Just obtained our first goat!

I’ve neglected my blog the past week because I’ve been busy, preparing fencing, stalls, and feed for the new members of our homestead. Our friend Eric gave us a nanny Pygmy/Nubian goat and her 2 day old Norwegian Dwarf/Pygmy/Nubian buck.

Zipporah & Baby Goat

After a few days getting use to her new surroundings, Zipporah and Baby Goat seen to be settling in quite well on our little patch of land. We have been spending lots of time siting near her and stroking her calmly. Ani and I sing songs, tell stories and play in the straw while Zipporah chews her cud and Baby goat prances around the barn. Today we brought the two into our fenced yard to hang out in the sun since our lawn is getting a bit long.

Since Baby Goat seemed to favor a particular teat on his mother, I decided to get right in there and learn how to milk on her other side. I’ve have been giving the milk to the chickens but tomorrow we’ll drink it ourselves, just didn’t want to drink the colostrum, since it contains blood, (colostrum is very healthy but because we eat kosher, blood is not permitted). Poor Zipporah, she has been thrown out of her groove being tossed here and there right after giving birth to her first kid. It took at least 4 milkings before she finally let down her milk for me. Using my friends advice I gave her utters a nice massage before I started to milk her and then after her flow slowed I did some more gentle rubbing. Oh and I’ve been using coconut oil on her utters for massaging, disinfecting and moisturizing.

Overall it has been quite a homesteading experience , taking time out of our usual routine to put forth “good seeds” into our two goats. We are learning so much from hands on experience, I feel so spoiled to be living this little farm dream.