Meet our twins!
Hello Blog friends! I am Kate, the animal care focused ranch hand, and this is my very first blog post.
I’m excited to dedicate this post to our new friends (and objects of our obsession) at Slide Ranch, Boots and Butter. Boots and Butter are twin sisters and are Nubian goats. Nubian goats are distinguishable by their long ears and gentle disposition, and are crosses of British goats and “lop-eared” goats from India and North Africa. They are also known for having the highest butter-fat content in their milk of any dairy breed! (and also for being the most vocal).
Boots and Butter were not born at Slide Ranch – they came from a farm housed at a Greek Orthodox Women’s Monastery in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. I was deeply inspired by the quality of animals the sisters have been cultivating. They have 16 Nubian does and 2 Nubian bucks living in picturesque grassy pastures and a gorgeous new barn, and the nuns make the most delicious goat feta I have ever tried! The feta and milk are used to feed pilgrims who travel to visit the monastery. The Sister in charge of the goat operation, Sister Isadora, had been breeding and raising Nubian goats for 20 years. I was an honor to pick her brain a lot about many different animal husbandry practices.
We loaded up the babies into the back of my Honda CRV and hit the road. Back at Slide Ranch, these new babies received bottles of milk replacer for their first rainy week here (see the photo of Butter in Ocean House drinking her bottle her first morning here), before weaning them off and transitioning them to grass hay. Immediately, we began introducing them to people, getting them used to being around lots of human kids and adults. They love the attention!
We are very excited for their future here – to be future milkers (in ~ 2 years) and to see them grow and mature, and eventually move in with the bigger goats. They love eating grass, jumping up on picnic tables, and sneaking out of pasture to go explore. We plan to begin leash training them so we can take them on new adventures. We are so excited for you to meet them next time you are here!
