This is Tsu, my first goat. She is due to kid in March. She will be six in April. I got her when she was a kid, that’s how I remember how long I’ve had goats. She wasn’t bred until 2006, when she had two bucks in the dead of winter in the middle of the night. It was 15 degrees, and I didn’t know what I was doing, Neither did she, it was horrible. Fortunately I have a neighbor who has experience and she helped us. The kids survived and did fine. The next year I didn’t get her bred until very late, and her kids were born at the end of June. That was pretty bad too, there are just too many flies in the heat. I milked Tsu for 18 months, and dried her up to be bred this year. She is due to kid in late March. I will never breed for kidding in the cold or heat again, at least not on purpose.

She had two kinder does, Blacker and Browner. They looked so much alike that is how I told them apart until I got different colored collars on them. But part of the year Blacker looked Browner and Browner looked Blacker, they are really twins. Blacker went to live in Texas, where she is doing well. They still call her Blacker. This is the two of them when they were kids.

This is Tsu and Browner today. Browner is also bred to kid in March, they are both due on the same day. I’m not sure this was a great idea, but I came home from breeding Tsu and Browner was in season. I have to be sure to be there when they kid, so I can know for sure whose kid is whose. I don’t think all the kids will look alike, but it’s possible.

This is Piglet, I got her from my vet, she was his last nubian. She came with that name. He got rid of all his nubians in favor of Saanens and Oberhaslis. He has a big herd of dairy goats. She has the sweetest temperament of all my goats, and everyone loves her. In the summer her coat is bright red, and fades with white undercoat in the winter. I have a doe and a buck from her, and I will talk about them tomorrow.

Until tomorrow, have a wonderful day everyone!

Jan

This is my pygmy buck Silver. He has gone to live with the main pygmy goat person in my county, and he got bred to some little does this year, he thinks he is in heaven. I miss him, he is very sweet, but he is in a much better place for him, and I had no further breeding use for him. My best nubian, Tsu, got bred to a different pygmy buck this year. I don’t have a picture of him, but he is quite the little darling. It was exciting to get connected with a pygmy breeder who shows and has lots of bucks. And I was really happy she wanted Silver. I think he is beautiful.

This is a picture of my son and grandson and me last August when they visited. They live in Vermont now. The little doe is Triscuit’s kid Trude. Triscuit had triplets last year. This year she isn’t bred.

So I think I have figured this out, and will post more, with more pictures, later.

Have a great day everyone!

Jan

Hello everyone!

I am Jan Hodges and I am blogging this month about my Kinder goat adventure. I live in central New Mexico, about 30 miles south of Albuquerque.

I discovered kinder goats in the 90s, I moved out of the city to two acres in the country in 1993, and a neighbor had a goat for awhile. I liked her. Goats seemed to me to be by far the most interesting livestock. I was working, though, and it didn’t take much research to figure out that I couldn’t manage an 11 hour workday (including a pretty long commute) and also take decent care of goats. I’m pretty lazy, really.

In 2000 I rescued a great dane, Duke, who had terrible airborne allergies, which started a long hunt for relief for them. I tried shots, but he got tired of that and we couldn’t do it without his cooperation. I tried raw honey, but that requires a huge dose, it was too much sugar, and expensive. I found local milk that wasn’t processed much. There was a dairy that sold it, but they got bought out and that milk disappeared. So the only way to get milk for him was to have my own. But it was still too early. I got milk from my vet, who has a herd of dairy goats, for a few years. Duke’s troubles with allergies completely disappeared for the rest of his life.

I got my two nubian doe kids a year before I retired, but milking them and working was going to be beyond me. I retired (finally, the first day I possibly could), bred one of them to my lovely Silver, and had my first kinders, both were male. I decided I didn’t want the characteristics of the other doe in my kinder herd, and don’t have her anymore.

In the spring of 2007 a friend went with me on a road trip to Missouri, where I got two doe kids from Sue Huston. They are my lovely Madame and Triscuit. I feel like I was very lucky to get them, and it was great to meet Sue.

I’m going to stop now and post this and try to figure out how to post pictures.

Have a wonderful rest of the day!

Jan