The Star of the Show: Violet

Okay, so lots of friends are asking: 1) What kind of goat is that? 2) How old is she? 3) How much milk does she give? 4)What happened to her ears?! 5) Will she really eat Buckthorn? So, here you go ... everything you want to know about our star milker, Violet:

1. She is a La Mancha goat -- some books say the La Mancha is from Spain, others say that they originated in the United States somewhere in California ... I'm putting my money on Spain and guessing that the goats found their way to Mexico during that Conquistador period and then on up to California!
2. Violet is four years old.
3. We have been getting ONE GALLON of milk each day from our lovely lady.
4. She really does have ears - you just have to look close! The LaMancha goats have one of two ear types: gopher (almost non-existent like Violet's) or elf ears (about 1"-2" long).
5. As for Buckthorn ... We hope she devours it! So far though she has been munching on the oak firewood, my prize pagoda dogwood (we hope it lives), the sugar maple, tulips (just about to open ... ouch!).

Our First "clean" Milk

We ended up with a 1/2 gallon of gorgeous, relatively clean goat milk (in other words there were only a few goat hairs in the bucket by the time we were finished) today! And I can proudly say that more milk ended up in the bucket than on the floor (hey, I think I'm doing pretty good for a "city slicker" who has never milked anything before). We are beginning to get the hang of this milking thing! And, guess what? The milk actually tastes GOOD -- I mean, no "goaty" flavor. Apparently, goat milk only begins to taste goaty after having "aged" a bit ... so we are off the races and already counting up our savings at the grocery store! -- signing off, "Farm Hand" Gigi

Squeezing two goats (and family) into a Toyota 4-Runner

What do you get when you put two goats (one weighing 125 pounds), a ten year old, bags of hay, and feed in a car for three hours? A ... um ... really big mess! After our "mama" goat (named Violet) neglected to tell us that she could use a rest stop, we pulled into a gas station to purchase paper towels. As I was paying at the counter, I glanced out at the car (yeah, I was curious what the other gas station customers would think of our hauling two goats in a small SUV) and saw Violet "relieve" herself yet again (only this time it wasn't the liquid version and it ended up in Nicoletta's seat!) What can you do but laugh ... we only had 2 1/2 more hours of driving to go ...