We have spanned the seasons this week. 

My garden was all tilled and ready for planting when the snow storm came. It looks like I am growing a fine crop of the white stuff.

The week remained cold and raw, but the week-end began to bring back Spring and so we took the whole herd up to the field below the pond for some maintenance. 

 Boots was in deep.

 Anakin really gets into his work eating the roses.

This is great goat browse.

 All bellies are round this week. 

Maternal Instincts

I was heading up to move some fences, and stopped to check on the babies, outdoors for the first time.

They were sunning themselves against the back of the shed. A favorite spot it seems.

As I was leaning on the fence, Saba started snorting and acting quite odd. 

I'd never seen a goat "sit" like this.

She was doing all she could to put her body over and around her babies as she tried to stare down the cats. Even her ears were pointed at the cat. 
Here's more of the action and the sounds of Saba snorting.

That's one thing about goats, they confront. They don't run away. We find it very curious that the goats seem to be most afraid or disturbed by the cats. Only one goat had gone after the dog when she had new kids.  Makes you wonder what they fear.

Why Its Great To Be A Goat Herder

Saba's Twins - Boots and Brianna

Adorable Boots(left) and Brianna will be two days old this afternoon, but you are only seeing them now because my computer time has been restricted with work being done in the house.  

I went out on Wednesday to check on Saba as she had let me know she was not hanging with Speckles "the abuser" in the corral anymore. She chose to hang in the barn with me as I cleaned the stalls, and that's where I left her, as we were having weird, changing weather every hour (really -snow, sleet, hail, sun, wind, snow, sleet...you see what I'm getting at.). I was about to run errands in town and decided to check the barn, even though I had been listening for tell tale noise and heard none. 

I looked into the stall and Saba was quietly laying in the corner. I was about to leave when I saw a big, red blob of placenta nearby. I said Saba, "What have you done?", and stepped in the stall.  Behind her were the quietest newborn twins ever. I was actually afraid they were stillborn till they both moved. 

After the usual neighborhood calls, Allison and I got the kids dried, umbilical cords trimmed and dipped, and moved them to a clean waiting stall.

Then almost as quickly, Boots got his name from Allison when I noticed that all four feet had brown shoes or "boots".

 It turns out the twins were so quiet because they had already done a fine job nursing and quietly continued to do so, without any assistance from the anxious humans!

Brianna has us all excited with her markings and just the fact that we have another doe. Hurray!

So are we done for the year?  Still watching the yearling does, but its too hard to tell.  Maybe Memorial Day??