Goats for us!

  When we lived in the apartment we had dreamed about having our own place, raising our animals and feeding our family from the gardens. To cement this dream we created a vision board with everything we wanted on our land and for our family.

 We now have chickens, a garden in it's first evolution and as of last week we have 3 goats. The local animal shelter sometimes receives animals besides dogs and cats, these animals are given to good homes free of charge. My sister who works there called me to see if I wanted some goats they had found and which the owner when found no longer wanted. We brought home a Toggenburg billy, a pregnant Nubian doe and a younger billy which is I am pretty sure their offspring. The trip home was as quick as we could make it as it was 110 outside and I was afraid they would get heatstroke. I ended up putting them in our large chicken pen until we can get more fencing up. Within the first 2 hours of them being here they showed me where the weakest spot in the fence was! We go out every evening when it cools off to reinforce any weak spots that we see. I plan on selling/trading the older buck and the doe after she has her kid for some Nigerian goats. I want to end up raising Nigerians and mini La Manchas someday.  The girls want to keep the youngest billy who they have named Panda, I told them to work hard with him to make him friendly and easy to handle, then we'll see. I am very proud of my girls, they take turns watering the animals and both spend a lot of time with the goats gaining their trust.

Lilly

Panda

Jake

These next pictures are of the goats I hope to raise soon.

Nigerian(isn't this one pretty!) They come in all colors.

Pygora Goats for thier fiber.

and Mini La Manchas (I love thier elf ears)

Fiber Farms

  On a recent vacation to Denver Colorado while visiting my sister, we took a trip up to Loveland Co. to see some Alpaca farms. The first one we went to was Deer Valley Alpaca ranch. We were warmly welcomed by
Mick and Debbie Leighton  who showed us around their place. If you have never been to an alpaca ranch then you surely need to go! These beautiful animals will steal your heart and have you trying to figure out where to put some in your back yard. DVA had about 40 animals with two crias(babies) on the ground and more to come. Besides alpacas they have a pair of Paco-vicunas which are a daintier version of alpacas.

Paco Vicuna(internet pic)




  The Leighton's at one time did their own fiber processing and Debbie
showed us how the fleece went from shearing to ending up being yarn, roving and the end products that could be made from the fiber. It was very interesting. She had a wonderful assortment of yarns, fleece, roving and all kinds of interesting handmade things.They had two Great Pyrenees named Colt and Winchester which had replaced their last pair Smith and Wesson!:)
 



processed fleece



 

 We also stopped by Mountain Sky Ranch where we had the pleasure

of meeting Deb Dorband. She had a beautiful herd of alpacas and also

pygora goats.As I am very interested in raising fiber animals it was a treat to see the pygoras. Deb explained that even though there are quite

a few alpaca farms that provide fleece it is still unfortunately cheaper to import from Peru where the fleece you get might have other types of fiber mixed in. Deb and her husband are working hard to make alpaca fleece a commodity for the US

and have it sold in bales on the market.

Just try to resist me!

Pygora goats



Pygora males running to say hi.



 Most farms show their alpacas which sounds easier to do than for most show animals. They are not allowed to groom them at all, just pick the hay off of the animals coat. The alpacas are judged or you can just take the fleece for judging.

All in all it was a wonderful trip.  If you are ever in Colorado please ck out Deer Valley Alpacas and Mountain Sky Ranch. You will see some amazing country, meet some really nice people and find some creatures that might just steal your heart!

Deer Valley Alpacas

http://www.deervalleyalpaca.com/index.html

Mountain Sky Ranch

http://mountainskyranchllc.com/

Blessed Be!

What's in your Homestead Library?

I was given my favorite gift from my awesome husband, an Amazon gift card.I decided to use it to add to our homestead library. There are so many great books out there that it is usually way to hard to decide. Here is what I came up with this time.

         In her book, Natural Goat Care, Pat Colby takes us on her journey of caring for her goats. She tells us of preventative ways to keep livestock healthy, without the medicines

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, 3rd Edition
“Everything you need to know about chickens, all in one easy-to-understand volume: Breed selection, health issues, care and maintenace, incubating, hatching, feed and shelter, egg and meat production, and more.


Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats: Breeds, Care, Dairying


The Complete Book of Butchering, Smoking, Curing, and Sausage Making: How to Harvest Your Livestock & Wild Game

Build a Smokehouse: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-81

How to Build Animal Housing: 60 Plans for Coops, Hutches, Barns, Sheds, Pens, Nestboxes, Feeders, Stanchions, and Much More

Fences for Pasture & Garden

Gail Damerow

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)

Barbara Kingsolver,

 These were already in our library,

The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book by Carla Emery

Country Women: A Handbook for the New Farmer by Jeanne Tetrault and Sherry Thomas

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!

        Small-Scale Livestock Farming: A Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit

          How to Raise Goats by Carol A. Amundson

 These are just a few of the books that I think every homsteader should have in their library.This list doesn't include the gardening and herbal medicine books in our library. I plan on getting all the Storey's Guides that we will need.What are your favorite books you think should be in a homesteaders library?