July 09, 2010

A Hopeful Heart

I don't think I have taken as much time as I should in the past to look for the special little things in life. I am trying to change that and to take the time to appreciate all the beauty in the world around me. Like a beautiful sunrise, morning dew shining on the grass, or the way the tree leaves rustle in the wind.

I do know one person who knows how to appreciate the special little things in life and in the heart of nature. In fact she has a wonderful and interesting blog called Random Hearts dedicated to it. Clytie was kind enough to feature a picture of a goat I raised on her "Guest Heart Thursdays" blog post yesterday. This goat's registered name is "Chance's Hopeful Heart" but we always called her Heart for short. Can you figure out why? Heart was not alone on Clytie's blog this week, you should really check out the other animals with heart on her blog.

And what about Heart the goat? She is doing well, Heart and her two young kids went to live in a wonderful home and now belongs to a couple of the nicest people you could ever meet, sisters Deb and Dee. Who also own Heart's two younger half sisters as well, so she went to live with family you could say!

I do still have some of Heart's other sisters and one of her doe kids from 2009 on the farm. This is an old picture of Heart's doeling taken last year when she was a kid. I can't believe I don't have a more recent one. I had not even planned on keeping her last year but she has turned out to be such a nice goat. She isn't going anywhere now!

Heart's mother Hope is also still on the farm, you may remember her as the alfalfa loving goat.... definitely not her most flattering picture! So I promised Hope the goat I would make it up to her by posting a much nicer picture of her on the blog, one where she isn't stuffing her face with alfalfa anyway. Three generations of great goats, Grandmother Hope, Daughter Heart and now Granddaughter....shoot she still needs a name! I am terrible.

Hope as a three year old.

13 comments:

Kelly Cook said...

Are they Nubians? We have some Nubian/Boer crosses that have ears like that.

Jennifer said...

Hi Kelly! Are you talking about Hope's frosted ear? It very well could be a throw-back from a distant Nubian because "Hope" the grandmother is 88% Boer and 12% Nubian. Her Daughter Heart is 94% Boer. (This is also the cut-off for does to be considered "American Purebred" Boers with the American Boer Goat association. Purebred Boers show in the same classes as Fullblood Boers. (Boers that only have 100% Boers in their background)Then of course Heart's kids from registered bucks are 97% Boer and both does and bucks that are 97% Boer can be registered as Purebreds.

They have been a very good line of goats on our farm, the two best and heaviest yearlings from last year are both Granddaughters of Hope. One out of Heart and one out of Heart's younger sister Nifty. That is out of the 10 yearlings I kept from last year's kids, which includes a mix of Fullblood, American Purebred and percentage Boer kids.

Twisted Fencepost said...

Sometimes we get busy and forget to stop and enjoy the little things. But when we stop and notice some little small thing it makes it so much sweeter.
Love the heart on Heart!

Clytie said...

They really are adorable! I am absolutely thrilled that Heart's mother's name is Hope. No wonder Heart has a heart!!!

Thank you so much for the honor of featuring Heart on Guest Heart Thursday this week!

Alison said...

Hi Jennifer! Missed you lately; glad for more goat updates. I'm gonna go check out Clytie's heartful animals, too!

Teresa said...

What a great group of ladies--goats and owners. It's nice when you can get a line that does so well.

Kelly Cook said...

Actually I just meant the shape. Are the big floppy ears from the nubian or the boer?

Jennifer said...

Kelly - Sorry I didn't know what you were asking. Both Boer goats and Nubians have long ears that hang down. :)

Renee said...

That is so neat! What a lucky girl to have such interesting markings.

Beth Niquette said...

What a lovely lovely post! I'm so glad you shared this story about this little hopeful heart.

Happy Guest Heart Thursday!

Kelly Cook said...

Thanks! We started with Alpines, so these ears are a big change! I have to be careful when putting the holder in place over their heads at the milking stand that their ears are out of the way. I think it makes them look like little girls with big pony tails.

Jennifer said...

"Little girls with pony tails" Never thought about it that way but it kind of does. How cute!

Thank you all for the kind comments.

Callie Brady said...

Hope, Heart and Happy?
All your goats are beautiful. Heart is a cutie for sure.