M H Bonham

Okay, I'm at somewhat of a loss for ideas here.

I live at about 4000 ft elevation in NW Montana outside of Missoula. My 10 acres is a mountainside. Southfacing. I've been thinking about a forest garden, but it's rough here. We generally don't see the end of frosts until sometime after Memorial Day and we can see a frost occasionally before Labor Day. I don't want to grow mushrooms because I don't have the confidence.

One person suggested that I look around to see what already grows here and cultivate it. In a nutshell: mullein, arrowleaf balsamroot, yarrow, common mallow, globe mallow, glacier lillies, Juneberry, snow berry, oregon grapes, a couple of elderberry, I think we have wild black cherry (not sure on this), and plenty of knapweed. We have white pine ponderosa, and a number of conifers. Yeah, really limited.

I realize the elderberry is popular but I'd do better going into the state forest to pick them. Mullein is somewhat popular, but heck, it's a huge weed here. And if I do manage to come up with a variety of crops, I'm not sure who would be interested in buying them from me.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Places to find information?

TIA
Maggie

Bryant RedHawk wrote:We don't have ours yet but will be getting some pygmy goats next year when we move onto our homestead. This year has been the get it ready to occupy year.

Ever owned goats before?

We had a surprise last week:

Mountain Krauss wrote:I'm new to having goats, so perhaps I don't know some of the difficulties involved, but they've been great so far. No attempts to escape, and they've respected the regular 4 ft wire fencing I use for the chickens-- I haven't needed electric or barbed wire. I know they can bark your trees, but I thought they only did that if there weren't sufficient leaves available.

It seems to me that there is a tremendous opportunity in letting animals turn our waste stream into fertilizer. Chickens, pigs, and ducks do a great job dealing with food waste, but goats seem to be in the best position to handle yard waste. Any wood left after goats have stripped it of leaves and bark could easily become the base of a hugel bed.

Goats are awesome IMNSHO!

Commercial goat's milk and cheese is awful.

Fresh goat's milk is better than cow's milk. In fact, it's sweeter.

Yes, goats will need better pens than other livestock, but nothing that a good electric fence can't contain. (Minimum of 1 joule)

Buck goats do stink during rut. They smell like buck deer during rut. We rub our coats on my buck when we go hunting to throw off the human scent. True story.

Well, I guess I should 'fess up. I have:

1 LaMancha x Oberhaasli buck
1 LaMancha x Oberhaasli doe (looks Oberhaasli)
2 LaMancha Does
1 Pygmy cross Doe
1 Alpine Doe
2 Boer Crosses Does
5 Wethered kids (we had a LOT of bucklings this year)
2 Doelings (1 LaMancha x Oberhaasli and 1 LaMancha x Oberhaasli x Boer x Alpine)

The wethered kids are our meat supply this year. My does have decided to go out of milk. Sigh.

Okay, I'm chiming in here.


I'm a fantasy and SF author with more than 35 books of both fiction and nonfiction to my name. Oh, and I lost my mind many moons ago (no surprise there!) and became a publisher three years ago (there may be a connection there ). My publishing company is Sky Warrior Book Publishing LLC at Sky Warrior Books. I also write for Mother Earth News and you can check out some of my articles at Eating Wild Montana.

Hi there! I have LaManchas and a number of mixes. Anyone have goats here?

Goat's milk requires it being cooled down fast. If you aren't pasteurizing it, it's likely to go bad fairly quickly. Even with pasteurizing it, the best I could get is about a week.

Sigh.

Dang, I should've been here sooner. She looks like a Nigerian Dwarf from the picts.