NorthRidge Farms

What's in common with these does? Other than them all being gorgeous ❤ These girls are all first fresheners, and they're all sired by the same buck! Hollands Haven Cappuccino, one of my very first registered bucks. We call it the Demi line since his dam is our oldest foundation doe, Softwine Demitasse, and more than half our herd is related to her. I couldn't be more pleased with the consistency in this line of goats ☺️

Another beautiful first freshener who just wows me every time I see her on the stand. I think this one may be my favorite..
2-year-old Carmal Farm AL Adel (Dreahook Farm AL Atlas x Stonebroke Farm ND Poppy) At just 2 weeks fresh 😍
Her dam I've long admired. As soon as I found out I could get my hands on one of her daughters I took it, and she did NOT disappoint!

We have some pretty exciting announcements to be made soon, but for today's announcement we officially ended our Spring 2023 kidding season with a very unexpected, nerve-racking, and in the end pleasant experience.
Our first and oldest foundation doe, Softwine Demitasse, kidded yesterday at 10:44 am with triplets. The unexpected thing about Demi is that for one she's 10 years old, she wasn't on the breeding schedule, and she hasn't really shown signs of going into heat over the last two years. I had finally come to terms that she was most likely done with kidding. She's always been my deepest-bodied doe so it was no surprise I hadn't really noticed any change in her stomach, and when I went to bump her I could never really feel anything solid like a kid. But back in the beginning of May I had noticed that her tiny dried-up udder looked the slightest bit bigger, and she started to look looser in the back. I called and asked our vet for their opinion and they suggested that it could be a false pregnancy since she I hadn't seen her with any bucks. The latest breeding date I had was for June 5th. That doe did end up kidding on her due date and with Demi just getting more and more uncomfortable by the day, sitting on her hind legs, biting her ankles, and labored breathing we went ahead and gave her lute and dex under the instructions of our vet (especially now with the poor quality air we have from Canadian wildfires) so that I could make sure I was there in case I had to assist if things were to go wrong. We luted her on the 5th, then 24 hours go by and nothing, after 38 hours of waiting and on the 7th in the morning right before I had to go to work I checked to see if she had dilated at all, and as soon as I did she started pushing. I think waiting for the first kid to come out was really the scariest part of it. I had no idea what term these babies were going to be, if they were going to have missing limbs, or stuck in a tricky position 😵‍💫 But luckily after the first, BIG, full-term buck came out, it was smooth sailing ahead. As soon as I was done drying one kid off I'd turn around and see another kid already out, still in the sack.
In the end, she gave me two big bucklings and a tiny little doeling. All alive and all doing very well 💕 I'll be letting her keep the tiny doeling while being supplemented and the two big bucklings are being bottle-fed. I'm just so happy everyone is alive and doing well and couldn've asked for a better kidding season 🥳 Demi's outdone herself and even gave me one last Demi doeling and one of those two beautiful bucks to retain.
I believe I also know who the father is since these two bucks are chamosiee, and my only cham buck I have also happened to be the buck I had out and bred to the doe due on the 5th, so it all lines up! Not exactly sure how it happened since I had been there the whole time and only had him out for no more than 30 minutes, but mom and all kids are doing good and that's all I care about. Kids will of course all be DNA'd and if anyone is interested in a steller buckling this is a rare opportunity to sn**ch up a Demi kid. I've retained all of her daughters, multiple bucks, and even sought after some more daughters that were born before I was given the opportunity to own this beautiful goat 💛

So far our kid count is at 14 kids and counting!
5 doelings, and 9 bucklings.
These girls did NOT get the memo, but I will say this has been a good opportunity to learn some self-control. We still have 6 more does left to kid so we'll see how that goes.. for now here are some pictures of our 2023 kids!