Meet the goat herd!

I finally got a chance to get photos of all the goats so I could show you the group! Of course none of them wanted to sit still so excuse the blurry pictures.

This is Big Momma. She's and 8 year old nubian/ red boar cross. She one of the first goats we bought when she was only 6 weeks old. I rode home with her on my lap! With her is her boy who was the first kid born this year just after Thanksgiving. We'll keep him for our back-up buck.

This is Peanut. (if you saw her when she was born you would understand the name) A nubian/ alpine/ lamancha cross, daughter of Skinny, granddaughter of Big Momma. She's about 4 years old now, last year was her first year milking and after getting her trained to the stanchion she did quite well.

This is Skinny, a nubian/ alpine cross, daughter of Big Momma, mother of Peanut. She's about 6 now. Her name was more fitting in previous years but she has really filled out this past year and is probably in the best shape she's ever been. She's the most friendly goat we have and loves being pet. When we're out in the pasture with the goats she's know to sneak up behind you and nudge your arm so you can pet her.

This is Red, daughter of Big Momma, she's just two this winter. I'm still working on getting her use to being touched, she always runs from me. I find that if I keep her in the barn she much more relaxed with me coming near her.

These two cuties are Missy and Dottie. They were born to Peanut just after Thanksgiving. Dottie is the one I had to keep in the kitchen and bottle feed because mom rejected her. Her feet were also bent and I had to splint her legs for over a week until her ankle strengthened. 

The white goat is our buck. So far he's been one of the nicest bucks we've had and doesn't give me too much trouble. However he is fond of ignoring his shock collar and walking through the boundary. That might become and problem and he may have to go to auction when the little boy is old enough to replace him.

The girl behind him is a three year old, alpine/ nubian free loading doe. :P No babies from her yet but hubby thinks he feels babies so maybe this year will finally be her first.

Time to cut hay...

It's time to make hay for the goats winter feed. A couple of weeks ago I thought I would have a good opportunity to cut a bunch. Then, after only three days of cutting, it started raining. And it rained, and rained, and rained. The last bit that I had cut didn't get to dry fully, so it ended up in the goat's shed for bedding.

Now last year I thought we had stored a ton of hay but it only lasted 2 months and we had to buy some bales to last the rest of the winter. I'm hoping to get even more dried this year.

We don't have a big farm, so we don't have large tractors, or big haying equipment. All of our hay is cut by hand with a scythe, dryed, and piled into our hay shed to store. My husband bought his scythe at: https://scythesupply.com It's an american company, located in Maine. They custom make the snath (handle) for your height and have a big selection of blades.
Hubby made this video a fews years ago showing the scythe in use. It's a little tougher for me to use because I'm much shorter than he is. One day I'll get one made for me.

I cut a couple rows each day, cutting for about an hour each time. The same amount probably takes hubby half the time. After it dries for a day the rows are flipped. A few hours to a day later (depending on how warm and dry it is) I rake the rows into piles. To dry it even quicker the rows can be spread out evenly across the ground and then raked back into rows once dry. We've done it both ways. 

 We use our UTV to transport the piles to our hay shed and stack it as high as we can, using some boards to retain the edge of the pile. 

We even get the kids in on the fun (fun?). After each layer is added the kids get to climb on top to stomp everything down well, making room for more hay and, essentially, making one big bale of hay. This video was made over 5 years ago before our youngest was born. I love looking back at these old videos!

To feed this loose hay to the goats I use a pitch fork to grab hay and load it into a large storage tote. You know, those big plastic ones:

It gives me something to carry it in without just walking around with a huge pile of hay in front of my face, leaving a trail as I walk :P