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I woke up this morning with Liberty snuggled next to me. She does this a lot and I am not complaining or concerned. I figure soon enough she'll be grown and gone and not interested in cuddles.
She was still asleep. Liberty is NOT a morning person, she is definitely a night owl. Left to her own devices, she would happily go to bed every night at 2AM and get up at 10AM. To test how soundly asleep she was I quietly said "Liberty, we had baby goats last night."
Instantly her eyes shot open. "We did? From who?"
"Nueces."
"Oh! I thought it would be from that other one...um...what's the one who broke her leg?"
"You mean Hallie?"
"Yeah, her!"
"No, from Nueces."
"What did she have?"
"Go look for them and see!"
"No, wait...a girl and a boy?"
"You got it right!"
"Who was she bred to?"
Who was she bred to?! The girl is six years old!!! I didn't have a clue about anything like that until I was over ten and it took serious conversation and a special book bought for the occasion and a mom who was very open, really, but had a hard time looking me straight in the face when she named the pertinent body parts! I guess there are no stork illusions left at Swede Farm!
Anyway...
Liberty pops out of bed and traipses off to find the newest additions to Swede Farm. Less than two minutes later she is back, and she urgently tells me "Big goats are out!" It takes me a few seconds to even come close to comprehending what she is saying. "Wha...?" "Big goats are out!"
Sure enough, When I open Katie's door to tell her to come and help I can see a small herd of goats running and playing across the South side of the house. We all run out in our jammies and herd the goats into the holding pen o await milking time. I am amazed at the number of ears I see milling about in the pen so I do a quick count...every single Alpine milker went on walkabout and one lone lamancha. I have told people that the alpines are the most curious of the breeds that we have and this seems to confirm that.
Now to go find out what they were eating while on walkabout. Sigh...
Apr 14, 2009
Deja Vu...all over again
Weren't we just here a few days ago?
Kidding season has begun again, and like last time, with a goat deciding to surprise us.
We made it for this kidding, unlike last time. I had just snuggled down into bed, exhausted, when a reassuring thought crept into my mind...at least I wasn't going to be called out of bed in the middle of the night for a goat labor! We still have almost a whole week to go, the very earliest anyone was likely to be kidding wasn't until the 19th.
Just as I was sliding into sleep there came a sharp urgent knocking on my bedroom window "Goat kidding!" (Kate and Chris were in the dairy working on bottling milk for tomorrow's market--well, make that today's market, I guess! They had heard the tell-tale sounds of a goat pushing.)
As I jumped out of bed and into my clothes (who says dropping your clothes on the floor isn't a good idea?) I ran through my head...we are 6 days from earliest due dates, that must mean that it is one of the lamanchas kidding, for they are known to deliver earlier than the nubians or alpines, as a rule. (Though earlier this year the alpines decided that they didn't like this rule and we had several going early.)
Lamancha it was, Nueces. Last year Nueces had a single buckling. This year she had a big boy and a petite little girl, both black and white, very striking. I wish they would be old enough to bring to Tuesday's farmers market, but in truth they will be too early for me to feel comfortable bringing them.
That is OK, though...we have 11 more due to kid in the next 5 weeks. There will be plenty of babies to bring to market!
That is the benefit of staggering breeding tomake sure that you have a consistent amount of milk all year round...kidding season doesn't really seem to end!
Kidding season has begun again, and like last time, with a goat deciding to surprise us.
We made it for this kidding, unlike last time. I had just snuggled down into bed, exhausted, when a reassuring thought crept into my mind...at least I wasn't going to be called out of bed in the middle of the night for a goat labor! We still have almost a whole week to go, the very earliest anyone was likely to be kidding wasn't until the 19th.
Just as I was sliding into sleep there came a sharp urgent knocking on my bedroom window "Goat kidding!" (Kate and Chris were in the dairy working on bottling milk for tomorrow's market--well, make that today's market, I guess! They had heard the tell-tale sounds of a goat pushing.)
As I jumped out of bed and into my clothes (who says dropping your clothes on the floor isn't a good idea?) I ran through my head...we are 6 days from earliest due dates, that must mean that it is one of the lamanchas kidding, for they are known to deliver earlier than the nubians or alpines, as a rule. (Though earlier this year the alpines decided that they didn't like this rule and we had several going early.)
Lamancha it was, Nueces. Last year Nueces had a single buckling. This year she had a big boy and a petite little girl, both black and white, very striking. I wish they would be old enough to bring to Tuesday's farmers market, but in truth they will be too early for me to feel comfortable bringing them.
That is OK, though...we have 11 more due to kid in the next 5 weeks. There will be plenty of babies to bring to market!
That is the benefit of staggering breeding tomake sure that you have a consistent amount of milk all year round...kidding season doesn't really seem to end!
Apr 13, 2009
The best toy ever.
As a parent I have long thought that the best toy is the box that the really expensive, long awaited toy (or refrigerator) came in.
I was wrong.
The best toy ever is the 12 cubic yards full of sand that just got delivered to improve drainage in the goat pen and is piled in one huge (to a four year old, anyway) mountain.
I may never get all of the sand out of their clothes, or hair, or noses or toeses.
But they don't care, so why should I?
I was wrong.
The best toy ever is the 12 cubic yards full of sand that just got delivered to improve drainage in the goat pen and is piled in one huge (to a four year old, anyway) mountain.
I may never get all of the sand out of their clothes, or hair, or noses or toeses.
But they don't care, so why should I?
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