Our first pure bred Nubian Nanny was named E-bay when we purchased her and so when she had a doe kid that was all brown and had a white area with one large brown spot we named her Dot Com.  Dot Com in turn had a doe kid that had a field of white with a square in it so we named that one Chex. We have a “Foreclosure Goat” (recently homeless) that was all red with a white mustache so we named her “Got Milk”.  “Godiva Chocolate” had a doe kid with a chocolate body and a dollop of white on her head so she  is “Bon Bon.” Born on Christmas 6 years ago was “Holly” and so her daughter is “Ivy” which may please those of you that like green in December.  Of course “Bubbles” is due to her unusual pattern which is a throw back to the Nubians of Africa.  There are three tiny bubble babies this year.

We had so many wonderful names suggested for the babies over the last two weeks we would like to list some of them here.  With 33 kids so far to date (Jimmie is on pasture watch today scouring the landscape for new moms and kidlets) we can use most of these names.  Some are duplicates so that just goes to show that great minds think alike!

Basheba, Ja Ja, Annabelle, Lexi, Laverne and Shirley,Gracie, Bubba, Brickle and Turtle, Mona and Lisa, Star and Ginger, Cinnamon, Tuxedo, Knit and Purl,Billy, Latte, Domino, Jim and Beam, Max, Guiness, Lucy and Ethel, Sunshine and Moonlight, Butterscotch, Tallullah, Carmel, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Matilda and Lucy, Lilly and Snowflae, Flower and Algernon, Princess, Caramel, Peanut, Olive, Oreo, Sofia, Ruby, Pancake, Carson, Bennett, Sharon and Ozzy, Licorice, Cupcake, Aurora, Casey, Ellis, Capuccino, Salt and Pepper, Ricky and Fred.

Thanks to:

Cathy, Kari, John, Belinda, Cellia, Diane,Kristi, Victoria Jan, Kate, Billy, Boby, Charlie, Cheryl, Sophie, Ruby, Ellis, Carson, Bennett,Casey, Ricky and Fred, and all of the other wonderful folks that came up with such great ideas.

Posted: March 2nd, 2010 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres.
Comments: 1

If you were at the market last Saturday you may have entered the contest we held to name the two cute babies we brought with us.  Even with the extremely cold and soggy conditions we had two pages of name suggestions!  A special thanks to Steve for helping to babysit our wards and being such a good neighbor and to a lovely lady that held one under her jacket for warmth at the height of the storm (I held the other):) 

Some of the names were quite funny and even telling of those that suggested of them like “Guiness” and “Tequila”.  Other names were based on color patterns like “Tuxedo” and “Butterscotch”.  One of our favorite customers is quite in to art and suggested “Mona” and “Lisa” for the two girls!

Two adorable young ladies nominated their own names “Sophie” and “Ruby”. Sophie pointed at her favorite little kid goat and told her solemnly that her name would be Sophie.  The kid wagged her tail at that exact moment and it was taken as a favorable sign.

We promised to cut the names apart and throw them in a hat for random drawing.  We did even though the paper and ink were rather squishy!  Since there are over 30 babies now we will save the other names for them so everyone will be a winner:)

So here we are…drum roll…perhaps hoof beats?

Thelma and Louise

Now I hope that doesn’t mean that they will be predisposed to jumping off of tall heights or attempting to scale large crevices…

Posted: February 24th, 2010 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres, Uncategorized.
Comments: none

This is one of a set of triplets delivered by his mommy “Got Milk”, she has only a white mustache on an entirely red body, baking in the warm afternoon sun with a belly full of milk.

This little cutie is from another set of triplets and is shown here taking her first drink with momma, Pippin, coaching her in the ways of goatie etiquette.  Romeo and Beauregard are proud poppas and only 1 mother has had a single baby, “Thing Two”.  Thing One has not delivered yet.  As of this posting there are 28 new babies bouncing around in the pasture.  It is wonderful to see how they use some sort of inborn echo-location bleeting until the right mom comes around to feed them or reassure them about their new world.  At night the moms form a huge ring with the babies in the middle and everyone gets very quiet.  Our reverence for the natural world is greatest this time of year when we are blessed with the new additions to our farm:)

Stay tuned for a picture of Bubble’s new baby.  (It wouldn’t hold still today for a picture)

Posted: February 16th, 2010 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres.
Comments: none

Well if you have sheep and you like to weave and spin your own yarn there comes a day for shearing.  We located Kelly through some friends at Bales Hay Sales and asked him to come out and shear the girls.  By the time I got out my camera he was half way done with Cousin It!  Kelly is a champion competition shearer.  He can shear in 3 minutes or less!  I am not sure the sheep even know what happened to them.  They didn’t even make a bow “peep” or squabble about the situation.

Rhiannon, our Celtic Sheep, has Dribbles the orphan goat for her stall companion.  Dribbles was quite distressed that Rhiannon was being denuded and kept trying to join us in the pen to comfort her buddy.  We are worried that Dribbles thinks she is a sheep.  Another demented and confused critter on the farm!  The reunion was heartfelt by all and the sheep were all done in less than 15 minutes from Kelly’s arrival.  They milled about looking at each other as if they didn’t recognize their buddies!  We try not to giggle too much about the new haircuts/style.  Hats off to Kelly–or Fleece Off–cuz the fleece was flying!

Don’t you laugh!  These gals are rather sensitive about the bad hair day!

Posted: October 12th, 2009 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Sheep.
Comments: none

Who is this handsome guy anyway?  Remember a post last year of a little orphan buck kid in the bathtub? This is him all grown up.  He gets to hang out with the girls this month.  It is rutting season for the goats.  If you have never smelled a buck in rutting season…well then…you are very lucky!  They can put the ST in STINK!  Good thing the girls like this cologne!

Posted: September 8th, 2009 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres.
Comments: none

Here is the parade as the goats entered the pasture for the first time on Sunday.  At first everyone stayed in a big clump and the nanny’s in the barn were yelling at the yearlings here in the picture.  Then the girls, Kerri Ann and Tia started running through the pasture and having fun in  the damp grass and everyone started a game of tag!

Kerri Ann, Tia, Walter junior and Walter Senior paid us a suprise visit Sunday morning and volunteered to help us set up the pasture fence!  After a month of illness between Jimmie and I we were thrilled to have the help.  We didn’t have the energy or strength to put up some of those big chain link panels!  With everyone working together it was a job well done and well worth it to the goats!

Tia and Kerri Ann are great goat wranglers!

At first the electric fence wasn’t working.  It is needed so that the goats don’t reach over the fence and eat the trees on the other side that are planted for additional shade.  It is a mild shock but you know when you touch it.  It got all of us by the end of the afternoon!

Jimmie and Walter survey the grass at the end of an afternoon of fencing and water rigging!

Many thanks to Walter’s family for their kindness and labor on behalf of our farm and the goats!

Posted: February 10th, 2009 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres.
Comments: 1

Here is one of the first arrivals on Tuesday night.  We had 7 new kids Tuesday and 7 more on Weds.  Keep checking and you will see more I am sure!  We are very happy that Jimmie is home to act as an OBGYN!  He calls me if anything looks amiss.  WE only have had one breach birth to assist and everyone is doing just fine on their own!  How lucky is that? 

The top picture is our farm mascot “Bubbles” and her first kid.  She had an easy labor and is a super Nanny. We had hoped that she would have a baby marked with her bubbles but as you can see the baby is a solid color.  If you know some cool names for kids that you would like to send us we would appreciate it!
The second picture is of Holly and her new baby which is practically her clone in pattern and color.  Holly was born on Christmas a few years back and her daughter Ivy is due any minute.  Maybe a plant or Christmas type name for this part of the family to name the baby?

This picture is of Assaba’s daughter–she is one of our foundation nannies granddaughters.  Her name is Dot Com and she is out of E-bay.  What do you think would be a good name for this little one?  Please don’t say “Vista” or anything to do with microsoft.  (We aren’t too excited about their latest projects although the commercials with Mac vs PC have been entertaining!)

You might wonder how we and the mommies/nannies keep all of these babies straight?  How come they don’t mix them up?  It is all in how they smell and sound (nope–we don’t sniff them we just watch which mom they end up with).  Each mother bonds at birth based on smell.  Within a very short time they know the sound of their kids too.  Sounds like bedlam to the rest of the farm but is music to these very long eared nannies.

Notice the white mustache on the nanny in this picture?  Her name is “Got Milk”.  Her baby is black with white accents.  Suggest a dairy product name for her perhaps?

We will pick names from the suggestions made electronically and from the markets we sell our cheese at.

Back to the barn for now!  Kids keep popping!!!

Posted: January 15th, 2009 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres, Uncategorized.
Comments: 6

Most of the girls are “ladies in waiting” and very “prego” right now.  We are watching their udders develop so we can plan to be home to help with any labor problems that might arise.  Usually there aren’t many problems but we have some first time mommies this time around.  We have a camera installed in the barn so we can watch goat t.v. in the bedroom at night just in case someone has an early morning delivery.  Most of our goats have their kids during daylight hours and most of them either early in the morning around dawn or in the twilight hours of dusk.

Just “kidding” around humor on the farm!

 Jimmie, has borrowed a tractor from Pedro our terrific neighbor and builder of fantastic homes, and he is working on the pastures.  One pasture is actively growing and getting ready to recieve the new moms and their babies and the other is being prepared for the spring and summer grasses.  We have temporary and permanent shade shelters/structures that we are painting with some paint donated by Pedro to weather proof them.

Don’t look too closely since we aren’t as good as Pedro at construction!  Yup!  They lean just a little.  It is ok.  Goats aren’t critics:)

We will post kid pics just as soon as they pop!  Keep checking to see the grass grow and the romping kids to come!

Posted: January 13th, 2009 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres.
Comments: 1

This is our Exchange Daughter, Katharina from Germany, along with Schnitzel our Mini Weenie Stud Dog.  It is Kata’s birthday this month and Schnitzel and the rest of Chile Acres wants to send her a big hug from across the ocean (well Schnitzel wanted to send a doggie treat actually) for her this special day.  We love her and are proud of all she is doing with her life in Berlin.  Her puppy, Lucky, is a son of Scnitzel and lives a life of luxury in her Berlin apartment.  Dogs get to go almost anywhere there and Kata takes Lucky out daily for adventures.

Happy Birthday Kata and we are sending you a special package full of spiders–you will understand when you see it–for your birthday, and of course chocolate!

Posted: October 20th, 2008 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres, Doxies.
Comments: none

It is time to stretch after a long summer off and get back to planting again.  Of course, those gourd seeds have taken over our entire garden so we will just have to start a new winter garden in another area of the farm.  We are trying to get all of our ducks in a row or goats in a row in our case, to plant the two front fields in grass for the goat girls.

The Saluki pups are a year older and are making their ancestors proud with a network of underground tunnels in the back yards.  We really have to watch our step out there in the dark!

Chickens are getting back to laying regularly and are growing new feathers.  For awhile they all look plucked or semi-plucked and they are not foul weather fowl.  If there is a storm or the wind is blowing or whatever, they just don’t lay many eggs.  Jimmie has tried talking nicely to them, threatened them with stew pots, and just when he is ready to give up the girls go back into action!  Maybe the handsome new palamino rooster has something to do with it?

The foals are starting to be weaned and not liking it one bit.  We think the moms are rejoicing!  Poor Estrella has lost most of her mane and her tail that used to hang to the ground.  Ganymede has eaten most of it!  Dream has better manners for the most part but does still  try jumping on  his mom, Takia, when she least expects it.

Prissy the pig has grown so big that she has to sit in her water tank instead of lay in  it.  She is still mourning the death of the zuchinni plants!  However, she will settle for watermelon rind if she has to.

New products will be coming to the market soon.  We are working on a goat milk lotion and sauve for dry skin along with some more exciting goat milk soaps.  We also have some well seasoned gourds ready for the fall.  Hope to see you all soon and thanks for your support!

Posted: September 8th, 2008 under Bubbles the Goat and Friends, Chile Acres, gourds.
Comments: none