K is for KIDS!!!!!!

KIDS and KIDDING SEASON - my favorite time of year around the farmette. I love to look out over breakfast and watch all the bouncing babies running jumping and playing together. There is nothing better. Right now we are about 7 to 8 weeks away from our fist set of kids who are due to arrive March 1, 2009. This is Malina (Twinkle Lil Star) from our 2008 kids

Twins and their momma (Dixie and Shakespeare - two of our favorites)

Shakespeare

Triplets out of CBF Serendipidy's Laikla (Stinker Belle, Wendy and PeterPan) and our buck CBF Entei. (all but Entei are residing at Camino Allegre)

Dixie - I so wish I could post more pics as I have lots more of the kids. WE just love to snuggle and play with our babies - as such (and because we have such a small herd to begin with) our babies usually act more like bottle raised babies and not dam raised babies which they are. Sometimes we have one or two who don't want to be "social" but for the most part - we have super friendly kids.

J is for JOIE!

So I am sure you all are getting tired of hearing about my favorite Goat in the world Joie - I've bragged about what a good milker she is and I love her color and her pedigreeand about how she's earned her milking star. So i'm going to tell you all how I got her. I was online doing research and kept seeing the same names pop up in the pedigrees of Champions and great milkers - over and over - names I'm sure you all are familiar with: Raja Acres Twink's Pixie or Twin Creek's BH Mariri's Zinnia, Green Gate Cinderella, Or Twin Creeks' BH Baywatch and his sire Brave Heart. So I began in earnest searching for a doe with those lines.....I was resigned to saving up the $400 or more I'd need to buy her and the $200+ I'd need to ship her here. UGH - LONG wait. Well, in the spring, at a show a friend came up to me and said what do you think of this pedigree? It is for a doe I want to buy - My answer after seeing all THOSE exact names on it - Buy her OR I WILL! She bought her. DARN. So later - this same breeder had a pen full of babies I spotted this tiny little Chocolate Chamoisee and asked if she was for sale? What was her breeding (she turned out to be that doe of my friend's 1/2 sister - same dam/different sire) and how much she was.
WOW - I found a gem under my own nose, I wouldn't have to ship her and I was smitten!!!! IF my husband said yes - of course. So as I was carrying her to show DH - another breeder saw her and said I WANT THAT DOE - Sorry - not happening MY DOE!!!!!! Of course DH said I could buy her. So when she was weaned we brought her home. This is a decision I haver never regretted. Despite being a bit sick at the beginning Joie has lived up to her name - MY JOY of LIFE!!!! She isn't perfect but she's mine! I think she's a good milker though could use improvement on the udder attachment and she has a narrow rump but she's had no problems birthing - a large singel doe kid the first year and triplets this past spring. She's healthy and isn't overly friendly .....oh and did I mention I LOVE her color? And if all goes according to plan she will soon be double registered and I'll try for her star in ADGA as well as the one she earned in AGS.

I is for INBREEDING (vs. linebreeding)

TIRZAH

Here are my three animals that are Grand kids of PiddlinAcres Peaceful Voyage who I think has put his stamp on the goat world. These animals bring in some of the great goats I've seen in the pedigrees of some very outstanding animals from some of the biggest herds in the Nation including Twin Creeks, PiddlinAcres, Lost Valley, Green Gate, and Goodwood.

CALM THE STOM

JOIE DE VIVRE

Of course Joie's daughter - Twinkle Lil Star is also related and Joie is bred this time around to a

"cross out" buck who has some similarities in his background but isn't AS related as Storm.

I wanted to take a moment to kind of explain the differences between the two so our buyers will understand what we do here at CBF. When I first got into goats, I assumed that Inbreeding was BAD and what the line was between INbreeding and LINEbreeding. After talking to some much wiser goat breeders I learned a little bit. NOT enough to be considered an expert and frankly - I still believe breeding goats is a bit of a roll of the dice with some rolls being a little more educated than others! INbreeding is breeding a closely related doe/buck pair - for instance a Father to a daughter or a buck to his mother or sister. For me personally, this is a little to close for comfort.

Not to say I haven't seen it turn out fine - I did see a pairing that close that turned out a very nice little doe who has done well. I've also seen 1/2 siblings produce some outstanding offspring. My issue is that I've seen what it has done in the dog world and I can see where the "pooling" of

bad genetics produce some health problems we'd rather not deal with - don't want to go there with my goats if I can avoid it. Here, we practice linebreeding which is the breeding of two goats with common related ancestors. Early on, when doing my research I noticed certain names popping up over and over in the pedigrees of outstanding milking/show goats. HMMM I think to myself - I need goats with those lines. So I went searching (and found my best milker right under my nose - I was looking at ordering one from out of state and spending an inordinate amount of money on said goat!) The more research I did the more I was convinced a little bit of line breeding is a good thing. So, while we don't practice close breeding here there are certain lines that we concentrate on to breed (we HOPE) sweet goats, with good conformation, and lots of milk. I now have some similar lines in another doe and my buck. They are related but all are

grand or great grandkids of these particular animals but who have OTHER good lines thrown in for good measure. Sorry if I confused you on this but it's been an area of great learning and I will tell you there is even software out there that can help you figure out your coefficient of inbreeding that will help(supposedly) keep you out of the danger zone and into the zone where you are turning out some nice animals. - Check out some of the big breeders who continually win and earn milking stars and you will often see similarly bred animals in their backgrounds.

Hope this post clears up any misgivings you had about LINE/IN breeding for your goats and helps you to understand better why we breed the way we do here at CBF Nigerians

H is for Helping Hands

This post is a tribute to my family. I know it appears that sometimes I run a one woman show around here but that couldn't be farther from the truth. These hands belong to my precious hubby and 3 awesome children and I can say that with out them - CBFNigerians would be non existent. These hands help me build shelters, milk stands, and websites, repair fences, clean pens, feed animals, play with babies, show, water, milk and many other things that I can't even remember. I have the best, most supportive, helpful family there is......though I'm sure many of you feel the same about your families!!!!! So here is a big THANK YOU to the wonderful helping hands that are my support team. This awesome crew is even willing to take on the running of CBF if I am to get my judges license in the summer this year. That will be a huge undertaking I know and they are willing to help me out because they know this is a dream of mine!!!!

G is for GOATEES and GINGER cat

This is the barn cat GINGER, who has a very important job around the farmette - mousing. I do not like the little creepy things and it is her and her sister Minty's job to keep our barn clear of the critters - unfortunatelly Minty has become a wanderer (after 9 years - do you think she's bored?) Ginger cat still sticks around and mouses and in between her job she likes to take LONG cat naps on the front porch bench in the afternoon sun) She was just getting up from her nap for this pictures.

AND the winner of the great GOATEE contest goes to Storm (HOOFS DOWN!) Sorry DH, not quite there yet but then Storm has been growing his for nearly 2 years!

DH was in vacation mode for the past week and decided to grow a goatee - but alas Monday is the end of freedom - bummer for him and ME - so sad as he has been working on my website for most of vacation! - I have two pages up on the WWW

Check it out www.cbfnigeriangoats.com YEEEHAW! Thanks DH!!!!!

F is for FRIENDS and FOUNDATIONS

This post is a bit of a sentimental one - and I couldn't post ALL of the pictures I wanted. This is kind of a tribute to the goats who have laid the foundations of the herd here at CBF Nigerians. This LOVELY doe is Esperanza SJ Patience we bought from a dear lady Katie at Double SunDog Ranch - Patience was everything Katie said she was - and she finished her MCH in record time but she did not like US. Patience is the dam of Nizhoni's DW Tirzah, who I believe wholeheartedly will live up to her mother's example.

El Cerro Wind in the Willows was our first Nigerian. She is a doe with body capacity and a huge udder. We almost earned a star on her but i believe she did not like being away from home. She is a lovely doe who did well in the ring most all of the times she went in earning herself several Reserve Champions and 2 Best Udder in Show. My biggest complaint about her was her teats are too small and she didn't like me. She loved Alyssa and when Alyssa decided to get out of goats we sold Willow to a sweet gal named Janice - who said Willow is great. Willow is the dam of Dixie and CBF Seredipidy's Laikla who resides at Camino Allegre and has done Fantabulous for them - including earning her milking star at 2 years old as a first freshener and producing triplets (2 does/1 wether) this past year.

Nizhonie's Joie de Vivre. This doe is my best/easiest Nigerian Milker and she's a very dairy doe - she does unfortunately lack some udder attachment, a problem we are trying to fix but I must say she is a milker's dream earning her star as a 1yo 2nd Freshener. She is the dam of Twinkle Lil Star (Malina) and Skye who resides at Darkwind Ranch in Colorado. Also her two sons who are wethers are at Laughing Orca Ranch (Moon Pie and Mud Pie). Joie is also here as a representative for her sire: PiddlinAcres Peaceful Voyage. We have two granddaughter's of his here at CBF (Joie and Tirzah) and a grandson (Storm). He has made an impact on our herd and we hope he continues to do so - we just fell in love with him when we saw his daughter Gretel who resides at Double SunDog (who is a daughter of our favorite doe from PiddlinAcres - Fraulin who is also Storm's Paternal Granddam.)

I really wanted to put a picture of Entei but couldn't find it. Entei is the sire of two of our Jr. does - Malina and Dixie. Shalom is Entei's dam and she is a lovely doe who now resides at PrairieWood Ranch. It was so hard to sell this doe but we wanted to keep both Entei and his sister Chickorita and had to make this very hard decision.

The rest of my post is about FRIENDs. I have to say I have made more dear friends through the goats. What a huge blessing this whole adventure has been to us.

When we got into goats we made friends with several folks who really took time to mentor us in the goats: Lora from PrairieWood, Darlene from Nizhoni and Anne from CurrierRockinMinis.

These ladies babied us through the first few years and I can honestly say that we would have quit several times over if it hadn't been for the kindness and support shown by these folks. And I can NOT forget my best friend Tara Joyce who encouraged us and supported us and also bought goats not long after we did. Tara's grandmother gave us our first milk pail and strip cup which we used until Tara needed them when she got her goats and then she gave them back when a move forced her to sell her goats. Miss ya Girl!

In the last few years our circle of goatie friends has expanded GREATLY and includes many 4H buddies as well as buddies who are off across the US. The Sedillos at Camino Allegre who bought our first doeling and have shown her and earned a milking star on her. The Martins at SleepyKid Ranch who own Willow's brother Captain Pellew who have gone to great lengths to get Dairy goats more recognized locally at the County Fair, Kat at Flying Goat who has become a Fiber buddy as well and who blessed us with Flying Goat Jazzy Blues (I so miss him - I can't wait to cash in my free breeding next fall!) Sandy at Twylite Star who sold us Storm. Terri who has Angora's and has become my spinning/knitting mentor, Wendy who bought two Oberhaslis from a lady in AZ after meeting our Miss Priss, Lori - my walking partner and goat buddy whose daughter is also in our 4H club who also fell in love with Miss Priss and bought a Nigerian doe from us and two Oberhasli does from the dairy where Priss came from. Kathy, Doc Z, Joyce, JoDawn, Donna and all the other folks from SouthWest Dairy Goat Club who chose not to judge us because of our love of the little goats and allowed us to join their club! Jeannie Strickland of Darkwind Ranch and the Allen Family of Allen'sMountainView have become VERY good friends of ours and we treasure their friendships a ton!

Last but not least all the wonderful folks I've met through our yahoogroups list - too numerous to even get everyone down but talk about a bunch of folks who have blessed us abundantly with

advice, support, encouragement, prayers, and kudos for accomplishments. Fern, Pam, Kathy, Jaimie, Katie, EVERYONE - you all are counted as blessings to us and we just wanted to give you guys a huge KUDO for just being you. CBF Nigerians thanks and loves each of you!!!!!!

E is for EARS.

I LOVE goat Ears. My kid's(2 legged) say I have a bit of a fetish, I even make sure I like the ears on my bucks (kind of wierd huh?) But, I don't like just any goat ears, I like SWISS goat ears. I have to say, that Nubian KIDS have the cutest ears of any goat alive but all in all - I love these ears. (Sorry, La mancha fanciers, I'm not fond of the La Mancha's "lack" of ears)

These plain black ears belong to my Oberhasli, Miss Priss and I think she has the most elegant expressive ears of anyone in my herd.

And these belong to Dixie - Her and Malina (Twinkle) have frosted ears - TOO CUTE!

These are Narnia's - sort of plain with a darker brown around the edges.

and Storm's plain Chocolate ears. I wish he would have stood still for me since he's got cute ears too but he would not. He either ran from me or challenged me. BRAT!!! I hope he throws his CUTE ears on his babies though. I LOVE the shape of Tirzah's ears but couldn't get the perfect shot of her ears so I won't be able to post hers unless i get a better shot. This reminds me, while i was out taking these photos, I thought of what to do for my next project AFTER I finish the Alphabet challenge (Lisa says I'll get tired later on in the alphabet but to keep going - Thanks for the encouragement Lisa) I want to do a whole series on goat anatamy for those of you readers who want to bone up for the upcoming show year's Showmanship classes.