This last Sunday we had the pleasure of making our furthest shipment with our goats.  We flew Magic Apple MAD Fallawater and Magic Apple MAH Fearns Pippin to Kona, HI.
 Hawai'i is very rigid with it import protocal and animals must be very healthy and are met upon arrival with an inspection to be able to stay on the island..  This has been an adventure and I'm so happy and blessed to have successfully flown these two over the ocean to their new home, which I'm sure we are all jealous of, LOL!! 
Here is a bit from Heidi, their new owner in Hawai'i:

"I am so impressed with these girls! I am thrilled that I decided to

choose you over the other breeders I found on-line. I will be very

happy to be a reference for you and will keep you in the loop as they

grow up and especially with their first freshening sometime late next

year. I think I told you Dr. Kim was impressed that I had decided to

go to the expense and bother to import new blood to the island and was

equally impressed with how you handled all the requirements and hoop

jumping, and was equally impressed with the girls and how healthy they

are."

"Well, the girls passed their last inspection, but then I am sure you

knew they would! These does are really wonderful. They were patient

in the truck getting to Dr. Kim's office, stood quietly on their

leashes (thank you for them, by the way!) while I talked to Dr. Kim

and did not struggle very much at all while she inspected their eyes

and ears. Dr. Kim was also impressed by you and was happy to see such

healthy baby goats. She was also happy to see someone was bringing in

new blood for Dwarf Nigerians, as she says she sees a lot of animals

that have physical and health issues due to inbreeding."

Starting this blog after disbudding on the second set of 8 babies. First set of mostly boys was done about two weeks ago.  This next set should have happened last Saturday but bright and early Saturday  morning I threw my back out.  

But, by Tuesday night I was ready to get at it after 3 days of what I consider idleness. Just those few extra days made the littler girls buds just that mush bigger that we had to be a little more attentive to burning properly.  It all went flawlessly!The only year I've goofed a doe was the spring right after I had Eli.  Our now 2 year old boy.  Jason and I have a great team effort going here when it comes to disbudding.  While trying to teach a couple our style a couple of years ago, it hit me hard how well him and I work together to make things as smooth and seamless as we can for the sake of the babies.  You see, disbudding is probably the WORST part of goat breeding.  But it is the responsible thing to do when you have a dairy herd.  The only thing I can think of that might be worse than disbudding, is to have an udder torn up and an animal lost due to there being a horned animal in the herd.  On top of that, Nigerians are perfect for families. And who would want to worry about their children around horns??  Not us!
Cherry just had her kids last night. So, when we are ready to disbud them I will get pictures up of Jason and my process.
This year we also opted to bite the bullet and tattoo at the same time as disbudding.  I've always worried that it was too much stress and to try and spread it out.  Well, I tell ya what!!!  I LOVE it!!  Disbudding AND Tattooing is done on 16 kids (17th will be done by Karen at Bridgeport) and they are all already coming out of the scardicatness that goes with the event.  So, CD/T's by 6-8 weeks and these kids are golden.  I only have one set of kids that are being skittish but they are Arcades and she is such a nervous nelly mother, it's no wonder.  They'll need a little extra TLC but not because of the necissities of the trade.