Hi everybody! I have already posted questions on the forum, but realized I ought to introduce myself.
My husband and I (married since this past July) live in west Texas and are building up a small homestead. We are blessed with rock-free soil for extensive gardening, a powerhouse well, and a lovely climate. Next spring we plan to get poultry. My husband Paul grew up ranching, and can do everything from construction to livestock. I was raised in town and am new to homesteading, but I love it.
We recently sold our cow and heifer to concentrate more on our goat herd. The land is better suited for goats as it has more browse than grass. (Plus I feel much safer working with these tiny goats than with an 800-pound horned bovine behemoth.) We have a Nigerian buck, Brownie, his Pygmy wether buddy Elmo, and 4 Nigerian does: Amber, Oreo, Caramel, and Caramel's daughter Cocoa. The adults are all about a year old, and the baby is 4 months. (Caramel was bred accidentally when Brownie got through the fence, which is how we got Cocoa. Luckily, Caramel didn't have any kidding or mothering problems at such a young age.) Oreo and Amber are (hopefully) due to kid around Christmas or January.
It has been a crash course for me, learning goat care and milking. When we first got the goats last year (they lived at Paul's house, and I commuted out there to take care of them), we lost Oreo's twin sister Snickers to a freak water trough accident. That was hard to handle. We take a lot of extra care now to make sure everything is safe.
I'm a newbie, so I was very glad to stumble across this forum and be able to network with other more experienced goat people!
Replies
Welcome to the group!
WELCOME!! Nice to meet you!!