We got our goats!

[snugglebug14]

Our two does arrived yesterday : One is a purebreed Saneen. She is our two year old first freshener. The other is half Saneen and half Toggenburg. We'll breed her this fall. They are the sweetest two does I've ever meet, they're just wonderful.
Last night was a bit of a nightmare trying to milk. Dh and Ds decided they wanted to come and watch me milk and learn. It was quite an adventure trying to situate the dry doe and get the milker on the stand and content. She ate all of her food soooo quick and I'm still learning to milk so getting her milked out took forever. She put her foot in the bowl so many times and spilled the milk so many times it was so frustrating. But I kept telling myself stick it out..within a week it will be easier.
This morning I went out to milk and had to bring ds with me since dh was at work. Amber stayed on the stand so much better and I milked her out completely with NO feet in the bowl and NO milk spilled! It was such a confidence booster.

[WoadAbode]

That is soooooo awesome! I hope you have a marvelous time with them.

Where did you find your goats? What breed? Do you mind all the questions?

We are looking to get some milking goats here, but we are just starting out in homesteading. Thus far we have worms (a worm compost bin) and chicks. What a learning curve it is tho!

[terrabella]

I am SO jealous!!! :

[lightheart]

Congrats! Glad things are going good! Goat milk is so yummy but it's even better when its from your own goat!

I know this wasn't a question post but wanted to pass on info in case you or others haven't heard it before

The Togg may have long hair, if so, will want to trim her hair around the teats before you start milking her, will help keeping stray ones out of your milk, know that won't be until later down the road but you might remember, depending on your climate, you can trim the whole doe or just the area underneath.

her eating too fast, if you are using grain or pellets, might want to hide it under some hay, so it takes her a little longer to get all of it, she may just turn her nose up and say no way to the whole serving but worth a shot, also you could give her chunks of carrots or apples, something that takes longer to chew. You will get faster!

[BarnGoddess]

We had a goat that would CONSTANTLY put her foot in the bucket. We ended up having to hold one hind leg up while we milked until she got the idea that she needed to stay still. Congrats and good luck with the goats. I reccommend "Goats Produce, too" when you get going. It's a cook book with some good recipes for cheese, yogurt, frozen yogurt, desserts, etc.

[crissei]

Congrats! I am curious what the Sanaan/Togg looks like? Is she white with Togg markings?
It won't take you a week to get the hang of it, (I thought the same thing) probably won't take more than a couple milkings.

[snugglebug14]

The saneen toggenburg actually looks just like a sanneen. Our purebreed saneen actually seems to have a few stray markings but the cross is pure white.

I did get used to milking a lot quicker than I expected. Although today I came home to quite the surprise and adventure! We were storing the extra grain in a back corner of their house but it was completely blocked by a half wall and their milking stand. I knew there was no way they could get PAST the milking stand to get the grain so I thought it would be okay. Well today...the one in milk decided she wanted breakfast early and so tried to put her whole body THROUGH the headgate of the milk stand. Unfortunately for her, her udders were way to big to get through so I arrived home this morning to a goat stuck in the corner with her hind legs and udders stuck in the headgate. I tried for a minute to pull her back out but realized that being 7 months pregnant I should even tried. I went and got the neighbor and we ended up taking apart the milk stand to get her out. MAN what a day!

[mtn.mama]

Oh goodness Kristen- you made me chuckle. What a picture. I'm so glad she got stuck (even though it was a major inconvenience for you) otherwise she might have eaten too much grain and caused some real trouble.
Lisa