Showing posts with label Pygmy Goats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pygmy Goats. Show all posts
Jade
After we brought Pearl home we knew she needed a friend so we went looking for one.
After Pearl and Jade was taken out to the barn the girls spent time running with them up and down the hill and Pearl and Jade would run after the girls. When the girls would get to either the top or the bottom of the hill the girls would stop and give them grass to munch on and give them pets as well. This was one of their favorite times of the day when it was sunny.
Pearl
Pearl came
to us right as we were getting back into goats and breeding again.
The girls fell in love with her right away and she has been
the favorite ever since.
My little Monkey girl just finished her first year raising a market goat and she was crushed about not having one anymore. We had goats before and we love them and we always knew that someday we would get back to raising them. We were living in a cul-de-sac and that’s not really the right environment to raise them in. Then some really great friends of ours moved to a new house that had some land and a barn. We were told we could keep the goats in the barn and fix up the pasture area just outside of the barn for them. We really wanted to jump on this deal but we also wanted to make sure this was the right thing to do for our family.
By this time, I was looking on Craigslist for quite a while
looking for a Pygmy goat. We had them
before and new they were great goats. We
knew they would be great little keepers for the girls to have as a forever
goat.
I found this really cute, friendly doe on Craigslist and it was south about three hours south of us. Because of the distance I didn’t know if it would work out. I kept looking at this girl off and on for several weeks and didn’t say anything.
The only downside to her was that was she a drive away.
We said we had to do it though; she was too perfect for us.
One day my husband went to work with a dog kennel in the
back seat of his truck and after he got off of work, he headed south to go get
this girl. On his way home this little
girl rode in the dog kennel on the back seat of the truck. She hardly made a peep the hole way home. The two of them got home only a few minutes before
for the kids got off the school bus and walked up to our house.
The kids didn’t know we were getting this little girl. We kept her a secret from both of the
girls. The little goat was on the front
lawn running around but still keeping close to us. The girls saw her running around and they wee
so excited to see her. They couldn’t
believe this little girl was all there’s.
The first thing they asked was “What is her name?” We told them she needs a name; let’s think of
something together as a family. We
started throwing names around for quite a while and then suddenly someone said pearl. I don’t remember who suggested it but it was
decided her name was pearl now.
This is how Pearl
came to live with us nine years ago.
Mystery Valley Ranch was Established
Before we were married in 1997 we had a few Pygmy goats, a Nigerian Dwarf and an Alpine. We loved having them, watching them, and breeding them. Back then we just kept them as pets and little weed eaters. Like all of the other animals we ever get I fell in love with the goats. Tinkerbell was my favorite, Colt was too.
We started with two Pygmies, Tinkbell and George, a Nigerian Dwarf, Coco and then came the Alpine, Colt.
Before we moved into our first house together we found a new home for Colt and George and his son Billy also found a new home.
We moved to the new house with Tinkerbell, and her two babies, Ivory and Clay.
After we were in our new house for a while we found a note on the wall of the feed store asking for someone to re-home a whole herd of their goats for them. There was two bucks and around 3 does.
We stopped keeping our own bucks and started either borrowing them or we would get one from auction, use him and take him back to auction a few months later. We did this a few times. We bred these girls for a couple of years until we decided to get out of the goat business and immerse ourselves completely into making little humans.
We didn't have any goats or chickens for that matter from 2006 until 2014 when Ashley was finally old enough to start in 4-H and raising and selling goats.
The first year was like a test run to see how much the girls would like having animals and if they would work hard on taking care of them. Both girls ended up loving having the goats and it was hard for them to say goodbye when it was time. We talked to the girls and asked them if we should get some goats that we would keep as breeders.
They both excitedly said YES!
In 2015 Mystery Valley Ranch was formed with our first goat kids that would be our first goat breeders. Our breeding program started with Pearl, Libby, Cora and Valen.
