Fence Training and More Visits.

Mother's Day was the second day for all the kids in the high tensile fences.

Does Kato have a musical note on his face?

There has been a bit of squawking when they learn about them the hard way. They have a good jolt in them.

Kato and Saba

I tightened up the space even more from yesterday with the electronet. The sooner they learn, the safer they'll be.

Aziza finding the spool to be a bit slippery

My neighbor Len and his fiance Lisa visited today. Just this week Len told me about the bobcat that he spotted in the woods that we share behind our houses. I think that there's enough game up there that it shouldn't bother the goats during the day, at least not this time of year. But the fence is as important to keep predators out as the goats in.

Cleo and Mei

I managed to get the kids all lazily sunning themselves in the morning heat.
A rare group shot of the seven newest kids as they stopped moving for about four seconds.

Lisa was an easy mark for all the kids.

I think they all got a hug and their picture taken.

Grant persisted with Len until they finally made friends.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Kristin and Mom

Tuscon, AZ July 2008

To the best Daughter,

Thanks Kristin! Love you too!

PS: Did you notice the thumb?

Finally Some Names

Kato and Saba

A week later and the four May Day twins have names, although its going to take us a while to keep them straight. We started with African names because they are a South African breed, and ended up with these.
Vinegar's doe twins are Mei (May), the white one, and Cleopatra, the brown one with the white belly stripe.
Mei is the fifth month and she is the fifth female born here.
CLEOPATRA: Latin form of Greek Kleopatra, meaning "glory of the father." Cleopatra VII reigned as Queen of Egypt from 51-30 B.C. She was born in 69 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt and is believed to have been black African.

Cleo is cleaning Mei here.

Uno's doe is Saba, the seventh female. Saba means seven. She has lots more brown and has four brown feet. Kato is the buckling in front, who is more traditionally colored. Kato means second born of twins.

More Kids and Cray Fish

The fun thing about kids are the visitors - young and old.

The neighborhood has a few young kids of the human kind, and when word got out on the week-end that the first kids had arrived, the visits began. I must say that the kids my age have been around also. There is nothing better for celebrating Spring then a few hoppy goat kids.

This week, our friends Jim and Kathy brought their grandson Luke to see our youngsters.

I have to say the goats were well behaved until the bag of Cheerios got into the mix. Momentary mayhem! No one seemed to notice but me. For Luke it was good fun.

As young as he is, Luke had complete confidence with the animals - chickens, goats and cats.

Even a cray fish that Jim spotted by the alley gate.

You think we have a water problem here when we have crayfish this big??

Prepared For Winter

We are ready to get the house warm and dry next winter.

Our wood was delivered and stacked today and will be perfectly seasoned at first need in December? November?? Drying the wood at least two seasons, if not more, makes a huge difference in how it burns. Its a waste to burn wood that isn't properly dried, and it doesn't do much good for the chimney.

The Browns have been delivering wood to us since we moved here, so when we make the phone call saying the barn is ready, we know that the wood can show up anytime, since they know where we stack it. We arrived home from a trip to Pittsburgh and the work had already started.

Tom said this wood came from a lot that was felled last August, but split today. Its mostly cherry wood, so from what I understand, I have to make sure the goats don't get into it. Whatever the toxic part is I don't know, but it is poisonous to goats, cows and maybe other animals. The splinters and bark bits are in a nicely shoveled pile that I have to box up for kindling, and get out of reach.

Oh What Fun!

We used to be able to say "the twins" for the past four months and know who we were talking about.

Then we could say "the new" twins for about a week and know who was who.

Then it was their half sister...

Now its been five days, and we have the four May Day twins still nameless.

Getting everyone in and out has been more of a challenge then it should be. We've had heavy rains for most of the past five days, so naming kids has not gotten on the DONE list yet.

The variety of markings is fun to see.

Aziza getting acquainted with her week younger half sisters.

Uno's first priority is food. The same for her kids. Uno has been ravenous since she kidded. I think she was stretched to the max and looked thin immediately after. We are giving her extra dry rations and hay to make sure she can stay healthy while nursing.

The "big" twins have been away from their mother Layla (foreground with horns) for about a week getting weaned, and hopefully can come back to the herd soon. That will be one less juggling act, getting in and out of the barn.
We have the electro net up to teach the kids about electric fence - they are learning! We also have the rolling playground/shelters for entertainment.
These are the bucklings born April 23. They have grown so much in 12 days. So we have seven kids under two weeks old and we're done for the year!

May Day Hey Day - Twins Times Two

For the people wondering about how socialized my goats are, check the first video. Oh yes! - "purring" goats! More like a soft grunt.

Aunt Karen taking family pictures.

5:00pm Vinegar dropped her twins. Two does.

The brown with a belly stripe was 8 pounds, and the petite little traditional Boer was 6 1/2 pounds.

The at 11:00PM Uno FINALLY had her twins. An 8 1/2 pound buck and a very spotted paint doe at 6 1/2 pounds. A nice first set of twins for her.

Got to bed after mucking the stall and freshening it up about 12:30am.

Slept great!

The second video is "fresh" footage from minutes after Uno's twins were born at 11:00PM. Almost broke the camera dropping it, running through the thunder and lightning.
VIDEO OF VINEGARS MAY DAY TWINS AND THE WEEK OLD KIDS



VIDEO OF UNO'S TWINS A FEW MINUTES AFTER BIRTH