The Road Goes Ever On and On

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going outside your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

Gandalf the Grey

If you knew me in middle school, then you saw me at my most awkward life stage (allegedly, I’m still really awkward). Braces, untamed hair, always off in the woods reading a book, and constantly talking about the Lord of the Rings.

Let’s just be honest – we’re friends, right? – my entire room was covered in posters and book quotes.

The great allure for me (and many others) is the idea that someone who everyone has deemed unimportant can change the fate of the world.

For my young heart, it was a call I needed to hear to strive to do something good with my life. That no matter my background, my size, my wealth, my life could be an adventure towards something great if I chose to pursue it.

It may seem silly, but this idea has had a profound impact on my life, as I grew and pursued the biblical parallels of the story.

Where the road led us today…

Goats! We have chosen to dive back into dairy goats on our new farm. To say it was an adventure may seem like a stretch to some, but it is a huge step forward for our family. The big boys enjoyed some time with grandma and grandpa, while sweet Alder-man came along with us!

As we’re continuing to repair our gut health post antibiotics, adding raw milk and raw milk kefir back into our diets regularly was important to me.

Intially, I had said we would stay away from goats and go straight to cows for the farm. As time has gone on, finding the right cow for us has been more difficult than we imagined.

We learned from our first goat experience and meat rabbits the importance of vetting the breeders you buy from, and that investing in registered animals with good heritage and are trained well is priceless.

Choosing to start out again with a dairy goat is a good compromise for us to get raw milk back in our home without spending a fortune on a cow right now (or making compromises on the type of cow we get).

The New Additions

We were very blessed to have had a breeder reachout with a doe and buckling she was selling within an hour from us. The doe kidded (birthed) twin bucklings just 13 days ago, came from excellent milking lines, was a wonder mother already, and was getting trained to be milked. Most importantly, she had a kind disposition. Her registered name is Malta; however, we have decided to rename her Arwen.

Arwen is a beautiful yearling lamancha doe. This March was her first kidding with two bucklings she cared for well right away. She was trained on a leash and responds very well. I was able to milk her tonight and she stood still without even using a milking stand!

One of her bucklings came home with us, too. We have dubbed him Gandalf the White. He is quite the charmer and is exceptionally snuggly. The breeder knew we have small children and chose to sell us Arwen for her disposition and the buckling who seemed the most docile.

We adore them already!

The boys are excited to try her milk tomorrow morning with breakfast and I’m looking forward to fresh cheese and yogurt again!

Why Lamancha?

I knew from our first experience with goats I would rather invest in a goat that had been worked with previously. While our two nigerian dwarfs from 2020 weren’t a complete disaster, there were many headaches I hoped to avoid this time around.

Our saanen was as sweet as pie, but her milk wasn’t super appealing to me (the boys never complained) and she was overall just too big for me to handle. When she set her mind to something there was no way I could stop her.

My wish list this time included:

1. Good temperament.

2. Had kidded previously and was a proven good mother.

3. A breed that has a higher volume of milk than a nigerian dwarf, but higher butterfat content than a saanen (1-2% butterfat)

4. Had been halter or leash trained.

5. Had good coat apperance, no signs of copper or selenium deficiencies, hooves were well maintained (our last goats all had hoof rot to some degree when they came to our last home).

6. Had been milked previously.

Most of these requirements lead me to pursue lamancha and nubian goats. Nubians can produce roughly 1 gallon of milk per day with qbout 5% butterfat content. Lamanchas are also about 1 gallon per day and 4.5-5%butterfat content.

It just so happened we were able to locate a lamancha doe and buckling that fit the requirement first! The breed is known for their “earless” appearance and often people believe their ears are docked at birth. This is not true! Small ears are a breed characteristic and is completely genetic.