So I have to say I have a new appreciation of my Northern goating friends. I have to confess if we had more bad weather in this sheltered valley, I would have to have fewer goats. So we got 7 inches of snow today, this after 4 days of ice and below freezing temperatures. Luckily we didn't have to work because it took a good portion of the day to care for the goats. In addition to the usual feeding we had to put out hay since the big bales were coved in snow and ice....sigh...then we had to carry water in 2 1/2 gallon buckets to our goats...now that isn't too bad but we had to carry it really long distances because all of the outside faucets are frozen... 300 ft each trip for one of the big pens and we had to fill a 40 gal tub and the stinking goats kept drinking it every time we dumped some in!!!! They had a line and as soon as one goat moved off another took its place....slurping down that water faster than I could make a trip to bring more...I know filling that tub that should have only taken 7 trips since I was carrying 2 buckets at a time but with them drinking it and me slipping on the slick snow and spilling a generous amount it was almost twice that! And remember that was only ONE pen! It was the hardest pen though, the rest only required a few buckets each but by the time we were finished we both agreed no exercise routine for us today!!!
I think we are going to have to invest in a snow sled to carry the water and feed if we are going to keep getting this kind of weather. wonder how that would work...
So if you see a for sale ad for some of our goats after this cold spell passes you will know that it isn't the goats that are culls...it's the owners!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
End of another Kidding Season
Well Ally finished off our Fall 2010 kidding season with a little girl and a big boy! The boy has a black tail! They are so cute. I love kidding season but this is the best part. No more stressful births and hoping that first time mothers will get it right and babies will all find the teat and quit looking between the front legs for it. No more trying to clean concrete pooh off of two day old babies whose mothers decided they weren't in the pooh cleaning business, and no more heartbreak from still born babies! Instead this is that wonderful time where for the next two months we will watch fat babies frolic in the pasture and try to steal all the time we can to play with them. Fifty-one happy healthy babies all ours to enjoy for two more months till they go to new homes and new families and we start Spring kidding season! :)
Friday, October 15, 2010
Fall Babies
After weeks of waiting the babies are finally starting to arrive! Two little 100% boys a couple of days ago and just a few minutes ago we welcomed the first two little girls of the season. They were out of one of our very favorite percentage does, Vanna T. She is a Savanna and they are out of our paint buck Renegade so we have one very Savanna looking girl and one paint girl. :)
What more could a person ask for on their fall break!
We have 29 does with very visible bags, whoops! Make that 28 does now; so I expect that we will see about 57 to 60 more babies in the next 6 weeks or so.
Sigh! Wish we could have had more during this break when we were home to welcome them properly, but to be honest the moms do just fine without us.
The other part of this large Fall kidding is that we really won't have very many Spring kids. I know the 4H kids will be sad but with the new job I just couldn't deal with Winter babies. We will probably have about 10-15 does kid out in the spring. Gee I may even get a vacation this summer...
What more could a person ask for on their fall break!
We have 29 does with very visible bags, whoops! Make that 28 does now; so I expect that we will see about 57 to 60 more babies in the next 6 weeks or so.
Sigh! Wish we could have had more during this break when we were home to welcome them properly, but to be honest the moms do just fine without us.
The other part of this large Fall kidding is that we really won't have very many Spring kids. I know the 4H kids will be sad but with the new job I just couldn't deal with Winter babies. We will probably have about 10-15 does kid out in the spring. Gee I may even get a vacation this summer...
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Valentine's presents...
Okay, I know that I frequently insinuate that a person might be psychologically disordered if they try to keep a 100 grown goats plus babies and work two other jobs...but this time I really mean it!!!
What were we thinking!!! We have had 50 babies in 2 1/2 weeks and we have at least 20 does to go!!! That translates to close to another 40 babies and with the rash of triplets we've had this season...maybe more! The big barn is full, maternity barns are full, and even the small shelters are overflowing! Oh wait! And I forgot to mention that we have 5 bottle babies in the house!
We are so sleep deprived we are stumbling around like zombies. I'm pretty sure it is impossible to hit REM sleep with kids crying and mamas complaining through the always-on baby monitor. However, it sure is nice to be able to hear when the mamas need help rather than going down to the barn on an hourly basis and still finding popsicle kids!
At this rate we will be begging for people to buy the Nov 2009 kids as soon as they are weaned!
I remember when we first got goats; reading an article by a woman who talked about keeping her bottle babies in the house in playpens and another article about a woman who had been known to tuck a sick baby right up in bed with her! I shook my head at the folly of "some people".
Yes, I confess I have become the "people". Now, my bed is mostly off limits but I have had a sick one on it wrapped in towels and old blankets..didn't find that it did anything special for the baby goat...but at least I was able to doze and still keep a hand on it to make sure it was still breathing. Oh, and the playpen! Well just check back for photos of the babies correlled in their playpen, too bad they don't make the big ones anymore!!! The playpen was Richard's Valentine Day's present and he couldn't have been more excited if it had been gold!
What were we thinking!!! We have had 50 babies in 2 1/2 weeks and we have at least 20 does to go!!! That translates to close to another 40 babies and with the rash of triplets we've had this season...maybe more! The big barn is full, maternity barns are full, and even the small shelters are overflowing! Oh wait! And I forgot to mention that we have 5 bottle babies in the house!
We are so sleep deprived we are stumbling around like zombies. I'm pretty sure it is impossible to hit REM sleep with kids crying and mamas complaining through the always-on baby monitor. However, it sure is nice to be able to hear when the mamas need help rather than going down to the barn on an hourly basis and still finding popsicle kids!
At this rate we will be begging for people to buy the Nov 2009 kids as soon as they are weaned!
I remember when we first got goats; reading an article by a woman who talked about keeping her bottle babies in the house in playpens and another article about a woman who had been known to tuck a sick baby right up in bed with her! I shook my head at the folly of "some people".
Yes, I confess I have become the "people". Now, my bed is mostly off limits but I have had a sick one on it wrapped in towels and old blankets..didn't find that it did anything special for the baby goat...but at least I was able to doze and still keep a hand on it to make sure it was still breathing. Oh, and the playpen! Well just check back for photos of the babies correlled in their playpen, too bad they don't make the big ones anymore!!! The playpen was Richard's Valentine Day's present and he couldn't have been more excited if it had been gold!
Valentine Presents!
Okay, I know that I frequently insinuate that a person might be psychologically disordered if they try to keep a 100 grown goats plus babies and work two other jobs...but this time I really mean it!!!
What were we thinking!!! We have had 48 babies in 2 1/2 weeks and we have at least 20 does to go!!! That translates to close to another 40 babies and with the rash of triplets we've had this season...maybe more! The big barn is full, maternity barns are full, and even the small shelters are overflowing! Oh wait! And I forgot to mention that we have 5 bottle babies in the house!
We are so sleep deprived we are stumbling around like zombies. I'm pretty sure it is impossible to hit REM sleep with kids crying and mamas complaining through the always-on baby monitor. However, it sure is nice to be able to hear when the mamas need help rather than going down to the barn on an hourly basis and still finding popsicle kids!
At this rate we will be begging for people to buy the Nov 2009 kids as soon as they are weaned!
I remember when we first got goats; reading an article by a woman who talked about keeping her bottle babies in the house in playpens and another article about a woman who had been known to tuck a sick baby right up in bed with her! I shook my head at the folly of "some people".
Yes, I confess I have become the "people". Now, my bed is mostly off limits but I have had a sick one on it wrapped in towels and old blankets..didn't find that it did anything special for the baby goat...but at least I was able to doze and still keep a hand on it to make sure it was still breathing. Oh, and the playpen! Well just check back for photos of the babies correlled in their playpen, too bad they don't make the big ones anymore!!! The playpen was Richard's Valentine Day's present and he couldn't have been more excited if it had been gold!
What were we thinking!!! We have had 48 babies in 2 1/2 weeks and we have at least 20 does to go!!! That translates to close to another 40 babies and with the rash of triplets we've had this season...maybe more! The big barn is full, maternity barns are full, and even the small shelters are overflowing! Oh wait! And I forgot to mention that we have 5 bottle babies in the house!
We are so sleep deprived we are stumbling around like zombies. I'm pretty sure it is impossible to hit REM sleep with kids crying and mamas complaining through the always-on baby monitor. However, it sure is nice to be able to hear when the mamas need help rather than going down to the barn on an hourly basis and still finding popsicle kids!
At this rate we will be begging for people to buy the Nov 2009 kids as soon as they are weaned!
I remember when we first got goats; reading an article by a woman who talked about keeping her bottle babies in the house in playpens and another article about a woman who had been known to tuck a sick baby right up in bed with her! I shook my head at the folly of "some people".
Yes, I confess I have become the "people". Now, my bed is mostly off limits but I have had a sick one on it wrapped in towels and old blankets..didn't find that it did anything special for the baby goat...but at least I was able to doze and still keep a hand on it to make sure it was still breathing. Oh, and the playpen! Well just check back for photos of the babies correlled in their playpen, too bad they don't make the big ones anymore!!! The playpen was Richard's Valentine Day's present and he couldn't have been more excited if it had been gold!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Ultimate FIghting Championship Match!
So it's that time again....Kidding season is just around the corner and we've moved 23 does to maternity again and have 25 more that I keep telling Richard need to be moved...he just shakes his head because our maternity pen was designed back when having 8 to 10 goats kidding was a major kidding season and a fourth of the space is pretty useless because it is equipped with three dog kennels that cost $200 apiece and lasted intact for one whole kidding season. Now there are huge holes where fighting mamas have torn that fancy chainlink off the posts. We still have them in there because I plan to replace the chainlink with goat panels "someday".
Anyway, back to the championship round. Everybody thinks bucks are the mean ones but I swear they are just like their human counterparts. If little boys are going to fight they just jump right in there kicking and punching and generally not caring who sees what they are doing while girls are much more sneaky and so it is with goats. Now the month before kidding season is filled with all kinds of chores to get ready and one of them is the dreaded CD&T shots! These are the only shots our goats get unless they are sick so you would think we were doing major surgery on them. They fight, and we wrestle, get boxed, butted and kicked as a matter of course. If we aren't sporting a few bruises we get worried that they might be sick. But it never fails that it is the smaller ones that do you in every time. Now who would have guessed that Debi Taunte would be the ultimate fighting champion. She is very much like her name. Smaller than most of our other young does she has a very feminine build and gets beat up on a regular basis. So I wasn't prepared for the fight on my hands when I grabbed her. That girl fought and bucked, and wrestled her way nearly out of my clutches. Not going to be bested by a little young doe, I grabbed for a hind leg as I went down but she wasn't going to stand for that nonsense, a well-placed kick while I was down, and she was the victor! I could hear the judge counting me out as I spit dirt and well...whatever out of my mouth and tried to catch my breath for the next match.
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