Well, Spring has come and is bursting with bouncing babies.  After last year's lackluster kidding season 

we've gotten off to a robust but boy filled kidding season this year.  Starting the last week in Feb, Miss Marina kidding with twin bucks.  Captain Jack and Will Turner.  Lovely boys out of 

Stitch!

Then,  few days later Dickory decided she'd had enough and kidded Quads. First time ever here at CBF and we are very grateful to our good LORD for a safe kidding!!! 

3 Boys and 1 girl.  All - beautiful.  

Sadly we lost the girl a few days later when one of the older does head butted her and injured her internally.

She died in my arms and it was a very sad day.  The boys, on the other hand 

are all robust, healthy and thankfully = SOLD. 

NOT to be outdone by the other two girls, Little Lily decided to kid with triplets 3 days early. I'm not really 

sure where she hid that third kid but her and Earl gave us some of the prettiest little kids! 

2 bucks - 1 stunning Chamoisee doeling (this is not a pic of Camellia - that will come later) 

This little cutie pie is Pipsqueek, the smallest of the 3 and the one who has won everyone's heart around here. He has already gone to a new home where is a spoiled rotten therapy goat at an adult rehab center. 

I could not help but include this pic of Dickory chillin' with her two remaining boys: Zach and Zane who 

will be leaving for their new home in Clovis NM to be spoiled pets! 

MORE SOON!!!! and thanks for visiting us here at CBF Nigerians

We were blessed last Wednesday with our first babies of the year.  God is good!  Very uneventful deliver for a First Freshener doe.  We've been waiting for CBF TZ Marina to get pregnant for a very long time 

so we stuck her with a very seasoned buck this year (MCH/CH Hill Country's DAX Stitch *S) 

This cross produced two very lovely well put together boys who are extremely friendly and 

will likely be sold as wethers.  Bummer for the hay fund but at least they are healthy, cute and 

friendly!!!! 

This is D1 who my daughter calls Captain Jack Sparrow (Sparrow for short) 

and this is D2 - Will Turner - or Turner for short.  Suzy has spoiled Marina rotten as Marina is her doe 

and I have a feeling that these boys will also be spoiled rotten as well.  If I cannot find Suzy, she's usually out in the goat pen holding and loving on the boys.  Tomorrow morning will be our first morning milking. I will separate momma and babies tonight for about 10 hours and have our first milking of the year. 

Oh my goodness.  It's only been about 3 weeks since I dried up the last two girls but I cannot wait to have milk and cheese again!!!! 

I have actually milked Marina a few times as she is fuller than the boys can drink and she's easy breezy - should be a good doe for Suzy to start milking this year.  

Now we are on baby watch for Doe #2 to freshen. Seldom Herd Dickory is due (also bred to Stitch) on wed of this week - She's HUGE!!!  Praying for a few girls on this one.  

We are trudging ever closer to our first babies of the year.  We start kidding in about 2 weeks...I say about because no matter how well timed you think you are, they still come when they are good and ready.  

Marina (not pictured) is the first to go. She is due Feb 22, 2013. Sono'd with 1+.  I hope more than one as I detest large single babies in a FF doe.  So I am hoping that there was another kid hiding behind the big kid the vet saw.  Marina is our 2 X Junior champion doe out of a stellar milking FF doe.  Sure wish I hadn't sold that doe but she now resides at a great farm - Sunset Plains. 

Second up is Dickory.  This is Dickory (see pics above and below) She is huge. I never sono'd her because she got big fast so I just assumed she was bred - she most certainly is as she's been steadily bagging up for several weeks.  She is due March 1.  Her and Marina are both bred to MCH/CH Hill Country's DAX Stitch.  I am half expecting triplets here but who knows? 

Valley Flowers Lily of the Valley is next in line - she is a Stitch daughter who is bred to our little buck 

Flat Rock Earl Grey (Enchanted Hill Virginia X Irish Whisper Harry Potter) he's barely 9 months old now but was up to the job of breeding several does in Sept/Oct.  

REally cannot wait to see Lily's udder and Earl's first kids here.  

After Lily we have my hubby's Kinder doe, Cleo due.  She will be kidding near the end of March, then we have a big break and Last Straw Chattahoochee *D/*M will be due April 27th.  We are going on Thursday to ultrasound Chatty's granddam Prairie Wood Peachy at the vets so will know if she is bred or not and if yes, When she is due more or less. I have 3 breeding dates on her and am not really certain which is right. 

If you've been following this blog for any length of time you already know that about 4 years ago I sold my herd down to 1 Oberhasli and a few young Nigerians because my daughter was diagnosed with cancer. 

I felt like I needed to sell the milkers to make it easier on my hubby who, when I was at the hospital with my daughter, was left holding down the fort at home with all the animals, a fulltime job and of course, our other two children who were homeschooled at the time.  

When I sold these goats I let 2 go that under ordinary circumstances never would have left. 

1 was our "poster child" (the one pictured on the header of our blog) SG/AR Nizhoni's Joie de Vivre*D/*M

who was possibly one of the best goats I've ever owned and a really good milker. 

The other, was her daughter, CBF TD Kokoro Kiseki 2*D. 

Possible one of the best breedings we ever did here.  Koko was one of triplets. 2 does and a buck. 

The buck is a herdsire here in NM, the other doe, CBF TD Pepper is milking (now for nearly 2 years)

at another herd and Koko went to AZ with her dam.  I had always held out hope I could get a kid 

back from one of them but it never seemed to really work - either the breeding was too close to what I had, I didn't have the money (or the time to go to AZ) or something. 

Due to a very generous offer by Koko's current owner, Lysa Roman of Lazy R Ranch, we are going to bring back a Koko buck kid - Lazy R Ranch Kosuke.  He was one of quads 3 does and 1 buck. Sire is Busy Browsers Akamai.  Kosuke means Rising Sun in Japanese.  Koko's name is Japanese meaning Hand/Heart Connection and we wanted to kind of hold on to that theme.  

This little guy who looks an awful lot like his gorgeous momma was born late January and should be arriving here some time in late March/early April. 

This has been a crazy busy year for us here at CBF Nigerians.  We are no longer JUST a Goat farm or even Hobby Farmers really.  We have added bees, had a huge garden and for the first time since we moved here 10 years ago, we had a bumper crop of fruit from our trees.  I think I had no idea what I was in for this past year! And while I'm still mainly a goat person it was satisfying to see us roll a little closer to becoming a little more self sustaining!  I don't like that I was sooooo busy I had no time to post and update on our blog.

This was our second year on DHI which has been a long time goal of mine since we got our first goats.  To date we've had MANY of our girls earn their stars/ARs in both registries (both in our herd and those we've sold to others)  This  past year we also participated in our first Linear Appraisal through ADGA, another long time goal.

I am so pround of our little  doe Chatty - she completely wowed me this year earning her Star/AR in both registries as a FF.  At 273 DIM she gave us 654lbs of milk 35 lbs of Butterfat and 27 lbs of Protein.  She also scored an 86 on ADGA Linears.  I just adore her sweet personality too!

Another doe of ours was doing fairly well milking (Valley Flowers Lisianthus) but she kidded in Aug and I bred her in Dec so she didn't quite get in enough time or milk to earn her stars.  I have no doubt that given more time she would have earned hers in at least AGS.  I was recently contacted by someone who had placed a deposit on another doe but had to back out last year who wanted a Bred doe - proven (more or less) to join their herd and be shown by their kids. Only 2 does here fit the bill for their request and I couldn't part with Chatty, so Lisi is heading to Colorado, bred to Flat Rocks Earl Grey for May kids. I hope she does really well for them.

This year we were able to work off Breeding fees to use on a few of our does. The Buck we chose is a beautiful, well built buck from Hill Country - MCH/CH Hill Country DAX Stitch *S.  Stitch is sire to our Lily and Grandsire to Lisi and is now bred to Chatty, Dickory, and Marina.  We are so excited for kidding season!!!!!!  We hadn't planned on having a buck but we were also presented with a deal we couldn't pass up - a Buck for 8 scarves (Thanks Flat Rock TX herd! - Sunni Milligan) We jumped on it and brought him in and bred him to the other 3 does - Lily (Obviously we couldn't breed her to her dad!), Lisi and Peachy.

As you can probably tell there are some new names in the bunch as well - so to update you all - here's how it all happened.  In May our queen bee and main milker kidded a single, double teated doe kid.  She also wasn't hardly milking and I needed the milk.  So I contacted a herd we've admired for a long time - just so happened she was willing to sell us Seldom Herd Dickory - daughter of a long admired doe, and sister to a doe who had beat us at Quad two years ago with the doe I was looking to replace.  We jumped and we are eagerly awaiting her first kids around March 1.

Lily is another doe we view as a gift! Christine at Valley Flowers allowed us to have her in exchange for working on her website which we are doing currently after having some serious computer problems for several months.  (Yes, we will get it done!!!!!) Lily is about the sweetest doe (besides Chatty) and pretty to boot - daughter of Stitch and we are looking forward to her first kids in March as well.

Well, that's about the long story short and I am hoping that we can continute to update this Blog more often.
Thanks for being patient with us and checking back with us!

Valley Flowers Lily of the Valley

Not to long ago we were blessed yet again by Christine at Valley Flowers Farm 

with a new herd member.  

Meet Lily.  

Suzy is totally smitten with Lily, frankly, so am I. 

She's amazing. 

she is out of MCH Hill Country DAX Stitch 

who has some of that amazing Kingwood running in his veins.

and her dam is Valley Flowers Perky Sue who is Rosasharn's bred. 

(Rosasharn's MY Kodaly 6*D   X  Rosasharn's SP Lil' Boy Blue.) 

Suzy showed Lily in her first show in April as a 4 week old baby who took 2nd in both classes 

under two different Judges.  In front of her in the line was 

her dam's 1/2 sister - Valley Flowers Calico Hearts who went on to win 

Junior Grand Champion. 

Lily Love Bug welcome to our herd. 

So much has been going on here at CBF Nigerians.  I've barely had time to blog about it.  

I know I am WAAAAY behind in updating.  The last time I wrote, It was shortly 

after the first 2 sets of kids arrived on the scene here.  That was Chatty and Wish's 

kids.  Chatty and Wish have since joined our milk test. Chatty is blowing my socks off in the milk pail. 

She's had 2 tests now and both times over 3#'s.  I'm pretty impressed with her as a FF doe.  

Wish, not so much.  She didn't do badly her first test but since I sold her boys as wethers, he milk has dropped. 

PHTHTTHTH! 

About 2 week ago - Tirzah kidded, She was HUGE.  I mean like Triplets huge! 

and she had ONE single big doe kid.  You are probably thinking I should be turning cartwheels, 

because at least it was a doe.  UM, not so fast! 

The doe has a teat with a double orifice. No  more cartwheels.  You are older and overweight still and might hurt yourself (I'm talking to myself of course) .   So for several weeks I've been debating what 

to do and how to handle this whole fiasco.  

I wish there was an easy answer but the one I came to - taking several things into consideration is, 

Selling Tirzah and her daughter as unregistered backyard milkers is where we went. 

I'm also selling Wish and our new buck, Legend.  Yeah, you are probably thinking, I"m nuts. 

But it made me realize why I got into this in the first place.....it was for my kids.  

This is a 4H project gone wild and one I enjoy immensely (otherwise why would I drag my butt out of bed every morning, feed, milk, maintain hooves, clean pens etc.) but I think I sort of let the goats take over. 

So , we took a step back, revisited our goals and dreams, evaluated what our needs were 

as a family and as responsible herd owners and here's where we are at. 

I am blessed to have some good friends with some EXCELLENT bucks, I don't need them this year, 

so, my plans to keep Caspian intact and Legend for my herd that seems to be shrinking considerably, are unnecessary.  Caspian is now castrated and sold and is going to a new home with Tirzah and Boo as unregistered backyard milkers. 

Wish and Legend are up for sale as a registered breeding pair (If you are interested, $400 for the pair) 

Chatty is staying and her doeling is sold (she was technically sold before she hit the ground, the buyers backed out and I re-listed her so I didn't grow attached and keep another doe!) 

Valley Flowers Lisianthus is bred to Ironwoodranch A Good Intrigue *S/*B and is due in Aug. I am loving Intrigue's kids overall and may keep one of these.  Besides, Intrigue's dam is now a finished Champion!

Lisi's sire also earned a Grand Champion title and I am loving this pretty little doe. 

Marina  - earned another Junior Champion title - this one counted and I'm not selling her.  I'd love to see her freshen but she won't be bred until Fall - she's staying. 

Lastly Lily, WoW is about all I can say, this little girl grows and I am more smitten. 

As you can see - this leaves us with only 2 milkers for the year.  Not really working for me since our goat milk soap helps support the herd and we are kind of addicted to all that fresh milk, cheese, yogurt, kefir and ice cream.....so, I cut my herd to bare bones and bought an outstanding milking doe (okay, so she's due in two weeks and I won't get her until later but still) She's is a 3rd Freshener, 2X Grand Champion who will be Linear Appraised next month with our group AND she is going straight on my milk test.  I'm not giving any more information until she officially joins my herd.  

That means you'll have to come visit us again to get more information! 

I'm sure you are wondering what we are going to do about breeding.  

Well, two of my friends worked out some breedings with us. I will be using 2 maybe 3 bucks for next year: 

MCH Hill Country DAX Stitch who is a LOOONG handsome buck who throws long beautiful kids (See Lily) 

Valley Flowers Blazing Star (this is Marina's intended as it will pull in more of those lovely 

Rosasharn's lines that Marina has) 

and Sunset Plains Almond Roca.  (he is a yearling buck that blew me away at the last show earning a 

Reserve Junior champion Title and aReserve Champion Title behind Lisianthus' sire Bachelor Button. 

I swear, I'm getting really tired of huge herd changes.  I'm ready for some good girls (and maybe even a boy) to stay here and contribute to our little farm.  I hope these changes help us to make that step. 

Thank you to everyone who helped us make some HARD but necessary changes, to those whose shoulders I cried on (you know who you are) and those who gave us a chance to dream big by allowing use or buy some amazing stock from you:

Sunset Plains,

Valley Flowers

Seldom Herd