Springing along

Baby goats have completely taken over my life. and possibly melted my brain.  Everything is regulated by the bottle feeding schedule.  Which really isn't that big a deal but still it has completely thrown me out of wack.  Not that it takes much but still.  I put dirty clothes in the dryer, milk in the coffee pot and coffee in the dog dish.  Buck likes some milk on his oatmeal and dog kibble in the morning.  The coffee maker was pain to clean and the dog was not amused.  But little goaties are so cute who really cares if I've lost my mind.

We did have to re-name Cosmo because along with the aforementioned lapses I  managed to miss that Cosmo is a girl.  I can only say she was covered in slime and afterbirth at the time and I didn't really check that end again for a few days.  So Cosmo is now Daisy. 

Friday moment

Having baby goats is exhausting for everyone!

Baby goats!

It's a boy!

Rose waited for me to leave the barn on Monday to birth a very  big boy. 


Wednesday afternoon it was Violet's turn.  Twins! A boy and a girl.

Goats are such good moms. Even as first timers Rose and Violet knew just what to do.  Although Violet got so into washing the kids she washed me too.  I'm just another goat as far as they're concerned. Just so amazing how fast everything went.  The kids were born and cleaned in an hour, took a nap, then were up and walking.

Cosmo checking things out. 

waiting....

It's day 145 and the girls look ready to pop.  They spend their days lounging on the tiny new shoots of grass and ignoring Bilbo.  The birthing kit and piles of baby goat sweaters are piled next to the back door , ready to be rushed out the barn at any moment. There are goat bottles and emergency colostrum on the kitchen table.
We're nervously waiting for all the action to start.

March Madness

Last fall  flew by in something of a blur.  In addition to usual firewood roundup ( IE  me fighting with the chainsaw) there was also the matter of building a new woodshed, and arranging a little romance for my goats. 

 
Then it was winter.   Which wasn't nearly as harsh as the East coast but still. 

Went to Idaho for a boyfriend for Nellie. Here's Bilbo playing hide and seek behind a post.  He's a total goof ball and much nicer than all the goat books make buck goats out to be. 
So baby goats are coming next!

Since I haven't been spazzed out enough over the eminent goat births, we got a puppy. You know to use up all that free time I had since finishing construction on Bilbo's bachelor pad.  Actually Stella , an  Aussie Shepard  lab mix, will grow up to be a goat dog.  A furry warning system to alert us to coyotes.  Currently she's  annoying the cats and following poor aged Buck around like some kind of doggy mini me.

Now that she's stopped trying to nurse on him, Buck likes her.

Especially when she's asleep.