Before and after

 This is dirty Stella when I was taking her to my friend Jennie's for a shampoo and set. She was SO dirty and stinky and full of fleas. She didn't look too happy to be leaving home.

And here she is on the way home. She looks a lot happier now. She is SO clean. And all the white is shiny white. Even her feet are white and shiny. Her nails were trimmed. And her tail and rear and ever her ears. She's so clean I don't ever want her to go outside again. She looks like a city dog now. I got some Front line flea oil to put on her tomorrow.

And the bunnies are back out in their bunny tractor. I put some hard plastic pieces at the bottom of the door and screwed the door shut tight. I put them out before we left and when we got home, they were still in! And I cleaned the crate real good and put a clean blanket inside for Stella.

When we got home, Bubba nearly jumped her. I was afraid he wouldn't recognize her all pretty and cleaned up and smelling good. But he did eventually. I am going to see if the sheep shearer guy will trim Bubba because his fur is so thick and he's shedding like crazy all over the house. If he will, I'll give him a good washing and put the flea oil on him too.

Bad wabbits!

Oh, these rabbits! I don't know how many times I have had to chase these 2 girls. All over the yard. Kansas has even had to go up under the porch to get one. And she didn't want to. But she let them out that time.

This morning, that was the farthest thing from my mind, to catch rabbits. Again. But this time, when I went outside to feed everyone, I saw white out in the garden. 2 white things. So I knew it was those 2 bad wabbits right away. It took about 30 minutes, but I got 'em. Had to get a piece of fence and corral them. Of course, one got back out through the field fence. I put that one inside in Stella's crate.

The other one took a little bit more persuading. I finally got her into a corner where the chicken tractor was, with the black fence around her. So got her and brought her in with her sister.

And I am wringing wet with sweat. I have no idea what I will do with them now. Somehow, they are getting out of the tractor. I'll have to fix it before they go back in. Or else just get a regular rabbit cage. I hate to do that, because that means more money for feed. So I'll just try to figure out how they keep getting out and plug it up. These rabbits are very smart.

And they were eating my bean plants. Bad wabbits!

The girls

These are 3 of the 4 milk does I have now. One is dry at the time, so she doesn't come in the milk room.

This is Sandy. She's mostly Nubian with a little Togg. thrown in. I've had her since she was a few days old. And she's 7 now. She just had triplet doe kids a month ago, so I am not milking her yet. The kids are old enough to be put up at night so I could milk Sandy in the mornings, but I haven't done that yet. She's a great milker, with really nice big udders and great teats. She likes to kick when we first start back with milking, but then she settles down after a week or so. I have to have really quick reflexes to get the bucket out of the way before a foot gets in it or she kicks it. Which has happened a few times.

This is Zarah. She's just turned 3 and is a first freshener. She had twins a buck and a doe. The doe kid will be moving to Atlanta tomorrow, so I hope to take the buck kid up the road to a friends for awhile. Then I will be milking Zarah twice a day. She has really small teats, which makes it hard to hand milk. So I bought a Maggiedan hand milker for her. Much easier!

I do hope to sell all my LaMancha goats. I have Zarah and Zeeboo, who is a black and tan 4 year old doe. And Zarah's buck kid, who is 3 1/2 months old. The John Henry, the older buck, who is the sire to Ella and Ira. He's 3 years old. I want to go with Nubian does and a Boer buck for a more meatier goat.

And this is Penelope Jane. She is part Nubian and Lamancha. And naturally polled. She had twin doe kids her first time back in Feb. and one had horns and the other didn't. I like that, because I do disbud all my kids. For a first freshener, this doe has  a HUGE udder and great big teats! I am very pleased with her. I was getting nearly a gallon a day at her peak and now we're down to a little over a half gallon, 4 months later. Not too bad for a first freshener. And she is so easy to milk too. She's only kicked the bucket one time.

And this is what the dogs do. This is Bubba. Stella is still inside or she'd be right there too. I squirt milk for them. And he's waiting for more. I'll be making some farmer's cheese, which is a soft cheese. I make Sandor Katz's recipe from Wild Fermentation. SO easy to make. And even my daughter likes this cheese. Add lots of raosted garlic and herbs and it's amazing.

So if anyone needs some good LaMancha dairy goats, let me know.