Goodbye to Jazzman

Last July, Dottie Belle was the first goat to kid here at Thornhill Acre.  She had 1 buckling that weighed 5 lbs.  The average size for a newborn Nigerian Dwarf kid is 2.5 lbs. So he was a big fellow and I was so lucky that the birth was easy.  He had great coloration and clear blue eyes; but I can't start out keeping every kid that is born here.  So when I got a chance to sell him to a good home, I did.

Jazzman

Anyway my grandson, Connor, came over and I told him that the lady had just left who bought Jazzman.   Connor was very disappointed that I would sell a boy.  He believes the farm has too few males.  How do you explain to a 6 year old boy that a farm doesn't need very many male animals?

Billy Shakespeare

I told him that it was okay to sell Jazzman, because Shakespeare was now living with Honey Bunny, so we should have some new kids in March or April.  He replied, "No, Shakespeare is Dottie Belle's husband."  I told him that boy goats could have 3 wives; since I have 3 does. His eyes lit-up and I knew what that little boy was thinking. In the past few months he told me there were too many beautiful girls for him to have just one girl friend.

Honey Bunny

Therefore, I quickly added, but people can only have 1 husband or wife.  His expression quickly changed and he said, "But what if there are just too many beautiful women?"  I then said, "Well then you are not in love, so you can't get married." There are such tough lessons to learn.

Blogging Interrupted

Dottie Belle and Jazzman

I didn't exactly decide not to blog from the middle of July until January; it just fell by the wayside.  The last blog I wrote was about my Nigerian Dwarf goat, Dottie Belle, giving birth to Jazzman.  





What then ensued was a change in hobbies.  

Feta Cheese sits and drains for 48 hours

I became completely absorbed in learning to milk the goat and then make butter, cheese and yogurt. 

Plain strong Feta cut into cubes.

 I actually had made butter from cow's milk when I was a child. I used the electric mixer. I found that to still be be best way to make butter.  
I was worried that because goat milk is naturally more homogenized, that I wouldn't be able to separate the cream. I looked into buying a cream separator, but wow they are expensive for something as small as my operation. But by letting goat's milk sit in a jar in the refrigerator for a couple of days, I was able to skim off enough cream.  Sometimes I put it in a bowl, so there would be a larger surface.  But the bowl took up more space. I remember when I started dating my first husband, one day he opened my parents' refrigerator and all that was in there was a huge bowl of milk.  He was a city kid and totally did not know what was going on.  But at our house out in the country, in you wanted to eat, you had to go pick it out of the garden or kill it.  Of course we had canned vegetables and fruits and meat in the deep freeze. But our refrigerator was mostly just for milk and eggs.

Anyway, my hobbies of sewing and blogging mostly ceased while Dottie Belle was in milk.  I'll go back and blog about some of the fun and hopefully interesting things that happened during those months. I wish I had documented things along the way, but now all I can do is say, " I'll do better next time."

Jazzman Is Happening Today

Gypsy and Dottie Belle at 5 weeks old.

I got my first 2 Nigerian Dwarf does in February of 2011.
For over a year now, I have been surfing the internet and reading about raising and breeding goats. 





 I've been watching youtube videos like crazy of goats giving birth or kidding.

Monday night I finally decided to place that order to Hoegger Supply that I had been making since January. Mother had sent the money back in January to buy a milking pail for my birthday present and I had put a birthing kit and first aid kit in my shopping cart at the Hoegger site.  Monday night, I also went to this website and printed up the Kidding Handbook. http://www.goatworld.com/articles/kidding/KiddingHandbook.pdf  I even put a copy of the Kidding Handbook in my husband's backpack for him to take to work with him Tuesday and read if he found time.
 
For about the past 3 weeks Dottie Belle's udder has been steadily enlarging, but I didn't know how far along that meant that she was.

Billy Shakespeare at about 7 weeks old.

  She has been living with Billy Shakespeare  off and on since I brought him home in October, but he was only 3 weeks old. I was never actually sure they had mated until I noticed her udder.  

She never seemed interested in him.  So I was guessing delivery would be late August or September.  


Tuesday morning, July 17th, I went out to feed everyone and looked at Dottie Belle with the freshly attained knowledge from the Kidding Handbook.  Sure enough there was a little discharge on her vulva. (I have a picture, but I'm not going to include it in this post.)  I had been checking her ligaments around the base of her tail for a couple of weeks, but that area felt just like the other 2 does'.  But Tuesday morning, I could feel what was meant by "ligaments around base of tail will loosen."  Dottie Belle's were finally different from the other does' ligaments.  So my next step, of course, was to call my husband and make sure he had read the Kidding Handbook.  When I told him today was the day we would be using it, he didn't believe me.  I quickly put fresh straw in the goat shack and put Dottie Belle in there.  I then ran into the house and got the camera, surgical gloves, disinfectant soap, towels, a gallon of distilled water, and hydrogen peroxide as a substitute for iodine to put on the umbilical cord.  As soon asI got back to Dottie Belle, she jumped over the little privacy board I had put up for her and ran to a briar patch and laid down.  She had a contraction, let out loud bellow and I saw "the bubble" I had read about.  My friend and fellow school board member, Jasmine, called about that time and I told her Dottie Belle was having her babies.  She said, "I'll be there in 15 minutes."  Now Jasmine doesn't know anything about goats, but she did not want to miss seeing the big event that I had been talking about for months.  I then called my husband back and told him I was right that she is kidding RIGHT NOW.  I wanted Dottie Belle to go back to the comfy bed of straw I had made like it said in the Kidding Handbook, so I got some goat pellets to persuade her to return.  She followed me back to the shack and as soon as she got there out popped a beautiful kid.  I do have a video. Jasmine showed up just 5 minutes too late to see the birth and my husband came home to check things out just minutes afterwards.  His question was, "How did you know she was going to have the kids today?"  I replied, "Because I read the Kidding Handbook last night."  Anyway, kid number one and only was born at 12:35 p.m.  My husband returned to work, since it looked like everything was under control. Jasmine and I sat and waited until 3:45 for another one to be born. Jasmine so badly wanted to see a birth.  But we were having a board meeting at 4:30 and she rushed home to get ready and go to the meeting.  I gave up going to the meeting and sat with Dottie Belle and her kid until 6:00 and then decided there were not going to be any more kids.  Dottie Belle did everything exactly by the handbook, except that little run for the briar patch. I was at first going to name the new buckling Donald, because this was also my husband Don's Birthday. But Don didn't really care if he had a goat named after him, so I've named him Jazzman in honor of Jasmine.  It was her idea.  He weighted 5 lbs.  The average weight for a newborn Nigerian Dwarf goat is 2-3 lbs.  So he is a big fine fellow and looks very much like his daddy, Billy Shakespeare.

As soon as he was cleaned, he wanted to nurse.

Jasmine and Jazzman

Dottie Belle took a quick nap.

The grands came to love on him.

Chase and Jazzman. Jazzman even has his dad's blue eyes.

 

 

At least I'll have the birthing kit I've ordered for the next kidding.