...and so a few years later...

I finally realized that, although I rarely have the time to sit in front of an actual computer screen to make a blog entry, there's an app for everything! This means that I can blog while nursing the baby, which even at almost a year old he still demands a lot more than of than I'd prefer. 

And since there's so very little out there in the way of practical, experiential information on the nigora breed, I think it's important that I share what I've learned over the last 5 years of breeding and managing my little herd. So let me introduce you to my current breeding stock. These photos aren't of the crew at their best- we had a very wet winter which got the better of their fleeces. And our winter lodging leaves a lot to be desired, so they're also pretty dirty, but these are the photos I have on my smartphone while I'm nursing ;)

Belta is our f1 herd matriarch. She was bred by Becky Hammond at White Fireweed Farm in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her dam is WFF Hope, a registered colored angora. Her sire is Twin Creek BW New Attitude (William), a registered Nigerian dwarf. She's going on 7 years old now, has freshened 5 times with no complications or assistance needed, and gives a quart of milk a day for at least 6 full months at one milking. Her fiber is a beautifully fine, lustrous type b. 

Olga is out of Belta and CSPN Spring's Buck (Peter). She is in her 5th year now and had kidded 3 times with no complications or assistance needed. I did milk her the first two freshenings, and her milk was ultra creamy, but she only gave a cup for a short period of time. I don't think I was consistent enough to really push her production. Her fiber is a gorgeous ivory type A with very little kemp. All of her kids have shown nice fiber traits when she's been bred back to Nigerian.

Aurelio is our Nigerian dwarf buck. He is an absolute sweetheart. He is now 2 years old, and threw his first kids last season. Two sets of twins. He was born in December in Nikiski, Alaska, and his dam was a first timer & didn't dry his ears off completely so he lost the tips to frostbite. 

Zinc is our new angora buck. He will be a year old this may. I tried to use him for breeding this fall, but he wasn't ready. His  dam is WFF Glacier and his sire is an unregistered colored angora with two registered parents. 

Chummy is a wether out of Olga and our previous Nigerian dwarf buck Loki. He has beautiful taupe type B/C fiber. I plan on attempting to make him a cart goat for my boys, but I know it will be a chore because he, like all the kids on our farm, was dam raised & she is still a bit of a wild thing. 

I'll try and get some better pictures posted of the goats as time permits. 

What we've been up to...

I promised to post photos of our new place. Here are a few older shots from this summer, so those first...

coming down the drive, main entrance at the back

new garage

 front of the house overlooks Kachemak Bay

 Barn

 Interior of barn, prior to renovations

Also, since we've moved in, we have three new additions to our tiny herd! Fedderly was born on August 9. We came home from a day trip to Homer, and he was already dry and running around, as healthy as can be! He is the third time Belta has freshened, but this will be the first time she has been milked.

Two days later, poor lil' Olga was out in the yard, when all of a sudden, a kid dropped out! Luckily my sweetheart Will was nearby to notice the new ruckus and let me know "Olga had a baby too!" So I ran out, cleaned the new kid off, and took him in the barn. Both Olga and Belta followed, and Belta was motherly enough to show Olga (her daughter) that she needed to lick her baby off. A few minutes later, Olga backed into a corner and pushed out another kid! I ran over and cleaned it off (A girl!! YIPEE!!), and set her in front of Olga as well. It didn't take long for those kids to get up and about! Olga was still unsure of what she was supposed to do, and Belta continued to show her that she needed to lick them by demonstration. I thought for a moment that Belta was going to let Olga's kids nurse on her, but was glad to see that she refused them, and nosed them toward Olga. Before long, Olga allowed the kids to nurse, and all was well. 

 Olga was overwhelmed at first, but Belta helped her realize her responsibility.

 Olga was very stiff and unsure to begin with (& pardon the awful quality of the pictures!)

 It didn't take too long for her to warm up to the cuties!

We'd been reading a children's book called "The Summerfolk", and Bo was infatuated with the characters, so we named the kids after them. It's a fantastic little book filled with fun imaginative kid adventures, and if you have kids of the human kind, you should check it out! Doris Burn is the author and illustrator.

Meet Fedderly!

and Twyla Loo

and Spinner!

Our plan is to keep Twyla Loo for breeding, Fedderly as a wethered companion for our buck Loki, and raise (wethered) Spinner through the winter for spring butchering. They are almost two months old now, and both the boys are now wethers (I sure as heck hope the Burdizzo emasculation worked because I'd hate to have to perform that procedure twice on the same kid!)

I just started milking the dams 5 days ago. My girlfriend Emily at Wild Roots Homestead suggested that I wait to begin taking milk until the kids are at least 6 weeks in order to be sure they're getting plenty to grow on. I was overjoyed at this suggestion because I worried about the kids putting on weight before winter. I'd be interested to find out how much this delay in taking milk effects the does' milk output. I imagine that it doesn't make too much difference in a full-sized dairy goat like Emily breeds, but because my girls are only partially nigerian dwarf (who put out much less milk than a full-sized goat anyways), I wonder what difference it makes. Perhaps I'll aim at freshening having a doe freshen in the spring some time so I can begin milking earlier without worrying about the kids development so much, as they'll have a lot to munch on in the summer. But because I commercial fish during June and July, I'd like to avoid needing to milk during that time. 

As far as yields go right now, I'm working up to obtaining any kind of yield gradually. For the first 4 days, the kids were not separated at night, so I only was able to milk a cup at most. Last night I finally was able to contain the kids in their pen, and this morning I milked about 2.5 cups, with plenty left over for the kids. And it's going well. I still have to chase the girls about to get them on the stand and in the stanchion, but this morning I didn't have to hobble either one in order to milk. I still don't trust them enough not to kick entirely, so I'm still milking with one hand into a cup in the other hand. But the important thing is that we're making tremendous progress. 

When I bought these girls last September from White Fireweed Farm, they were wild girls. I've slowly been acclimating them to close encounters with humans on a daily basis. I only chase them when I have to for shearing or hoof trimming, but now they'll just have to get with the program and get chased every morning and led to the milkstand. We'll see how much quicker the forced-socialization program works. 

I don't have any milking pictures, as Will has been working this month in Valdez (and I didn't think about asking Bo to photograph!), but I'll post some soon. I do, however, have a few photos of Olga's fall shearing! So now I have two mohair fleeces saved up for processing this winter, as well as Belta's cashmere-type shedding from this spring!

 After I had her completely sheared, she didn't even get up and bolt! 

Without all that mohair, she's barely bigger than her babies

Harvest time has just about wrapped up around here, especially due to the fact that may garden is still at my old place, and I just wanted to feel some sense of culmination to the move. I did a terrible job this summer at multi-tasking between gardening chores, fishing, child-rearing, and animal husbandry. Set-netting swamped me. I thinned too late, weeded too seldom, and left the creek-fed soaker hose on far too often. Slugs conquered too much of the garden to realistically admit to. I was only able to make three quarts of fermented cabbage goodies, two quarts of chard-rib pickles, blanch and freeze 5 quarts of peas, a gallon of frozen raspberries, three pints of black currant jam, and NO FROZEN BROCCOLI OR KALE!!! Guess we'll be spending more money than usual on produce this winter.

Bo helping out with the Cortido

 One quart of Cortido, 2 of Kimchi

Lacto-pickled Chard Ribs

But, the root crops are also in now, and their bounty is easing the sting of my garden neglect. The garlic and shallots I planted last fall in sawdust did surprisingly well. I planted them far later than planned and just covered the whole she-bang in sawdust hoping to insulated it more. I also planted multiplier onion in the spring (totally spaced them out last fall), and although they didn't multiply enough to brag about and harvest, they did more than double the amount for me to plant this fall.

The hard-necks

A couple shallots to harvest, the rest to replant

And, I'm still bringing in potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, and Brussels, so I'll be sure and let less time go in between posts! 

How was your harvest? And what will you differently for next season? 

Taming of the nigoras

In September I purchased two nigora goats from White Fireweed Farm, a three year old F1 doe, Belta a third year freshener (hopefully presently bred), and her 3/4 angora doeling, Olga Petunia, who is now 10 months. They were pasture goats, enjoying free reign of many acres of pasture in the summer. They are pretty wild and unaccustomed to much human contact. I knew I was facing a challenge when I bought them with an intent to milk them.

Living in semi-remote coastal Alaska presents some transport difficulties with obtaining livestock in itself, not to mention the fact that Alaska is huge and the goats were 12 hours away by road alone. Add on to that another 2-3 hours aboard the ferry. And consider that that 14-15 hours is just actual in transit time, not including the waiting, the overnighting, the stops, and the general slower pace at which traveling with a toddler requires. I planned the pick-up in Fairbanks in conjunction with my return from a lower 48 trip in order to reduce overall travel, but neglected to look into the state ferry schedule, the last leg of the trip home. The ferry we were counting on to get us home had been postponed another 4 days! Long, drawn-out explanations aside, the poor goats ended up spending a total of 6 days in the back of the truck! =( Not a good start to our relationship! The confinement, combined with an unpleasant attempt to get them some fresh air in Anchorage (resulting in Belta running around the suburban streets of my mom's neighborhood while the school bus dropped off junior-high kids! yikes!), made for a flinchingly uneasy introduction to life with their new people.

So when I first brought them to the farm, I didn't have a whole lot of time to gently get acquainted with them right away. I hadn't completed their quarters, and life with a toddler while Daddy's working on the tug boat doesn't leave a whole lot of time for leisurely time with the animals. I hadn't finished buttoning up the garden for the winter either... I kept repeating the mantra "there is only one me" to remind my self that I can't do it all. 

For the first week or so, they'd pretty much hurl themselves against the opposite fence when I went anywhere near them. They seemed to enjoy the chickens, so I decided to show them that the chickens liked me. I sat in the yard and let the chooks give me their kind of lovin'. I worked around the goats without giving them much attention, just to let them get used to me at their own pace without exerting too much pressure on them. And I kept leaving them forage: raspberry canes, outer cabbage leaves from the garden, parsnip and carrot tops. 

Belta and Olga keeping a safe distance from Evil Me

Belta accepting raspberry leaves from Evil Me. 

Unexpectedly, Olga is taking longer to warm up to me than mama Belta.

I try to not be in a hurry about them liking me although, seriously, my heart aches to be able to touch their fiber and have them love me like the goats we had before. We've had them for about a month now and the other day I realized that I had better start making some progress with them, especially Belta whom I hope to milk after she kids in January or February. So this week, I started putting my son on my back and taking him with me to grain them, so we could try waiting it out until they eat out of my hand. To my surprise, a few moments after I knelt down in the pen, my outstretched hand brimming with grain, Belta approached closer than she had ever before braved. She sniffed a bit, and chowed down. I refilled my hand three times, and during this time Olga snuck up but didn't get involved. 

I've been feeding Belta about a cup or more of grain out of my hand at every feeding (twice a day) for about 5 days now. Then I feed the rest in two separate dishes, and this way I'm ensuring that Belta, who is hopefully pregnant, after all, is getting a bit more than Olga at each feeding. Last night I tried to scratch under her chin while she was munching, but I think she still needs a bit more time- she pulled back. I'd like to have my other hand free so that I can try and scratch her between her hornbuds, but she eats so fast that I have to refill my hand rather quickly. And she's still stretching her neck waaaay out to reach my hand; we're not quite pals yet. But, they don't leave the shed when I come in, or even dart out their popdoor when I enter their quarters to refresh water or hay. They know when it's grain time, checking me out as I dole out their individual portions. Belta approaches the gate when I'm done, knowing to expect some hand feeding. Olga hasn't braved it out yet, but I'm sure she will after she's confident that her mama knows best.