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!"