Category: goats (Page 3 of 9)

Goat Breeding Time 2018!

December 10, 2018 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

With November upon us, it was time to put our billy goats with their respective nannies for goat breeding time 2018!

With the loss of our buck Rocky earlier this year, Elvis joined the herd, and was ready to go to work! Our plan is to use him for our younger does:

And then put Shakespeare with the older ones:

This year we moved them a little earlier than normal in the month, basically because Marie, one of our does, went into heat, and Elvis was jumping fences to get to her. In fact, he got out at one point and we believe mated with Nellie, another one of our does. So, we decided to just do the move the first week of November.

However, when we put Elvis with his “ladies”, he not only tried mating with Marie but also started being highly over-aggressive with her, lifting her with his horns, and the like. We had never seen this before with one of our bucks, although he had acted this way with Shakespeare (hurt his leg somewhat badly), and eventually we had to tie him up to keep him from chasing her around.

And at this point, we didn’t know what to do with him. Was this going to happen with all of the females when they went into heat? He wouldn’t be of much use then.

Well, we moved Marie over to be with Shakespeare, and there was no problem there. And when we let Elvis off his lead, he stopped being aggressive with the other females. Also, since then, we very thankfully haven’t seen that over-aggression with the others.

In trying to figure out what happened, we were thinking, since Marie had gone over to Shakespeare when we let the females out to graze, and he and she were rubbing on each other through the fence, that perhaps she ended up smelling like Shakespeare, and Elvis was getting his signals crossed with her, smelling her being in heat and Shakespeare at the same time.

And so, it looks like he’s going to continue to work out ok, although we are planning on having his horns removed like we did with Shakespeare, as he uses them all too well as a weapon.

But, without further ado, here is the video of when we put them together this 2018!

We pray the Lord might grant the offspring in Spring, in accordance with His will; we thank Him that Elvis calmed down and will appear to be useful still; we pray for milk later on next year; we pray for continued health and safety for the herd; and we thank Him for the safety and health He has granted them all of these years!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2018 Goat Kids

August 31, 2018 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

Back in November last year, we put bucks and nannies together for 2017 goat breeding time.

Sadly, our multi-colored buck Rocky was too injured to do the job, and so eventually we had to put Shakespeare with the younger nannies as well, which ended up spreading out the birthing over a couple of months.

But Shakespeare did the job, and here are some of the results! Interestingly, it was 3 to 1 bucklings to doelings:

Earlier:

(What a great picture, IMO: 😀 ):

And then on the day they went to their new home:

Sadly at the end of one day, one of the little bucklings was stammering around, and couldn’t keep his balance. With the extreme heat, we thought maybe he had a sun stroke. We got him into the barn to try to help, but over a few days, he got worse and worse, and eventually, when it sounded like fluid was building up in his lungs and I didn’t want him to drown, I gave him the coup de gras. Sigh…that’s always hard to do, especially when all your efforts are to try to keep the animal alive. But, death is a reminder of sin, and something I believe should help us understand a little as to how much God hates it.

But, we are thankful also that there were no other issues with mama’s giving birth or kids dying…thanks to God!

But, sadly also, over the winter we lost Gracie, and then Winnie. We’re not sure what the reasons were, but we are thankful to the Lord for all of the provisions He granted from them.

Winnie started it all way back when. She was always the queen goat…I called her “your highness”. 🙂 Goodbye Winnie…

And here is Gracie. Goodbye Gracie…

And sadly as well, Rocky ended up maybe too injured to do much, and after moving him into the barn to take care of him, he eventually succumbed to something, and we lost him too. We thank the Lord for all of the kids He granted from him as well. Goodbye Rock…

However, another buck that had been used by others in the fellowship became more available for us to take over care for, and so he and Shakespeare have been pals ever since, and we look forward to him going to work with our younger does this November, Lord willing:

Finally, here’s this year’s 2018 kid provisions video:

We are always grateful to God for His provisions, and try to never take them for granted. We deserve none of them, and so every one is a gracious blessing! And we now thank Him for the milk He is supplying from them!

— David

Elvis’ Venominally Fangtastic Fright!

May 25, 2018 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

Sadly, our buck Rocky now has a pretty bad injury on his leg, which has prevented him from performing his male-goat duties this last goat breeding round:

However, the group graciously allowed us to basically take over “ownership” of a buck graciously given to the group by some very nice friends of the group (all the bucks around here get used whenever needed). His name is Elvis, and he’s Lamancha, which is where we’ve been wanting to go with our breeds, and here he is:

A few weeks ago, I was in the house, and I saw Sue running back with the dogs that she had just taken up to the fields to let go in a fenced area to run around for the evening. She looked like she was in a hurry, so I stepped outside to see if something was wrong.

There was……rattlesnake! It was in one of our pecan tree areas. She had already let the dogs off the leashes, and they were the ones that alerted her to it with them barking at it, but thanks to God she was able to get them leashed up again and her and them out of there.

So, I went up there with a shovel and the shot gun. The rattler was tucked in a tuft of weeds, but finally I could see it. In trying to save a shotgun shell, I lunged at it with the shovel in an attempt to maim it, but all I did was end up covering it with the shovel head. Nice. And so that was that…I aimed the shotgun, and sent him packing.

Here’s brave Sue after carrying it back:

And its rattles:

Thanks to the Lord that all went well!

The next morning though, Sue had noticed Elvis was sitting in the goat shed opening, didn’t get up when she came that direction, but didn’t appear as if anything was wrong. It wasn’t until that evening that she discovered him limping pretty badly.

And then we discovered the cause — snake bite! The leg was swollen, you could see puncture marks, and some blood-stained fur around it. Oh no.

We wondered if it was the one we killed or another.

In researching snake bites, we read that if the goat doesn’t die in a few hours, there’s a good possibility it will live. Well, if he had been bit by the snake we killed, it was nearly 24 hours by then, so we were hoping and praying for the best.

Besides the external betadine, we gave him some activated charcoal in his feed, hoping that might help remove some of the toxins.

Over the first day or two, the swelling moved into his chest, and down his stomach, and on one of those days, he spent the day just sitting in the shed…we figured he just wasn’t feeling very well. 🙂

In the following picture, you can see the bite on his swollen left leg after we had drenched it with betadine:

At this point, a couple of days into it, he had an appetite, which we figured was good.

Today, thanks to God’s graces and mercies, Elvis is doing much better, and there’s only a little swelling on the leg! And we haven’t seen another rattlesnake since here.

Here’s a video documenting a couple days into it, a few days after that, and then almost three weeks after that (the day of this blog post, about 25 days since the bite):

We are very grateful to the Lord for sparing Elvis, and for granting him the healing He did! We pray Elvis will continue to be of benefit to the community!

— David

Goat Breeding Time 2017!

December 7, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

With Autumn upon us, it was that time of year once again to put our boy goats and girl goats together for goat breeding time 2017!

This is why we have goats, so they, Lord willing, will kid in the Spring time so we can eventually have milk. God has been gracious this year again as He has kept us in milk since we sold our 2016 kids earlier in the year.

As with last year, our buck Rocky still has that knot on the side of his back leg, which we have found out is an actual injury.

And wouldn’t you know, about a month before we’re supposed to put the bucks with the does, Shakespeare, our other buck, as the intensity of his rutting seemed to increase over early Fall time, ended up hurting Rocky more to where one morning Rocky couldn’t get up. We got him out of there and put him with the females, and graciously the Lord granted that within a few days he was at least able to get up by himself. He can still get around, although we’re just not sure he’s going to be able to get the job done with his set of females, so we’re monitoring, and if he doesn’t seem interested in one of his that’s in heat, we’re hauling her over to Shakespeare.

But, without further ado, here’s is the video of this year’s meet and greet! 🙂

We are grateful again to the Lord for this opportunity to breed the goats He has graciously granted us, and we pray He might grant kids and milk next year!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2017 Goat Kids

August 24, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 6 Comments

The results of breeding time 2016 are in and gone now, and so we thought we’d introduce you to 2017’s goat kids!

First, this is our buck Rocky. Even with a leg injury, he’s still able to get the job done!

And our new buck Shakespeare…first round with our does for him. He’s shown dragging a stick so he doesn’t jump the fences. Also, we had him dehorned because they appeared to be growing over themselves and causing him grief, although the dehorning operation was quite some experience, where after numbing the area, the vet used a cord saw to saw through, Shakespeare screaming the whole time…arg…and just wow. Because the sinus cavity extents into the horn, he then sutchered head skin over one hole, but didn’t have much for the other one; and so, we’ve been keeping it wrapped or covered with antiseptic and triple antibiotic gel when necessary. Thankfully, it’s slowly healing:

Here are some pictures from some of them earlier in the year:

And then let’s go around the horn, introducing each doe & her kids…

This is Pammy, with her kids Toro and Pablo. We thought Toro looked like a tiny Longhorn bull, and then kept the Spanish naming idea for his brother:

And here is Adeline, with her kids Leah, because she looks like her mommy, and we took the “L” from her name; and Arielle, because her coloring was black/grey/black and reminded me of an Oreo cookie, and so we used the “A” from her mom’s name as well:

And then this is Annie with her kids Paula and Linus. Paula, because she looks like Pablo, and Linus because he looks like Adeline and we just used the “L” from her name:

This is Gracie with her doeling Dottie, because she has a dot on her nose. Gracie had a buckling too, but he sadly died in less than a day. Gracie started having rumen problems at the time she gave birth, so Sue faithfully bottle-fed Dottie in a partial manner to help supplement:

This is Hannah with her kids Cicely and Bison. Where the black comes from, we have no idea, since Shakespeare was the daddy. The buckling looked like a Bison to us, so we started there, and then went with Cicely to kind of match. Bison was interestingly born three hours after Cicely, and Hannah ended up basically rejecting him, not letting him suckle, so Sue picked up this job too:

Next is Lucy with DeForest, William and Leonard. Lucy was first to go this year:

Lucy & New Kids DeForest, William & Leonard

And this is Nellie with her kids Ricky and Nelson. We started with Nelson because he looked like his mama, and then added the Ricky. Sadly, Nellie had a still-born, but these two were just fine:

Here is Marie with her kids Maxine, Laverne and Patty. Little Laverne next to her was quite spunky. Sue started to supplement bottle-feed her too the last few weeks, just because she was so small. If you look, where did Patty, the white one in front, come from since Marie’s mate each year is Rocky? We weren’t sure Rocky was getting the job done, so for a very short period of time, we put Shakespeare in with her. Well, it appears both bucks got to her! 🙂 :

Marie & New Kids Maxine, Laverne & Patty

And finally, her highness Winnie with her kids Shelly, Shelton, and Della. The two “Sh” names because they look like Shakespeare, and Della for the “D” in Adeline, whom she looks like:

Winnie & New Kids Shelly, Shelton & Della

And here is their video for the year, including the goodbye as they went to their new owner, and a few snippets after that — look for Annie at the end showing off fine goat behavior!

We are always very thankful to the Lord for granting these provisions of the goat kids, and our buyer friend to come get them each year. And we are thankful for the milk from them, which we are able now to use, along with eggs, exclusively to feed our pig. And thanks to Sue for your faithful milk collecting!

— David

The Barn – Update VIII – Second Animal Stall

January 19, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

After mostly finishing the barn loft platform, and then doing so after putting in some steps, we were finally able to move more ground-floor stuff we’ve had in the barn up to the loft so we could get the second barn stall in place. This was the plan all along, since we have two sets of goats during breeding time, which is during the winter when we would most likely need for them to have extra shelter.

What was nice was I was able to essentially copy exactly the first barn stall, and when I bought the materials for that one, I had just doubled the materials in preparation for the second, and so I already had all of the supplies needed.

You can see more details of the process in that first barn stall blog post, but here a few pictures from this one. The long boards had been standing on the ground so long, some of them getting moist, that termites had eaten out at least one of the ends, but it was still usable after cutting off the bad part:

As I mentioned, the purpose of these stalls is to bring in our goats during cold or extreme weather. I added large eye hooks along the side boards to be able to hook each of them up to hopefully keep the chaos to a minimum, and here is a video during one of our fairly drastic (for us) cold snaps we recently had, with them all hooked up in place. Thankfully, it appears to have worked out very nicely, and we are thankful to the Lord!

We are very grateful to God for granting we be able to finish this part of the homestead and barn, and to have a better place of refuge for our goats. Their exposure up in the fields has been a concern for us over the years, and it’s a relief to be able to bring them into the barn now.

— David

Goat Breeding Time 2016!

January 5, 2017 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

Recently, it was time to put our billy goats and nannies together for breeding time this 2016!

The following is a video of the event. As I mention in the beginning of the video, our buck Shatner had some problems coming out of our first cold front of the season. It appeared he spent the night sitting in his urine, and the temperature had reached freezing. He was quite cold in the morning and was having trouble standing. He did seem to bounce out of it, and was shown here in the video around the time, but sadly, shortly after the first part of the video was made, Shatner went down hill and soon died. We were both there with him at the very end. He was a good buck, our first, made many kids, and we are thankful to the Lord for granting him to us. Also mentioned in the video, our other buck Rocky has a growth on his back leg, which seems to be slowing him down, although it did appear the other day he is able to get the job done:

With one of our two bucks gone, we were hoping to find a new one, leaning more toward the Lamancha breed with the hope of more milk production. Graciously and with one look at an internet selling list page, there was a young Lamancha buck available in the general area — wow! I contacted the owners, and went and got him the next day. Here he is in the back of the truck just after arriving back after picking him up on that cold morning, and sticking with the famous “Billy” names, we decided to call him Shakespeare:

His previous owners said he could jump fences, and he indeed did one time as he was roaming out of the pen. But the silly billy (pun intended 🙂 ) tried again to jump the fence but this time caught his back hoof in the top square of the net-wire fencing, so when he went over, the top vertical wire next to his leg bent up and over the top wire pinching his leg in place. Thankfully, Sue was there, and we were able to cut the wire pretty quickly with only a little, mostly external damage, although it seems to have shaped him up a little with fence jumping. 🙂

Here is his video when we put him in with his nannies. You can sure tell he is younger by his immediate interest level 🙂 :

We are always thankful to God for granting we be able to have the goats and the milk. We thank Him for Shatner and the offspring from him, and for Shakespeare now, and the continued health, safety and provision He has granted for the goats and the homestead, and pray He might grant those continue, and for healing for Rocky, according to His will!

— David

Category: goats (Page 3 of 9)

Goat Breeding Time 2018!

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2018 Goat Kids

Elvis’ Venominally Fangtastic Fright!

Goat Breeding Time 2017!

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2017 Goat Kids

The Barn – Update VIII – Second Animal Stall

Goat Breeding Time 2016!

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