What a Way to Start a Day

I have a good friend who just opened an all female gym. She is a personal trainer as well and this has been a dream of hers for a long time. I worked out with her for many years, but then started working and blah, blah, blah.. just got out of the habit. So, when she called me and invited me to see it, I was inspired. So today was supposed to be my first session with her to get back into training.

The morning started out routinely enough. All the kids were doing well, romping and playing in the barn. Bottles were warmed and fed to the kids and hay to the moms. Dressed for the gym and literally walking out the door, I heard the dogs go crazy and saw one of the yearling cashmere does go flying through the pasture and then the familiar cry of a baby. Great! I was in my flimsy workout pants and running shoes that have never seen the outdoors, because I swore when I bought them a few months back I would not wear them to the barn. Surely if I was careful I could go and check on things without getting tooo dirty. Sometimes I can be really silly.


It seems the dogs went to check on the new arrival and frightened the new mom. I gathered up the soaking wet babe, enticed the mom to the gate and then had to practically drag her to the barn with the lights. I got baby settled under the lights and hurried back to the house. I was now covered in mud and afterbirth and had 10 minutes to make the 20 minute drive to the gym. I changed my shirt, wiped off my shoes best I could and headed to the gym. On the way, I called and let them know I was running late. One look at me when I got there and it was "Let me guess, barn emergency?" Probably the mud spattered workout pants gave me away.


Meanwhile back at the ranch... New baby was dry and warm when I got back and trying to nurse. Unfortunately the new mom had no milk which was the reason I did not suspect she was close to delivering. I keep tubes of colostrum on hand for these emergencies, so a dose later and a bottle of milk and she was doing fine. This brings kid count to 9.

More Baby Goats

Yesterday was extremely busy on the animal front. On my morning rounds I noticed the second Nigerian was in labor. I also noticed a cashmere was acting a bit strange but wasn't really sure if it was signs of labor or another problem. I tried to move her to the barn but she was getting stressed and since it had warmed up nicely choose to leave her until I had help. By mid afternoon the Nigerian had produced a set of triplets. The last one born was a bit weak so I milked out colostrum and fed her. I checked every hour or so and tried to make sure she was nursing. She has a huge brother who is quite the pig and I have a feeling she will end being a bottle baby. By late afternoon, I discovered the reason for the cashmere's strange mood. She had produced a set of twins, brand new when I found them. This time she was more than happy to follow me to the barn! One of her kids is the most unusual chocolate color I have ever seen. That brings our total to 8 kids since last Tuesday. We stand at 4 bucks and 4 does.

And Twins Make Three...

Today's' surprise was the birth of twin Nigerian dwarf kids. Still brand new and wet here in the pic. She was a good mom and had them midday when it was a wee bit warmer. Wouldn't you know though, 2 bucks! Arggh!

Day 5 of ice and I am beginning to wonder if it is ever going to melt. We have a lot of shade and it is going nowhere. Snow I don't mind, and can navigate, but right now each day is an extreme challenge to get to the barn without breaking a limb. If any does melt it is refreezing during the night. Maybe I need to learn to ice skate. Am I starting to sound a bit whiny?

Snow, Ice and Baby Goats!

We woke to an icy glaze over the snow. About 1/4 inch had covered the ground and trees making for a treacherous trek to the barns. I had to stomp my feet to go through the ice and gain traction. While filling the chicken troughs, I heard the all too familiar cry of a baby goat. Not from the barn I expected though. My husband and I began the search to find one of the cashmere's had kidded in the small barn where the dogs usually sleep. She was still a bit damp, but alert and healthy. I scooped her up and headed to the big barn with mom following close behind. Slipping and sliding all the way, we finally reached the barn and got her settled under the heat lamps.

After getting her settled, I went to check on the other cashmere does. It seems that every year one always catches me off guard. As soon as we are able to navigate pastures I will move them closer. None of the others look close to kidding ~I think, I hope!

And so it begins. A new year full of babies. The surprise and excitement of kidding and lambing season never grows old. The name of the first little white cashmere doe? Snow, of course!

Snow

It began sometime around 4 a.m. By 4:30 the ground was covered with a couple of inches. At 9 , we had 4. It has been snowing ever since. I watched the birds feed, they emptied the better part of two feeders today. We counted 38 doves feeding on the ground. I watched a lone coyote wandering the fence line and disappear in the pines. I almost felt sorry for it- but only for a second. It looks like our total will be about 6 inches. I put a large pot of beefy cabbage soup on for lunch and had to go to the garden and rummage under the snow for the cabbage. I located two small heads and though frozen worked just fine in the soup.

The early morning hay feeding revealed no baby goats. Mid day all was still well. I did most of the feeding and let the puppies out to play. They had a wonderful time racing in the snow. The goats were not as happy to have to leave the barn to eat, but decided grain was worth it. In between checking on critters, keeping the fire going and cooking, I worked on a few knitting projects that needed to be finished up. One is a felted beret that was started long ago. The other is a black and red felted hat. Earlier this week I finished a pair of mittens for a sweet little girl, just in time for a fun day in the snow. I also got most of my seed orders completed. My hope is to finish that tomorrow and get them ordered. With the highs this week not getting above freezing until Friday, it looks like I will get lots of unfinished projects completed! I certainly won't be going anywhere.

At last check, still no baby goats but the freezing rain has arrived and already the gates had a glaze. Fingers crossed there will be no damage from the ice and heavy snow coating tree branches. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Preparing For The Storm

Tomorrow's forecast is snow and I was mentally making notes on what needed to be done today to get prepared. As I sat at the kitchen table sipping my second cup of coffee, I glanced out the window to see the livestock guardian pups sitting on the pond. Yes, they were sitting on the pond! I scrambled into my barn boots and sprinted towards the barn all the while calling to them. The pond's edge was frozen enough to hold those 30 lb puppies and thankfully they did not go through. And so the day began....

The next few hours were spent filling hay feeders and water buckets. I also had to do some major rearranging to get the puppies out of the pasture with the pond. They were moved to a safer pasture until the weather warms or until they go to their new homes. The lights had been hung in stalls earlier this week and all the goats that look close will be housed in these stalls for the week. The Nigerian dwarf does are especially close and will be having several day and night checks until delivery. I expect they will both triple this year. The hoses were drained and several loads of firewood hauled to the house. Lastly, since the forecast is calling for snow to change ice later tomorrow, we made a trip to the gas station and filled the cans, just in case we might need the generator. Now all we have to do is wait.

A New Year

And so begins a new year. This is the time I start planning the garden and dream about all the things I would like to accomplish on the farm this year. I don't make resolutions, as such, (Not that I don't need to, I certainly could loose those 10 pounds I have managed to find the last couple of years and who doesn't need to be more organized?) but I do plot and plan the month of January away!
On the list of things to do are order seeds and gather seed starting supplies. It looks like we will have early goat babies this year, so the barn must be cleaned out and lights hung very soon. I STILL haven't finished skirting all the fleeces, grrrr, so that needs to be pushed up the list.We have several inside projects that really need to be done before the spring months call us outside again, like replacing the upstairs toilet that has unceremoniously dumped more than one person on the floor. My studio looks like a bomb went off in it..... and on it goes.
One thing I do plan to do is to chart what we produce here on the farm. I think it would be really cool to see on paper exactly what we produce in a year. I started today, with the harvest of 5 pounds of collards, 1 pound of spinach and 8 eggs ;o)) I am going to post the monthly totals at the side of my blog, so check back and see how we are doing.
Here is to a happy, healthy new year!