Kidding around

The baby goats crack me up. Folks here frequently take in the baby goat therapy offered in the backyard. It is a real kick to be climbed and pawed and snuggled by little caprine beings. Hard to keep a straight face.

Amos and Able are lap goats. Alice has a hair fetish and Andy has affinity for climbing. Alarm is the most stand-offish though he is generally game for a goat pile.

Soon they will be too big for this fun, and we will regulate them to the back forty to take down the poison ivy population. I really won't want them to climb me at that point, despite their ridiculous cuteness.

Long Kidding Month

The month began with Ruffles giving birth to two does, Amos & Andy. She did it on the sly when we weren't looking so we missed the event completely. She did the deed unassisted and seemed to have no troubles.

Since then, Ruffles has been ill. She rejected one of the babies and stopped eating with gusto. We've been nursing her babies by bottle primarily and hope she turns around soon.

In the meantime, Sparky gave birth to two babies, a doeling named Alice and a buckling named Alarm. They are nursing from mother and coming along nicely.

Ruffles was a day late and Sparky was five days late. Now we are day four into Hedda being overdue. A late year to say the least. Hedda is bagged up and looking very pregnant and uncomfortable. Shouldn't be long now.

On the garden front we've got a few things up in this early Spring and the field is plowed. My fella bought a new tool for the tractor to get the job done and though I had my doubts as to its effective use I must say: Fantastic! It saved us lots of back work and time and did a good job doing what we wanted as well as we hoped.

Three Wee Goats

These three look like trouble, don't they. The fella in the middle is Little. He's our wether, very friendly. The doe on the left is Hedda. We are trying to impregnate her with the buck on the right. He is a borrowed buck with a scur (remnant horn) on his head. Would you want to bring him home to mother?

They are staying toasty and dry in their own seperate quarters. The milking does are in another shelter until the buck returns to his home.

Nearly a year since I blathered

How is it that every time I set down to enter a blog post I end up reading everyone else's and decide there's nothing left to say? Perhaps I'm lazy. Let's just pretend that we've not missed a year, that I am merely pickingup where I left off.

What's going on? Unbeknownst to us, one of our chickens who we thought had vainly been setting on eggs, has in fact hatched two babies. Good job, Mama Hen! They may not even be her blood relations but she's the best damn surrogate I've ever seen.

Our does kidded this Tax Season 2008. The boy is named 'Little'...not so little now, and the girl is named Heddar...rhymes with cheddar...as in I woke up this morning and took a heada outta my mutha's womb. She needed help being delivered so I was initiated into the scary and sureal vocation of goat midwifery. Yikes. I hadn't planned to be elbow deep in a goat uterus that morning. At least not before my coffee. WTF. It was crazy. I'm glad I could help the doe and the kid. I'm not looking forward to kidding season this year.


In other news my husband bought a tractor and we're planning to use the back field next year to grow more veggies and let the goats forage. We've got 20 lbs of garlic in the ground and that's a start. I planted a bit more last year, but in a smaller area. This year I added another variety and spread em out more.

It's getting colder and we've got our food put up for the most part. Tomatoes, potatoes, tomatillos, beans, edemame(need to plant more next year), pumpkins, apple butter, squash, cabbage, celeriac, garlic, onions, pickles, peppers and blueberries and assorted roasted veggies in the freezer. We sold alot too through a CSA and hope to up the ante next year.


I will attempt to write more in the near future...a pre-New Year's resolution.
Happy Harvest!