Nubian Dairy Goats Live at Sleeping Dog Ranch

Many of you have wanted to know more about the goats. What an honor it would be to introduce the herd to you. But first, allow me to give you a timeline for the past year. Just to quickly get you caught up.

The barn (aka The White House) was finished in early November 2007. It's a metal building with a partial concrete floor, water (complete with an outside drain), electricity, and fans, fans, and more fans. We designed it with ventilation in mind 'cause we have hot, humid summers here in North Carolina. When mama is hot, ain't nobody comfortable!

We used a PremierOne panel system throughout and it's working well. It's a 2 x 2 inch welded galvanized steel panel based on a 4 foot module. Modules are efficient in many ways, for us anyway. The Husband is an architect and thinks 90 degree angles and modules.

We used livestock panels to make our own hay racks. Since the goats mob each other, we made two hay racks so they can run from one to the other. What a hoot. When one goat moves the the other rack, they all have to move to the other rack. But, surprisingly, one or two goats have learned that by staying put, they have the hay all to themselves.

We have two handsome bucks: Bucky (dad) and Vince (son). Vince bred Bucky's daughters in the front pasture while Bucky bred his favorite ladies in the new barn. Then, like magic, the babies started arriving 155 days later.

What a georgious group of babies! We are blessed with 6 girls and 5 boys. Some are black, like Bucky; and, some are brown, like Vince. All are doing well, growing as usual and sucking up the milk like little pigs.

They've been disbudded, too. Actually, Dr. Betka disbudded the first batch while I disbudded the second batch. Since this was my first attempt at disbudding, I was unnerved quite a bit. Scarry is a mild word for what was going on with me. Imagine putting a branding iron on the top of a baby's head, smelling the burning hair and flesh, and listening to them scream! Holding them still while burning the top of their head wasn't an option so having a helping hand is mandatory. Terrific! now I could burn my helper, Cody. She's a high school student who help us our here. Cody is indespinsible. Without her, we'd be wayyyyy behind on our cleaning and managing chores.

It's baby feeding time. More later ...