High Desert Gems Homestead

05/06/2026

I bet my evening milking helper is better than yours!!!

“2 baaa’s mom!” Is what we’re labeling this particular song. (Our goats or the neighbors sheep, you won’t know until you ask which baa’s he’s talking about)

Tonight’s song was on repeat about 4x and included the sheep next door, passing cars & his bus. The goats didn’t seem to mind the song wasn’t about them tho.

04/28/2026

4H can be a rough ride sometimes!! Especially in the beginning each season!

04/28/2026

The 4H life is not for the faint of heart!
Sometimes it’s wild & crazy!

04/26/2026

5 full days in on the mineral buffet & have already had to refill 9 different ones!

I expected iron & selenium because the girls just recently all kidded and we are deficient in selenium all over our area.

It’s cool to see what they prefer based on their individual needs. Some goats go for one mineral more than another while another goat is totally opposite. I’ve found myself sitting out with them more just to watch them.

04/24/2026

Anyone else’s goats looks like mud muffins?
They have muck in ALL the places!!

We had a really dry winter followed by the wettest April on record for our area.
I’ve gone from using wipes to clean udders to rolls of paper towels just to get the mud off their udders so I can milk them! Haha!

One benefit has been softer hoofs so trimming has been a breeze compared to the middle of summer when their hoofs are so much harder!

Thinking I need to implement my “goat wash” equivalent to a car wash! (The kids are going to be THRILLED!) 😄

04/23/2026

Finally took the plunge!

This is something I’ve been wanting to add for a while now but finally made the time to actually do it.

Minerals are vital to every breeding program and every species. Our goats always have it, however I’ve always heard such great things about the mineral buffet and the benefits breeders see using it.

I finally ordered it last week and put the feeder together. We stuck it under the barn awning so the minerals aren’t exposed to rain. So far the girls seem to love it. There’s a few I can already tell we will need to refill. Which is great! They get exactly what they need when they need it.

I’m excited to see how they like it and respond to having the individual minerals in a buffet style.

04/22/2026

We have a muddy rainy mess today but even so it’s still too nice to pass up the time for some projects.

While some of the work is outside, there’s also an inside project happening!! (That will be moved outside when done)

04/17/2026

What a day we had yesterday!!

Summer kidded early this afternoon with 2 💙. Sadly we had to cull one of them. From the start his breathing just wasn’t right & he never perked up. We couldn’t get any colostrum into him and he really just had no fight. This was the first baby we lost this kidding season.

The evening was gorgeous, after rain for a good chunk of the day we got a sunset that had the cloud parting just right to make the tops of trees look like they were on fire.

Acorn, a FF, ended our Nigerian kidding season with a bang!! This girl outdid herself. 4 babies!! 3 💙 1🩷, all healthy & active. 1 little guy is just itty bitty, and photos don’t do his size justice. The kids have already named him “Mr. Biggs”.

The nicest part was both girls kidded unassisted & not in the middle of the night! We’ve been extremely lucky this year and had all our does kid during the hours we are already up & about.

Since we are under a freeze warning tonight & Acorn kidded so late in the evening (9:30pm) we have all the ones born today in the house.

Kidding season for us will officially be over when Charlotte the sable kids. She’s not due until May 12th. So we have some time to breath for a minute.

Our kid count is now 12💙 10🩷 1💔

04/13/2026

04/12/2026

It has been a very busy few days!

Both our Boers FINALLY kidded! They bred with one of our Nigerian bucks, so we have mini Boers. The human kids love them, but for now the long term plan for them is freezer camp. I know for some that’s hard to process, but our goal is providing as much food for ourselves as possible and goats, both dairy & meat help with that goal. Knowing where our food comes from, how the animals are treated and the care given is a big reason why we choose the animals we do.

Jellybean (Boer #1) kidded Thursday 1🩷 (Cupcake) - she’s NOT an attentive mom. Even after being penned in a single pen with her baby for several days she would prefer to not deal with her baby at all. This morning after still not bonding well, we decided it was best to pull her from jellybean and raise cupcake with our dairy babies. This was not the goal for these goats. Being meat goats we wanted these babies left with their mama’s until weaning, but Jellybean decided that wasn’t going to happen. So to ensure Cupcake was happy, healthy & most important, FED, this was necessary.

Hazel (Boer #2) kidded Friday 1💙 1🩷 - Hazel has been great with her kids. We are excited to see them grow some this is a new breed for us.

Today we had one more Nigerian kid. Phoenix who is a first time mama (First Freshener or FF) 2 🩷 - she has a gorgeous udder. I’ve been anticipating this kidding for a long time. For now these 2 girls will be retained.

We still have 3 more mama’s to go. Although Charlotte our 1 Sable, isn’t due until the middle of May.

Current kid count 9 🩷 / 6 💙