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Meet Willow and Birch

Willow and Birch are the ranches first sheep and we are in love with them! Both were not handled much when they were younger so they are still warming up to us but they are getting along great with the goats.

Willow is a 6-month-old Royal White and Black Belly mix ewe (plus some other things but not sure exactly). Which means she is the mixture of a hair sheep and wool sheep. This combo is perfect for the ranch because we can use her wool (and if her kids have wool) to make dryer balls; plus hair sheep are a much milder meat so when it comes to feeder lambs the meat should be a much better quality.

Shang and Elsa meeting Willow.

Birch is a 6-month-old Desert Painted Lamb and I just have to take a moment to appreciate his coloring. A Desert Painted Lamb is considered a purebred mixture of Mouflons and Black belly sheep. Which are both hair sheep and great for people whom have issues with lanolin and don't necessarily want goats. I do have to say he is a very good companion for willow ever since they were introduced to each other she has not left his side.

Meet Elsa and Anna

They are 1 year old boer goat does who we purchased from a wonderful family who were moving and couldn't take them with them. We were delaying this post because they are kinda bullies and we were debating getting rid of them. Now that we have them separated they are doing grate and we are happy to have them. Anna and Elsa are from the same herd but are distant cousins who act more like sisters. We believe Anna is about 3-4 months younger then Elsa but are both about one year old. They are very bossy but can be supper sweet when they want to.

Since they are meat goats we will be breeding them to raise their babies for meat. which will be hard but it is a necessity of life and I would rather know how my animals are treated before being taken for food.

Life in the Robison House

   Just thought I would send you all an update this morning my life has been full of ups and downs over the past month. At the beginning of May I was so excited that we finally had several goats and chickens but then towards the middle of the month our chickens unexpectedly started dying we lost 8 in the course of one week. 4 to being eaten by animals and 5 to coccidia which was heart breaking but all is good now and all are healthy. 

   Then May 18th sitting here home alone the phone rings and my fathers coworker thinking I am my mom tells me I need to come down to my dads work because he had been in a motorcycle after he realized who he was talking to he assured me that he was awake. It turns out that a truck was in the process of breaking down and in the attempt to get out of LA traffic he cut across 3 lanes of traffic at a 45* angle. In his attempt he cut off my father multiple times but at first my dad had noticed the truck. After being cut off yet again in the far right lane my dad moved to the shoulder to get around the truck where the truck proceeded directly in front of my father no blinkers or any warning. My father got hooked on the bumper of the truck where he broke is collar bone on impact and was spun backwards and thrown 15 feet into a cement wall where he fractured 2 vertebrate and 4 ribs.

  

   I thank God that 3 nurses and an EMT were in the vehicle behind them and were able to get him steady in case his back was in fact broken and an impossible 7 minutes in LA rush hour the ambulance arrived and took my father to the trauma center where unfortunately to trauma was about to start. When he arrived they had him in a back and neck brace laying flat on his back which made it hard to breathe due to his ribs. 5 hours later when my mom and granma finally made it to the hospital my dad was able to be sat up because none of the nurses or doctors were listening to him. 7 hours after being admitted my mom was able to beg the nurse to give him water or start intravenous fluids because he was becoming severely dehydrated. At 8 oclock the next morning 14 hours after the accident my dad was discharged because they were unable to do anything for him because we do not live in Los Angeles county. Thankfully my mom knew and orthopedic surgeon and was able to get him in the next day to make sure there wasn't anything wrong because we couldn't tell he was up and walking he just felt like a giant bruise. This is when we found out his injuries. after several weeks of trying to get his ribs healed my dad was able to get his shoulder and collar bone pinned back together June 1st. How ever we do know that God has been with us because June 8th my dad was able to return to work and June 14th he is starting to relearn how to drive since he doesn't have full motion in his left shoulder. One good thing did come out of this accident though he and my family have been re-evaluating their health.

What do we feed: Goats

We like to keep our animals on a holistic and natural diet, but we do give them the occasional treat that you wouldn't see a wild goat eating. For the main part of their diet they forage through native weeds that pop up on there own and use no water. This is great since we are in a drought and don't want to waste any water. While the weeds are great they do not give the goats as much protein as they need so we give them alfalfa hay. Since our goats are darker in color they can easily get copper deficiency so we have provided them with a mineral block formulated for goats. On special occasions we will also give our goats kelp powder which gives them a boost of fiber, selenium and other fantastic vitamins. When it's cold or our goats need a little boost we will also give them molasses water which they love! In the near future we will be swapping hay for fodder so our goats will be grass fed and on a fresh diet.  

What do you want to know about our goats? What do you feed your goats?

Sandy's Kidding Schedule

Sandy is our nubian doe who is pregnant but no one really knows when she is due. Her previous owner left the bucks in with the does so there really is no telling unless you gave her a pregnancy test daily. However her previous owner gave us a projected kidding date of the last week in July (putting us 88 days out). Now is when it gets tricky because lets face it goats don't like to follow rules. Most first time fresheners (first pregnancy) tend to "make their udders" around a month before kidding and if this is the case we should be expecting babies around May 20th, or Sandy is just a prankster and is a month ahead of schedule. Personally for her comfort we are hoping that the babies will make their appearance in May so she doesn't get to hot giving birth in the July heat. Considering her udder doubled in size just yesterday I would assume she is getting close but all we can do is pray. While we are on the topic of her pregnancy I also wanted to let you all know that we have already found a home for one baby and the new owner can't wait to see her little spotted bundle (hopefully spotted). Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day!

This is the most recent pic on my computer but will add an updated one ASAP

Sandy finally had her kids Thursday June 25, 2015 one girl and one boy. They are happy, healthy and beautiful! To go along with the theme of nick cartoon names we have named Sandy's babies Pearl and Plankton. Pearl looks just like her mom with their very cute and unique spots. 

Plankton on the other hand looks a lot more like his dad with one spot on his right side. Even though they look so different they do share a birth mark, a faded white dot right behind their right ear.

Meet the Chickens

Tuesday me my mom and sister in law went and picked up 15 adorable baby chicks. As of right now we believe they are all hens but we won't know until they start laying eggs. We decided to purchase vaccine free chicks which are being fed unmedicated hormone free feed. We made this choice because we our selves do not get vaccinated and want to be independent from the outside world when it comes to our animals. It has been interesting getting used to them and learning how to handle them but they are all great. So far we can only distinctively identify 2 of the 15 their names are Diamond (white/black) and Carol (black/yellow) I will add pictures of these two tomorrow. They already know how to catch bugs to today as we were filling their feeders one caught a mosquito hawk and shared it with the others. I can't wait to see them all grown up.

Photo cred: Natasha Robison (Natasha Robison Photography)