California Native Plants: Coyote Bush

Hello and konnichiwa! Katie here, writing my first blog post for the farm. I was introduced by Sarah a couple posts back, with Bert and Ernie, the pack goats. Among other things, I will be posting regular introductions to California native plants that can be found here on Castle Rock farm. Here is the first...

As the nights get colder and the first frosts come, there is still busy activity all around the farm. A couple weeks ago, the Coyote Bush started to bloom. Coyote Bush, or Baccharis pilularis, is one of the only California native plants blooming this time of year and therefore it attracts a lot of attention and is a valuable food source for many insects. Watching for just a couple minutes, you can spot different varieties of bees, wasps, ladybugs, may flies, flies, ants and more crawling and buzzing around the plant. You can also smell the sweet honey-like fragrance of the flowers if you get up close.



Coyote Bush is a hardy plant and can survive even in very dry and nutrient poor soil. It has a large complex root system that is perfect for holding soil in place to help prevent erosion. On the farm there are many Coyote Bush plants planted along the creek bed bordering the property, in order to hold the soil. Coyote Bush can survive harsh weather conditions and even low to moderate levels of salinity, so it is often used as erosion control in nutrient poor coastal areas and is found growing there naturally as well. Coyote Bush is also considered fire retardant and is not eaten by deer. Dwarf coyote bush is more commonly grown for native gardens in California as it makes a nice ground cover or more easily controlled small shrub.



The larger coyote bushes tend to be rangier and less 'pretty.'



There are both larger coyote bushes and smaller dwarf coyote bush here on Castle Rock Farm. Both have small oval leaves that range from dark to bright green. Coyote Bush is an evergreen, so it adds color to the landscape year round. The flowers are very small and are white, cream, or yellow and can bloom from early summer through mid-winter.

I have been having fun learning more about native plants here on the farm and watching all the activity on the Coyote Bush lately. Consider planting Coyote Bush in your garden and you can see what all the buzz is about!



(Note: All pictures from here on the farm except the second photo, of the dwarf coyote bush ground cover, which was taken from the Native Sons website.)

Honey Bees

Last Christmas, I asked Santa for honey bees, as I wanted to have my own source of beeswax for the lip balms and salves that I make.  Santa thought we were just getting one bee hive, but after talking with several bee keepers, two hives worth of bees were procured from a local source.

As with just about every type of critter one can keep, the critters themselves end up being the least of your expenses.  There's also the hive boxes- eight frame vs. ten frame, deciding what type of frame you want to use in those boxes, lids, inner covers, entrance reducers, hive stands, and hive bottoms.  Then there's the beekeeper tools- most importantly- what type of protective clothing you're going to wear, and the smoker you'll use.  Then there's the hive tool, bee brush, feeders, capping scrapers, and a few other things you may or may not eventually need.  The bee keeper I got my frames of bees from recommended, after a long day of working his hives, that I get eight frame boxes as full boxes of bees and honey can get quite heavy.

While putting the frames of bees into the hives, we noticed several queen cups in the first hive, which the bee keeper scraped off of the frames.  We didn't see either of the queens, but we did see several drones, which are bigger than the workers and look somewhat husky.  Drones are the only male bees in the hive, and they serve just one purpose- to go out and mate with virgin queens.  They can't even feed themselves, and have to beg the workers to feed them, and once they mate with a queen, they die.

Drone hanging out on the hive porch

I went back a week later and found that queen cups (where the hive grows new queens) had shown up again in the hive that had contained them the previous week.  Before scraping the queen cups off this time, I decided to look and see if I could find the queen.  I was unable to find her, so I left the queen cups alone, and checked the other hive, in which I did find the queen.  Two weeks later, the cups had hatched out, and a new queen had established herself.

In the month after getting the original two hives, we captured three swarms that showed up at our farm.  Luckily, all of the swarms decided to beard on low hanging branches of plants, so they were relatively easy to capture.

A beard of bees

The first swarm was pretty large, and is now my strongest hive.  The second two swarms were small, and when checking one of them, I found that they had no queen, so I combined the two.  We now have four hives in our "bee garden".

We selected a location where the bees would have morning sun and afternoon shade, and where they would be out of the way of farm visitors.  I'm glad we started with two hives as the hive that hatched out a new queen has never really recovered and is currently my weakest hive, and should be requeened in the spring- if I hadn't had another hive to compare with, I'd probably be pretty discouraged with my first experience in beekeeping. 

I love to take a few minutes to go sit near the hives and watch the workers flying in and out on their daily chores of gathering pollen and nectar.  The guards check all who enter, while other workers either fan at the entrance to help with ventilation and temperature control, or scurry about filling in cracks and crannies with propolis.  The workers typically pay me no heed even though I sit within a few feet of their homes, going about their daily chores since I am not threatening their hives in any way.  There's a faint scent of honey in the air and a contented buzzing which has made this one of my favorite spots on the farm.

Introducing Katie, Bert, and Ernie

And now, for something a little different (besides one post every wow-has-it-really-been-that-many months)...introductions of a few farm residents.

We'll start with Katie- she's the person on the right in the picture.  She's staying with us at the farm for several months after spending the last couple of years in Japan teaching English, and has an interest in international agriculture.  She'll also be putting up some blog posts about the farm and a topic I have long planned to write more about- California native plants.  So, when you see her name on the blog, that's who it is, and I'm excited that the blog will be a bit more up to date. I know, I know, more than two posts isn't that high of a bar- our goal is for at least one post a week.

As for the four legged beings in the picture, you may have noticed that they look different than the goats you usually see on the web site.  Much longer legs, and much shorter ears.  These guys are La Mancha-Saanen cross wethers I obtained when they were a mere one week old and bottle raised with the goal of making them into pack goats.  I love backpacking, but I also know that my knees most likely aren't going to last forever.  I considered donkeys, llamas, mules, and goats when deciding on a pack animal.

Llamas have the advantage of being relatively low maintenance, quiet, and efficient eaters who are light on the land.  However, I have owned three llamas (we currently have just one) and they are too aloof for me- if I'm going to get another animal or two to take into the back country, I want a species that does more than just tolerates me, I want them to like me.  Growing the llama collection didn't really excite me all that much.

Donkeys seemed like a good option- they appear to be awfully strong for their size, smart, and my friends who have them seem to really enjoy them.  When you have a donkey, you still have to do all of the shots and ferrier work that a mule requires, only a mule could carry you out of the back country while still having enough smarts to take care of themselves.  If I'm going to feed a mule, I might as well feed a horse, which I've wanted since I can remember.  But, I don't really have enough time for a horse right now, which meant I was back to looking at pack goats.

So, back to goats.  Their advantages: I already know how to take care of them, they can carry 20 to 25 percent of their body weight, and I don't have to put them in a trailer to transport them.  Bert (the lighter one) and Ernie are about three and a half now and I'm starting their packing training by getting them out and about just with the saddles on.  I will add paniers soon with a little weight at first and then slowly build up from there.  I have to say, it is a good thing that most backpacking happens at elevations where it doesn't get as hot as it does here cause these boys are a bit more heat sensitive than I expected them to be.

I hadn't realized just how much bigger Ernie is than Bert until we took these pictures!  These guys are littermate brothers, but obviously Ernie is going to be the one who will end up with the heavier packs.  Ernie is a bit of a momma's boy when we're out and about- he gets pretty worried if I am more than 30 feet from him and will call to me in a clearly worried voice.  Bert is quite attached to his brother, and gets worried if Ernie is more than about 30 feet from him.  This should work out fairly well on the trail- I'll lead, Ernie will go where ever I go, and Bert will go wherever Ernie goes.  At least, I hope it works that way out on the trail.  So far, we've just gone for walks on the roads where we live, which is not all that much like being on a trail, especially with all of the cars going by.

Handling goats that are much bigger than I'm used to can be challenging, and makes me appreciate that the majority of our goats are small.  I suppose that if we had more of the bigger goats, we'd be better set up for handling them and taking care of routine maintenance, but the way we are currently set up, hoof trimming turns into a two person-one-goat wrestling match.  I am pretty fond of these big guys though- they are pretty affectionate, and with the bucks being in the midst of breeding season (which means lots of wether molesting by the bucks), they are pretty eager to go out for hikes these days.

2011 Kidding Season

Now that kidding season is a few months in the rear view mirror, I finally have some time to write about it.  This is the biggest kidding season we have ever had- 41 does kidded with a total of 106 kids.

Whew!  I get a little tired just thinking about it.


When I bred all of these does last fall, Andy's recovery from his back injury was going well- he was progressing along well enough that we weren't sure that he would need surgery.  Then he suffered a set back while at a physical therapy session, and it quickly became clear that he would need surgery to fix the problem.  Surgery, which should have been performed much earlier, happened right before New Year's, and kids started hitting the ground about a month later.  I was a little panicked about going into this kidding season so shortly after the surgery, but it was too late to do anything to change the inevitable.

The first eleven days of kidding were fast and furious, with 67 kids hitting the ground, with two sets of quintuplets back to back.  The fortunate thing was that these kids came during a very mild two week period of February.  The unfortunate thing is that mild weather in early February usually means that we are not even close to being done with winter.

And we weren't.

It didn't stop raining until sometime in June.  The farm was totally squishy and muddy, with dry does, milking does, and bottle babies couped up in the barn.  When it did stop raining, the temperature would briefly go up into the low 80's, which was great for the fly population, then drop back down into the 40's, which is not so great for kids.  As I've mentioned before, our barn is at the bottom of a whole lot of hill, so even when it did stop raining, the barn and barn yard stayed pretty damp.  The back corner of our barn had quite a puddle- and right by the milk room door, which the does just loved to walk through.  While the rain was great for growing the pastures, the constant rain made it impossible to get the goats out to graze it, and meant that we went through a greater amount of hay than I had expected to go through.

As a side note, weather that doesn't allow goats to go out and graze is the same sort of weather that doesn't allow hay growers to bale hay. So even though I had put up around 20 tons of hay in the barn during the summer of 2010, I still ran out of alfalfa for the milkers.  There was a gap of over 60 days between the first cutting of alfalfa and the second, which is almost unheard of around here.

We had four more does kid in February, and the balance of the kidding season was spread out between the first and third weeks of March, and the first week or so of April.  After last year's weird kidding season, which seemed to affect many farms, I'm happy to say that everyone pulled through just fine.  I only had to reposition a few kids, and once I got their noses in the right direction, they popped right out, saving me from having to pull them.  We had a pretty even ratio of bucks to does, and I retained about a baker's dozen doe kids and four buck kids for the year.  It was difficult to narrow down who I wanted to keep kids out of since these days, every doe kid kept means a senior doe will probably have to go.  As my "core herd" continues to grow- those would be my finished champions- the number of does I would consider letting go shrinks, and yet I still try to keep room for those slower to mature does, which can mean waiting until a doe is four years old to see if that's when she finally "blooms".

I doubt that I will try to freshen that many does again any time in the near future.  All kids are put on bottles and individually fed- at one point I had 65 kids on bottles, and we didn't use a lamb bar, so that meant picking up each of those kids three times a day and feeding them, plus twice a day milking (which is the subject of another post).  Usually we bring in the kids we are going to keep for some tv/couch time, but this year, there wasn't any time for that.  Near the end of kidding season, my left wrist was shot and required wearing a stiff brace at night and a soft brace during the day.  Fortunately, it has recovered, but I'm definitely thinking of getting several lamb-bar type set ups to make kid feeding, especially of wethers, take less time and less lifting.  I had originally figured that if I had everyone kid at once, then all bottle feeding and kidding chores would be really heavy for a relatively short period of time.  By the time all of the kids from the first wave of kiddings were ready to be weaned, I was ready to be done, but we still had quite a few more weeks of kid work to do.  The spring was so busy with kids in fact, that by the time I got back to my more regular chore/activity load, I felt like it should be around April, and yet it was already June.

So that was kidding season.  I hope to also write soon about our special session of linear appraisal, show season, and a few additions to what we're producing on the farm.

2010 Show Season (cont)

I really did try to get to this update before the calendar changed to 2011.  It was another late night blog beginning, and about two paragraphs in, my computer told me that someone had removed my wireless device, so I was no longer connected to the internet.  This was weird because my hands were on the keyboard the whole time, nowhere near the wireless device, and as far as I could tell everyone else in the house was asleep.  Including, apparently, Blogger, because none of my work was saved.   Usually, it takes many tries to convince my computer to find the wireless device after it has been allegedly "removed" (even though it looks to me like it is still in the exact same place), so I gave up and went to bed. 

This morning there is a very heavy frost on the ground and the heater has been working furiously to keep the house a balmy 64 degrees, so instead of rushing out to start on the yard work required of dry winter days, I'm finally going to finish the summary of the show season.

We return to July, which had the first shows after our Linear Appraisal session.  It was sort of nice to have a bit of a break after all of that clipping and preparation, as there were quite a few other things going on that needed my attention as well.   Usually, the first weekend in July finds me at the Watsonville show, but it had moved to the same weekend as the Placerville show, which is half the driving distance but twice the show rings.  I was very torn about which show to go to because both have been very supportive of Nigerian Dwarf goats, and had hoped earlier in the year that I might be able to send Andy to one and myself to the other.  However, Andy had injured his back at work in early June and couldn't drive to the grocery store, much less a goat show, so I was forced to choose.  My decision was helped when friends Tamara and Kalee let me know that they were coming down from Oregon to attend the Placerville show.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, I got the goats and all of the necessary equipment loaded in the truck and was off to the show which was dual sanctioned for ADGA and AGS.  I took five senior does and three juniors, and my junior doe pen turned out to be the most work since Siren Song decided that Oh-No had no right to be in the same pen, and made her thoughts on the matter crystal clear.  At least Oh-No got some quality one on one people time in our efforts to save her from being mashed by Siren.  After a long day of showing the senior does, milking them, then showing the squirmy junior does, I still had to head back to Vacaville to milk all of the goats I had left at home, then get up early to milk them again, then the drive back to Placerville where I arrived just in time to take my does into the first ring of the day.  The whole morning felt very rushed, especially when the second ring started judging it's first class while we were still doing Champion Challenge in the first ring!  The whole weekend was exhausting, but worth it!

Alum Root went GCH to finish her ADGA permanent championship, and then once more to finish her AGS permanent championship.  Bayberry finally made her 2010 show debut and went Reserve Grand Champion in three of the four rings.  The junior does did well enough with Magpie and Oh-No exhibiting very good behavior for their first time in a show ring.

The next week, we headed to the State Fair which had moved from August to July this year.  We did not show at the fair, but we did go to dairy week to see our dairy goat friends.  We got to see several breeds of dairy cow, including the Brown Swiss with withers higher than my head!  I had no idea that they got that tall.   The move to July did result in the State Fair having much better attendance numbers than last year, which is encouraging- I'd hate to see the State Fair go by the wayside.

At the urging of Tamara and Kalee, I decided to take a trip one week late, up to Oregon for the Jacksonville Fair- a one day, two ring, Sunday show.  I had gone to this show once, four years ago, and a one day show sounded good, especially knowing that the Rousso family would provide a comfy place to stay.  As soon as I finished the farmer's market on Saturday, I got the truck packed and headed north with just four milkers and Stella.

Stella has not been on many trips since she tends to get car sick.  I have noticed that she seems much more nervous in the car than in our truck- I think when she was abandoned, she was taken out to "the country" in a car, which is why they make her uneasy.  She was much more relaxed on this road trip than the last one- she even looked out of the windows and spent most of the trip not curled up in a tiny little ball.  And, there was no barfing!  Progress!  She just might turn into a dog that enjoys riding in the car after all.

I got the milkers all tucked into a stall in the Rousso barn, where they were provided with lots of hay and water, and turned my attention to enjoying a tasty dinner served in the back yard where we could enjoy the weather and watch the dogs play with each other.  This is where I discovered a new quirk of Stella's- Border Collies are notorious for their quirks, and so far this seems to be only the second one she has.  She is much more concerned with heading off a dog that is going after a stick or a ball than she is with getting the stick or ball herself.  When she is alone, she loves fetching sticks or balls, but all Saturday evening, she was just obsessed with heading off Jedi, the English Shepherd.  Jessi, the English Shepherd/Lab cross was thrilled because this meant that Jedi was distracted long enough for Jessi to actually have a chance at the stick/ball/pine cone.  She has now continued to show this behavior with several other dogs- I guess that instinct to head off animals that are running somewhere is just too strong to turn off, even around non-herding-appropriate animals.

Sunday morning found Kalee and I down at the barn early to get the milkers loaded and down to the fairgrounds in time for the show which started at 8am.  I was not very happy with my girls when I discovered that they'd gone on some sort of hunger/thirst strike, practically not touching their filtered water or their hay overnight.  Sigh.  Once we were at the fairgrounds, I remembered why I hadn't gone back to this show for four years.  For one thing, not being able to drop the goats off the night before the show, when the show starts at 8am is a pain for anyone traveling to the show from any amount of distance.  For another, the barn footing is all superfine and dusty decomposed granite- the goats get filthy and the dust gets in everything.  And, once you are there, there's no leaving until after 5pm.  This makes for a very long day, and there were lots of fair attendees who wanted to touch every animal in the barn- a great way to spread disease.  We set up our chairs around the pens in such a way that someone would have to stand on us if they wanted to touch the goats  The competition in the show ring was pretty strong, and we brought home a Reserve Grand Champion win with Irish Cream.  Since I didn't take any juniors, this meant that I was pretty much done at 10am, so ended up talking shop with some of the other goat breeders there and trying to stay cool in the hot summer temperatures until we were allowed to leave.

We didn't have much in the way of shows in August, and before I knew it, September had arrived and it was time to head back up to Placerville for the Fuzzy Goat Show.  A two ring dual sanctioned (ADGA and AGS) show held on one day.  Irish Cream won GCH in the first ring, which was the final leg she needed for her ADGA permanent champion, and made her the fourth doe I've finished in ADGA this year.  In the next ring Bayberry went Reserve Grand Champion- the doe who went Champion was already finished in AGS, so the Reserve should count as a restricted leg.  I took a couple of juniors as well, and Magpie came in second in her very large dry yearling class.  A stunning daughter out of CRF Castle Rock Jamaica Bay (a Sara x Montego daughter) went Junior Champion in one of the rings- I'm always happy to see the quality continue in that doe line.

We wrapped up the 2010 show season in early October with our second attendance at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, which was very nice.  The Harvest Fair seemed a bit smaller overall than the previous year- with the exception of the llama show, which was a Southwest Regional show.  There were no premiums this year, which I'm sure had some impact on how many entries there were- it's much harder to justify spending money for two nights hotel room (we had a Friday night check-in) without the chance to recoup any of it.  Not that we get premiums at many shows around here, but the budget cuts that many, many fairs have had has an impact on more and more small farmers.

We took five does in milk and Mr. Lincoln, but left the junior does at home this time, since all of those that I had registered with AGS had already gotten plenty of "ring time" earlier in the year.  Bayberry took Grand Champion and Best Udder in the first ring, and Blizzard went Grand Champion in the second ring.  Irish Cream went Reserve Grand Champion in both rings, and Best Udder in the second ring.  Not a bad way to end the show season!

The Dogs of Castle Rock Farm

So, the last couple of posts have been pretty text heavy. Mainly because I stink at taking pictures of events, like Linear Appraisal, or of shows-- heck, there are still goats that have been hanging out in my barn yard for years(!) that I haven't managed to get a single picture of.

But, I digress. Here, to mix it up a little, are a few pictures of the current canines living at the farm.

First, a picture of Minion from the day I picked her up. She's on the right, drinking, and the dog on the left that looks like a Border Collie on steroids, is her grandfather. I am hoping that she does not get nearly as big as he is.

Second, a picture of Stella, with her backpacking packs. She has not yet gone backpacking- she's just two and a half and not really ready to start carrying much weight. Plus, I haven't been backpacking since August of 2009. But, I want to start getting her used to the packs in hopes that we will get to go packing, plus she carried a couple of light weight items that I ended up using a bit and it was easier to grab them from her packs than from my pack. I think she looks quite fetching.

This is the first time she's seemed alright with the packs and not under the impression that they are going to suck out her life force. This is also the first time I've been able to take her out on a trail as opposed to the country roads around our house, so I think she was less concerned with the pack and more focused on ADVENTURE!

And finally, a picture of Stella with her new BFF, Bear. Bear is a handsome, blue-eyed husky-shepherd-golden mix who is staying on the farm for a few months along with his person.

I forgot to ask his person's permission to talk about them on the blog before I started writing, so will stick to talking about Bear for now. It took a little while for the two to warm up to each other, but now they do enjoy going on walks together and playing. Playing mainly involves wrestling and Stella leaping up and grabbing Bear's neck with her mouth, in an effort to get him to chase her. His nature is quite dignified, while Stella is very playful and energetic- they do make a very cute couple.  Stella does like to keep an eye on him and while she had warmed up to playing with Minion before Bear's arrival, she's pretty much dropped Minion like yesterday's fashion and exclusively plays with Bear.

Linear Appraisal 2010

So, before I got distracted with telling y'all about the PUPPY, I had given a summary of how show season was going up to the first weekend in June. The weekend after that, I had Linear Appraisal, which is sort of a big deal, as it is a really good source of information.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Linear Appraisal, a short explanation:

When we go to a show, our goats are judged against the other goats who are also at that show. If lots of really good goats show up and we win, then that's great. If not so nice goats show up and we win, well, that doesn't tell you all that much about the quality of our goats- but the win counts just as much as it did over the goats that were really good. During Linear Appraisal, goats are measured against a score card by a very experienced judge who has also gone through extensive appraiser training. There are several linear traits that are scored on a scale of 1 to 50 with 1 generally being way too little of the trait and 50 being way too much. Depending on what your breeding goals are, generally scores in the 25 to 35 range are the the target you are aiming for.

In theory, Linear Appraisal (LA) is an objective measurement which can give you an accurate picture of how a given animal looks based on the scores. In theory, all appraisers are the same in their scoring. We've noticed that there is more of a difference between appraisers than we thought there would be, and unfortunately, some appraisers consider themselves to be "tougher" than others, which sort of goes against that whole "objective evaluation" that is supposed to be the point of LA. In spite of this, during the two appraisal sessions I've participated in, I've learned a tremendous amount. Both times, appraisers have pointed out some trait I had not really been paying attention to. It's very nice to have a fresh set of eyes look over the herd since I can get a bit of tunnel vision- I either get so fixated on one great trait that a doe has that I ignore some other issue that she has, or I have a soft squishy spot for a doe and am more forgiving than perhaps I should be about her structure. It doesn't happen all that often, but it is good to have another evaluation of the herd from someone who is not emotionally attached.

An Appraisal session is somewhat different from a show. We still wash and clip all of the does so they will be looking their best, and we try to time things so that the does will have 12 hours to bag up. The appraiser comes to our farm instead of us going to them, and unlike a show, where we set the does up, the does are just supposed to walk naturally on a lead. The appraiser is able to spend several minutes with each goat that is being appraised, which is more time than judges get at most shows.

All does who have freshened are to be presented for appraisal and it is up to the appraiser whether they will excuse any given animal if they are not feeling well, or if the doe is dry. A couple of our does were excused- Mouzza had come down with a high fever just a few days before appraisal and was still recovering. Raven took all of 2010 off, having not freshened this year, Honey Child had just freshened, and Tuscan Sun was still two weeks from freshening, so those does were not appraised.

So, how did we do?

Overall, I was fairly pleased.

*Ahem*

I should amend that. After letting everything percolate for a few days, I was pleased.

At first, the two scores of 82, earned by SkyRocketGilia (Lia) and Penny Wise stood out since 82 was lower than I was expecting from those two. I think in the back of my mind I had thought, going into the session, that I would be getting rid of any animals that had scored that low. But then I also realized that no one was going to force me to sell those girls if I didn't want to, and I believe that another freshening will do them some good. In Lia's case, the appraiser said that her udder held a lot of promise and would only get better with subsequent freshenings.

Once i got over being hung up on those two, I was able to focus on some of the brighter spots. Our second freshener, CH Algedi Farm H Purple Rain, had our high score of VVEE 90. CH-MCH Castle Rock Alum Root once again scored an 89- VVEV, and the appraiser said that she missed getting an E for mammary because her medial suspensory ligament was too strong and starting to affect capacity. I was surprised by this since our last appraiser indicated that he thought Nigerians as a breed really needed stronger MSLs and had said Alum Root was almost perfect in that category. CH CRF Castle Rock Blizzard scored a VVEV 88 and CRF Castle Rock Bay Berry earned our second E for mammary with a VVEE 88.

To get an overview of does in the herd, I made a few lists of the traits that I want to continue to focus on, and the does who had the strongest scores in those areas. A second list was made of the does who were weakest in those areas to help focus on who needs help and where. Traits where the herd is fairly strong, such as foreudder and MSL were not included since we're doing just fine there and don't need to focus much on improvement. I did include rump angle, rump width, rear udder arch, teat placement, and general appearance. Three does consistently floated to the top of these lists- Purple Rain, ARMCH Lost Valley TB Infinity 4*D, and Blizzard. The two bucks that I retained from my herd this year are out of Infinity (Bentley), and Purple Rain (Tanzanite), so I was happy to see that. I've also decided to retain a buck out of Blizzard next year- something I might have done this year if that had been an option, but we got twin does instead.

Our appraiser kindly allowed us to milk out most of our does before giving a score for udder texture. Just about all of the does we milked out earned 'E's for udder texture. It's nice to see the work we've done on udders show up in the scores.

We were very lucky to have several helping hands on deck who were able to help with bringing does out of the barn for me to handle and then to put them back when they were done. Rebecca, Jenn, Justin, and Sarah (who milked the girls by hand for me!) were so very helpful- I do recommend participating in LA, but I do not recommend doing it alone!

To sum up: if you can- participate in LA- I see something new in my herd every time I do. If you really listen to your appraiser, and ask good questions, you'll definitely learn something. I am already looking forward to next year and seeing how the herd does-- especially when so many of my first fresheners from this year will have another freshening on them!

Dog Update: New Addition

I have two blog posts drafted- one about the rest of show season, and one about Linear Appraisal. They are fabulous! But, they will be typed up later because:
1) They are in the other room. It is late and I don't feel like looking for them now, and

2) NEW PUPPY!!!!!!

I know, you want pictures. But first, I must do an update on Stella since I haven't done one in *forever*. I meant to do one after the first year of having her here, but I realize that it has been almost two years since she joined us. It must feel a bit like an anniversary of some sort though, because lately my mother-in-law has been commenting on how much Stella has changed since we first got her.

And she is right!

To meet her today, you would really never know that she had any sort of issues, much less with fear aggression, much less with women. She is still not quite sure what to do with children- they are the size of the livestock she works, and yet, they look like people for whom she works. Dog is confused! But, she is much more comfortable meeting new people, and is generally a much more confident dog.

After three herding lessons, Stella reached her equivalent of adolescence, and going to class was not all that helpful since she mostly didn't think that she needed to listen to me. Besides, I did not want to take the chance of overwhelming her at such a young age, as is easy and tempting with so many Border Collies so I backed off on her herding training. She still has the basics down, and I'm letting her have time to mature more before trying to do anything more advanced. Some days she shows me glimmers of brilliance- a gorgeous outrun, just enough pressure to get the goats to move to where I need them, and a perfect response to "that'll do".

Other days, she is a bowling ball, my goats are the pins, some chaos ensues. Also, the neighbors are probably aware that Stella is not doing as asked.

But! Even on the days she doesn't listen as well as I would like, she is quite helpful. A couple of weeks ago, five of us could not catch one of the bucks, but with Stella's help, the buck was captured. She brings in the milkers, helps move the dry does, and keeps the goats from even thinking of doing some of the things they used to try.

She is a delightful companion, with an incredibly expressive face, and has learned enough "parlor tricks" that we sometimes forget a few when showing off. She listens in the morning for my alarm to go off and then comes in the bedroom to make sure I am awake by licking my nose. If I tell her to get, she'll go sit by the window for about ten minutes, then come back to see if I want to get up now. Who knew a dog could have a snooze button?

So, there was mention of a PUPPY, right?

Yes!

Just under two weeks ago, I picked up a five and a half month old Armenian Gampr.

I know- you've never heard of the breed. I had not either until friends of ours got one, and she seems to be working well for them. The Gampr is one of the lesser known livestock guardian dog (LGD) breeds used in this country. They don't bark unless there is a good reason to, they don't like being away from home (so not a lot of wandering off the property), and our friends were so happy with their Gampr that I thought the breed would be worth a try.

Introducing Minion!




With Stella- who is clearly trying to pretend that puppy doesn't exist.

I now have two very purpose-bred dogs, though bred for very different purposes. Stella is very biddable- she reads my face and will react to changes in my expression. Minion, on the other hand, is happy to see either Andy or me, happy to say hi, and then will move on to what she would like to be doing. She has very little recall, and for that reason, she is not yet roaming with the goats. I've been getting the goats used to seeing her on the other side of the fence for the last week and a half, as I figure it will take a while for them to get used to her and not automatically figure dog = move somewhere now. Minion has spent time with sheep and goats, and has not shown much interest in chasing the goats in enclosed spaces, but I don't want to take a chance until I have more of a relationship with her and trust that she will listen to me should she start showing more interest in the goats than I think is healthy for all parties involved.

She's already about 20% larger than Stella, and if she stands on her back legs, can put her paws almost on my shoulders. Her front legs are about the size of my arms.

Did I mention that she is not yet six months old?

2010 Show Season

The 2010 show season started off with a trip up to Plymouth, in gold country. And, just like 2009, we did not bring home any ribbons for our herd. It probably did not help that the night before the show, I milked pretty late, so the does did not even have 12 hours of milk before we walked in the ring. It's a nice show though for some reason the Nubians were exceptionally loud this year and both Andy and I ended up with headaches, though on the plus side we got to see lots of our goat-owning friends.

The next show we had planned on attending was in Red Bluff, and it was a new-to-us show with a bonus of getting to see the new place our friends Sierra and Shane had purchased just about half an hour from the show grounds. However, due to the exceptionally long, wet spring we'd had, several of our does came down with a skin infection that I was pretty sure had been picked up at a show. We went to UC Davis for a diagnosis and about $550 and a couple of skin cultures later had treatment in hand. However, the treatment wasn't available until after the show, so we decided not to take our goats and expose others to whatever we had been exposed to. Turns out that the skin condition was a staph infection, and is commonly seen in dairy goats during wet springs and is easy to treat. So, no big deal, just not very attractive. I still wanted to get a break from the farm though, so we ended up going to the show, which was well attended, with more Nigerians there than any other breed. We also got to see our friend Shelley Young dual finish her gorgeous doe Sly Farms GN Catalina, a daughter of our buck Guy Noir. His other daughter there, Little Dipper GN Flash Dance was consistently second to her half sister Catalina, in their large two year old class.



That's Catalina in front, with Flashdance close behind.

The weekend was surprisingly tiring for going up without any goats!

Finally, Memorial Day weekend brought us to one of our favorite shows, which is the Redwood Empire Dairy Goat Association show (REDGA). Four rings of senior does, four rings of junior does, a costume contest, goat calling contest, the fantastic buffet with goat cheeses, fantastic food, doeling auction, delicious desserts, and lots of strong competition. This year it also hosted a Nigerian Dwarf Specialty, which is only the second one I've been able to get to since we started showing with ADGA.



We did well at REDGA, with CRF Castle Rock Irish Cream winning GCH in two rings (including the Specialty), CRF Castle Rock Blizzard winning GCH in one ring and RGCH in another, CRF Castle Rock Alum Root winning GCH in one ring and RGCH in another, and CRF Castle Rock Roxanne going RGCH in one ring and winning Best Udder in the specialty show. In the specialty show, we also won best dam and daughter with Roxanne and her dam, Castle Rock Annabelle, Senior get of Sire with three Guy Noir daughters, and best three does with Blizzard, Roxanne, and Irish Cream. Three of our junior does, Siren Song, Moon River, and Sun Sapphire went RGCH.

Because several of the shows that we have gone to in the past have had to move for various reasons, and because we skipped the Red Bluff show, I decided to try heading up to a show the weekend between REDGA and Linear Appraisal. Due to various factors, I also had to go alone, leaving Andy at home to hold down the fort, but that also meant a good deal more work for me, doing most of the loading and unloading myself. Andy is also the one who makes sure that I remember to eat and get enough to drink, since show weekends find me hovering over the girls, doing way more hand milking than at home, talking with people who come by to see the goats or ask questions, and taking care of paper work. It is not uncommon for me to see that it is almost dinner time and I may have only finished half of breakfast by then. Oh, and did I mention that I can be really absent minded? I think about 25% of my time at shows is spent looking for something I know I just had a minute ago.

So, even though it was kind of crazy, I packed up five milkers and six junior does and drove the 5+ hours up to Ferndale. What a gorgeous drive! Route 20 takes you through beautiful oak-studded hills, around Clear Lake, ending at 101, where you then head up to redwood country. The does weren't overly happy with the winding roads-- Moon River spent most of the drive facing backwards in her crate with her head literally buried in straw-- but I enjoyed it. The Humbolt Dairy Goat Club is made up of some of the nicest people! I don't know if I've ever gotten a warmer welcome at a show than these people gave me. The show and pens are all in one very large enclosed building at the fairgrounds and the facility was pretty nice.

The weather was consistent the whole weekend, whether the sun was up or not- mid-50s and cloudy. I didn't see the sun for 48 hours! But, the girls didn't seem to mind too much, and settled in very well. The first day, I finished Algedi Farm H Purple Rain, with Blizzard going Best Udder and RGCH in the first ring, and GCH & Best Udder in the second. Irish Cream went reserve to Blizzard in the second ring of the day. Junior does Moon River and Sugar Bush earned their junior champion legs, and because I was so busy trying to wrangle people into showing my juniors, I forgot to write down which of my juniors went reserve (but two of them did!). I also got a surprise visit from my friend Melanie who lives a few hours away but showed up at the show anyway! What a great day!

I camped at the fairgrounds, and would you believe, the people in a tent about 40 feet from mine snored SO loudly that it woke me up. Three times!

Sunday brought another two senior doe rings, and in the first one, Blizzard went GCH and Best Udder, giving her that third leg she needed to finish. Alum Root went reserve to Blizzard, and in the next ring went GCH and Best Udder, while Irish Cream went reserve. When the judge was looking at all of the Best Udder of Breed does to give Best Udder in Show, she noted that she was surprised to see that the doe who milked out the best was the Nigerian- Alum Root. :) Sun Sapphire and Moon River won GCH junior doe, and then it was finally time to go home.

Finishing two does in one weekend was definitely worth the long drive!

Kidding Season

So many blog posts rolling around in my head, so little time to actually write them down...

And that would be due to kidding season! Last year, we had 51 kids born between February and the first week of June. Because kidding went late, I was still bottle feeding in August (not terribly happy with that). So, I decided to try something different- for 2010, I wanted to have the majority of my kids in February and March. I figured that I could just sacrifice the month of February to kidding, then catch the rest of the does who didn't settle for March kids, and hopefully be done with bottle feeding by the time show season rolls around. Instead of having most of the does kid in February, it was more of a 50-50 split between the two months. I will have to see how I feel once everyone is weaned before I will really know if I like this system better than spreading it out more. For one thing, we only have so much room, and having all our kids so close together means that we're a bit tight for space. It also means that I am talking with more goat customers in a shorter amount of time, which limits how much time I have for other things (i.e. making products for my business, sleep, blog updates, dog training, etc.). But, that is for another post- on to the results of kidding season!

Between February 4 and March 30th, 65 baby goats have made their way into the world here at Castle Rock Farm. We've had 33 doe kids and 32 buck kids, with lots and lots of broken buckskins. I'm very happy with the structure of many of the kids, especially the improvement in rump width, flatness, and height of thurls I've been aiming for since our 2008 Linear Appraisal. So far, I think we're retaining about a dozen doe kids and at least one buck kid- good thing I got the herd down to just over 40 members before kidding season started!

I've heard from several other breeders that the 2010 kidding season has been a difficult one, and we've not escaped that. Just a few days before she was due to kid, we lost our dear MCH-PGCH Castle Rock Once Ina Blue Moon 2*D to pregnancy toxemia, which was ultimately caused by undetected tooth problems. Two weeks later, I was devastated by the loss of ARMCH-PGCH-CH Esperanza WS Sara *D due to complications from kidding. Both does were not only exceptional show animals, but had wonderful (in very different ways) personalities. I still notice their absence in the barnyard and in the milk room every day. I am fortunate to have five Sara daughters, and many more granddaughters in my herd, but I always have felt incredibly lucky to have Sara and it will take an exceptional doe to fill the hole she has left.

Last year, I only freshened one 2008 doe kid, so it has been a while since I've seen first freshening udders on the farm. I have to remind myself not to judge capacity or teat size for the first few weeks on these girls! It's been interesting to see all these little first fresheners and to finally get to see what Barnaby, Guy Noir, and Sky Walker put on the ground. I have to say, I'm happy with all three guys so far! Barnaby seems to have put some nice rear udder height and MSL on his daughters, Guy Noir has improved MSL, lateral attachments, teat placement, and overall structure on his daughters, and Sky Walker has improved udder height and placement on his daughters.

My milking string is currently 21 does strong, which means I really need to get a new stanchon so I can milk more than one doe at a time. I also need to start milk test again now that I have a milk tester on hand. If I'm going to be milking these girls through till Christmas, I should get some milking stars too!

This June, we'll also be participating in Linear Appraisal, a great program we did in 2008 where goats are judged against the score card on many different traits. I found this to be a great source of information when we did it previously, and I am looking forward to seeing how it goes this year.

This morning, I disbudded the last sets of kids born...for now at least. It looks like we'll have at least a couple more sets of kids born in May and possibly a couple of 2009 kids freshening then as well. Those 2009 kids I didn't really mean to breed- mainly because I didn't want to milk more than 20 or so does, but if they did settle (I think I can see little udders forming on them), I'll be totally okay with the resulting babies.