Amazin Dream of Mine

We have added a new little buckling to our herd.

 

Amazin Dream of Mine

 

I am super excited to be adding him as he comes from excellent blood and milking lines.

 

Here are all of the lines that I have researched so far.  I still have 1 more generation to do.

 

Sire: *B Kastdemur's Ain't He Amazin'

Sire's Sire: +*B Kastdemur's King of the Hill

Sire's Sire's Sire: ++*B Brown Sugar's Crown Ambassador

Sire's Sire's Dam: GCH Lassenwood Miller Kiona 1*M

Sire's Dam: SGCH Kastdemur's Audacity 4*M

Dam's Sire: SG ++*B Kastdemur's LH Full Service

Dam's Dam: GCH Kastdemur's Aubree 3*M

 

Dam: Hoanbu KFE All That Glitters

Dam's Sire: *B CH Kastdemur's Free & Easy

Dam's Sire's Sire: ++*B Kastdemur's Full Disclosure

Dam's Sire's Dam: Kastdemur's Breeze 4*M

Dam's Dam: GCH Hoanbu Exod Summer Glitz *5M

Dam's Dam's Sire: +*B SG Lakeshore Summer Exodus

Dam's Dam's Dam: SG Hoanbu Status Geminia Gretchen 4*M

 

Now if your not from the goat world, your probably thinking what in the world does all this mean.

 

Here is an explanation of all of the abbreviations found before and after each name.

 

*B - Stars on bucks are earned by virtue of parents with production records meeting ADGA minimums of milk production.

+B - Plusses on bucks are earned by virtue of offspring meeting ADGA requirements of milk production.

#*M - The # stands for successive generation of a doe line that has earned a star based on minimums set forth by ADGA for milk production.

 

CH(ampion) - Show Wins

GCH G(rand) CH(ampion) - Show wins and a milk star earned from Advanced Registry or Star Volume minimum.

SG/CH - Superior Genetics

Dream's Sire: Kastdemur's Ain't He Amazin' along with his sire: Kastdemur's King of the Hill and his sire: Brown Sugar's Crown Ambassador was listed on the ADGA Elite Buck List on Nov 2012.

 

As you can see now from reading the abbreviation descriptions and looking over Dream's lines.  He truly is amazing!!!  We are really hoping he will pass on his excellent genetics onto his future kids he will have here at Russell's Ridge Nubians.

 

Dream's Sire: Kastdemur's Ain't He Amazin'

Photo Courtesy of Davis Run Nubians

Dream's Dam: Hoanbu KFE All That Glitters

Photo Courtesy of Davis Run Nubians

 

Dream's Sire's Dam: SGCH Kastdemur's Audacity 4*M

Photo Courtesy of Kastdemur's Dairy Goats

 

Dream's Dam's Dam: GCH Hoanbu Exod Summer Glitz 5*M

Photo Courtesy of Hoanbu Dairy Goats

 

Dream's Dam's Sire: *B CH Kastdemur's Free & Easy

Photo Courtesy of Hoanbu Dairy Goats

 

His full name is Davis Run Amazin Dream of Mine. Davis Run in the breeder we got him from and I added Amazin in his name since that is in his sire's name. Dream of Mine is self explanatory. He was definitely a dream of mine that has come true.

 

I have also decided to call him either Dream or most times we will be calling him Bruadar. It is pronounced Brew-dar and it means dream in Gaelic.  Most of the time I call him baby right now. :)

 

He is doing well. He is now 5 weeks old and still eating his bottle full of fresh goats milk 3 times a day.  He is also eating hay and grain with all the other babies we have here.

 

Bruadar (Dream) will be staying with the other babies and older does until he is 3 months old and then he will be moved over in with the bucks.  The reason for this is because they are sexually mature at 3 months old and can easily get a doe pregnant.  We prefer to do hand breeding, which is specific chosen breeding's done as certain times which help us know when the doe is exactly due so we may be present for the birthing to make sure everything goes smoothly.

 

We are excited to watch Dream mature and grow into a magnificent buck that I know he will be.

 

Here are some other pictures I have taken of him:

 

Me with Dream the day I got him

 

Davis with Dream & Jenny of Davis Run Nubians

 

Dream relaxing on his ride home

 

Dream -Right Side

Dream - Left Side

 

Dream & Juliet meeting for the first time

Dream - Isn't he handsome :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Boy Bruschi

On February 12th we lost our beloved wether Bruschi. 

 

Bruschi

 

When we first decided to get goats we knew we would need a buck for breeding.  In the dairy goat world bucks (boy goats) live separate from the girls most of the time.  Since they live separate and goats are herd animals we knew we needed to get our buck a friend.

 

In comes Bruschi. He is what is called a wether.  He is a boy goat but can't have any babies.

 

Bruschi is a cross between a Nubian and a LaMancha.  He is just the sweetest boy ever.  We loved all of his silly antics and we lovingly called him monster often, since he was the biggest goat we had here but was always causing mischief.

 

Every morning he would push his way out the door to get fed in the morning. Then when it was time to go back in he would just stand there and not move until you gave him a hug.  He would always stand real still and put his head next to yours and lean his chin on your shoulder.

 

As hard as we try sometimes things don't work out how we would like or want.  I noticed Bruschi's stool wasn't looking normal. When this happens I bring a sample into the vet and she checks it under the microscope to see what is wrong.  In this case it was stomach worms.  Normally we just go ahead and worm them and recheck in two weeks.  We went ahead and did this.  His new fecal sample showed he still had worms and we needed to dose him again.  Which we did.

 

Over the span of 5 weeks we worked closely with our vet to find out and discuss what was wrong and what action we should take to make him better.  He was doing okay for the first 3 weeks and then completely went down hill.  I brought him to the vet to be seen along with another fecal.  His worm load was gone but the effects from shedding all those worms had taken a toll on his body.  He was severely anemic and dehydrated.  The vet did all she could and we brought him home.  From there he continued to go down hill and passed away that evening.  I take some comfort in knowing he didn't pass away alone.  Me, Hailey & Drew were all with him, showing him our love and talking to him.

 

Later that evening I called  Pat & Katie who I bought Bruschi from and told them what happened.  Pat told me about a place that I could bring Bruschi and have what's called a necropsy (autopsy for an animal) done on him which would tell us exactly what happened. Pat was kind enough to go with me the next day to show me where I needed to go and what I needed to do.  They pathologist called me before I even got home with the findings which were exactly was the vet had said. Severe dehydration and severe anemia due to a overload of worms.

 

It's been over 2 weeks now and I still miss him terribly.  I still look for him when I see the herd out in the big pasture.  I know he is in a better place now and has some peace.

 

Here are some of my favorite pictures of my sweet Bruschi.

 

Bruschi being silly with his best buddy Brady

This is how Bruschi greeted me every morning

Bruschi relaxing with Hailey & I

My absolute favorite picture

Bruschi as a baby, isn't he so cute

 

Hailey's first time meeting Bruschi, they became best friends

 

 

I will never forget this special boy and I will miss him everyday.

Maddie's Babies are Here!!!

It has been super busy here and I'm sure you all know by now that Maddie had here babies but I want to write about it because I was just so happy about being there when it happened.

 

You see I missed both Whimsey & Priscilla's births.  They decided they didn't need me and had their babies on their own.  Thankfully I found them both just after delivery and was able to help clean up the babies.

 

Maddie started her labor on Saturday morning, February 2nd at 10:15am.  She had a large amount of discharge so we went ahead and moved her into the birthing pen.  For the next hour or so she paced around, dug into the shavings and coming over to me for reassuring rubs and pats that everything was going to be alright since this was her first delivery.

 

Around 11:30am she started pushing.  She was doing really well.  Her first baby presented perfectly, its two front legs first and then head.  Maddie did a great job delivering it and then paying attention to the baby to get it cleaned off.  While cleaning off the first baby she ended up delivering her second baby a few minutes later with no issues too.

 

Maddie did a wonderful job and knew right away what she needed to do to clean her babies off.  She was so sweet talking to them and nudging them so she could clean them really good.

 

Now the exciting part comes in, checking the babies.  We have 2 beautiful GIRLS!!!

 

I was so excited to have 2 baby girls since at this time we already had 3 boys & 2 girls from the other mamas.

 

Maddie cleaning off her baby girls, just minutes old.

 

The babies were doing great and figured how to stand up pretty quick and nurse too.

 

Baby girls all nice and dry learning to stand

 

Maddie is a wonderful mother and takes very good care of her baby girls.  We have decided to name them Lana & Luna.  Lana is the white & brown one and her name means light and Luna is the brown one with the spots, her name means moon.

 

We already have found a home for these two precious girls and I am so excited to say that they are going together!!! It makes me so happy that they are going to be able to stay together because they have such a strong bond already.

 

Luna & Lana relaxing at a week old.

 

I can't wait to see these girls grow, hopefully their new owner will stay in touch and I will get to see them grow into beautiful mature does like I know they will be.

 

 



Priscilla's Babies are Here Too!!!

Priscilla's babies are here!!!

 

Priscilla's triplets, 1 day old

 

Priscilla decided to make me wait this year for her babies and delivered a day late. She was originally due on January 21st.  She ended up delivering on January 22nd, just like Whimsey.

 

So we went from no babies to 5 babies in one day.

 

Whimsey had her babies a little before 8:00 on the morning.  After helping her clean up the babies, make sure they are doing well and nursing and making sure Whimsey was okay I finally got back up to the house around 1:30 in the afternoon.  I was able to have some lunch and do the dishes.

 

I thought it was best at 3:00pm to check on Whimsey & her babies once more before the kids got home from school.  As I'm heading down to the barn I hear a loud cry.  Of course I take off running the rest of the way and when I got down there I looked through the window and there was Priscilla cleaning off all 3 of her babies.

 

I thought I was shocked that morning, I was even more shocked to see 3 healthy babies all doing well and a big pile of SPOTS.

 

This was our first year breeding with Welker, our spotted buck, so we didn't know what his babies would look like.  I was so happy and excited to see all the spots and colors Priscilla & Welker's babies had.

 

Here are the babies they day they were born.

 

 

Priscilla's baby girl already looking to nurse at just hours old

Priscilla's baby girl just hours old

Priscilla's baby boy just hours old

 

They are all doing well now.  Priscilla's brown with white splash girl, who we named Daisy, was the strongest. She stood and nursed first and is super independent.  She was also the first to venture outside of the barn.

 

Priscilla's other girl, Itty Bitty is the black with white spots and is belted, is doing great.  We named her Itty Bitty because she is just that, a tiny girl.  She is little but she has lots of spunk and loves to play with her brother & sister and the other babies.  We did have to help her get her ears to fold the right way, I think its from being squished inside her mama, but that worked out fine and they now fold the way they were suppose to.

 

Priscilla's brown with moonspots boy, who we named Duncan, is just a sweetie.  He too loves to go outside.  Usually he and Daisy will run outside and then back into the barn.  They both love to play together.

 

This is not Priscilla's first time having babies so I have no worry about her being a good mama.  She is wonderful with her babies, very protective, watches them great and makes sure all of the get to nurse.

 

Daisy, 4 days old

Itty Bitty, 6 days old

Duncan, 4 days old

 

I'm sure we will find great homes for these babies and if not I guess I'll just have to keep them :)

 

 



Whimsey's Babies are Here!!

Whimsey with her boys a few hours after giving birth

 

Whimsey was due on January 19th and she ended up having her babies on the 22nd.  I was able to be present during the births last year and wanted to be again this year so once her due date arrived I made sure to check on her every few hours even through the night.

 

The night of January 21st she did fine through the middle of the night.  I did notice that she had some discharge but she wasn't doing any of the usual things goats do before giving birth, like "digging" or "nesting" on the ground or stretching.

 

So the morning of January 22nd, I checked her at 6:15am and saw no changes in her so off I went to drive the kids to school.  Once I came back I went down to do the morning chores of feeding all the animals.

 

I always look in the window to see where everyone is before I open the door and there she was with both babies on the barn floor and her being a great mama cleaning them up.

 

I was in SHOCK, LOL.

 

I helped her clean the off and moved mama and babies into the birthing pen so she could be alone with them to learn how to be a mother, since this was her first time, and to bond with her babies.

 

This was when I found out what she had,  2 BOYS.

 

Whimsey's boys only a few hours old

 

Whimsey is a natural at being a mother and loves her babies and takes very good care of them.  The boys are doing so well.  They love attention and being held.  They really like just snuggling with someone while being held.

 

They are already running and jumping around in the barn.  They have only taken a few steps outside of the barn, they are a little weary of the outside world still.

 

Whimsey's Boy #1 who we name Allen

Whimsey's Boy #2 who we name Sam

 

I really hope we can find wonderful homes for these two sweet boys.

 

We can't forget to mention that Brady is the sire (daddy) to these handsome boys.

 

 

 

Welker Turns 1

Welker, 1 years old

 

On December 4th, Welker turned 1 years old.  He is doing excellent.  He is with our other buck Brady full time and they have finally become buddies.

 

Welker weighs 80lbs.  He is still a little on the small side in my opinion but he eats well and is growing every day.  I also think its hard to judge just how much he has grown since he is always standing next to Brady who is a full year older than Welker, therefore much larger than him too.

 

We are in anticipation waiting for Welker's first kids to be born here.  He bred  Priscilla who is due January 21, 2013, these babies will be our first purebred Nubians born here.  Also he bred Maddie, who is due January 29, 2013.  We are really hoping for spotted babies but we will just have to wait and see.

 

For now Welker is doing wonderful.  Walks on a lead and goes where ever I say without a fuss.  He stands extremely well for hoof trimmings. He is friendly and loves to have attention.

 

Check back in a few months to see his babies.

Russell's Ridge Nubians Website

2012 Babies -Cole (l), Claire (r) & Chloe (b)

 

Spent the morning updating our website. Information on breeding's have been updated.

 

Come check it out.

 

www.russellsridgenubians.com



A Few Barn Renovations

We decided that we needed a few barn renovations done to the goat barn.  One of the main reasons why was because Chuck and Tbone, our two 6 month old steer calves, are getting big.

 

The goat barn is a good size but the issue is half of the barn is on stilts.  Why would the barn be on stilts you say? Well our land is super hilly and has lots of slopes.  So instead of the original builders of the goat barn putting in some type of foundation to make the floor solid.  They just built the barn walls up from the flat ground they had available and then extended the barn by putting it on stilts and building the rest of the floor on top.  So yes half of the floor in the girl's goat barn is wood and the other half is dirt.  We actually have those big black padding mats on the dirt area to make cleaning easier.  The builders were smart though and put a drain in the middle of the dirt floor. It makes cleaning and hosing down the mats much easier.

 

You can see the back side of the barn on stilts

 

With that said, we needed to do something so the cows could no longer get in the barn so when they are even bigger than they are now they won't collapse the floor.

 

Months ago Jamie built a 1/2 door on the barn so we could either lock the goats in or out.  He came up with a great idea to build another half door but raise it up so the goats could come in and out of the barn but the cows couldn't come it.  Cows have trouble bending over and trying to get under things, where goats do not.  I have seen a full grown goat crawl across the ground.  Granted she was rubbing her belly on the grass because it must of felt good but with knowing that we knew they wouldn't have any problem going under the door.

 

New door

 

The above picture shows you the new door.  It's approximately 3 1/2 feet up from the ground, plenty of room for the goats to go under.  We still need to paint it though and Jamie is going to cut a square hole out of the door near the latch so I can open it from the outside and not have to crawl underneath it myself if it's still locked. The other half door that goes all the way to the bottom of the doorway opens from the outside.  We still have it up and use it everyday.  It is very helpful because once all the goats come into the barn waiting for their turn for feeding time we just close the other door so the goats can't get out and bother the cows while they are eating outside.

 

 Once everyone is done eating, goats and cows, we open the longer half door and secure it so it stays open and then we close this higher half door and lock it so the cows can't get in.  It's a very genius idea that Jamie came up with.  It will also be nice for winter time because it will block some of the wind that otherwise would come through the whole door if it was open.

 

This door will be wonderful for when it comes time for kidding.  The mama's and babies will have the barn to themselves and a place to go where they won't be bothered by the cows.

 

Chuck & Tbone on the other hand do NOT like it.  Not so much I think about being in the barn but being away from the goats.  They think of the goats as their herd and they want to stay with them all the time.

 

Chuck & Tbone saying "AAWWW come on, let us in!!

 

The other part Jamie renovated was the milking area.

 

New Wall

 

We decided to build a wall here which is the separation from the pasture to the milking area.  First the wall is nice because before we used to have a fence here, the goats would hang over the top trying to get more food because you know their starving.  All day they are starving, not really but they sure do act like it.  Even Bruschi, our biggest goat, got over the fence one day trying to get more food.

 

So this wall is nice to keep the goats out of my milking area unless I want them there.  The wall is 4 feet high so hopefully they won't be able to get over it.  With Jamie building this wall it actually increased the size of my milking area also, which is really nice.

 

New milking area

 

As you can see in the above picture,  I have plenty of room for both of my milking stands, grain buckets and room to move goats in and out or around if I need too.

 

Yes, I'm sure your asking why I have two milking stands.  I have two because I am not always milking all of my girls.  This way one girl can be milked while another who is not milked can have her grain at the same time.  It cuts down on chore time greatly.  Milking stands are great and since Jamie is so handy he builds them for me.  I'm sure one day, since Hailey is already a great milker, that if we decide to milk all the girls I will use both stands and Hailey can milk at the same time as I am.  I have all of my goats, even the boys, trained to the stand.  The milking stand is not just for milking. I use it to hold a goat while I am administering shots and also to do hoof trimmings.  You should see the boys.  I open the gate and they just run over and hop up onto the stand and start eating their grain while I go ahead and trim their hooves.  They know exactly where to go because remember they are starving and they know that grain is in that bucket.

 

The wall will also be nice to block out the wind in the winter time when milking starts up again in hopefully February.  The unfinished part of this area is the floor.  It is currently just dirt. I try very hard keeping it clean with raking it every other day.  I've talked to Jamie about it and hopefully in the spring we will be cementing this floor in.  That will make it even easier to keep the floor and everything else clean as I'll be able to sweep it everyday and wash it down when it's needed.

 

The other reason for this wall is because we needed an outside hay feeder.  We were going to build a separate structure but thought that was silly because I wanted the wall anyway and we still had enough room on the other side to build the feeder and it would be under the roof so they hay wouldn't get wet.

 

New outdoor hay feeder

 

The feeder works really well.  Right now we are using it for the cows but it will work great for the goats too once the cows are gone.  Actually the goats use it now too when they sneak over to steal some of the cows hay.  Remember they are always starving.

 

I've talked to Jamie about getting rid of the pallet creep feeder and building a permanent structure off of this wall to the side of the hay feeder.  We won't need that for months, not until the babies are born and starting to be weaned.

 

I think the renovations came out perfect.  Drew helped his dad with some of it.  It amazes me that I can explain an idea to Jamie and then watch him make it become real.  We are slowly but surely making the barn the best it can be functionally for us and the goats.  Still a few more things I would like to change but everything takes time and money.

 

Oh that reminds me, all of these renovations cost us under $150.  Not bad huh?

 

 



All The Babies Are Gone

It's been a crazy here since my last postings and I have a bunch to post to catch back up.

First is that ALL of the baby goats have gone to their new homes.  The last of them left at the end of June.

  

Our friends had just arrived from out of state for a week long vacation and with all of the excitement of them arriving I wasn't able to get pictures of the babies before they left.

 So here is two old ones.

Priscilla laying with her babies Carter, Chloe & Cole

Windy and her baby, Claire

Chloe was the first to go.

Sweet Chloe

Chloe went to a wonderful family who was looking to start their own herd.  They were interested in Nubian's because they would like to milk them and make cheese, ice cream and such from the goat's milk like we do.

I've talked to the owner's daughter and Chloe is doing really well at her new home. 

 Chloe's new registered name is Russell's Ridge Lady.

Cole was the next to leave.

Gorgeous Cole

Cole got to stay a little longer than normal because his new owner had a trip planned and she wanted him to stay here while she was away.

Cole will just love his new home.  His new owners are wonderful people and really love goats.  She already has an established herd and was looking for a new buck for her girls.  She is also partial to spots like me and just thought Cole was a handsome boy.

Cole with have a herd of 8 girls all to himself.  I can't wait to see the babies he will produce.

Cole's new registered name is Russell's Ridge Brad Paisley.

Carter was the next to leave.

Sweet Carter

We were so lucky to find a home for Carter.  I was getting worried that we would not find him a new home.  Carter's new home also has an established herd.  They have 1 buck and 3 does. 

The reason why they decided on Carter is because they loved his red color but mostly because he is registered.  Their current buck is not and his current does are.  This way he will be able to register any future kids he has with Carter as the buck.  I look forward to seeing was Carter produces for kids and will be staying in touch with his new owners. 

Carter's new registered name is Russell's Ridge Dakota.

Claire also got to go to her new home WITH Carter!!

Baby Claire

The family that got Carter was also the family that wanted Claire.

They really fell in love with her and sent along a deposit before she was even 4 weeks old.

She will join Carter, another buck and the other 3 girls he already has at his home.

He loved her name so it will stay the same.

Claire's registered name is Russell's Ridge Claire.

I just want to say that this has been an unforgettable first experience.  I have fallen in love with all of my goat's but I never thought I could fall so deeply in love with the baby goats.  Being present while the mama's grew heavy with their babies and being able to feel them move before they were even born was unbelievable.

Being able to watch these babies be born and help both the mama's and the babies with entering into this world was amazing and I am so glad we didn't miss it.

Watching them stand and nurse for the first time. Go outside into the fresh grass and run was a sight to see.  I was in awe how much these little babies trusted and loved us from the beginning.  I am very sad to see them go and I wish I could keep them all.  Knowing I can't, I hope that I have made the best decisions for all of the babies with their new homes.

I will never forget these first 4 little babies that stole my heart. I'm sure I will think of them often and hope they are doing well.

Claire is 10 Weeks Old

Baby Claire

Well she's not really a baby anymore, she can barely fit in my lap.  I have called her Baby Claire since she was born and the name just stuck.

Claire is doing really well, super big.  She eats grain mostly from the creep feeder in the morning and evening when the big goats are eating their grain.  It's funny, as soon as the big goats start coming out to the milking stands she runs into the creep feeder and starts eating her grain.

I'm really enjoying my time with Claire since she will be going to her new home soon.  I am really going to miss this little girl.

Here are some other cute pictures I took while spending some time with her in the pasture the other day.

Claire peeking around my back

Claire relaxing sitting with me

Claire playing on her bucket