Breeding Season

Well its breeding season for our goats and we are well on our way to goats kids in the spring. We have divided our females up and are pairing them with different males. This is so exciting, we can't wait to see what the spring will bring.

We are also planning on having a litter of puppies in the spring as well from our Great Pyrenees female Luna and Apollo. We can't wait to see what these dogs produce. Luna is a great guardian and has protected our goats from day one. She is constantly teaching the other two livestock guardians what to do, when to bark, when to sleep, how to behave around the goats, and generally how to be a livestock guardian. She is the best and we are so happy to have her.

New Goats with the Livestock Guardian Dogs

Well, our new goats aren't getting along that well with the Livestock Guardian Dogs. Both of our dogs are technically puppies, 9 months and 3 months and sometimes they will chase the goats, especially if the goats run. So the two new goats we got from Caprinos Quail Hollow are very friendly but not used to young livestock guardians. They had a very old guardian with them and he wasn't with all of the goats. One goat, Felicity, really hates the dogs. She hides out on the log rounds and tries to stay out of their way. While the other new goat, Charisma, is doing better as long as she doesn't run away.

For now we are separating the female goats from the dogs and putting the livestock guardian dogs in the male goat pasture during the day and then putting them back in with the majority of our goats in the female pasture. At least this way, the new goats get a long break during the day and are learning to integrate with the other goats. Then at night we put the dogs back in to protect the herd and usually the goats are just sleeping then, so they get left alone, plus Luna our older livestock guardian is very busy at night running aroundpatrolling and barking, barking, barking. Did I say that Great Pyren

ees love to bark? Well Luna just thinks its the best at night, when she hears something.

New Goats

Yesterday we acquired two new goats from the Caprinos herd at Quail Hollow near Forest Grove, OR. We wanted to add some great genetics into our herd and another milker. So we bought Felicity who is a 4 year old with great genetics and Charisma who is 6 also has great genetics and is currently in milk.

So this morning we milked Merek, which went great as usual, but she hasn't been producing much milk. Then we milked Charisma, that was quite a chore! She is used to being machine milked with 39 other goats, so hand milking in our little barn was quite different for her. Its going to take some time for her to get comfortable. But that's ok, after much adjustment to her smaller nipples for us, and lots of stomping, laying down, and spilled milk all over ourselves we finished. She was milked and we got about 25-30 ounces from her. That's almost a quart, good job Charisma.

Yesterday was also a big day for us since I published the website, so we are live! Yeah! This was a big accomplishment, something that has been in the works for almost a year now. I had an idea that I would acquire some milking goats, acquire some Great Pyrenees dogs to start breeding them when they are old enough as Livestock Guardian Dogs, and starting making goats milk soap and other beauty products with goats milk. After lots of trial and error we think we have come up with several products that are now for sale that are palm free, homemade, and overall great products that moisturize and are good for your skin without all the artificial chemicals and stuff that is in most soap, lotion, and other beauty products. So let the business begin, we are off to a great start.