Judy's Corner

05/16/08

We now have a  great starter herd of Nigerian Dwarfs and Mini-Manchas from Phil and Dawn Hurd of Simple Pleasures Farm.  Between Dawn and Sunni Florence of Texas Flat Rocks we can not go wrong for Nigerians and hope to develope our Nigerian herd in its own name.

05/10/08

News Flash.....We have an new boy in town, thanks to our friend Caroline Lawson we have introduced TLC-FARMS ZANZIBAR BEAUREGARD to our little herd of Nubians.  To make a good thing even better when we met Caroline at the Little Rock Spring Show to take delivery on Beau  we decided to show him on a whim.  Beau, walked out of the trailer that brought him here just an hour before and wallked into the ring where he promptly took the Reserve Grand Champion Nubian buck.  Not bad for a young fellow without a haircut who had never been to a show before.  His young buddy Uno, will be joining our pack trail.....Carol ine also did very well at the Little Rock show....her Texas gals really are really great does did very well at this Nubian specialty show.

This Entry:  early 2007

My husband Pat and I met at a renaissance festival in Texas , turns out we grew up about 30 miles of one another in the Chicago area but never met then even though we crossed paths many times, who knew??? 

 My husband is retired Air Force and we were wondering what we would do with retirement; we bought land in Texas at first and wondered what to do with it.  I am first generation American of German decent and would go to visit relatives in the German Alps ( Bavaria ) where I would always be found in the mountain pastures with the goats.  Well because of this I suggested we get a couple of goats and as we all know there is no such thing as a just a couple of goats.  We started with a couple of Angora for fiber and soon developed dairy goat fever.  We sold the Texas land (it was only 7 acres and we knew we needed more) and we bought 40 acres in the Ozarks of Arkansas. We now have Saanen, La Mancha , and couple of token Nubian.  We have a new neighbor that moved near us from California , and now we also have Nigerian Dwarf and MiniManchas.  I guess one day we will concentrate on which breed suits us best but so far I like the some aspects of all of them.  We found that we could get the best bloodlines at an affordable price if we got recorded grades.  Now we have a La Mancha and Saanen Grade, and soon to be born Nubian Grades.  And I guess the MiniMancha could technically be considered a grade as well, but can not be registered that way because they are minis.  We have joined the MDGA for their registration.   I was hoping to start a small homestead family milker market with those girls.

Well, we've mostly completed another step in our goal to be fully located on our farm in Arkansas. In Febuary, we finished moving the last of our goats and chickens there. And in April we moved from the house that Judy had lived for nearly 20 years. Oh joy! But we have been able to get a lot of stuff moved and a lot more is packed and ready for transport. One step at a time. 

This Entry:  early 2007

What to do after retirement? Well, Judy had this idea of goats. And chickens. She has had chickens since the 70s. And had a pet goat. She had neither when we met (another story for another time). I had pet dogs but that was the extent of my farm animal experience but  it seemed like a good idea to me.

I guess it has been 4 years now since we got our first starter goats, a couple of Angora . Next we got a couple of Saanen wethers to get an idea on dairy goats. Oh yeah, we fell in love with dairy goats. We now have Nubian, Saanen, LaMancha, MiniMancha, Nigerian Drawf, and Angora . 

Chickens have been added. We have raised a couple of batches of meat birds....man, they grow fast! And taste! Wow! Now we won't go back to store bought. And of course we have a mix of our "dairy" chickens for the eggs, bug control and for the pleasure of watching them do chicken things.

We also have a couple of Guinea Fowl, bug eating machines! We hoped to have more but lost the keets we tried raising last year. Who would have known they could run thru 1" chicken wire without even slowing? Our dogs (Pyranees/Anatolian mix) tried to help. They carefully picked up the keets and carried them up to the chicken pasture. Well, the chickens thought they were tasty. Smaller wire this year.

And since Judy is a spinner, when an opportunity to add sheep to the farm came up, she had to do it. Now we also have a couple sheep.

While I could never have imagined living with all these animals 5 years ago, today I can't imagine life without them.