun together. When I'm out there they usually just sit in my lap but today they did go off and play some. It will be fun to see a whole new generation of kids playing out there this spring......in the meantime I will treasure days like today where I can go out and spend some time giving scratches and enjoying the beautiful day!

Farm Photos.

It is an incredibly beautiful day here in NM. As much as we need the precipitation right now I am grateful for the balmy 60* weather. I had a chance to just go sit with the girls and give everyone some love. Well, except poor Intrigue here who is a tad stinky and peed on. But hey, he's doing his job as a buck so I'm not complaining too much. I cannot get over how much this boy has grown. Right now two of my does and 3 outside does are due by him from Feb - May.

Here is my beautiful little Hope - she is bred to handsome Intrigue for March babies - March 1st-ish. She is out of Nizhoni's DW Tirzah and Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm.
Here is momma doe Tirzah just hanging out. I love this beautiful doe, right now she is probably my top doe. Her daughter looks just like her only a bit darker chocolate chamoisee. I can't wait to see the mother daughter udders here. Tirzah is due about 10 days after her daughter and Tirzah is re-bred to Storm. So anyone wanting a Tirzah baby can get a preview of what to expect!

I can't believe it's November!

I was just realizing it is November and was thinking back over the year and Wow - I can't believe what huge things can happen in 1 year. My herd has changed and evolved. Some of the changes were ones I couldn't help and other's were changes I thought were necessary. Every now and again I have twinges of "did I do the right thing?" Or would I take a "do-over" if I could. Looking out at my present herd and the possibilities that could be over the next two years? Probably not. But at the same time - I must say I let go some GREAT animals

and am really happy they've done well in their new homes.
For instance - the little brown guy in the back of this photo - that little guy I wanted to keep but at the time I owned his dam, littermate sister, half sister and dam's half sister. I only had ONE doe to breed him to. So I sold him to another farm. CBF TD Daredevil has gone on to sire about 10 kids with more on the way. Many of them are lovely animals.
This is his littermate sister - Kokoro Kiseki - who I was going to keep but was feeling like I needed to change my herd up some - So I sold her and her dam to

Pecan Grove in Arizona. I must say of all the goats I've sold I miss Joie the most. She was my first Star milker and yes, one of my better milkers EVER!!!! But I owned her half sister whom I adore. I've now seen Koko, grow up , freshen, and produce a beautiful buck kid for the Pecan Grove Farm.
Another twinge - yeah, sure but I couldn't have done what Pecan Grove did this year - they have Joie and Koko on 305 day test and both girls were in a few shows and proved that they could hold their own in a VERY competitive show ring ! I was even told by a breeder that Koko is possibly one of the best goats at Pecan Grove - that is my girl! I was even honored further by the fact that they kept one of Koko's sons and put my farm name in his registered name. The fact that they kept a first fresheners son, that was bred by my farm and is GORGEOUS to boot - wow, I'm honored! Go check out www.PecanGroveRanch.com and see Pecan Grove CBF Koko Vanilla Twister! He's a looker! I am excited to hear how both does do on 305 day test this year and I can't wait to see Twister's kids start hitting the ground next spring. HMMM - may have to get me one of those someday!

This spring's kids are growing quick - and I cannot wait to see what the 2011 kidding season brings with this year's generation of CBF goats. I have high hopes for CBF CS Hope Diamond, CBF CS Columbus, CBF CS Carbonado, All of which will contribute to the future of my farm or others.

We are also putting our herd on 305 day test this year. I'm excited to finally get that ball rolling as it's been a dream of mine for a long time now. I may look back wistfully at some of the hard choices we made over the past few years but I also am looking forward with hope to the accomplishments that God will bless us with in the near future!

HIppity Hooves GD Lucky Star

TADA! this our newest addition. I wasn't really thinking of adding any more does this year. YES, I actually had/have enough. But I got to thinking about breeding for a future buck. Just about everyone here is mostly related so I though, what could I do that would bring in some choice bloodlines that I could breed for future herdsire. I needed a great milker, or something from great milk lines. As luck would have it, Hippity Hooves asked me to come out and do their verification test. Yep, that was my downfall.
I already LOVE the Gideon daughter I already have and many of Gideon's daughters are already doing fantastic in the milk pail. Check out the daughters that JoyfulHearts Farm has or has sold!
And I now know what this little beauty is capable of because of the milk test. Lost Valley PG Bebe is a daughter of ARMCH/GCH Lost Valley KW Bridge's Burn 1*M/*D. (2009 AGS National Champion) I asked the Allen family if they were considering selling one of the twin does they got out of the pair. They were!
So this last month we brought home our newest little gem - Lucky!

I have a bit of a breeding plan for this little doe. It will give me plenty of time to use my Intrigue before Lucky's son will come in and be a 2nd buck for our herd. Thanks Hippity Hooves for our new little beauty!

As The Breeding Pen Turns - Part 2

I should know that taking pictures of your goats eating isn't a good idea. They wouldn't stand but if I hadn't fed them, they'd be in my lap instead! Oh well, The lighter doe is TinFays GD Cleopatra. She is the one who is Bred to Dragonflye USH Ten Zen. A baby from this pair will most like be retained by us. She is due on March 19 or 20th. Along with Miss Priss who was bred to Intrigue for Mini Oberhaslis on March 20th.

Here is a terrible picture of an otherwise beautiful doe. This is our CBF CS Paint Th'Sky with Stars. Stars, as she is affectionately called around here, is one of those girls that I just loved the minute she was born. Her dam, CBF Ent's Twinkle Lil' Stars is one of the does that I would have kept had my teen not been diagnosed with cancer last year. She earned her 2*D in AGS after being in milk for 18+months. That little girl can milk. We sure hope if she's bred she will follow in her dam and granddam's hoofsteps! She is bred to Intrigue for Feb 21 babies.

As The Breeding Pen Turns - Part 1

changes changes. That seems to be the story of my herd. I hope these changes are all for the good of the herd but as usual, NONE were easy. I think long and hard about breeding...what buck would go well with what doe for the desired outcome. Who would complement who and why? This year (2010) wasn't a good year for us really as we had a lot of boys born and just didn't have the income to do what we wanted to do, not to mention we had some setbacks (2 months PLUS lost to soremouth, a double teated doeling, no money to show and most recently our Oberhasli just up and dried up leaving us high and dry this winter since she was supposed to be milked through until the Nigies began kidding in spring) Also a doe that was supposed to be bred not being bred.
All this going on sure made me think long and hard on my goals for the herd and what would help us to accomplish this. This little beauty (CBF CS Hope Diamond) was a huge highlight for us. She is the first daughter to Nizhoni DW Tirzah (Joie's 1/2 sister) and I am SMITTEN. I love this doe and if she has as lovely an udder as her dam and milks as well. I'm thinking we've got a good think going on. So, back to breeding. As most of you know - we brought in a lovely new buck this year from Ironwood Ranch. We hope he is going to put some super correct and very milky kids on the ground. This year he was bred to Stars (CBF CS Paint Th'Sky with Stars) and CBF CS Hope Diamond. We will retain one doeling out of one of the girls.

All others will be for sale. IF both breeding took, we are looking at babies (Star/Intrigue) on February 21st and (Intrigue/Hope) March 1, 2011.

Last but not least is Tirzah. I thought about breeding her to my handsome Intrigue but loved the kids I got out of Tirzah and Storm so I took my free breeding from Nizhoni's who now has Storm and repeated that breeding.
Intrigue (shown here) also was to be bred to TinFays Cleopatra this year but an interesting offer was made - a trade. Jennifer of crazy wisdom dairy (www.crazywisdomdairy.com) asked if I'd consider a trade breeding. HMMM - why the heck not? So she bred one of her does to Intrigue and I bred Cleo to her buck Dragonfly USH TenZen.

He's a smaller buck but of Rosasharn's breeding and also carries the Baywatch lines I so like. I hope we get a doe as she will be retained here. Zen is the daughter of TwinCreeks BW Pacifica and Rosasharn's Ushikai who is distantly related to Cleo through the incredible Rosasharn's TigerL. This should be a very interesting cross and I am super excited about seeing what we get. We are expecting babies from this pair around March 20, 2010.
Trigue has also dates with a few other outside does this year. I can't wait to see what he produces.

Other news - we sold Brisa, not really because we wanted to but a situation presented itself and I still have my trade from The Feathered Goat for a doe as I let the sale be theirs. I know that I will have a ton of choices next spring or even the following year . I have one MORE piece of news but she gets her OWN post but first - I need pictures!!

Update on Life.

I know it probably hard to believe but I've been BUSY! So of course have been scarce from blogger-land. I am hoping with the advent of colder weather, I will have more time to be indoors and on my blogs a bit more! LOL.

I know it is hard to believe that there is actually more to life than just my goats but indeed, lately, there has been. what with holiday season rapidly approaching, I am busy working on projects for arts N crafts shows as well as orders. Here is one I'm working on now - 2 felted stockings for a lovely lady in Tennessee who ordered them. I have two more (alpacas) to do after these are done and off to TN. Also I've been spinning and sewing but you'll have to go check out my Fiber Phanatic Blog for those updates.
Last year in Oct. we were able to visit our dear friends the Joyce's in Dallas TX as part of Alyssa's Make a Wish Trip. This trip was a huge blessing to us as we have hardly gotten to see them since they moved away. This year we volunteered with Make A Wish to help bring blessings to other critically ill children. We spent a morning at the Balloon Fiesta in ABQ, NM selling calendars and programs to raise money for Make A Wish! What a blast that was.
Soap making. Oh my have I ever been making (and selling) soap.

Somedays it's hard for me to believe I get anything done,but make soap. This week I will be labelling and packing up soaps that are already sold. lLet the Christmas season begin. (And please, Lord, help me keep up!)

Also, I have pink hair now. Not completely pink, but am now sporting some racy pink stripes for a dear friend. She decided that (after being diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer) she wanted pink hair before it all fell out (remember Alyssa wanting red hair before it all fell out?) So a huge crowd of us got together at her house and we had a PINK party. about 25 of us got "PINKED" to support her. We also had a fun Tamale making party. About 4 of us got together with kidlets in tow and made tamales. Really was a BLAST!

Now, Im sure you are thinking - but what about the goats? What's going on with the goats - afterall, this is the CBF Nigerian blog. Well, sorry, you'll have to wait for that one as I have a LOT to update about the goats and thought that deserved it's own entry! Tune in next time for

As The Breeding Pen Turns........

Been too Long!

I realized just recently it's been waaaay too long since I post last. I guess I've been busier than I've ever wanted to be. A good busy but still busy. So I guess I'll just hit some highlights of what's been going on here. First of all - harvesting. Yep - harvesting and canning and cooking all the yummy foods from the garden has been a priority. Still not done but winding down - finally! We have harvested and canned or frozen: pesto, chile, jalapenos, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, peaches, etc. Secondly I've been critter sitting almost nonstop for about 4 or so weeks. I enjoy it but it does take it's toll and I'm tired - really tired.

I have a break for a few weeks now which is good.
We also had a bout of soremouth. NOT a fun thing to go through, especially the pen cleaning and care of the "sick" animals. Thankfully this was an extremely mild case, we are done and still in the process of cleaning pens (burning and bleaching and resanding the floors of the stalls) between rains. Hard to burn things that need burning when they are soaking wet! See the picture above - that was the morning after a 2 1/4 inch rainfall in one evening. In NM that is 40% of our annual rainfall - in one night. I had a bunch of NOT happy goats. I wasn't exactly excited either having to wade thru muck and mud to feed.

Now that we are done with that, we have turned our attention to breeding or at least attempting to breed. I like my babies in feb/march so we are now in full swing.

Assuming all is going according to plan (does it EVER???)

we have Stars bred to Intrigue and hopefully due Feb 21st, Hope bred to Intrigue and due March 1st, Next to go is Tirzah who is going back to Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm for babies due around March 6 - 8th and lastly will be Cleo who is going to visit Dragonfly USH Ten Zen for babies on or about the 20th of March. She will be it until fall. We would like to show in March and then again for the Quad show in June. We are also planning on going on the 305 day testing as long as the folks who agreed to get certified do. Looking forward to some great Nigie milking next year.

I know that's not all that's been going on but it's late, I'm tired and have my usual early morning schedule. Will also post an update on Alyssa soon as I know some of you who follow are probably wondering how things are going with her as well.

Camino Allegre DD Brisa

Here is our newest addition - Camino Allegre DD Brisa. Her sire is CBF TD DareDevil. I reluctantly sold him last year but now am glad I did! Camino Allegre showed him at Quad and he won Reserve Grand Champion. He is a one year old and is out of

Nizhoni's Joie De Vivre *S/*D and Piddlin Acres KR Tapdance (TX Twin Creek's KM King's Ransom and MCH Piddlin Acres SC Bobby Sox *D)
Brisa's Dam is a doe we owned for a short while (my son's show goat) but sold to Camino Allegre when my son decided he wasn't going to show. Her name is GreysNGoat's Zelda. Zelda is now owned by The Feathered Goat Farm in Sabinal NM. She is milking about 22 oz once a day. Her kid's will all be weaned next week sometime. she had triplets. One doe is being retained by TFG and the buck kid is available for sale!

The best news EVER!

Today, after 2 months of driving back and forth to ABQ, we finally got results from all the tests.

Alyssa has had CT Scan, Bone Density, Echo Cardio, Pulmonary Function, and Labs. ALL ARE CLEAN and yes, Dr. Winter said we could wait for 6 more months before we have to go in for another CT. THAT is the best news EVER!!!!

He said she looks good and he was so glad to see her having a great time at camp two weeks ago. He said it is nice to see these kids being kids instead of green, barfing and feeling ick after a few doses of their toxic cocktail to kill the cancer. He also said he isn't going to make her do CTs once a year because he's not a huge fan of the major doses of radiation they have to undergo so after one more year of Clean Scans he's going to have her only do yearly XRays as they deliver a much lower dose of radiation than the CTs.

We must have the worlds GREATEST Dr.!!!!

YES, tears are flowing - major tears of joy!!!!

WHAT A DAY!

Today was one of those days you are glad it's over but it was full, in a good way. I found out today that CBF Ent's Twinkle Lil' Star (here is her Jr. doe picture) is officially a 2*D with AGS. Twinkle is CBF's 2nd doe to earn her milking star thru AGS.
Today was the first day of the SWDGA Quad show. Our CBF TD Daredevil won a Reserve Grand Champion today. He is the brother of CBF TD Kokoro Kiseki. The beautiful doe I posted recently. He is also the sire of Camino Allegre DD Brisa.

And we came home today from a rather full day to a little gift. Thank you Coral for dropping this drop dead GORGEOUS doeling for us. I'm a little sad because she's a single. I was hoping for twins so I could keep one but if I want to feed the herd this winter I'll have to sell her. I'm so bummed. This is the last doe kid out of Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm. She definitely looks like a Storm kid (bears a strong resemblence to Dixie's doe Hershey and CBF CS Chocolate Truffle from last year. ) Coral has a gorgeous udder with LOVELy attachment front and back. Really haven't been able to check side yet but I'll get that later. I also got my precious daughter back from camp today. That was icing on the cake for sure. AAAAH, this is one of those days you sit back and go "it's all good, Thank you LORD!"

Exciting News from Arizona

First of all I need to thank Ironwood Ranch for sending me these pics. They have been fantastic not only in letting us have our little buck Irondwoodranch A Good Intrigue*S/*B. but have kept us informed about all sorts of happenings that relate to our herd. This is the gorgeous dam to Intrigue (or 'Trigue as he's known around these parts). Pecan now has two legs toward her MCH and has pretty much been commended for her LOVELY udder by every judge she's been show under this year. She was #4 in the nation in AGS for milk production, butterfat and overall on 305 day test.
The Lovely Pecan's udder (rear view)
Also, earlier this year I sold one of my favorite does - CBF TD Kokoro Kiseki to Pecan Grove in AZ. I sold her thinking I could breed my Tirzah to Koko's dad this year but it wasn't until after I sold her that I found out Tapdance had passed away. SAD day for me.

Especially after seeing this FF udder of Koko's. An improvement over mom's udder whose udder isn't horrible so I'm pleased. She kidded two bucks out of Piddlin Acres H Calm the Storm this year.
But I think she sure matured out as a very very nice doe. NOT disappointed by her at all.
This is Nizhoni's Joie de Vivre *D/*M. Joie was 2nd in the Memorial day show behind Agape Oaks Fire Hazard*D/2*M AR, also owned by Pecan Grove who would have been nearly impossible to beat. Hazard also tied the record in AGS for 1 day test Milk Production at 7.0#s.

Thanks again Ironwood Ranch for keeping me up to date on all the happenings in AZ and sharing these great photos!

Introducing Camino Allegre DD Brisa

I traded Feathered Goat Farm a buck for a doe of choice. I was going to wait until next year but then, this little doe was born. AAAAH, it was love at first site.

MY plan this year was to breed my lovely Tirzah to Piddlin Acres KR Tapdance but he passed away this last winter. I was heartbroken as I had sold all the offspring of his I had thinking I'd get more. I did sell Nizhoni's Joie de Vivre *D/*M's 2009 buck kid to Camino Allegra to use on all their does. They in turn decided to get out of Nigies for the most part and concentrate on Nubians and Boers so they sold 4 pregnant does to Feathered Goat Farm. LUCKY ME!!! This doe is out of CBF TD Daredevil and Grey's N Goats Zelda. Brisa looks a lot like her lovely Auntie Kokoro Kiseki who now resides in Arizona at Pecan Grove Ranch. I will be doing a post about my beautiful Koko later but had to share our newest addition - she's only 2 weeks old now. Her littermate sister is already sold but her brother is still available if anyone is interested.

Shaved some goats just to see!

Here is a shaved picture of little Hope. Wow. What a lovely doe under all that lovely soft hair. BUT what really surprised me was her color. She looked like a regular Chamoisee under all that but now she looks ALMOST like a carbon copy of her dam.

and Granddam. She also sort of cooperated with the picture session which is nice since the last time I tried to set her up she just turned into jelly and flopped onto the ground. Maybe she realized we weren't actually trying to kill her. Also - it's apparent she eats well. NO, I don't think that was ALL body capacity - she's just a piggy!
I think we need to learn to use the zoom on the camara a bit but here's a nice butt shot of Tirzah - er ah - ESCUTCHEON. Any way - she's not full but still she's so pretty all shaved up.
That's my pretty girl. I sure do adore her. She has been a real blessing to my herd and I'm enjoying milking her and having her daughter around.

Flowing with Milk AND HONEY

So yesterday I was planning a day in Albuquerque and woke up to a sick child. Bummer - so we have to stay home. I did my usual things, and later in the afternoon Hubby calls and says to me

So, what would you say to getting a beehive tonight. I have been dreaming of a beehive for YEARS! As a matter of fact before all the does began kidding - I recall saying to hubby - if we have another good doe year I'm going to buy a beehive set up. ( UNfortunately, it has NOT been a good doe year - byebye Hive) So of course I said A HIVE? When, Where, HOW?
One of the student who works for Hubby, his parents are beekeepers and avid gardeners said they wound up with too many hives and bees. So After Hubby and student were talking about gardening, goats, etc., talked to his parents and they offered us a hive and the bees they ordered but because they had eaten all the honey in their shipping container had to be released last night.
Soooo, Hubby's student employee and his dad (very sweet folks by the way) came down, set up the hive, talked to us about how to keep the hive. WE loaded them up with soap, homegrown apple chips, goat cheese and homegrown lettuce plus some herbs
And NOW we have a real beehive with bees in our garden - a DREAM come true at last. Isn't that so cool?
Here's Hubby with his thrown together bee suit (that's a lingerie bag on his head - INGENIOUS!!!!! LOL!) He said he's heading to Hay's Honey Farm today to see if we can get some used equipment - smoker, bee helmet and gloves. Otherwise - guess what hubby is getting for father's day?

OH, we can't harvest for a year but that's okay - we will spend a lot of time dreaming about all the fun things we can make out of the wax and honey (soap, candles, ornaments, use it in other products........)

Daredevil, Stars and other musings from the Hobby Farm

So over the last few weeks I've been trying to decide if my Stars was pregnant. The consensus is, that she is not - she's due June 22 and there is NO UDDER.

I wanted to go take her back to Jazzy Blues but my time right now is pretty limited. Then, I started getting pictures of the udders of Joie's 2009 set of babies. And the kids from Joie's buck kid CBF TD Daredevil) from last year - out of Tapdance who is now passed on.
My desire was to breed Tirzah to Tapdance this year but after finding out he had passed away......and after seeing Daredevil's kids.......and after discovering that Stars wasn't bred.....I took Stars to visit Daredevil. So NOW I hope I will be seeing some Stars/Daredevil kids in October.

This is a close linebreeding on Joie who was my Supermilker so I am really looking forward to these kids. A little side note here: Stars' dam, Twinkle Lil' Star has now been in milk over 400 days.....she was just bred so we will look forward to seeing her second freshening shortly before

Stars kids if she gets bred soon.

What do you do with a Fridge full of goat milk? Make CHEESE (and soap, and yogurt, and, drink it!) so I wanted pizza and we made mozarella and someone asked me to post directions with pics! Here it is!
Take 1/4 C. Cool water and add 1 1/4tsp citric acid (Hoeggers goat supply and some health food stores carry it) and add it to a large stainless steel pot. Add 1 gallon of fresh goat milk to the pot and bring to 88 deg. F. Remove from heat and add 1/4 C of Cool Water with 1/4 tsp rennet (again hoegger's or a cheese supply company will carry this) Stir in well. Let sit for 15 min. Cut the curd and then let sit for 10 more minutes. Immerse in a HOT bath for 35 minutes.
Drain the curds in cheese cloth for about 15 minutes to let all the whey drain off.
Heat in Microwave for 50 seconds and use a spoon to begin stretching the cheese. after about 8 minutes, reheat for 25 seconds and continue stretching until you can handle the cheese with your hands and stretch more!
We use our mozarella for many different things - crackers with cheese and salami, pasta salads and PIZZA of course!!!! Nothing better than fresh, homemade mozarella.