New Goats

We've been planning this for a few weeks, but hadn't had the room in the barn until the whole rabbit family was moved to the new rabbit house...
We've got our own two dairy goats!
We found a local dairy goat breeder, Mary Sue Leistico, who has her whole life dedicated to her goats - or so it seems (I can just see her rolling her eyes upon reading this!)
I especially like the goat clock she has hanging in her kitchen, which, somewhat like a cookoo clock, sways her udder from side to side with the tick-tock of the clock. Very cute and so stylish. :-)
But back to the goats... Mary Sue keeps mostly Toggenburgs, a medium sized breed from Switzerland. They are brown (any shade from fawn to dark chocolate) with white markings, the most noticable the two white stripes down the face from each eye to the muzzle.
Mary Sue's Toggs are adorable - they are all very friendly, as she bottle feeds all her babies, and come with pedigrees from very good lines, most of not all her goats are show qualitity. She also has some La Manchas (an American breed with tiny or no ears in any color), Nubians (long floppy ears, also in any color) and some Nigerian Dwarf mixes.
If you want to find out more about dairy goats or would like a goat share (goat milk every week for less than store prices!) give Mary Sue a call... her number is 719-749-2226.

But - I got off track. I really meant to write about our two new goats! We now have a 1.5 year old Toggenburg we named Maya, who will have kids in the spring, and a young little Nigerian Dwarf girl we named Celia. The two of them seem to be doing well in the now free stall in the barn after some slight modifications... we built a "key hole feeder" to Mary Sue's specifications, since they tend to choose and pick through their hay and waste a lot, since they usually will not eat what has fallen on the floor and got stepped, sat or pooped on. I also made a litte 3x3 draft free low roof shelter in a corner, since Mary Sue said that they appreciate a nice warm, draft free spot, especially with winter approaching. Maybe today i will build them a little elevated platform with some 2x4s and a wooden pallet...

Callista has taken to them with enthusiam. since we don't have a goat-proof perimeter fence and the panels I bought for them are protecting the hay bale maze from the horses right now, we take them for walks every afternoon, which the goats, the dogs and even we enjoy immensly. Yes, Maya has tried eating my baby apple trees already and Celia ate down a hollyhock plant... which wasnt that big yet anyways, never bloomed and i think will die soon as an annual... oh well. :-)

Maya and Celia are sweet and companionable as dogs. The greet us when we come into the yard or into the barn. We are very excited. In the spring, we will build them their very own goat house, so we have room for babies, too, which we will separate from their mom when they are born, so that we can bottle feed them and milk the mom. The milk is really yummy, so healthy, and really doesnt taste much different than cow's milk to me. I read that a goat can have up to 90 quarts of milk (that's about 23 gallons) in a month!
Here's a bit of trivia i just found:
"...more people in the world drink goat milk than cow milk, although in the US the opposite is true. Goat milk is similar nutitionally to cow milk, but it contains smaller fat globules and as a consequence it is easier for some people to digest and it does not require homogenization." (http://www.goats4h.com/DairyGoats.html)

Doesn't all this information make you want to buy a goat too? :-)