Happy retirement, Sherri!

We bought our fifth doe in 2004, two years after moving to Antiquity Oaks, and that doe was a yearling named Sherri. She is now ten years old, and I've decided it's time for her to retire, even though I'd love to have a dozen more of her daughters. But that would just be greedy.

Sherri is one of our foundation does, and her daughters have never disappointed us. They have all earned their milk stars, and they have wonderfully friendly personalities. In fact, our highest producing milker of all time is Charlotte, Sherri's daughter.

Although most people expect a great doe to produce great kids, that was not really the case with Sherri. She was not a record-breaking milker, and she was terrible in the show ring. The only thing we ever heard about her from judges was, "I'd like to commend the doe at the end of the line for her length of body." So, we knew Sherri had a nice, long body, but that was all we ever learned from showing her. I was a little nervous about getting her classified, but my daughter convinced me that she wasn't a bad looking goat; she just wasn't the prettiest goat in the herd. And she was right. Sherri classified as "Very Good," but with the lowest VG score in our herd. And in terms of conformation, her daughters have all exceeded her.

Sherri was the first doe we ever took to a show, and being our first show, we didn't think about taking a milk stand. But Sherri was always an angel on the milk stand, and even without a milk stand, she just stood there in the show barn and let my daughter milk her while I held a pan of grain for her to eat. That pretty much made her our favorite milk goat, even though she took last place in the show.

The only thing I never liked about Sherri was the fact that she gave birth with a little too much ease. It was because of her and her daughters that we created our kidding barn. She and her daughters (and grand-daughters) are all terribly stoic until the head is actually emerging, and if I'm in the house listening on a baby monitor, the baby is usually already born by the time I get to the barn. It's not a bad thing unless it's the middle of winter, which means the kids are at risk of hypothermia if they are not cleaned up fast enough. One of her daughters gave birth when it was 8 degrees below zero one year, and by the time I got outside, there was not one, but THREE kids sitting in a pool of amniotic fluid. I was screaming over the baby monitor for someone to come help me get them all dried off before they turned into frozen little kid-cicles. In that kind of weather, you don't just need towels, you need blow dryers and heat lamps. You can click here to read all about that blessed event. Here is a link to the story of a typical Sherri birth, in case you'd like to read more.

This year, we are keeping Sherri's daughter, Sophie Kinsella, pictured with her above. Sherri will get to enjoy her golden years with her daughters and grand-daughters here on the homestead. Although I'm sad that there won't be any more Sherri daughters, I am looking forward to more of the Sherri grand-daughters!