The Adventure of Getting Our First Goats

We finally got all but one of our first goats. They are amazing creatures. When I was researching goats, I read lots of information that made it sound like they were a lot 'worth it' trouble. They were escape artists and could be mean. However, I have been nothing but pleased with my current herd. They are very mild tempered with no real efforts to escape, as long as they are well fed of course. They all have their own personality and voices. I can tell by the 'maaa' who is talking, even if I'm over in the fenced yard with Roland and not looking.

Roland absolutely LOVES the goats. He will stand out there and talk to the goats forever even if they won't come up and let him pet them yet.

Our first group was Viola and Sebastian. With my brother's help, we loaded them into the back of our little buick park avenue and brought them home. About a week later, we did the same with Ziggy Z, Celeste, and Mischief (we have not decided if we want to rename Mischief). Mischief has an injured back leg, but she is very sweet tempered. I'm planning training her to walk on a lead so that she can be our 'all natural' weed wacker and kind of like a pet dog to our family. Celeste is our milker right now, although I haven't milked her yet. Don't worry, I'll have that up as a post! Along with my first batches of goat yogurt, goat cheese, and goat milk soap.

 --Ziggy, Mischief, and Celeste out in the pasture--

 --Ziggy Z finally trusting enough to eat from my hand--

 --Ziggy, eating--

 --Celeste is the larger one. She is in milk now. Mischief is the baby girl in the front--

**Note : we are probably going to rename Mischief, but I just haven't gotten around to it. She's just sweet for such a rambunctious name :p

Livestock Barn and Pasture Construction

Today, we were working on our livestock barn and the connected pasture. This barn is about 10x20, it is old and slightly debilitated. We are restoring what needs to be restored and adding a pasture (I will add pictures tomorrow morning). The barn will be divided in half. One half, on the northern side, will house our chickens. We are getting 26 chickens on July 2nd. The southern half will house our goats.

-- Before doing anything--

 

Today we drove metal posts into the grown using a sledge hammer and attached some 'dog wire' fencing to the posts. The fence is about 4' high. It will hold goats, and eventually some sheep (hopefully). We also cleaned out the inside of the barn. It was full of old oil bottles, bowling trophies, traffic cones, steel pipes, and a million other little things, not to mention soil, sticks, leaves, and shingles from the decaying roof. It was quite a job!

At the end of the day though, we have a cleaned floor, a finished pasture, and all the lumber we need set up so we can complete the wall this week and put up the divider. Sunday we will be getting a large roll of chicken wire to secure the chick side of the coop against predators. We will have gates on the goat's side. We also are going to be building a milking stand for the goats.

--Finished Pasture--

 

I am getting very excited to bring my goats and chicks home! I can't wait to do my first batch of goat milk soap. However, my next big adventure is dishwasher soap, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Watch tomorrow for updated pictures of our livestock barn and for a post on another delectable homemade product!

Update 06/08-

 --Back wall before any work was done.--

So we did some construction to get it all ready for the goats. There is so much work still to do. To the roof, back wall, and some of the side walls yet. However, it is functional, safe and secure! I get to bring home my first two baby goats tonight, Viola and Sebastian. Then sometime in the next month, I will be bringing home Mischief, Ziggy, Celeste, and Fiona. Fiona and Celeste (Celeste is still under debate as to whether I will be getting her) are the mature goats. Celeste is 1 year and Fiona is 4 years. They are both lovely, sweet goats! They are both in milk as well. Excited to try my hand at milking. 





--Beginning to work on the barn divider. It will have a gate to keep the goats on one side, away from the chicken's side, the hay bales, and the bagged goat feed --

--The almost finished divider. We added a gate and will be running chicken wire along it--

Garden Beginnings

We got our garden tilled today. We had a friend with a lawn tractor and rototiller attachment. It was fun to watch. This is my first real garden, although my husband grew up with yearly gardens.

We will be planting all kinds of good things to eat! I will be posting my garden plan later and will be updating with our garden fencing project, our initial planting, and other things.


Update: 06/08/12
Today we have been working on raking out the sod clods to get the garden ready. I hope it have it completely planted by next weekend. I will get my garden plan up soon. It is drawn out I promise. I just have to scan it!





Update: 06/18/12

We have our garden in rows and have planted a couple of crops.Our soil is pretty sandy, so next year, I think we will need to add a couple bags of topsoil (plus compost, of course). Since our soil is so dry and sandy, I wanted to make sure our seeds would sprout. I made 5 rows and planted green beans in one, carrots in another, and beets in another. The remaining two rows are for potatoes and sweet peppers (haven't planted them yet). I have been watering them regularly (3 times a day at least with this heat and very little rain we are getting here in Dexter, Mi).

--My 5 rows--

Two days ago, I saw the first sprouts! Lots of beets and carrots coming up and couple of beans! Today, I will be doing up the rest of the garden. I am very excited to get started on this!

 --My beet sprouts!! So excited--

--My carrot sprouts...they are a little harder to see, but they are there, I promise!--

And this morning (06/19/2012) I saw my beans coming up!