this is Lucky Star. June 16, 2013
This herd really belongs to my daughter. She began with Snowbunny and another doe Daffodil i think in 2009. The herd name is Crazy Wisdom which came from one of the Teachings of Chogyam Trungpa, a great Tibetan Buddhist, meditation master, teacher, and artist, founder of Naropa. She lived and grew the herd some 50 miles from me until somewhere around 2012 when we took her 9 does and 2 bucks to California. this move was a necessity, the result of a failed and toxic marriage. in less than a year her job transfer fell through and we brought them all back Here as there was no other option. 8 of the does were pregnant as a result of a buck insurrection. that first late spring and early summer, 14 kids were born here. 10 of which were bucklings. all healthy, all very fine. Last spring as a result of a deliberate breeding of two does, 6 kids were born. 3 doelings/3 bucklings. The herd i talk about here is the result of all that. i did not breed for this year as i have been unable to come to terms with selling the babies. i don't know if i can.
The still stated intention is that once she finds the right place in California she will come for them. How many is not known. i might opt to keep some that have been born here. i don't know. i will only keep them if i can work through a way to breed and MILK. otherwise, she will take them all.
When she began, we were spending a lot of time and energy thinking about living a self~sustaining lifestyle. I was very involved in Sharon Astyk's teachings...her book at the time..... Depletion and Abundance ... Life on the New Home Front or, One Woman's Solutions to Finding Abundance for Your Family while Coming to Terms with Peak Oil, Climate Change and Hard Times. 2008 New Society Publishers. i was focused on off grid living and Growing food. the Goats worked, as did daughter's gift at Building Homes of alternative materials.
So, it seems that all that was put on hold. The dream is not gone. But the Goats are here for my Safe Keeping until whatever is Next appears.
Nigerian Dwarf Goats were chosen because they are a small breed, come into heat monthly and so some can be bred year round making it easy to stagger kidding, ensuring that the herd always has milking does. Their milk has excellent taste and high butterfat, as high as 10% which is greater than full size dairy goats. Nigerian Dwarves give between 1 and 8 lbs of milk a day. The high butterfat means great cheese.
Building a good dairy herd requires conscious breeding. Many people do not keep bucks, choosing instead to take an in heat doe TO a buck for a "driveway breeding". this tho is hard work, there is only a small window of hours when the doe will conceive and also means exposing your goats to disease which is not common but not uncommon. it's Easier to keep bucks. the choice of buck comes from studying their lines. you choose bucks with great milking dams going back generations. and you choose for conformation also. for instance, daughter had doe's that were tall, leggy. so she bought the buck Tenzen from a breeder in Boston area. he flew here as a baby. but he is from the original line of Nigerians in this country and so closer to the breed's original form. this corrects the height, while still improving the dairy aspects. and the truth is that if you establish a herd with a solid and respected name, if your offspring can be taken to competitions like the State Fair and various shows and win or place well, you will have a waiting list at each breeding. people will WANT them to improve their own herds. if i were to be into showing these Goats, i wouldn't have the angst about breeding, the kids. but, i'm not. She can do it. but at the other end of that, if you don't breed you don't have milk. you can't make cheese.
so....i have kept 6 of the doelings born here and 2 of the bucks. Sunny Ray is the son of old Beautiful Gideon who won't have long left on this planet but is a magnificant buck. and then little Nogal (Walnut, in spanish) who i kept because he was the son of Buckwheat who was a very desired and specific breeding of my daughter's. Buckwheat was born not long after she arrived in California. She could not get him disbudded at the time and his horns were full and glorious and a problem. Hence his move to Las Cruces to be herd sire there. Nogal will carry his genetics for this herd. and is much more gentle natured and tame than Buckwheat.
this is as far as i can get today. i'll add more in time. but this is the basics of why the Goats are here. and a good time to journal it....going into their third April here. enough for now.
8:47 p.m. more.
June 15th, 2013 Nogal. a buck goat. kept. intact.
