We love a good walk down memory lane and found some great baby photos of our goats. Its kind of amazing it's been 16 years since the first little goats arrived for Mary's 8th birthday. Jelly has been there this whole time, and celebrates her sweet 16th birthday this month. What a good baby goat.

Jelly's first baby CocoPuff came along in 2009, but we lost her in 2023.

Also a favorite is Nubelette our Nubian with much personality. This picture is from a cruise ship market in 2015, where she was dressed as a pirate.

Miss Boo Boo, short for Bozhe Moi, is our other Nubian goat, sleeping at another cruise market in 2013.

And of course Jasper's mom, Wonky, named for a curly horn she later broke, making herself at home in the grain bin in 2014.

And Jelly's final baby in 2017, Misha who is never without a smirk and antics.

How has it been so many years? Its been much fun, thats how.

Poptart's Goat Cart

I have been working on a cargo ebike in my garage. It started as a regular trike, but I added a 1000 watt motor on the front wheel, and welded a cargo area onto the back. the main goal was to train my baby goat Poptart to ride in the back while she was still small.

Poptart did pretty well learning the bike (goats are good sports). She went on a picnic to the lake, and even rode with me in the big Astoria Regatta Parade where she wore a little princess crown. A cute video of that is on my Instagram Most of the work I did I streamed live on my Twitch stream. Its been a great experience over the last three years to share my goats and projects. So far we've learned welding, concrete, woodworking, lots of cooking and of course making goat milk soap, whick is for sale on my Etsy store. I haven't posted to YouTube reliably in a while, but there are some great videos up there still.

Greeting Cruise Ship Passengers with New Golden Guernsey Goats

This year my helpers for the 2019 market season are new babies, Petal and Thorny. We usually have Toggenburgs because they are famous for giving lots of milk. These are a cross between a Toggenburg and a Golden Guernsey.

Golden Guernseys are a bit smaller than our Toggenburgs, but are also famous for being good milkers. Their mom is our Togg, Sugar, and their dad, Cloud, has long white fur with a light golden frost. These babies are cute, but are already fairly crafty.

Our local farmers market sets up at the Port to greet arriving cruise ship passengers, so their first outing was to greet passengers of the Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship.

We made a video of their antics, which is up on YouTube:

Also, if you'd like to try our goat milk soap, check out my Etsy shop here

Mary"s Milk Monsters

Chevre Cheese Puffs

In the spring when baby goats are in full force, there is the most milk, and therefore the best time to make cheese. We make a quick chevre, or soft fresh cheese, so we can get back out to the barn to watch the babies play. This is our favorite recipe for using a lot of cheese. It's also easy to add favorite herbs or bacon bits... anything.

4 cups soft fresh goat cheese
2 cups brown rice flour
Salt or favorite seasoning
In a medium bowl, stir together until well mixed. A handheld beater may be useful but dough may be too stiff. Once combined, measure into half cup amounts and either press into Wells of a muffin pan, or roll into balls and space on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until outside is golden and inside is still soft.

Halloween Nacho Cheese Dip with Goat Cheese

This is my favorite nacho sauce made fun for Halloween! The chili powder turns the sauce a bit yellow, so adding blue food coloring makes it green.

2 cups fresh goat milk
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup fresh goat cheese
3 tsp onion powder
3 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
blue food coloring
In a medium pot, heat goat milk and cornstarch over med high heat, stirring constantly until thickened, about 5-8 minutes. Add goat cheese, onion powder, salt, and chili powder, and continue to heat and stir until cheese has melted and sauce has smooth consistency. Milk or water can be added if mixture becomes too thick. Remove from heat and add blue food coloring a drop at a time until desired shade of green is reached. Serve warm or cold.
This sauce is also great with veggies, or stirred into rice or pasta.

Pumpkin Spice Rice Pudding

3 cups fresh goat milk
1 cup cooked pumpkin puree (canned) 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup long cooking rice (not minute) 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash cinnamon
dash fresh grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 310 degrees. Prepare a 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray or olive oil. In a medium bowl, mix together milk and pumpkin until blended, then pour into baking dish. Add all other ingredients, stirring briefly. They will sink to the bottom of the dish. Place uncovered in the oven and bake for 3 hours, stirring every 1/2 hour during the first hour, and once again during the second hour. Serve warm or cold.

Goat Cart for the Astoria Regatta Parade 2015

Every year I have kept dairy goats, there have been baby goats.I usually sell them, even though they are always very cute.When there are male goats to sell, I always tell the buyers, that they can be used to pull carts. This year I decided to try cart training myself!

I had several very cute male goats that were altered, becoming 'wethers'. One really stood out by being a little stronger, smarter, and cuter than the rest.He is named Alert, for a Coast Guard Cutter docked here. I worked with him the most, but it turned out to be a better herd leader than a harness goat. He is always first to the pasture, smelling and looking around to make sure it's safe for everyone, and sounds the alarm if there is movement in the bushes (usually just me).

There are two wethers close to Alert's size, Jack and Ace. Since they aren't leaders with Alert around, they were curious, and interested in the the cart. I made the little cart from old bike wheels, some new steel parts from the hardware store, and some scrap lumber. My mom sewed the harness straps from some polyester canvas with strips of goat feed bags to strengthen. The little stand that held my sign just sat on top of the decking. I couldn't resist little ties so they looked cute for the parade.
Since they were 4 month old babies at the time, we just practiced a few minutes each day, pulling the cart on the road turnout by my house. The parade route was just one mile long and luckily they got through the whole route, though the last few blocks took some coaxing! I am so proud of them!

Once they are a little bigger, I hope to train one or both to a larger harness I have for a small pony's cart.