Itty Bitty Hooves

Sell To The Market

It seems I am always doing market research. I’m either watching market trends on goats, goat meat, milk, value added products like soap and cheeses made from goat milk, or following the sales trends of miniature horses, horses in general, and even value added animals in regards to what types of training bring what types of variables in the market place. Same thing with the books. What’s hot at a given moment, how long the moment lasts, how various genres are selling. They all effect my bottom line. There are so many other aspects to good marketing strategy though that as it gets more involved it’s wise to enlist the help of professionals. Finding out what areas of the country are more likely to sell your product well, what places online, how to reach them, all these things get extremely complex. Sales is part of the business no matter what you’re selling from goats to horses, to books, or anything at all, but no one person can do it all, and do it well. Get someone else to study the markets and figure out the best way to reach them, then you can do what you need to do best–sell to that market.

Finally–Rain

We finally got the rain we’ve been praying for. Earlier last week we had a couple of days that thundered a bit and poured down rain for maybe a half hour. Nice, but not nearly enough, and that kind of fast and furious rain doesn’t soak in as well. It tends to run off because it’s coming down too fast and doesn’t stay long enough. Yesterday though we had a constant rain that lasted all day. That’s the kind of rain we really needed. It drenched the ground. Whew. What a relief. Of course, they say tomorrow and for at least a few days after that it’s going to be in the 90’s again. But at least the ground got good and wet. Hopefully our pastures will hold up a while, and hopefully the guy who does our hay will get a good 2nd cutting. I’m hoping for a full four cuttings this year, but to get that we need the kind of rain we got yesterday at least a couple times a month.

Being a little Naughty Sometimes

There are times when my usual uniform of sweat pants and t-shirts just won’t do. There are times when my ’show’ attire of dress pants and jackets won’t do. There are times when I just want to be sexy. Private times usually, although sometimes even when I want to feel sexy underneath business, or work clothes. Usually though, when I’m in the mood to be extra playful with my husband. After all somethings aren’t meant to be hidden beneath clothing. Whether it’s open tip bras, or lacy panties there are just times when something a little special is the perfect way to set up an evening of snuggling. It’s fun to be a little naughty sometimes.

Finally Some Decent Pasture Shots

I’m still trying to get that perfect shot and it eludes me. This time, however, I managed to catch a few of the girls wandering out in the pasture and not hanging in by me crowding around my bench. Here’s one:

And another:

And I never did post a picture of the two girls we got at the swap in May. I can never quite seem to get a good picture of them. Today’s no real exception, but since I really want to get SOMETHING up to show I’ll just post the one I managed to get of their backsides, lol:

And of course Oreo, our newest little addition at 3 weeks old, born here at the end of May is growing like a weed, but is always right by me when I’m outside:

All in all, just another lovely day here at the ranch playing with the goats.

New Digs

Well I did quite a bit of work last night. The weather was just cool enough (it was setting up for rain overnight yay!) so I moved some of the pannels of the new small barn pen so that they had access to the inside of the small barn and then moved the dairy goats over from the big barn into that pen so they could go out with the rest of the girls and browse during the day. Then I moved the milking stand from the big barn to the small barn (whew what a pain in the butt. They better like it over here because I’m not moving it back) and the feed bucket.

I still have a few more small things to move over but it’s so much fun to see the entire herd together. All that’s missing is Mickey and Savvy who are in their seperate run/paddock for breeding and because I don’t want Mickey in with the rest since there are a couple close to kidding.

Forever Memories

Photos create lasting impressions of people and animals in our lives that give us permanent keepsakes to remember special times and events. I love to look through the numerous photo albums we have of our kids (human, lol) as they grew, our first house, and then when we moved out here our farm. Seeing the evolution of our lives played out in the pages and remembering each and every moment that would otherwise probably be forgotten if left only to memory.

Now I’m so excited because I’ve had a chance to partake in a great deal and get a 16×20 canvas made of my favorite photo. Canvas On Demand can turn any photo into a true work of art to be placed on your walls. They can even help with making the photo better by restoring aged photos, or fixing lighting, or other editing needs, and even replace backgrounds that might otherwise clutter the space and take away from the main focus of the picture. They even have a technique where their artists create brushstrokes making the picture look like an original painting! The examples on their website are just beautiful and I can’t wait to get mine.

To find out how to get your photo enlargement availble in a wide assortment of sizes from 8×10 all the way up to the huge 40×60 check out their website and see how easy it is using either a digital camera and sending them the print online, or a traditional photo from your collection sent by postal mail in one of their special mailers. I can’t wait to show you mine. I’ll post a picture of it here when I get it. Now all I have to do is decide which photo I want to send. LOL It will definately be one of the animals. I’m trying to decide between Mark, our Grand Champion mini stallion, or Mickey, our massively impressive Boer buck… then again there are some really cool shots of the girls. Do you think I might be spending a lot of time at the Canvas on Demand site in the future?

I changed my mind. In going through my pictures to decide I came across something special. Instead of using an animal that we have here with us, I decided to use this special offer to give my husband a gift. A canvas portrait of his beloved Justice that passed away a year ago. This is the picture I sent in. I will post a picture of the canvas when it gets here. I know it will bring a tear to Bob’s eyes for sure.

Friendly kids

One thing I really didn’t take too much into consideration when thinking about getting back into goats this spring was whether they were friendly or not. I’ve never owned an unfriendly goat, or one that didn’t want to be around people, or be touched, or was hard to catch. Goats just seem to really like humans as a rule. At least that’s how I’d always known them to be. Certainly it’s more the rule than the exception with dairy goats. Those are all I’d ever owned before so maybe that’s why the perception I had of goats liking people. Dairy goats have to be handled daily. Usually twice daily. So they’re quite accustomed to being handled. Add to that that the majority of dairy kids are bottle fed making them EXTREMELY human bonded and you have the recipe for love.

Just recently getting involved with meat goats where the animals are generally not handled as often, or bottle raised I’ve found that many of them are hard to catch, or touch. I still don’t have any ‘mean’ ones, or none that don’t like me. They come running, BUT, they stay just out of arms reach whenever possible. LOL Recently I started looking for a purebred Boer doe and one of the breeders wrote me that the one I was looking at was very personable and liked being handled. She went on to say that most breeders don’t care. I DO. Short of building expensive shoots and catch pens I am doing my darndest to make the few I have here at least catchable. They don’t have to be lovey, in your face, like my dairy girls are, and my bottle raised kids are, but I need to be able to catch them for health care.

Now I know from new experience that it’s not necessarily a ‘bottle raised’ thing. My newest little Alpine doeling that was born here in May is being raised by her mother and she’s still the friendliest little in your face climb all over you thing on the planet. I’m really hoping that the Boer kids born here will be too just because I’m out there so often.

Pied Piper Of Goats

I just love my goats. I’ve owned just about every type of livestock there is through the years from chickens to horses. The only thing I haven’t personally owned is cattle, but family members have so I even have experience with them. Goats are, by far, in my opinion the most personable and friendly livestock type animal. Perhaps it could be argued second to horses, but horses in this day and age are most commonly pets not livestock. We own quite a few horses as well, but I’ll tell you, for the most part, I’d count the goats one up on them for personality and fun to be around. I just now between posts went outside into the pastures as I do several times a day to do head counts. (One little caveat to the great livestock to be around with goats thing is that they are master escape artists no matter how good your fencing is.) I have yet to have a true escape yet because by and large, our place is set up that if someone goat, horse, or chicken gets out of a pasture area, they are simply in another pasture area. Mostly I just want to be sure they’re in the one I want them in, not mixed in with a different grouping, or in a pasture I’m letting ‘rest’, so I go out periodically every hour or two to ‘count heads’. That’s what I was doing. I went out to check on one of the groups I had out today to make sure they were where I wanted them to be. Some of the area isn’t easily visible unless you walk down into the thick of the trees and brush. There were no goats to be seen. I called.

They came running. The whole little herd I had in that particular area came running to me as happy as could be that I came out to see them. Like they’d never seen me before out in their area. Like I’m not out there every hour or two. Like there was no one else on earth that could please them more to see. They came for their scratches and hugs. I made sure all was well with each, especially since a couple of them are pregnant. I petted them some more then turned to go back into the house. As I walked back through the field to the entrance I looked back.

There was a long line of goats following me like the Pied Piper. All I was missing was a flute.

I love my goats.

The Right Home For Your Pets.

I was at the store last night to get some filters and food for our fish tanks and stood by the store’s tanks just staring at the tiger barbs. I came awfully close to buying a small school of them. It’s so tempting when things like that come up to just do it without really thinking about what that particular animal, or in this case, fish needs. At about 1.20 a piece it wouldn’t be a costly thing if it didn’t work out. I think that’s what happens so often with fish. Generally speaking they aren’t the most expensive animals to buy so much less care and concern goes into whether you have the right place for them, or if you have enough of a certain kind for them to be happy. The Tiger Barbs do best in groups of 5 or more. They’re not big fish, but that’s still a number to put into a tank. Is there room in the tank for that many? Will they get along with what other fish might already be in residence. I found out the hard way myself a few months back when I moved a few of my guppies into a tank with red barbs that they (the red barbs) like to eat the long fins of the guppies. It was fast. Overnight. Fish without fins can’t swim–therefore they can’t survive. Now, I have no shortage of guppies in my main guppy tanks, and well, if you have fish, you know that in the wild fish very often eat other fish. So it’s just a fact of life, and not really something to go nuts about when it happens, but if you have fish in your tank you would rather not see get eatten, you’d best know what you’re going to be putting in with them. There are lots of other considerations when bringing a new pet home, whether it’s a fish, a dog, a cat, or even a horse. Too often we buy first and think later. I’ve seen it often on the forums I visit where someone buys a horse and then comes on and asks how it should be fed, housed, handled, etc. The time to ask those questions isn’t after the animal is in your home, but rather before you decide to buy them.

Life’s Curve Balls

Maybe they’re not really curve balls though. Maybe they’re God’s way of saying something isn’t right with what you’re doing.

For instance:

I really wanted that pretty little buckling in Ohio. I was working hard to scrape the money together. He wasn’t that expensive. In fact, he was being sold at a fantastically affordable price… it was the gas that was killing me. Every time I thought I was going to have it something came up. Finally this week I’d managed to scrape it up once more and was hoping to go next weekend and get him and we had a huge blow with truck repairs. There went the money.

I thought about how unfair it was. It is. But maybe it was God’s way of saying ‘Hey, this is too hard. You’re forcing something that isn’t meant to be and somewhere deep down you know it. I know you’d rather spend your money on something else, but I’m making you spend it on something necessary instead…AND keeping you from doing something that will send you off on a different road than the one you’re planning’.

Well, maybe anyway. What do you think? Does life throw curve balls, or does God just intervene once in awhile to keep you on the right road?