The week that was

Hi all, I have been very remiss in posting lately and for that I apologize.
There has been much going on here in the past week or so, where to begin? Lets start with my mom, Maggie going into labor on Dec. 16. H-mom was with her and knew things weren't progressing normally and a few hours later h-mom and h-pop loaded her into the trailer and set off for the vet. A few hours later they returned with 3 new kids, 2 girls and a boy and a very tired Maggie. Maggie has 2 teats and there was always one of the girls getting edged out for milk so h-mom was keeping a close eye on them.
And then the very next day Blessing decided to kid. H-mom was with her and helped pull out the first kid that was in a breech position and then she kidded another, both boys. The smaller one couldn't stand after several hours and h-mom kept a close eye on him too.
Then the next day Genie kidded 1 boy, a very cute, big, healthy paint (my son). His name is Wilson and h-mom hasn't had to worry about him at all, but by now it was clear she needed to take one of the triplets and the one that still isn't standing from Blessing and bottle feed them.
H-mom put up a playpen for them in the den and moved them in. It's a lot of work to bottle raise kids, but the reward is a lot of sweet kisses.
Five days later Molly kidded with one big, beautiful, solid red doeling with a little white star on her head (my daughter) and her name is Holly. It was Molly's first time to kid and she is doing a great job.
The triplets names are Carly, Cory and Cassie.
Blessings twins are Alvin and Theodore.
Cory and Alvin are the house goats, man that looks like a pretty sweet deal. Almost makes me wish I could have been a bottle baby. If only I knew then what I know now.

Alvin has learned to stand and walk and can now go up and down the steps to the backyard and is growing well. He just needed a little time, encouragement and pysical therapy to get him up and going.

Lazy daze

When the nights begin to cool down a bit many of us suddenly find soaking up the daytime sun irresistible . It is still very warm, but not quite as ruthless as a month or so ago. Now this looks like Cinnamon is being lazy, but in fact she is only practicing her relaxation techniques and apparently she is pretty good at it because she stayed like that for a long time with only her tail swishing the occasional fly.
Nate found himself a slice of sunny ground to enjoy but look at the goof, he's shading himself with his shadow. Duh, but I digress.
Even our "protectors" were soaking in some rays.

But there are always a few that will seek the shade.

So anyway, a couple of nights ago coyotes were heard in the early morning hours. Now the humans say that their sound travels far, but it still made my hair stand up on the back of my neck. :o)

So the LGDs barked and barked and we didn't hear the coyotes anymore so I am beginning to appreciate their presence!

Well gotta go, there is a prime sunning area opening up.

Stella kidded

Stella kidded today with one girl that looks very much like her. She doesn't have a name yet but she is hanging with her mom and big sister.
She weighs 11lbs 2oz and is the smallest kid Stella has ever had. I know she is glad to be done because she was really getting miserable the last few days.


Hello world.

Momma love.

Finally found the good stuff!

I love you momma!

Hey, I'm taller if I straighten out my legs.

This looks like a safe spot to hide.

Life is good!

Another safe delivery at Happy Goats Ranch.

the showdown

I guess we aren't through test h-mom's patience yet. She got tired of me and Nate beating up gates and fences and put us together to "work" it out.




On and on it went until we were both too tired to be macho, at least for a while.

testing our limits

It seems we have all been testing h-mom's patience. First, In an effort to get the LGDs to bond to us, she separated them from each other and put one in with my group and one in with Nate's group, but they kept climbing over the gates. H-mom spent hours sitting out watching for them to make a move so she could tell them "no" and shoot a little BB gun at the fence to make a ping noise to startle them away, but every time she would stop watching for a minute, she would find Sadie in the other group with Dakota.

H-mom would patiently walk out here and take Sadie back to her area. I personally saw this happen 4 times yesterday and who knows how many other times she made the walk?

Then Nate and I got into a bit of a fight through the gate separating us. Of course, he started it with his cocky attitude and I had to stand up to him. The main casualty was the gate! We, I mean Nate bent the gate so badly the hinge broke, so here comes h-mom again first to get Nate and me in separate areas again, then to try and secure the broken gate until it can be replaced. With much creativity and some baling wire she got it standing again, but Nate got moved another pen away so we have no common fence line or gates to destroy.

And then there's little Star and her penchant for putting her head in places she can't get it back out of. This has been going on since Star's horns became big enough to get her stuck. H-mom has to go release her from a fence several times EVERY day. You'd think she'd learn, but between us, she isn't sharpest horn in the barn if you know what I mean. Well with everything else going on, h-mom's patience came to a screeching halt after releasing Star 3 times in one hour.

At first the rumor was that h-mom had shot Star in the head with an arrow! Of course, I knew she would never do such a thing, but indeed it did look a bit like Star had an arrow going right through her head from a distance and she was keeping her distance.

She was humiliated and embarrassed by the true situation, h-mom had stuck a stick behind her horns and vetwrapped it on there good so she couldn't stick her head into small areas anymore.

She couldn't believe it, after all she is a Star so she went off to sulk in the shelter by herself.

We all knew we had better chill for a bit, because h-mom was fed up with our antics and it's not wise to push humans too far.

just some random thoughts

I am trying to figure out what Sadie is up to. She has been digging for a while. She is the quiet type so I just had a peek and good goats, she must be craving Chinese food or something.

This hole goes on on and on. It's not like the shallow pits they dig to lay in the cool dirt, no this is more like a small but deep tunnel. I hope she orders some chow mein for me when she gets to China.

Stella is 2+ weeks from kidding which always makes h-mom excited. Me, not so much because it will be Nate's not mine. In the past Stella has always had huge, healthy, fast growing kids so it will be slightly interesting to see if she does the same with another buck.

So we are in two breeding groups right now but being ever the helpful soul, I did try to encourage Nate to take care of his buckly duties.

He was very interested in a very pretty girl that I was really hoping to breed, but alas she is in his group. He was analyzing her perfume to determine his next step and I was on the other side of the fence letting him know I am available if we can figure out how to climb the fence. Hmm, he wasn't really interested in that option and I'm not sure he was even listening to me.

What's that I smell, chow mein? Where is Sadie, hmm better go check. My work is never done.

the green, green grass of home

Here in Texas, we have long, hot, dry summers and by this time of year all of the grass is brown and crunchy sounding when you walk on it. It doesn't taste good and Lord only knows if there is any nutritional value. But........ this year we got some very unexpected rain in August and everything is looking like spring. Lush, soft delicious grass, weeds and such as far as the eye can see.

Spice girls hard at work

We are all doing our best to keep it under control, but we are
losing the battle, so h-mom brought in the big guns.

Left is Storm, h-mom's horse and below is Magic, h-pop's horse. H-mom let them in the goat pens and even in her backyard to eat the ankle high grass and man did they like that! They took their job quite seriously as you can see...

.

Pony, h-sister's horse got them organized to provide even mowing. They "worked" tirelessly for 2 days and their bellies show it! We were happy to trade places and nibble the briers and wild berry bushes that the horses are kind enough to leave for us goats.