Our first buck, Simon, was purchased in 1989 from the Nodaway herd owned by Richard and Federica Waldman. That's him in our logo at the very top of our homepage with his very first kid, Song, and her dam Raquel. We will always be indebted to the Waldmans for entrusting us with his ownership, and for their extensive breeding knowledge and experience that created Simon! He was an absolutely large, gorgeous Cou Blanc with a solid black mask. His depth of body and body capacity were incredible, as was his dairy character. But it was his disposition that made him our favorite guy for all time - even as an old buck he would come running up to us and would wag his tail like a kid as we petted him.

Simon was extremely gentle and affectionate, and the most intelligent goat we have ever owned. He was always a perfect gentleman around his does and he taught all his sons and younger bucks their "proper manners" of behavior. While he lived, there was never a serious scuffle in the buck pen. He passed his disposition and intelligence on to all his offspring. Our DHIA tester Pat Fausett, in the early years of our herd when we participated in DHI, would always comment that she never saw dam-raised kids so easily gentled and curious to be around people from the start than those of Simon's. Pat later bought one of Simon's daughters, even though she raises Nubians, because she liked his offspring. We believe that to be one of the greatest compliments ever paid to him!

Simon died ubruptly and unexpectedly one afternoon while we were away. He had been his fine and usual wonderful self that morning. When we returned in the late afternoon, we found him by the manger with a bite of hay still in his mouth. Simon's genetics still run strong in our herd - nearly every goat we currently have has some tie to Simon in its pedigree. His last son, Sagan, is showing promise of carrying on his father's legacy, and is blessed with Simon's intelligence, disposition and style.

Our second purchased buck came to us already an "old man" of sorts when he arrived in May of 1991. An aquaintance of ours contacted us to let us know that he was for sale in Florida and that he had a wonderful pedigree (that's his dam "Heidi" pictured below), and could be shipped reasonably with a LaMancha purchase that was arriving if we wanted to buy him. We made a few phone calls and decided to take the risk of purchasing him. When he arrived, it was apparent that Vante had lived a harder life than many bucks. He had a deep scar on his neck from where a collar had once grown into his skin, and his fore feet showed evidence of prior serious founder on at least one occasion because of the misshapen way his hooves grew and the way he walked. He was scruffy and a bit thin, but he still had a lot of life in his eyes and a lot of really great conformation going for him even if he was out of condition. He also had a very gentle and loving disposition. His daughters and granddaughters are the "sweethearts" in our herd. Vante proved his pedigree time and time again for us. He crossed well with the Simon daughters producing capacious, milky does with excellent dairy character. One of his sons, JC, was a primary herd sire until his death in November 2000 - and was a gracious tribute to Vante's ability to produce offspring of impecable breed type and structure.

Our other purchased bucks come from or originated in the Sanstorms, Missdee's, Hoach, Elm-Creek and Patsy's Pride herds. We want to thank Marian Sans, Charlotte Dersherwitz, Joan Hargrove, Connie Floyd and Michael Costanzo for allowing our purchases of these incredible bucks that have brought continued structural stability, style and dairy character to our herd. Lines found within their various pedigrees include Le Chevier, Stump Hollow, Sugar Ridge, Nixon's, Redwood Hills and Sand Dance. Pedigree information (Sire and Dam) for our homebred bucks in current use in our herd are shown on the following page.

[Homebred Buck Pedigrees] –>