Kids have arrived!

We've had three does kid in four nights!  It's been an exhausting week for me, but there are 10 more goat smiles greeting me in the barn every day.  Check out the 2016 kid page for photos.

Getting Closer

Since we are getting closer to kidding season, I figured a prego photo was long overdue.  Here are our seven rotund lovely ladies lined up at the feeder.  From left to right; Stormcrow, Bayou Baby, Morgana, Cordial, Andromeda, Constance, and Titanium.  And Rocky is photobombing from the buck side of the feeder. 

This Girl Has Grace

This pretty little doe has it all, personality, looks, and milking potential.  She'll also have a new home in a few short weeks and will be especially missed.  Thank you, Patrick, for giving her an exceptional home!

Triplets

Cordial delivered triplets!

Blue-eyed sisters

Home Bound

During the rush of the short summer months, I envisioned myself enjoying this sleepy reflective period by knitting beside the woodstove, while watching my youngest daughter engaged in imaginary play.  Any sedentary and reclusive routine is welcome, this time of year.  My growing belly is ripe with our third child, a spring surprise pregnancy, slowing daily activity and jeopardizing barn chores.  Carrying warm water up the hill twice a day, climbing fences and wrestling hungry pregnant goats is exhausting.  They seem as perturbed by their predicament as I am mine.  We commiserate by exchanging hormonally charged insults.  I'll go first, thankfully, about four weeks before kidding season begins.  While looking ahead to a full farm and market season with a baby in tow, for now I am content to patiently wait for my labor to begin.   

Summer Kid Fun

24 Karat Goat

I grew up in the 1980's.  It was a fashionably tenuous decade, filled with puff bangs, scrunchies, banana barrettes, and Ogilvie home perms.  And those were just a few interesting things one could choose to do with their hair.  Clothing was equally outrageous, with accessories like bangle bracelets and hoop earrings proving that bigger was much better.

In junior high, I remember being teased by my literature teacher for the puffy hairspray stiff hair and my personal attempt at setting new fashion standards by wearing mismatched earrings.  Oh, how I loved earrings.  They were big, flashy, statement making peace symbols, flamingos and autumn leaves.  They were also cheap and imported, full of nickle and other heavy metals that bind to your own proteins making the metal-protein complex very immunogenic or likely to cause hypersensitivity reactions.

I haven't been able to wear earrings, for the itching, burning, swelling they cause, as long as I can recall.  During my pregnancies, I slipped in a pair of gold hoops comfortably since my body's immune system was naturally suppressed, ever so slightly.  And then just recently, I realized that I could wear pure 24 karat gold hoops again.  These were a gift from my late father, who brought them home from Korea decades ago.  Because they were such excellent quality, they caused none of the problems that I was so accustomed to.  I never took them out and adjusted to sleeping in them since the gold was so soft, I feared bending the posts too frequently.

And then one day, my favorite goat, Titanium, reached up for a kiss, which I indulged because she is such a wonderful friend.  She nibbled a 24 karat gold hoop right out of my ear and either swallowed it or (more likely) spit it into the straw bedding.  I searched the floor on my hands and knees for many days/weeks afterwards and watched her droppings like a hawk for at least as long.

Fortunately, my sweet goat is alright.  She hasn't suffered any gastrointestinal distress.  I am holding out hope that someday I will find my lost earring, while digging in our well-fed garden.