Good Friends. Goodbye Visit.

My friend Juliann, that I have known from our last home in Canton, Connecticut, has been a regular visitor with her family and friends over the years.

Her daughter Lillian has just about grown up here, with visits in winter and summer, sometimes bringing her pals too.

 All the goats took turns rubbing and sniffing, and trying to hog the spools.

 Twee says, "Its my spool. I'm not sure I can share."

 Adeline and half sister Brianna captured another spool.

 Brianna was being stand offish and decided to just Vogue for us.

 Then she joined her mother at the other spool again.

 Saba let her curiosity get the best of her - love this shot!

It was a special visit from special friends.

Hand Feeding Hens Or How to Get Fat Chickens

We were talking about Science Fair experiments this week-end. I have decided that an interesting experiment would be to see how long a chicken will eat before it pops or stops eating.  These chickens do not ever stop looking for food to eat. At least goats stop to chew cud and nap. I think chickens only stop when the sun goes down and its lights out.

Here they are getting my father-in-law's dinner leftovers from the night before.  We bring home the so called doggie bags for everyone but the dog.

Bouncing Boys

Aziza's bucklings are so adventurous at one day old.

This little guy on the left is the smaller at 7 pounds, but he is the bigger personality. This morning he also hopped down out of the stall and then had no idea about getting back up the step. 

Bit off a lot more than he could chew! But too cute - and demanding.

He practically asks to be given attention and so when he gets picked up too much, mom has something to say about it.

Very cold weather is predicted this week, so I hope these little guys beef up and get ready for a rude awakening from the damp, but mild weather we are having for New Years Day.

Hope you are all starting 2012 with as much fun as we are at the farm.

Happy New Year!

Kidding Season 2012 Is Here!

Aziza produced two nice, healthy bucklings this morning.  Its a rainy day, but relatively warm for New Year's Eve. Its about 45F right now. She picked a good day to kid.

They were up, dry and carrying on. Things were so well done that I only trimmed one umbilical cord.

We moved everyone to a waiting pen where the warming barrel was set up and ample food was given to "Z".  She was a bit nervous, but she got over it fast as more and more people stopped to admire her boys.  Its been a long while since we had babies in the barn. After a while, enough was enough though.  If both kids were being held, she started to complain, as she wanted to know where they were.

Right now the three are in the barn bonding and nursing. Looks like we have two more "A" names to come up with in 2011.

The Things Kids Say

Nice goat.

Nice tractor.

Nice play house!

I don't like the outdoors. Too cold!

Baa!

Saba Has Twin Does

The baby monitor went on the fritz at about 6:00AM, but I knew Saba was going to kid today. Yesterday her udder really started to pop and I had her in all day just in case. The sun had been out but the wind was nasty. This morning the wind had picked up and the snow was back. The barometric change probably was everything to do with my waking with an unusually pressure filled head and headache. Dave went out to the barn and Saba was down with a bubble already out.
By 8AM we had our first little doe. By 8:10 we had our first visitors admiring her.

We got everyone settled into a clean stall and brought offerings of grain (greeted favorably) and molasses water (Nah!) and were ready to get breakfast when Julia noted a new, small bubble. Ten more minutes passed before Saba lay down and had Doe #2 at 9:30AM. Finally, we determined that she was really done and left them to rest and work on nursing together. Just after taking the video below, Doe One had taken her first milk. Saba was still cleaning her second kid as we left.
She's a good mom.

VIDEO OF SABA WITH HER NEWBORN DOES

Getting Out

Since you last saw him, Aidan has passed his week birthday,
and gone from 6 1/2 pounds to ten.

Has started drinking with the big boys,
(see the difference in three weeks - 10 lbs vs. 28) and been sleeping with older women!
Oh! How they grow up! We started the week with more indoor recess, and family style dining, but it was time to take all that energy outdoors.

Last week-end's thaw made it possible to see some grass and open some gates to get the youngsters outside. The mom's led by example and taught terrible eating habits. How embarrassing. Abi learned how tasty tree recycling is. Ali worked on cleaning her plate. After a couple of days, everyone learned that it was each goat for himself when the grain came out.
Even the little guy. The kids are already good little lawnmowers, and are really putting on some size. Even Aidan gets right in there, but mom is still tops!

Don't be fooled by the sun glasses. Its just to keep the snow glare down. We are in a single digit cold spell, and have Saba due in the next couple of days. I hope she can hold on until we reach something above freezing - please!

Morning Routine

The goats usually go out in two groups. The yearlings and Ziggy go in one field, and sometimes I get some help from the neighbors and friends. Last week we belatedly celebrated Julia's birthday, and after fresh eggs, we "worked" with the goats. Aidan was more interested in caring for Mia.Then the "mamas" go into their field, and lastly the buck gets to wander the alley. Then the rest of us go for our walk, and back to clean the barn.

In this video below, you can again see my ever present animal helpers: Mia, Snickers (in the background) and Jock.