Archives for January 2019

by Millie from KY

Goats are fun, quirky and are great pets!  But we Pack Members are interested in with them for an “off the grid” homestead or SHTF situation.  That being the case, the previous qualities only enhance the fun of having them.  They are a great homestead and often dual purpose animal to raise and enjoy.

And they are fun in spite of what some will say!  Perhaps you have heard that “billies” are stinky, mean, hard to handle.  That goat milk smells funny or tastes funny.  That goats butt people and are unsafe around adults or children.  Or that they will eat your plants and jump on your vehicle, damaging it.

The answer to most of the above questions is “could be”, but only if you realize that most of these problems are from poor management. Because people tend to treat goats as you would dogs, they often are frustrated at the results that they achieve.

Bucks are only stinky during “the rut” which is the time when they start to feel amorous.  This will bring the does into season.  They do disgusting things such as pee on their beards or mount each other.  In other words, they sometimes act like the teenaged version of Jackass… but it is normal.

Once the rut is over, they quit smelling and return to their normal selves and become my buddies again.  I do go and pet and scratch them but make sure I have on an old jacket and gloves.  They can’t help being Jackasses.  And one of the best things you can do when choosing a buck for your herd is to choose one that has been reared on a bottle.

They are much tamer, friendlier and easier to handle.  Now and then one of my boys will refuse to do something during the rut (I want them to go here or there) but when they figure out that sometimes they got to visit the does when I am trying to move them, they become much more compliant when I ask them to do something.

The rut for my breed lasts from about August thru December.  The rut is what causes them to smell bad, and you must keep your does that are milking away from the bucks in rut or it will cause a flavor to the milk

Milk must also be kept extremely clean, the udders/teats cleaned before and after each milking, the milk that is produced gotten into a refrigerator as quickly as possible.  If cared for correctly, you will not be able to tell the difference between goat’s milk and cow’s milk.

Goats are very safe for the most part around people. The secret is to bottle raise your babies.  I let my babies have a few sips for colostrum after birth and then they are started on the bottle.  Bottle raised babies to see you as part of the herd and someone to be trusted.

This is when you can teach them to not jump up (push them down and be not so nice about it) and say NO.  It will take a few times.  NEVER encourage a goat to jump up on you with a treat, you have just taught them how to do it!

Goats are BRIGHT.  They can be taught tricks, or to carry a pack if you are hiking. There is quite a community of goat packers out there.  They can pull carts and help with farm chores.  They can get into trash cans to eat grain and yes, they can get very sick from too much grain just as a horse can.

My goats get very little grain.  It’s bad for the bucks because it causes urinary blockages that CANNOT be fixed and the goat will die.  The girls just get fat on it.  So grain is used to lure them from here to there or as a special treat a few times a year and on Christmas.  Mine also like animal crackers, most any kind of fruit, raisins, and bread.  When I pass by the day old bread store, I get a few loaves for the goats and the horses.

Goats are FUN.  They are very much like a big dog.  I enjoy walking our property with my herd following, munching on everything, finding the oak leaves and acorns that they adore.

Goats will eat almost any plant including poison ivy. This causes problems for the humans because if they are wading through Poison Ivy, it’s getting all over them.  It doesn’t bother them because they have hair but woebegone to the human who grasps the collar to lead that goat somewhere or hugs that goat!  The Goat Manual states that if the goat gets loose, it will eat your most expensive plants first.

Goats are walking fertilizers.  They make little pellets as a bunny does.  But they are harder and take a while to break down. This is actually good because it’s a slow release into the soil of the beneficial things that poop gives to our gardens.  Mine walk about the field and actually since we have been here for three years now, the field has never looked better!

Now that I have convinced you to try out your hand at goat farming, let’s talk about some practical things.

There are three different kinds of goats and you can sometimes use one goat for two or all of these purposes.

The first is for fiber.  Angora goats produce a fabulous fiber that is wonderful for spinning, knitting, and weaving. They are an ancient breed, going back several thousand years.  If you are looking for a post SHTF business and like to create things, this may be the choice of goat for you.  Currently, Angora yarn goes for $ 5.00 to $20.00 an ounce when it is ready to knit.  Angoras are not a meat goat because the focus on breeding them is to produce the fiber.

Angora goats should not get wet because the water goes through to the skin rather than rolling off as would happen with another breed of goat.  Angora/cashmere is highly sought after for the non-felting qualities that this particular type of wool has.  In addition, it is the softest of the wools that are produced.

The finest and softest yarns come from the youngest animals.  Goats are shorn twice a year and produce about 10 lbs of fiber on average, a year.

Angoras generally produce one kid, occasionally there may be twins.   Kids are very delicate as newborns and must be kept dry and watched the first couple of weeks of life.  The low birth numbers mean that your flock will be built slowly.  However, since both sexes produce wool, bucks (males) are as valuable when born as a doe (female) is.  And yes, let us use the correct terms for the sexes.

They are not billies and nannies, the correct terms are bucks and does (or bucklings and doelings when they are young).  They are a medium size goat, from 70-100 lbs for a doe to 180-225 lbs for a buck.

You can butcher a hair producing goat but there is not as much meat on them.  You could attempt some breedings to get more meat on your goats by crossing with a meat goat but the wool production would go down or be of less quality, so probably better to just raise fiber goats on their own for what they are bred to produce.

Meat goats are very popular with many farmers, and excess kids can be raised and fattened for many ethnic groups for their holidays, mostly in the spring.  Goat meat is much like venison, it has a little different taste than beef.  It is a low fat meat and very healthy.

You must add a little fat for cooking or if you are making sausage.  I have had hamburgers with goat meat, they are a little dry but if I had cooked them, I would have done so in a little bacon fat which would have greatly enhanced the meat.  I have also had it as kielbasa which was excellent!

Although you can butcher any goat, the most common meat goat here is the Boer goat. They are very large and beautiful goats, some have a traditional pattern of a white goat with a red or black head and neck.  Some breeders are producing Boers with splash or “moonspot” patterns.

These are big goats, indeed!  Boers average 200 to 300 lbs.  They were developed in the early 20^th century from indigenous goats in South Africa along with a sprinkling of some other breeds.  The focus was on meat production, and does may be bred 3 times in 2 years, five months carrying her kids, 3 months raising them, bred again, 5 months/3 months and then again.

They are able to be bred year-round with their cycles.  For the production of meat, medium sized does are best for the raising of meat, they cost less to feed yet produce the same number of kids. After the first kidding, usually one kid, they generally produce twins.

Boers can also be milked although their milk production will not be as much as dairy goats.

You can buy Boers in lower percentages, 50% Boer/50% other breed, etc.  These are usually much less costly in terms of getting started in meat goats.  Then you buy a better buck and breed your way back up to a higher percentage of Boer blood.  The higher the percentage of Boer blood, the more muscular and heavy that goat will generally be, which is what you want, more meat.

The last kind of goat is the dairy style.  Think about a Guernsey cow.  Delicate looking, big wide hips that stick up high, more weight in the abdomen than anywhere else and this describes a good milk goat, too.  There are dozens of breeds of milk goats but I will focus on Nubians for the purpose of this article.

The biggest reason is because Nubians are a good sized goat, and have been bred specifically for milking for many years.  One of the things besides the milk production of the dam of the goat you may wish to purchase and the genetics of the sire (his dam and any sisters he may have, as well as what he has produced in terms of milking does), is to look carefully at the udder.

If you are purchasing a doeling, this will be hard to determine, that is why you look at the dam and any other goats that are related through the sire.  There are two critical things to examine.  One is the length of the teat itself. Short teats, say 1-2 inches long, are difficult to hand milk.

Long teats are better, 3-4 inches.  This is hard to determine in a young doeling.  Compare her to any other youngsters that the herd owner may have in his flock.  The other thing in a milking goat to consider is the “attachments”.

Look at the goat’s udder from the rear.  The udder is shaped like a “U”.  If the “U” is flatter and attached further down the sides of the goat when viewed from the rear, this is considered good attachment.  If it is a longer, saggy “U” (and the doe is not in the process of drying up), that is not good attachment.

This is important because it will affect the animal’s life as well as milk production.  Less attachment means saggier udders.  Eventually, you will run into the problem of a doe getting up from lying down and stepping on and damaging her own teat/udder, or another goat doing so.

Goat Shelter:

Goats need a sturdy shelter.  It should be dry and draft-free.  If you are in the North, make it four sided but make the door big enough that you can get a wheelbarrow in and out. Add a door if you wish, it may be necessary in the most cold climates.  I live in southern Kentucky and our door stays open year round and they stay quite comfy if they are dry.  Make sure the floor stays dry for them.  If you put straw in, they will bed on it but are just as likely to eat it.

Goat Food:

Goats require good pasture/brush to eat.  There is very little that they cannot eat other than the odd poisonous plants and they seem to stay away from those. What they cannot eat is wilted cherry leaves.  So be sure that this is not on your land, or that they cannot get to it.

If you feed hay, good horse grass hay with little or no alfalfa in it is good. No mold, not old, not crappy hay, which a lot of people will tell you is “fine” for goats because they believe goats will eat anything.

I look for hay that has some greenness when you open it up but smells sweet and pleasant.  A little alfalfa is ok for the does to eat but can also cause urinary blockages in bucks and wethers (a wether is a neutered male goat).

Goats can waste a lot of hay. The best way to feed it is in a feeder with small holes so they can only pull out a few strands at a time, or in a hay bag with small holes.  These can be found if you type in “slow feeder hay bags” into your search engine.

Another thing I have seen that works well is to put in a section of hog panel as part of your fence.  Concrete the length of this area, about 2-3 feet wide.  You can spread your hay there and they can stick their heads through the holes in the panel (consider this carefully if your goats do have horns, this may not be practical for them) and eat without walking or pooping on their food. At the next feeding, what is not wanted can be raked up and burned or used as bedding.

Goats prefer to eat brush and branches rather than grazing. They can and will graze but would much rather be turned out to do the bush hogging chores.  You can teach them to be on a strong line with a collar but be aware that many goats get into trouble this way, with a rope wrapped the wrong way around the neck or the leg.  They jump and get the rope hung over things.  Collars can and do break or twist into a death trap for a goat.

Be very careful in thinking about trying out. This might be attempted with an older wiser goat but I would never do it with a youngster.  As a matter of fact, I never tie mine out. I do have a friend who ties hers out to keep the brush down on a steep bank and the girls have mastered just lying down if they are unable to turn around or get out of a tangle of branches.  She uses a heavy cable to tie them with and it works great for her to do it this way.

Goat Fencing:

I have mini Nubians which are not as tall as the standard Nubians.  I have a 4-foot fence around the goat barn, one side for the does, one side for the bucks.  Make sure that the fence between is very sturdy and preferably solid and can take some hits.  When the does are ready for breeding, the bucks will do everything they can think of to get to them.  We do hope in the future to move the boys up the hill to give some space between them for a little more peace.

Goats will walk right through barbed wire.  I prefer smaller mesh field fencing, 4 x 4 inches or 6 x 6 inches.  Garden fencing can often be broken down as it is welded.  You can also use goat or cow panels which run about $20.00 a 16-foot section but that is very sturdy.

If you have babies, though, they may get through the fence to explore.  If there are no predators, it’s probably fine.  I also put a hot wire on top, then out about 6 inches on the outside, and then again, a few inches from the bottom on the outside. This is to keep predators out of the goat yard when I am not around.

If your fencing is poor, if the goats can escape, then your car will get jumped on and your roses will look like they have been run over by elephants…and trust me, they will eat the most expensive plants you have first.  There goes the $50 gorgeous day lily that you just had to have because the color was so rare!

Water for Goats:

It must be clean and changed daily. In the summer they will need more water, in the winter, they LOVE it if you take down warm water for them to drink or put their water in a heated bucket.  They will drink more then.

Salt/minerals:

This is a biggie.  Goats cannot eat or lick enough off of the commercial salt blocks for what they need. Further, they require more copper than most animals.  I will write about that more in a bit.  They must have a loose salt feeder, they make plastic “double” ones that you can get at Tractor Supply.  Mount this higher on the wall and put a step so that they must put their feet on the step in order to reach over and get the salt.  This keeps them from pooping in the holder.  I don’t know why they do this but every goat owner I have ever talked to says the same thing, they poop in it.  There is sweetening in the salt and minerals to encourage them to take more in.  Check this daily, especially in the summer.

Vet Care for Goats:

Your goats must have a CD & T shot each year. These are given subcutaneously and are easy to do if you have someone to hold the goat for you.  Tetanus is a terrible disease and one of mine died from it this year.   There are pneumonia and other vaccinations available but I have not used them.  Any goat coming into your flock must have one CD & T shot and then a second one in 4 weeks.  Thereafter, it is a yearly vaccination.

Kids are vaccinated for CD & T at four weeks and again at 8 weeks of age.  You must do the same for adults that have never gotten their CD & T shots, wait 4 weeks and give a second one to be sure there is full immunity.

If you choose to get the pneumonia vaccination, the same schedule applies as for the CD & T vaccination.  You can order CD & T and pneumonia vaccines online or get them at TSC.

Most vets know very little about goats so I would suggest calling around to other goat people to see who you can find.  It is sometimes worth it to toss a goat in the back of your van and drive an hour or two.  There are some excellent veterinary goat books for purchase, Mary Smith’s Goat Medicine, Second Edition is pricy but invaluable.  Most of us have learned to be our own vets for our goats.

As with all animals, it’s good to have the basics on hand. Goats can bloat, so some baking soda mixed in water and given with a syringe (no needle) into their mouth is helpful.  Some people put in a second salt feeder just to keep baking soda in so they can eat it if they are feeling not so good.  It’s an excellent idea.  Worming medication, you can use goat or horse products. For MOST horse products you will use three times the weight advised, in other words, your goat weighs 100 lbs and you give a dose for three hundred pounds.  Do some research into the products that you can do this with.

First aid items, vet wrap, blue kote, Vetrimycin, some oral banamine for pain or aspirin.  A pill baller is a good item, put the pill in, get down the back of the throat and administer.  If you have babies, a couple of nipples that can be attached to a 20 oz soda pop bottle is a good idea, and always have spares because sometimes they bite them off!

Worming Goats:

Goats are very susceptible to worms. Worms kill a lot of goats.   It has been discovered that a goat that is wormy often does not have enough copper in their systems. Copper helps to keep the worm load down. It is a natural way for goats to fight them off.

You can buy capsules with copper rods in them.  Down the throat, the capsule dissolves in the digestive juices in the stomach and they move on to the intestines where most worms reside.  The rods tend to get stuck there and then there is the slow oxidation of the copper and it’s absorbed into the bloodstream.  Something about the copper getting into the goat’s system helps them to naturally fight off worm and keep the numbers down.

You can use Quest Plus (horse paste wormer) or Cydectin (orally) for barberpole worms.  This does not have to be 3 times the dosage.  For Quest Plus, follow the weight instructions; for Cydectin, you will use 1 mL per 5 lbs.

For other worms, Ivermectin (horse paste wormer) will be used at 3 times the recommended dosage. Or you can use the 1% injectable ORALLY at 1 mL per 50 lbs.

Tapeworms:  Valbezan can be used according to the bottle directions, orally.  Do NOT use Valbezan on pregnant goats.

When you worm, you must not use the milk for consumption for about 2 weeks afterwards, freeze and mark that for when you want to make goat’s milk soap.

A large load of worms will cause anemia, they attach within the organs of the animal and feed themselves by sucking blood. Anemia can be checked by holding the goat’s head and rolling back the lower eyelid.  You want to see a nice healthy pink.

Go look at your dog’s gums to get an idea of the color.  If it is white, whitish, very light pink or just a little pink…you have an anemic goat.  It will need to be wormed, to have plenty of copper, both in mineral eating form and in the way of the copper boluses.

It is a good idea to take in a stool sample and have the vet see what kinds of worms you are dealing with so the right wormer can be used. I wait for the worst looking goat to poop with a plastic bag nearby and take that one in.

Worms can also cause “fishtail” where the tail is partly short and partly long, looking like a fish’s tail, redness to a black coat, a rough coat or a coat that has hair that curves back somewhat like a fish hook.

The anemic goat may also benefit from a B12 shot and some Red Cell, a supplement that is readily available.  Red Cell can be given 1 cc orally per 20 lbs, twice a day for a week and then 1 time a day for a week.

Goat Hoof Care:

You will need to learn about hoof care. This is EASY.  I was surprised by just how stunningly easy it is to do.  You need a pair of trimmers or pruners and someone to show you.  And a third person to hold the goat while this is done.  If you get a milking stanchion that is raised, it will be doubly easy.  I had to do them several times a year when we had sandy soil, now that we have rocks on the land, I do them maybe once a year.

I usually keep collars on my goats all the time, it makes a handle so that you can have some control.  Because I have dairy goats, I do disbud (remove the horn buds) when they are around 3 days old.  If you have meat goats, traditionally they are left on.  However, do remember this is a weapon for the goat and can be very dangerous.

Now for the rest of the story.  You know what to feed, how to house and how to enjoy your goats.  What else?

Goat Breeding:

Well, there is breeding, having kids and raising them up.  There is also butchering, but until I have actually gone through the process and see what can be done better or what was useless to do, I don’t want to write about that right now.

You have a doe.  You have or can get access to a buck. What now?

The goats should have been kept wormed, have loose mineral available at all times, be up to date on CD & T vaccinations.  Both sexes should be healthy, well-nourished (dairy goats carry their fat in their abdomen, not so much over the body, but you don’t want to see ribs).  They should be sleek and shiny and act like they feel good.  Please don’t breed a goat that is not feeling well or is skinny.  You will lose the kids and maybe the doe, too.

Bucks can be stinky.  It’s usually best if they are separated from the does for several reasons.  One is that if a doe cycles, he is going to breed her. This could be a problem in July because you will have January kids.  When you have a newborn, wet kid and sub-degree weather, it’s a recipe for disaster.

If you have a protected barn and lots of straw and some kind of heat source, even if it is just the other does around with the door closed, that will raise the temp a good 30 degrees.

In the north, I used to use a heat lamp but be aware that goats are curious and like to get into things.  A heat lamp that is still on and in the straw will mean dead goats and a burned out barn.  I hung them up over the place where the kids could go to stay warm, which was the bottom of an old plastic dog house.  But the doe still must be watched regularly when she is near her time to kid.

Breeding usually takes place in the late summer or fall.  Count up 5 months for an approximate date of kids arriving.  Bucks will go into rut about mid-summer to late summer.  They will do disgusting things like pee on their faces and sometimes on you, too!

Some people cannot abide the smell, it doesn’t bother me but it is stinky.  If you must do something with your bucks during this time, move them somewhere, give them vaccinations, trim their feet, worm them, then wear old clothes and wash them with double the soap when you are done.

I find plenty of dish soap on my hands and a good scrub removes most of the smell, or you can wear gloves.  My boys are friendly and sweet even when they are stupid with the rut, and like to be petted, so I generally wear gloves just so I can rub them some. Learning to mouth breathe helps.

Being in rut will entice the does to cycle and come into season.  You will see the bucks gather at the fence, rolling their eyes, doing a spitting noise, braying, peeing on themselves.  Pretty much what you see at Bubba’s Bar and Grill on a Saturday night.

The girls will let you know when they are ready, too, standing nearby, walking up and down in front of the boys, sometimes there is a whitish discharge.  The most reliable thing for me to notice is that they wag their tails, quite vigorously.  I watch my does every day to see who is ready to visit their boyfriend.

Now we are ready to accomplish The Deed.

I will not elaborate a lot on the birds and the bees here; I’m hoping that you all understand the basic mechanics of the process!  There are three ways to accomplish this.  One is to leave the buck in with the does.  This will make your milk have an odor if you are currently milking the doe.  It also means that you never know for sure if the deed has taken place and you may wait 5 months for nothing.

The second way is to put the two lovers together and let nature take its course over an hour or so.  Then put the buck back where he lives and the doe back where she lives.  I usually linger nearby during this time, to observe and be sure she was actually bred.  The third way is called “hand breeding” and consists of you holding the doe’s collar/head while the buck mounts her.  This is what I usually do.  It is quick like a bunny.  Very quick.  You will know if he has penetrated because the doe will arch her back and squat almost like she is trying to pass urine.

Just as a matter of information, there is a fourth way to breed with artificial insemination but I could probably write a lot on it and it would go over your heads. For the average goat owner, this is usually not an option.

Make sure your does have access to plenty of fresh hay, good pasture and maybe a handful of grain if it makes you feel good.  They are feeding 2 or more now!

Kids have an average gestation period of around 150 days (5 months). This can vary each way by about 5 days.  If you leave your buck in with your does, you never quite know “when” things will happen and run the risk of losing kids, particularly if it is cold.  Most does have 2 kids, one kid on the first kidding, then two, and some girls have had a litter, as many as six kids!

Signs of pregnancy are not obvious until 1-2 months before kids are due. They will thicken around the waist, and begin to develop an udder.  When they lie down to rest, you will think “battleship” and will pet and apologize to them.

While the rumen is prominent on the right, the left side will fill out, too.  Some are still not as obvious but in that case, I treat them as if they are pregnant because they could have a singleton kid in there, and need the same care.

Some of the signs of kidding being imminent are:  the ligaments around the tail disappear. If you look around on the internet, you can see how to feel for this.  I have not learned the “knack” yet so I only mention it in passing.

I can’t feel the ligaments for 2 weeks before they kid, but people who are skilled at this can narrow it down to 24 hours.  A day or two before, you may notice some white “goo” from the doe’s vulva. This is perfectly normal.

Sometimes you see it a week before, too.  My girls tend to keep to themselves, in the barn, quietly contemplative, just chilling out.  I am thinking of beginning to take their temperatures, in dogs, the temperature drops about 24 hours before a girl will whelp pups, so I wonder if that is true with goats.  I will let you all know if this is so next spring.

Just a note:  the rumen, one of the stomachs, is on the right side of the doe.  It can look quite huge at times and can often be mistaken for pregnancy or more babies inside than there really are.

I have stalls so I fill them with straw, a small hole hay bag (goats waste a lot of hay) and a water bucket.  Hang the bucket up high because 1) they poop in it and 2) they could have a kid in it.  If you have to, put a small step of some kind so they must step up to drink.

My stalls are made of wire panels so they can see each other and that seems to calm them, they are still in a herd situation.  Keep some old towels and a couple of rolls of paper towels down in the barn, along with a bucket of fresh water for you to rinse your hands in if necessary.

Keep your cell phone with the vet’s number in it and it’s always helpful to call the vet a day or two before and tell them that you are a first-time goat kidder and that you may need assistance.  It’s rare that you will have to call them.

Once you have decided that the time is close, stay nearby.  You may see her begin to dig in the straw.  Sometimes they just lie down and wait, chewing their cud.  I check about every 30 minutes.  If I see contractions, I turn a bucket over, have a seat and get ready to help.

Mostly they don’t need much help but I do go in with my does.  You will see a series of contractions and then some hard pushing.  This can take anywhere from an hour or maybe two, to move the kid down into the right position.  You may see a “bubble” presented first and this is normal.  It will break and the baby will follow in a while.

A perfect kidding will have the kid be presented right side up, first two front hooves and then quickly a nose.  A few good pushes and soon the most darling of animals will be on the hay.  I tear open the membrane on the face if it is still intact and push it back.

Then take some paper towels and wipe the nose and inside of the mouth to clean it up.  The baby should be breathing when you wipe them up.  This just gets the gunk and goo out of the way so he can breathe better.

Usually, the umbilical cord will tear and separate, if it does not then DO NOT PULL ON IT!  Take your fingers and tear a little bit a time, as close to the vulva as you can.  The afterbirth will come out in a while.  You don’t want to cut it because it will bleed quite a bit.

You can tie it with a piece of string or even dental floss if it seems to be bleeding more than you are comfortable with.  And I should mention that most does have their babies just fine on their own but I still like to be present.

On occasion, you will have a breech birth.  These are tricky because being presented with the back feet first, the umbilical cord (lifeline) of the kid may be compressed or torn before the kid is completely out.  You have four minutes to get that kid out safely before it dies in that case.

If you feel the doe is having trouble, you must rinse your hand/arm and go inside.  It doesn’t happen often but sometimes kids get mashed together and you must try and push one back and encourage the other to come into the space so it can come out.

At this point I don’t care whether it comes out front or back, I just want it out.  A kid may be presented with the head thrown back and will never be born, so if you don’t push it back a little and then get that head turned around, you will lose the kids and the doe.

If you cannot do this, call a vet to come out and help.  Another malpresentation is with one leg and the head coming out and one leg back along the side of the body.  If there is room for you to get your hand in there, you can often bring that leg forward.

If the doe is having problems, pushing and you have a presentation occurring, wait until the legs appear.  Take about 6 paper towels, wrap them around the middle of the lower part of the legs (like between your wrists and your elbows) and pull steadily, arcing towards the ground.  Only pull when she is pushing.

When she stops, you stop.  I had a very large kid that I had to help this spring, and I wondered that I would ever get him out.  It seemed to take 20 minutes but a friend who was there with me said it only took about 4 minutes.  He would come out about an inch with each push/pull.  Momma was yelling the whole time and she wanted him out.

Once the kid is out and you have cleaned his face, take the towel and rub him dry.  Kick some clean straw over the wettish area and put the kid on a dry area.  Encourage the doe to nose and lick, when she does, you can step back.  If it is cold, though, I keep rubbing and drying.

I am always surprised at how quickly they dry out.  In a few minutes, he will be trying to stand and it’s so sweet to sit in a stall with a new baby, the smell of sweet hay in your nose and the miracle of birth in front of you.  Jesus was born in a barn and I can’t think of a better place to be.  Time for some smiles at the standing lessons and a nice pat for Momma Goat.

If there are more kids, then within an hour or even less, you will see more contractions.

I like to give Momma Goat a bucket of warm water to drink and will freshen up the stall, take out the wet spots of straw and fluff up some new straw for the new family.

Watch to be sure the babies find the teat and drink.  They will just take 2 or 3 sips and then walk away.  They will drink more vigorously as they grow. Watch the little ones, if you have more than two, the big ones will push it away and it will weaken and die in a day if you don’t pull it away from Mom and get a bottle with some formula in it.   If you are going to milk Momma Goat, let them stay with her about 12-24 hours, then move them to a separate stall where she cannot see them.

You can begin to give them a bottle then.  You will have to train them to it and remember they like it quite warm.  Momma Goat should have had stanchion lessons before the birth, be able to stand on the milking stanchion, eat grain, have her head restrained and you touching her teats and udder on both sides.

She may struggle a little on the first milking or two but when she sees that you are relieving the pressure she feels, and she has grain, she will be cooperative and give her milk willingly.  She can then go out with the general herd in a day or two.  Watch her for mastitis, an infection of the teat/udder, redness, swelling, heat, pain.

Also, watch her general demeanor, if she acts off or sick in any way, she may have retained a placenta and you will have to call the vet.  Sometimes a placenta will come out and just hang for a while.  It’s enough to drive someone with OCD out of their minds but do not pull it.  It will come out in a day or so.  I have cut it off about 6 inches away from the vulva just so it doesn’t look so gross.

The first milk is called colostrum and is essential for the kids to have some of this.  If you have a weak kid, you may have to milk her and try to get it down him with a bottle or you can tube feed it.  I do have a tube feeding kid for young kids, I have never had to use it, though.  They usually drink from the bottle.

The milk will be watery looking for a few days, they will become more opaque in a week or so.  Give the kids the milk right along and all that they want.  You will have to milk twice a day if you do this.

You can let Momma Goat raise the kids herself if you don’t want the milk, but the kids must be handled and held every day for a few minutes to keep them friendly toward humans.  I raise all my babies myself, they are friendly and easy to sell this way.

I prefer my babies to go as pets or as milkers because they are dairy goats.  This probably isn’t an issue if you have meat goats but some of them are really big so if you want to be able to handle your goats well, I would advise milking and feed the babies, keeping the extra milk for yourself.

Goats can be milked for nearly a year but most advise to slow down the milking and stop when they are getting close to being bred.  This will allow the doe to have a rest.

I’m sure there is more I can write but will need to think about other subjects on goats that will be important to know!

by Sierra Grey

Robert Burns once wrote, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.”. Translated—no matter how well we plan, things often fail, turn out wrong, or go awry. Humans have limitations. We possess only fragments of knowledge and limited experience. Pride and emotions cloud our thinking. Only God plans perfectly. We, mortals, are left to hope we have planned well enough to survive what comes. And learn from our mistakes early in the game.

My baby steps as a prepper began in 1991. Talk radio exposed me to the teachings of Larry Burkett, a Christian financial advisor and author of the book, The Coming Economic Earthquake. The truths in that book still apply 23 years later—governments with huge levels of debt eventually fall victim to money printing and hyperinflation.

America becomes another Zimbabwe. He inspired me to forsake debt and avoid risky investments. We got seriously frugal and paid off our home. Got our small nest egg out of the stock market. Maximized our savings. Withdrew everything from our IRA to avoid government seizure in the future.

Larry Burkett did not live long enough to readjust the timing of his predictions. But I remembered his thoughts about the aftershocks that could follow the economic earthquake. Societal collapse. Fascistic government. Social disorder. Widespread violence.

My wife, the eternal optimist, doesn’t agree that the future could turn out that bad. The rest of my family sees me as a lovable, occasionally annoying, conspiracy theorist. So, instead of learning a trade, leaving the clutches of the California government, and moving to the Redoubt, I had to settle for a compromise. An “investment” in California land for my wife and family that would also serve as my desired survival destination when the SHTF. But California was simply too expensive.

One man’s misery is another man’s fortune.

The economic correction in 2008-2009 smashed the real estate market in California. A friend with inside knowledge told us that there was a bank-owned mountain cabin on 20 acres just over 75 minutes from Fresno. It was a foreclosure on the bank’s inventory and they wanted to dump it. Suggested we make a cash offer at 30% of asking price. But we had to act fast. I wasn’t sure what my friend was smoking, but if true, it was too good to pass up.

We quickly toured the property and made the offer. They accepted. Larry Burkett was correct—not everyone suffers during economic depressions. People without debt and who have saved can find incredible bargains. We did. Or so I thought

The retreat was beyond expectations. 4100 feet elevation—just below the snow line. A perfect blend of colossal Ponderosa and Jeffrey’s pines and a variety of deciduous trees. An artesian well, hardly needing the electric pump. Clean water poured out of an overflow pipe 24/7.

Locals couldn’t remember the flow ever stopping. Said there wasn’t another artesian well for miles. But should it ever fail, there was a man-made lake filled with good water. The cabin was heated with a wood stove and had modern facilities. One side of the property bordered King’s Canyon National Forest—a wide mountain expanse void of anything but nature.

My wife and I spent our weekends and holidays removing trash and debris. We painted and patched and learned how to repair fences. I cleared trees and split firewood, dug up broken pipes, and re-roofed the well-house. My income was enough to allow me to start adding supplies and equipment month-by-month.

The cabin was built 40 years ago as a summer house. It is perched on pylons on the side of a hill to allow the wind to cool the house from underneath. Winter was not in the original plans. I insulated under the cabin, not an easy task for an older man on top of a 16 foot ladder. But I was turning my plans into reality. God had blessed me above and beyond my wildest expectation. It was a labor of love.

The flora and fauna became my weekend learning lab. With the help of good books, I learned to identify the berries, edible greens, and avoid the poison oak. Bay trees, yerba santa, white sage, milkweed, chokecherries, and elderberry trees provided spice, sweetness, and medicinal supplies.

And if you wanted a puff, Indian tobacco. Wild apples served up a huge batch of applesauce each fall. The giant oaks provided enormous and abundant acorns as a source of protein and flour. There seemed to be a plant for every need. I learned how to dig 18 inches through rock-hard soil to extract the bulbous root of the Indian soap plant, a source of saponin for a sudsy shampoo. After 20 minutes of digging in the heat, my hair was ready for it. But I was pumped—I finally had a survival retreat!

Mule deer peacefully roamed the property in groups of three to six, and nice bucks were common. Shot the first at less than 50 yards from the comfort of my front porch while having a cup of coffee. Only needed my defense rifle, a Saiga in .308 Winchester that was conveniently close-by. Butchered the deer and learned how to turn it into jerky. I put pemmican on the “to learn” list.

The air was clean and crisp, the skies a deep blue, and the nights full of stars. Quail and rabbits were plentiful. Fox pups played near the porch after dark. My game camera caught black bears, bobcats, coyotes, and even the occasional mountain lion slinking about under the moon-lit night sky.

Wild turkeys visited the lake for their morning dip. Near a seasonal stream was an Indian relic, an enormous granite boulder marked with holes a foot deep where the Indians ground their acorns. The presence of Indians for such a long time assured me I was on the right property.

The prior owner had put up a deer fence to create a 10,000 square foot garden area and built raised beds to avoid gophers. I ran PVC plumbing for drip irrigation. We planted beds of strawberries and raspberries, and some grape vines. They grew happily in between our visits to enjoy the harvest. We planted fruit trees. There was more than enough room to enclose chicken and rabbit coops and grow far more of a garden than we had when we moved in full-time.

What more could we want? A comfortable cabin set among the giant Ponderosa’s. Fresh running water year round. A lake as back-up water supply, brimming with fat-legged bullfrogs. Abundant sources of wild food. I felt confident that my plans were working out.

Who moved the cheese?

Fresno County became a center for “medical” marijuana. We soon had over 500 growers in the foothills and mountains. A group moved onto the property next to mine. I have no issues with growth or use of marijuana.

But the War on Drugs has made it a very high-priced item and created a criminal market, as did Prohibition with alcohol. The growers are generally felons with nothing to lose, seeking easy riches and their own supply of high-grade “bud” and “Reggie.”

The marijuana crops are “medical” in name only. Most care little for their neighbors’ property rights or the environment, killing off local wildlife with poison scattered around the outside of their dwellings and crops. Worse, they brought crime and violence.

Its easier to steal someone else’s weed than grow your own. The first year, a robbery attempt was stopped by a shooting a quarter mile from my property. By the end of the year, six men had been killed in county marijuana-related crimes. Break-in’s of vacation cabins skyrocketed after the growers arrived. Booze and guns seem to be the targets. Some locals have started storing their gun collections in the safes of city pawn shops until they need to hunt.

They brought in a bulldozer and destroyed the natural lay of the land. Unusually heavy rains caused runoff from their property that damaged our road and cut deeply into the dam. Another rainy season could bring the dam down and cut off access to our cabin. When we asked them to have it repaired they promised they would, after they sold their crop in the fall. The crop came and went, as did they, to Mexico for the winter. We reached deep into our pockets and paid $7,000 to have the damage repaired.

The heavy rain was followed by three years of record drought, blistering summers, and record-cold winters. The fat and sleek mule deer turned haggard and worn, fewer in number. A small pond now sits where the lake once did.

Banks of mud that will suck in your foot to the knee and rob you of your boot prevent easy access to the remaining water. Water, if you can call it that. More of algae and moss soup. Nary a bullfrog can be found. The snakes, raptors, and critters are picking them off, one by one.

The lack of water and food at other elevations brought in more bears. Lion sightings increased. We suddenly had real competition for the local game animals and the limited harvest of wild berries. The coyote and bobcat populations increased as well, reducing the rabbit and quail populations to a small remnant.

And our 24/7, “has never run dry” artesian well? The overflow pipe has stopped producing anything but dry rust.

Get to know the neighborhood before moving in.

The area is populated by retirees on pensions and/or Social Security, vacation homeowners, and a handful of local forest and park service workers. Into the mix throw a goodly number of folks that just get by. Most on EBT cards and welfare, happy in their ancient, leaky single-wide’s covered by blue tarps.

That adds up to most of the resident population dependent in some way upon the federal government. Fixed incomes take a heavy hit when times get bad. And times are getting bad. What will happen when the SHTF?

As the economy continues to go down, the property crime has gone up. Two cords of oak that I had cut, split and stacked for the winter, disappeared. A local Hmong immigrant group was caught transporting 51 deer carcasses.

One of my “meth-head” neighbors was caught with five deer carcasses. He told the sheriff he was going to sell them for drug money. I was unaware of the ongoing problems with vacation homes being broken into by locals.

Poaching, thieving, drug-addicted neighbors were not in my planning. Not even close. A call to the local sheriff can take 2 to 4 hours for a response. I faced the reality that the only deputy sheriff available to my property was me.

No longer was it the just bears after my provisions that concerned me. Two-legged predators were now in the mix. Nothing can stop a determined, meth-addicted fellow with a crowbar and cutting tools from getting into a steel storage box. Fleeing a SHTF scenario, the last thing I need is to arrive and find an empty cabin and no supplies. I stopped adding to my supplies and equipment and transferred some back to the city.

Plans can and do go awry. Plan that it will happen.

While we prep, the world keeps on changing. We change. SHTF events are not always cataclysmic. Sometimes small chunks of s*** are flicked on you a bit at a time, more annoying than anything. One day you look in the mirror and realize you are covered in it.

Time to toss out the old plan and learn from mistakes. I learned that a deal too good to pass on is never too good to pass up. Price is not all that matters in survival preparations.

I made a list of my concerns and considered my options. We could sell the retreat for a profit and buy another. But how long would it take? Given the troubled times, we are closer to SHTF than ever before. But failures well-studied can lead to a better plan.

Due to my mistakes in planning, I now knew a lot more about the weaknesses of my retreat. The best option available for survival was to turn a lemon into lemonade. I’ll share some of the lessons I’ve learned, in hopes that someone might profit from my mistakes. And, some of the actions I am taking to modify my plans and survive.

I never considered the loss of regular income before the SHTF. I expected it would happen as we fled the city. Plan as though you could lose yours tomorrow. Not long after buying the property, I was laid off. Then again, and one more time.

Finally, three years of unemployment and I’m still without a job in my profession. My increasing age is an undesirable expense to potential employers, thanks to Obamacare. With much less income, I must reduce expenses. I’m using my now-abundant free time learning how do what I have always paid someone else to do.

Car and truck maintenance and repairs. Plumbing. Electrical work. Appliance repair. (YouTube is a great resource.) Video’s from the American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) are showing me how to do gunsmithing repairs. Reloading my ammunition. How to use Craigslist to find some bargains and resell them on eBay for profit.

We sold a life insurance policy and purchased a small, underpriced property. Hired a friend to bulldoze a dirt access road and building pad, and resold it for a profit. The profit went to income and the principle into another property that I am currently improving to put on the market.

I wish I had worked on these skills before trouble hit instead of spending too much time obsessing over mastering 88 ways to start a fire or how to pack a bug-out bag.

Just because a SHTF scenario is inevitable, it may not be as imminent as you think. I’m amazed that the world’s central banks have been able to print so much money and put off the collapse for so long. You may be in poor health or have diminished physical ability when it finally occurs.

When did I become so grey? I now qualify for discounted coffee at McDonald’s and senior shopping days at my local drug store. When did arthritis own my hands? One day I realize that I could no longer reliably rack my Browning High Power in .40S&W. The recoil spring is 24#—something for a younger man. Sold it and purchased a used Glock 36, small and light. I noticed that hikes into the national forest are not so easy at this age. Who started making guns, ammo, and water heavier?

I’m buying used synthetic stocks on eBay to replace heavy wooden stocks on my long guns. My carbine had a very heavy metal butt plate I once had made for potential hand-to-hand encounters. Blow to the head stuff, you know. I found a plastic one to replace it. I’m too old for hand-to-hand. I’ll just have to carry more ammo and shoot the fellow. Anybody young whipper-snapper need an 18-ounce butt plate?

I underestimated how much of what I use and need can be made without much skill or knowledge and how much money I could have saved for other prepping needs. I’m a big believer in Lugol’s 5% iodine solution and took it daily before I lost my income. It is an important part of my supplies, as well. $15 an ounce is no longer affordable.

I researched how to cheaply make iodine crystals and produce the solution myself. It’s not rocket science. If you can make instant coffee, you can make Lugol’s iodine solution. Potassium iodide from eBay, muriatic acid from Home Depot, distilled water, dollar store 3% hydrogen peroxide, and a coffee filter. Cost—about $4 per ounce. I produce enough for my own needs and pure iodine crystals for pandemics, nuclear/radiation events, wounds, and decontaminating drinking water.

Colloidal silver is also important to me. My family regularly takes it and increases the amount with any sign of illness. Retail cost—more than $200 a gallon. A better way—two 99.9 silver coins, 2-quart glass pickle jar, orphaned laptop power supply, alligator wires, $10 fish tank air supply, distilled water, and $24 PPM meter from the pool supply store. Cost— less than $2 per gallon.

When the world shifts (and it will shift), shift accordingly. The traditional game animals are fewer and farther between. But there still are bears, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and lions. And gopher, king, and rattlesnakes. What to do? Prepare to include predators in my food supply when the SHTF.

I bought some well-made snares and my wish list includes a few serious traps to use in the national forest. I’ve been rethinking my hunting guns and ammo to account for larger animals. And ways to hunt opportunistically—carrying enough weaponry to shoot whatever should present itself for dinner. Predator or prey.

But two long guns are just to heavy for an old man. Ideally, a shotgun-rifle combination gun would be best, but not in the budget. When I use a .22LR or shotgun for the intended game, I will also pack my best imitation of rifle at much less weight, my .44 Remington Mag Super Blackhawk with a 7 1/2 barrel.

That means increased practice at longer ranges and no more “cowboy” loads. I’m currently toying with homemade shotshells for the .44 to make it a pseudo-shotgun when I head out with a large caliber rifle.

A small powder load in the standard brass case leaves room to place shot. Disks of cardboard make a workable wad and a disk of styrofoam, a good seal. I considered making a snake-handling stick. And that was the end of that. If I have to eat snakes, I’ll shoot them.

Rethink scenarios that you thought you were fully prepared for. Who anticipates everything? I didn’t, and now it’s late in the game. What if an unlikely event happens? I’ve learned that my artesian well AND the lake cannot be relied upon as sources of water. I’ve added a solar well pump to my wishlist and moved water containers to the cabin and filled them.

I’ve constructed 3” PVC “buckets” that can be lowered down the wellhead by rope to retrieve water if electricity is lost. I’m dragging old wooden planks to the lake. Laying them on the mud, they will allow access to the water.

Next on my list is making a 5-gallon bucket sand-filter to take enough grossness out of the remaining water to allow filtering through a ceramic filter. After that, I’ve got to erect some sort of simple rainwater catchment system, and soon, before the winter rains start.

We, humans, are a worse lot than we think. Having grown up, worked, and lived most of my life in the nice parts of town, I never understood the true prevalence of crime. Or how much more it will be an issue after SHTF, even in the rural areas. Storing supplies at my treat in bolted-down construction boxes is no longer an answer.

I’m starting to locate possible caches in the walls and under the cabinets of the cabin for stashing ammo and other small supplies. Many of the smaller tools now go into my truck, as do some other of the small-sized, pricey or hard-to-replace supplies.

But I have yet to find a good answer for large supplies such as food, water, tools, and reloading equipment. Much less some way to prevent theft of firewood.

Full-size shipping container? There isn’t a lock that can’t be removed. And thieves out there have all the time in the world if I’m not there. The only acceptable solution may be to move to the retreat now, not when the SHTF.

It’s not like I have a job holding me back. With my reluctant wife staying in our city home, we’ve both considered that it may be wise for me to spend 5 or 6 days per week. It would make my presence known in the community as a full-time resident, not the owner of a vacation home/retreat. She and the family would make their exodus alone if need be. Sometimes botched plans are hard to smooth over.

Don’t forget that Indians dwelled in this land long before we did, wherever you happen to live. What did the local Indians do when times were tough? I met a very old man who is one of the last pure Indians in the area. He was happy to talk and to answer my questions.

He remembers foods that his grandmother made during the hard times of his childhood. Turns out that the abundant but poisonous local buckeye/horse chestnut is edible in a pinch. Just pulverize them finely and leach them thoroughly, several times.

Raw, crushed buckeyes mixed into the waters of a rock-damned stream stun the fish for easy collection. And…goats. Goats eat poison oak, which there is always plenty of. And the milk isn’t tainted by the poison oak. I need to locate local goat owners that I could buy or barter goats from after the SHTF. For anyone interested, he told me that the tastiest part of the goat is the tongue. I think I’ll save that for last.

Laws get enforced only when there is an enforcer. Anticipate less law enforcement in rural areas. And deputize yourself. I put on my big boy britches and cracked down on the marijuana growers next door. Slapped a new lock on my gate to prevent access through my property.

The very next day they visited my house and asked what was happening. I told them that further access was dependent upon payment for the damage. They protested and said they had a right to the easement. I told them to call the sheriff if they wanted, but I wasn’t opening the lock without payment.

Two thousand dollars in twenties hit my palm and they came up with the remaining money over the next few weeks. I’ve learned that when it comes to growers, the thing they fear the most is not making it to harvest. $7000 to these fellows is chump change. And, they treat me with a lot more respect.

Folks in your rural location are more citified than you may think. They fill their pantries when they go to the city twice a month. Can’t recognize edible wild plants. And don’t know how to garden. I’m now anticipating that I might have to deal with folks at my door looking for food, just as in cities. I need to improve my knowledge in that area by studying urban survival. On the bright side, I have skills in gardening and foraging and may have enough produce to barter.

Consider that your plans may fail utterly—your retreat may become unusable before SHTF. FUBAR. Total failure. In my case, it could be due to continued drought, a forest fire, or advancing age. I may have to remain in the city. And frankly, I’m not well-prepared for bugging-in.

My plan has been centered on an exodus to the mountains. Back to the drawing board. Add “Option B” to the master plan—survive in place. I recently purchased the Urban Survival course from surviveinplace.com and am finding it to be an excellent collection of materials. I’ve got real work ahead of me, at a late hour.

Perhaps the biggest problem with my plan was that I did not spend serious time choosing my retreat. I chose by price and opportunity. In the end, an impulse purchase. As realtors say, it’s all about location, location, location. Not once-in-a-lifetime deals or large properties with lakes and nice cabins.

As you may have read in Dirt Cheap Survival Retreat, by M.D. Creekmore, it can be done successfully with much less. (I have an excuse—it had not been published yet.) In addition to M.D.’s book and the solid material on MDCreekmore.com, the last several years have brought extensive information all over the Internet.

Most of the largest survival websites have helpful information. Visit the county assessor to research income demographics, tax rolls, and maps. Check with the county planning division or department to see if any major changes are scheduled to take place in your area of interest. Talk to the sheriff about problem areas and crime rates, and types of crime. Put boots on the ground. The only business establishment near me is a very old, tattered tavern.

I’m starting to eat there occasionally, just to listen to the old timers that spend so much time talking about what is going on in our tiny piece of California. They are a wealth of info. I’m driving the backroads to learn more about the lay of the land and the people and their properties. You know, the sort of things I should have done BEFORE buying.

My well-laid plans turned out to be seriously off course. Partly because of a lack of research and an impulsive purchase. Partly because life just happens. But isn’t survival more of a spirit and attitude than any specific action, skill, or equipment?

Experts in wilderness survival all emphasize that attitude or mindset is the most important element of any plan. That’s why so many tiny survival kits give up precious space for a bag of tea and packet of sugar. The first thing you do when you realize that things have gone wrong is to calm down, make a cup of warm tea, mentally regroup, and commit yourself to survival.

Not panic. Not despair. The other supplies in that kit are important, but useless without the will, determination and spirit to endure. I’m older than I want to be. My income has changed drastically. My retreat plan has serious flaws. Let me rephrase that — my retreat plan has serious challenges. But I’m going to make it. I will make it.