We’ve had quite the month, from puppies and kittens to goats.

Selah blessed us with 6 gorgeous Maremma Sheepdog puppies on April 1st !  3 Girls and 3 Boys,   already weighing over 3lbs this week!

3 Boys (Above)

3 Girls (Above)

Selah is an excellent mother, very attentive to her litter and yet willing to let us step in when needed.

Their sire, Mario is a wonderful Livestock Guardian who has an amazing temperament.  You will often find him playing nicely with the goats or laying in the pasture with a chicken on his back.  We trust him completely with all our animal babies!

Just a few days later,  Holly our Blue Cream Tortie graced us with 5 cuddly kittens.

We’re thinking the sire was a long hair gray cat from next door, as these are all gray and looks like we’ll have a couple long hair babies in this litter.

Our calico girl “Maple” did an amazing job, helping Holly with her litter!  She helped Holly, cleaning Mama, kittens, and even helped nurse the babies.

However, a week later and the favor was returned as Maple had 3 beautiful babies of her own.

They are just one big happy family!

If puppies and kittens weren’t enough, we added a few Nigerian Dwarf babies .  We have really been admiring  the size, nature, and milk of the Nigerian Dwarfs  They have a higher Butterfat content, making even closer to cow’s  milk.  So, we picked up a couple nice does with great milking lines and a pinto colored buck  kid to breed in the future.

We’re really excited about their lines from Prairiewood and Little Tots.

Liltumbleweed Cookies N’ Cream (“Hershey”) -Dark Chocolate & White Pinto

Liltumbleweed Cinnamon Dolce (“Latte”) – Cream w/Blue Eyes

Big Mtn Country Reeses Pieces (“Reese”) – White Pino Buckskin w/Blue Eyes

Spring has sprung and we are expecting some beautiful babies on the farm!

Our Maremma LGD “Selah” is expecting her 2nd litter within the next couple weeks and looks like we have a nice sized litter on their way.  X-rays revealed approximately 6 puppies, with the potential of a couple hidden pups. We’ll keep you posted.

We are also expecting two litters of kittens from our Tortie/Calico girls.  We’re excited to see what fun colors we will receive from these litters.

We’ve bred our Nubian Goats, who should be due in June.

and have added some new Angoras (French & English) & American Fuzzy Lops to the farm!

Love spring time on the farm!!

We have been so blessed with such awesome puppy owners! Our puppies from our last litter are 7 months old and have been such a stellar litter all the way around. We received this update from Maedae’s owner “AKA Black” – ” I could not be more happy! She is the best girl, wicked smart, easy, great with the stock. I love her, her temperament, and her drive so much I am on the list for another puppy from Maria this coming spring 💗 You won’t be sorry!” Maedae has also already earned her CGC!! So proud of Maedae and her owner!!!

These pups are growing fast!  Temperament test is this weekend and I’m sure they are going to do awesome!  They all come running as we step out into the pen.  They’ve heard thunder and lightening, played with the neighborhood children and are enjoying all the visitors to our farm.  They love the goats and wish they could spend every waking moment with them, they are just big dogs after all!  Mama Selah is having fun playing with them too!

They are 12-13lbs and eating well!  They enjoy the toys in the yard and finding sticks to play with.  They are so curious, some more confident than others but always willing to checkout what’s new and what adventure is ahead.  Such an  amazing litter and can’t wait to see families with these beautiful and intelligent puppies.

The puppies are growing more independent by the day.  Now on kibble and mush, adventuring out and exploring with the goats.  Mama is spending more time away and puppies are bundles of fun.  Now, ranging from 6-7lbs each at 4 weeks old.  We have introduced them to a dog door, which leads to a separate run for Mama and the puppies.  However, most of the puppies have figured out how to slip through the gates and visit the goats during the day.  They also like the cool shade under the “Buck Barn.”

Little Green Girl likes to sit in the middle of the food bowl and eat the food around her.  Teal Boy is our food hog, jumping from one bowl to the other.  Black Girl is the smallest at just under 6lbs, but she is also the most laid back of the group. (she’s the one falling asleep in the food bowl).  Red Girl and Blue Girl are the most active of the group.  While Purple loves to set herself apart and hang with the goats, instead of sleeping with her puppy mates (that’s her sleeping on the goat side of the barn).

We are so enjoying our time with them, so fun to watch them quickly becoming more independent.

Puppies are growing stronger each day.  Getting harder to photo, they are everywhere now. Officially, 2 weeks today. Little growls can be heard, as one climbs on the other. So fun watching personalities emerge. All over 3lbs now.

The puppies  are a week old and gaining weight.  They love to huddle, just like this!  Ms. Black just topped 2 lbs and Ms. Blue is already closing in on  almost 3lbs.  These little ones are peeking at us , as their eyes begin to open.  Their Mama is amazing and is great about counting each one when she walks back into the whelping box and keeping each one so clean.

We were blessed with 6 gorgeous puppies from Selah our beautiful Maremma Sheepdog. 

5 Girls and 1 Boy

Selah is a wonderfully attentive and caring mother.  She watches us carefully always supervising our visits with the puppies carefully, but always willing to let us care for her and the pups. 

Interested in a Maremma Sheepdog puppy?  Fill out our application online.

Maremma Sheepdog Application

 We were so excited for Faith to arrive the second week of April .  The weather was thankfully perfect, because it didn’t take but thirty minutes before we were chasing across our neighbor’s yard.  Our daughter was walking Faith on the leadline when Faith was spooked by one of our chickens.  Faith may be small, but she is mighty.  She dragged Ella a few feet, before Ella dropped the lead line and the chase was on. We didn’t realize how fast cows are, especially young ones!   The sellers were really nice and helped us finally corner Faith near a ravine  at the neighbor’s house about a mile away.   Needless to say, our next project is going to be some perimeter fencing for our property to keep all our quick  critters on our property.

 

We lost a few nice Marans and needed some good meat chickens, so we invested in 25 new chicks this year.  We decided to go with Delawares this year, as they are a heritage breed known for their good meat and their egg laying abilities. Kids will be putting together a meat pen this year for 4H and hoping this time they will make it to fair.  We tried Freedom Ranger’s last year and they maxed out a few weeks before fair and couldn’t walk, so we had to butcher them earlier than planned.  These Delawares are meant to be dual purpose, so we’re hoping make for better meat birds come fair time.  

Our daughter’s Satin Angora  Buck, “Blizzard” took Best of Breed at the Colorado State Convention in Gunnison, Colorado.  While our son’s Holland Lop Buck, “Justice” took a nice 2nd at the Holland Lop Specialty Show against many beautiful Holland’s.  

Stay tuned, as we are anticipating a nice litter of Holland’s and Satin Angora’s in the coming weeks.  

 

 

Jedi is doing awesome, but was very lonely.  We found out that the kids are not able to show bucks in 4H, so we decided to purchase a couple nice unrelated does to show and breed to in the future.  We looking at showing Jedi at some American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) shows, later in the year.  Ray a darling little Red Roan and her sister, Aspen were three weeks old when they came to us, just a week older than Jedi.

 

 Now, we have three beautiful bottle babies

who come from excellent milking lines with amazing conformation to boot.  

The goat kids are doing well and Jedi is so happy to have friends his own age.

 Although, he’ll be leaving in a few weeks to his own  separate shelter.  He will have a darling little Southdown Babydoll Ram lamb that will join him in April.  Unfortunately, bucks can be physically mature at 2 -3 months. and don’t want Jedi breeding so early.  We’ll be waiting until the fall to breed him to the older girls we have here, in hopes of some Nubian goat kids in the early spring of 2018. 

Santi our Maremma Livestock Guardian is 6 months now and all puppy, but has already filled out to over 60lbs.

 We realized that Santi really needed a playmate and a companion when guarding.  Guardian dogs work best in pairs, so I contacted a “Code of Ethics” breeder in Minnesota who was known for Maremma’s with excellent health, conformation, and temperment.  We wanted to make sure the foundation of our Maremma breeding program would be from quality and health tested lines.  Our prayers were answered when the breeder informed us another buyer just withdrew their deposit on a breeding female and that a puppy was available for us.  Within a week, “Selah” joined our family.  

She has been such a blessing!  She has a wonderful personality, cautious and yet so friendly.  Willing and ready to learn, always under foot and loves to just hang out with animals or people.  We couldn’t be more pleased with her and Santi is sure glad to have someone to romp around with, although Selah still has some growing to do.  

Selah climbs all over him and they take turns diving off straw bales, they are having a blast together.  Praying they will not only be great friends, but also wonderful guardians of our herd.  

With all our new additions, we had to think about expanding our shelters.  Ken has been working hard to complete fencing for all the girls that will be moving to the main barn, our two Southdown Babydolls and 5 Nubian Goats.  

While the 2 boys (sheep and goat) will move to the smaller shed, just down the hill.  I know the girls will love the new space and room to spread out, plus we’ll have a stall just for birthing too.  

All these new babies, we can definitely tell Spring is in the air.  The weather has been unseasonably warm and among all the busyness we are just now planning out our garden for the season.  The kids and I took time to plant some seeds, in hopes they’ll be ready to plant in another few weeks when the garden is ready.

 Even Selah wanted to help  plant seeds…..

Such a busy time of year! Keep and eye out for photos of the arrival of our  Mini Jersey and newest little lamb to join the farm and some surprise additions coming in June for Father’s Day!