Tribute to Rasberry : January 26, 2000 - April 21, 2010

LaVerne's Rasberry Baret gave up life overnight after 10 great years of service and companionship. This picture is her a couple months ago before she had her last set of twins. Ten years, twenty kids, and ten productive years of milk production are just some of the distinctions this grand old lady takes across the rainbow bridge with her.

She has always been a very special doe to me for many reasons. She was bred by my dear friend in Delta Colorado, LaVerne Charles, and was not bottle raised like the goats we have and therefore not very people friendly. She was definitely a one-man goat. My goat. Even Al would have troubles at time getting her in for milking if she was inclined toward tempermental. And if you asked friends and neighbors who have helped with chores when we were out of town, she was always a handful. But never for me.

She is a cross-bred dairy goat. She is half LaMancha and half Oberhasli. She gets her beautiful bay color with the black trim from the Oberhasli color pallete and both the LaMancha and Oberhasli breeds are enjoyed for their mild mannered personalities.

At age 4, she had many triumphs. She was Grand Champion Recorded Grade dairy goat at an ADGA sanctioned show. The pictures of her being posed are from that show. She did not show again after that year. Later that summer, she contracted a very tough case of mastitis which nearly took her from us then. But with her strong will and the right medications and love, she survived. The triumph of survival was not without its price it resulted in the lost of one half of her udder. But she continued to produce kids and milk right up to the end with her half udder. At the end she was still producing nearly a gallon of milk a day with her one function side.

Today we will give her body back to the earth with her memory firmly planned with us for a lifetime. She leaves behind last year's and this year's doe kids with us and her 3 year old daughter is soon to freshen at a nearby dairy.

May Rasberry rest in peace.

Picking Up Chicks on a Friday Night!

What a strange title for a post on the Matrix Compound. But the woman at the Elbert convenience store gave it to us. Funny how things stick.

We have taken the plunge at the Matrix Compound to get our own chickens again. In Gallup we had chickens, guinneas, ducks, geese and muskovee ducks. But since we have been back in CO we have not ventured into the feathered world.

I more or less took it upon my self to research some cool custom coops that are offered on Craigs List and moved forward with the move to our own eggs once again.

Since our friend, Barry, moved to New Mexico, we have not had the benefit of home grown eggs. So we hope by late summer our newly chosen flock is providing that.

We have 20 chicks (hopefully all pullets) of three varieties. We have 12 Aracaunas, 2 Gold Star and 6 Patridge Rocks. They are resting comfortably in a water tank with heat, feed and water tonight in our outdoor kitchen. We hope to get the coop in the next week or so and move them into it right away.

We have other pictures but this one seems to capture their current environment.