Good-Bye Beau, Hello...

So sorry for the delay in the update! It has been a wild and crazy ride around here lately. Work has been insane, having me log in 10 hours of overtime over the weekend and battling a cold of epic proportions at the same time. Then there has been all the upkeep with the “farm”. You know…barn must be cleaned, water containers bleached, TDL (to-do list) to be whittled away at, and all that sort of stuff.

We said good-bye to one of the little boys, Beauregard, on Monday. Beau is the brown one. He went with a local goat farmer to meet his new “harem”. They are all just a couple of months older than Beau, so I expect him to be earning his keep by the fall. In his place, we had an unexpected addition to the farm…one that I am determined to make sure does not decide to take up permanent residence!

No one is sure where this pigeon came from. Our neighbor, who occasionally raises pigeons, said that none of his birds are missing. This mess-leaving, feather dropping creature MUST be caught! I quickly tired of coming through the shed, minding my own business, heading to the barn to have the living daylights scared out of me by the sudden flapping of pigeon wings! And, mind you, this has happened more than once...in the same day! Jumping completely out of your skin, stepping in some brown and white goo in the process, on a routine basis must surely NOT be healthy. So catching the scare-monger is a must.

The mama goats seem to be picking up a little in the milk department. That will help tremendously in the plans to get some Feta started and aging and with the experiment with goat’s milk soaps.

The goat babies are growing by leaps and bounds. They are also getting a little rambunctious! The two older ones especially. Oh to have their energy for a few hours…but only a few hours because more than that could possibly leave me in a state of exhaustion from which I’d never recover! They love to jump and climb…the higher, the better. I think that Princess would be on the top of the barn roof if there was a way for her to get up there. Spartacus still seems to be the “baby” of the bunch. He wants to be carried or cuddled all the time. When we let them out of their barn stall, he stands just outside the stall in the barn. He will not venture out into the pasture, even with the other little goats. If I pick him up and carry him out into the pasture, he mostly stands there waiting to be picked up again. Hopefully, soon he will out grow some of that.

"STOP...following...us!"

The wee ones are so fun to watch. They often run sideways (I should mention, too, that they would give Speedy Gonzales a run for his money…ándale, ándale, arriba!) and perform the most amazing acrobatic feats. This, in turn, excites Samson to no end. I have to keep a close eye on him because he has not been fully trained and tends to play a little “too rough” with the babies if not under constant supervision. He loves to chase the little darting balls of fur but is not sure what he is supposed to do if he catches one. “Am I supposed to eat it? Smack it around? Slobber all over it until it looks like it fell into a slimy lake?”

We should be starting on the garden in the next few days. I have been drooling over seed catalogs for a while now and have gotten a few seeds. I hope to expand on what I did last year and do things a little different. I just love those fresh salads and tomato sandwiches! I may outline what I have planned for the garden in a future post. Until then…shalom and blessings!
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Beautiful, Wonderful Day

I must say that today turned out beautifully. I woke up this morning at 5:30 am and went to milk the goats and feed the babies. It was not too cold and just as I was walking back to the house a nice little rain shower started falling. I went in and washed up and sat down to read my weekly Torah portion. It always amazes me what treasures there are hidden in the Word of God. After a little study time, I checked my e-mail and read a couple of articles on the internet. The sun was trying to break through the clouds with little success as I sat and listened to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. I decided that one cup of coffee was enough and thought a nap was in order. When I awoke from my nap, the sun was shining, a light breeze blowing and thought maybe I should just go out and play with the goat babies. It was nice enough that I decided to bring them out of captivity for a while and let them play around. Daniel and I took them just outside the fence next to the barn for a little romp. Here are some pictures from today. Oh, and I fixed the comment thing so that you do not have to be signed up to blogger to leave a comment.

I think I can squeeze outta here!

You looking at me?

A Kiss for Katie

Na-na-na na-na!

Don't come any closer or I'll jump!
Wait for me!

Let's play Follow-the-Leader!

Early to Rise is Getting To Me

Well, it seems getting up early to milk the goats and feed the babies is catching up with me...I am so sleepy that I decided to just add some pictures today...I will post more as soon as I can.

Shabbat Shalom!

Learning to eat from a bucket feeder

Face Off!

Mixing Feed

The Great Escape

If you didn't know, we also have a new-ish Great Pyrennees puppy. He is about 4 months old. He may not look alot like a puppy anymore, but he is...chews on everything he can. But, he is a really good protector. He makes sure that all the goats go into the barn if there is rain or any kind of danger...even if they do not want to!

Samson at 7 weeks old in November

Samson Today

Well, Samson has not been such a good boy lately. He has been a little too aggressive with the goat mamas, so he got put in the "doggie corner"--he was put up in a barn stall for a day. Needless to say, he did not like it and has pouted ever since. Every time I go to the barn, he looks at me with the most pitiful look. But he has been loose in the pasture with the other goats since Friday.

So, today the smallest of all the new baby goats decided that she was going to make a run for it and find her "real" mommy. Apparently, I am not up to par as far as goat mommies go :) I am not really sure how she got out, but it looks like she was able to squeeze by a place in the back of the kid stall into the adjoining stall which is open. Well, when we found her, she was in the clutches of Samson! I am not sure if he was protecting her (he had both paws covering her) or if he thought we had bought him a new chew toy. But he did not hurt her, other than the fact that she was covered in sticky dog slobber.

Here are some more pictures of the new little babies...

Eve, the little girl in the lower left, sings "We Gotta Get Out of This Place"

"I heeaarrr you!", cries Snow Cap

"Who knew hay was so munchy-crunchy good?" says Princess

"There ain't no milk in here!" complains Spartacus

"You lookin' at me?" says Beauregard

"Wake up! It's too nice to stay in bed!"

And It Begins...

Wow! What a ride! The past 3 days have surely been hectic! We added 5 kidsd to our herd over the last three days. The first two were born on the coldest day of the month. The other three born in somewhat milder conditions this morning.

The first two, whom we have yet to really name, were born on Wednesday morning. The temps were in the teens and we were not expecting them to arrive then. Mama goat gave no indications that she was anywhere near labor. So I trotted off to work. I had my son check on the goat's water (it had frozen solid and I did not have time before work to change it out). My mom had driven him over to the barn, but was soon alerted that we had issues--two very chilled little goats that needed to be warmed...and warmed FAST. The larger of the two was really struggling. He was barely breathing and needed warmth fast. Mom and my son took the babies in the house to finish getting dried off and warmed up. It took a while, but they warmed up nicely. I left work to come and milk the mom so we could bottle feed the babies. As you can see they are cute little boogers...the four-legged kids, that is. The two-legged kids are pretty cute as well;)

Daughter with new babies

Son with new babies...lying on his bed, no less!

Well that was Wednesday. Thursday came and went with no happenings. Then along comes Friday! I went out early to milk the mom of the first babies and give them their morning milk. I opened the gate to the barn, and, lo and behold, there stood a new baby goat! I rushed around and took care of the other babies, since it looked like the new little guy was doing fine. Next, I took the new mom to the milk stand to get the ever-important colostrum (first milk that includes antibodies and enzymes necessary for the little ones to thrive) from her. She did OK, but not as well as I had hoped. She gave me enough to get the new guy started out OK, though. I scooped up the new little guy and wrapped him in a towel and ran into the house. Got my wife out of bed to help get the little guy to take a bottle (important note: dear wife is NOT a morning person, NOR a great animal lover :) while I took a shower...could not be late for work! My wife did great with the little one, but could not get him to take the bottle. My dear mom came over a bit later to help so my wife could get to work. I got to work and started my day when the phone call came..."We have more babies!" So I made arrangements to take another 4 hours of vacation time...I would have to hurry to get things done before I had to be back to work. Got home and made sure all the new babies had their colostrum and were warm and situated in their warming hut in the barn. By the time I left, they were doing just fine, as you can see.

In the Warming Hut, under the heat lamp

"Can't you see I just want to take a nap?"

It really does make you think about how precious life is. It is also a reminder that, in another time and another place, these little cuties could have been destined to go up in smoke on the Great Altar...all for mine and your misdeeds. Bless the LORD for taking my place!

And so the journey starts anew for this budding little goat farm. With blessings from the Father like these, we are sure to grow just as these little guys will. I will try to keep this blog really updated from now on. Until next time...

Oh, and Shabbat Shalom!