It can be easy to find goats, on an overnight 8th grade field trip to the Hidden Villa Hostel at Duvenick Ranch, in the hills above Palo Alto, there was a Saturday afternoon auction that offered a kid goat for sale. The opening bid was only one dollar.I was tempted, not really thinking it through at the time, what would I do with a baby male goat? I guess I made the right decision when I passed it up, settling for some 80 year old books with nice engravings, and a funny old fashioned stiff collared, starched front formal shirt, with snaps up the back.
While the goat barn was under construction, the search for goats began in earnest. We went to a meeting of the Humboldt County Dairy Goat Club, and made some contacts. After a few goat shows, and a goat care clinic, we started making phone calls, visited a few herds and were lucky to find an isolated herd of pure bred Nubian’s, about an hour North. The herd was being bred for quality and color, & the breeder, Daisy, who we refer to as our Goat Guru, in days past had shown goats & bred star milkers, as part of her Homestead menagerie.
On one visit she told us of her memory of the dairy trade when she was a girl, when the day’s cream was shipped out on the southbound train that ran by their pastures. her isolated Eel river valley pasture dotted with old growth Redwood stumps, barns, and old farm house, with requisite fig, black walnut, elderberry, Lilac, Daffodils, Honeysuckle, Roses, Apples, & the over grown flower & vegetable gardens, enchanted us, & with her patient, old time manner, she welcomed our questions, & enthusiasm.
Surveying the large herd with Daisy, She Identified a 7 year old pregnant doe, Adeline, who would be available after her “freshening”, the term goat breeder’s use to indicate a birth & subsequent milk production. Past her prime, when she was registered as a star milker, she was still in the running as a producer, coincidentally, born the year we moved here.
After the herd enlarged in the spring from all the freshening going on, we returned to pick out some likely kids to accompany the veteran doe to her new digs. We picked out 2 with 2 different looks. Nubian Goats Have a wide latitude of markings, coloration & coat length. Some will have beards, some won’t, that was one aspect that led us to Nubian’s, figuring that it indicates a wider genetic diversity. Nubian’s have long pendulous ears, and, so called: Roman nose’s, with characteristic bumps, they produce less milk than some breeds, but the milk has a higher fat content and is favored by cheese makers. Which we one day hoped to become.
Nubian’s have a other reputations too. A County Fair show judge we saw in action with the usual subdued, jargon rich patois of Goat enthusiasts described the attributes of the various Swiss breeds, who stood calm & docile in the ring. When it was time to judge the Nubian’s, he intoned with obvious amusement: “And here come the Nubian’s” as the new judging class was dragged into the ring, bleating, darting here & there, distracted & unruly as their reputation would have it; unusually loud and willful. We thought this behavior charming, as it demonstrated very goaty goats, animals that maintained their animal selves, not fully domesticated for human convenience. Once the most popular breed in the country, Nubian’s are now on the fringe, perfect for us.