The first baby goats of the season

 Petunia and her three babies.

Two girls and one boy.

What will we name them?

 Charlie making donuts.

 Charlie and the donut factory.

Grandpa eatting donuts.

Skiers

 The boys taking off to ski.

The boys getting ready to ski.

little piggies

Ten little piglets born on June 24th.

New Baby Kids

 Here is Rose and her baby. The other one is behind the white one.

 Here is a better one  of  both of Rose's babies. She is a good Mom.

 Here is Petunia and her baby. As you can see she is a hungry baby.

This is Petunia's baby she likes to lay under the wagon. She thinks she is hiding.

And then there was light.

Lots of things happening around here lately. Between kidding and construction  I've barely had time to cook and do laundry (poor Ryan has to fend for himself, and even makes meals for me sometimes). Here's some pictures to give you an idea...

Babies and Building...Business Booming?

Here are some long over due pictures of the progress we've made in the creamery, parlor and milk house. Pretty much all of the walls are up (just the finishing touches in the aging room and bathroom left), and I've painted a primer on the plywood in the utility room and office. You'll notice that the cement in some  places looks very grey - that's because I've painted it with a epoxy paint to make it more cleanable. I also painted the curb of the parlor platforms, and I think it looks rather nice. Also, there were 2 more baby goats born today! The mother is Nutmeg, this is her 3rd lactation. I'm very excited to say that she had 2 girls! Not only does she have a nice udder, she is half Nubian and thus has a very high butter fat and protein average (which makes more cheese!). Nancy Reagan (black, La Mancha ears) was born first, and then Lady Bird Johnson  (brown, normal ears!, and wattles). Way to go, Nutmeg!

A Work in Progress

What luck! We have beautiful weather for our cement project. It might be hard to imagine that it will eventually become a parlor, milk house, utility room and small office, but to me it is finally less of a dream and more of a reality! (But maybe I'm the only one that can see that yet...)

New Home

Winter is here and all of the animals are warm and snug in the barn...wait, that isn't right. Let's try that again: Spring has sprung and the goats are out on grass again...obviously that's not right! It seems that our winter season is a little topsy turvy this year which works just fine for me. The goats and I have moved to a new home and I was worried that they would be cooped up in the barn for several months. Knowing that the weather was supposed to remain mild this winter, I thought to bring my portable netting fencing with me, thereby allowing my goats some time outdoors. Who would've thought that they would be grazing  somewhat green grass on the shortest day of the year?

Cherries new calf

Charlie look at Cherries new calf. She was born early this morning around 1:00.  What are we going
to name this one?????????????

Milly's lineage expands...again

Well, Maren seems to be following in get mother's hoof-steps: she just had her 2nd heifer calf in as many lactations. I'd have to look back in the records to be sure, but I think Milly had something like 3 heifers in her first 4 lactations. As you know,  Maren is not pure Holstein, as Milly was. She is a Norwegian Red and Holstein cross. This new calf is even less Holstein, coming from a Red Dane sire. We'll have to come up with a Danish name that starts with 'M' for this newest addition to the Milly family tree.

The Final Baby

The final kid of the season has been born! Yesterday at chore time I was surprised by a new baby in the pen, already dried off with a belly full of milk. Petunia, the mother, has looked the same for nearly 2 months, so I truly had no idea when to expect her to kid. Since Petunia is Mom's goat, she got the honor of picking the baby's name off of Charlie's List: she chose Indus, the name of a constellation. Thank you to Charlie for coming up with such a great list of names. Now is time to  start thinking about next year's theme - Musicians?  Poets? Herbs? We'll see...

More names from The List!

Here's the newest additions to the crew. Pip had her set of triplets just 2 days ago. They are already playing King of the Mountain on the big square in their pen and are generally being cute. After looking at Charlie's Grand list of names I've decided to name the 2 boys Sirius and Polaris, the girl will be Vesta: 2 stars and a comet! Now we have only Petunia to wait for...when and what she has will just have to remain a mystery for now!

A little rain...

Needles to say, the goats and I got soaking wet on our emergency trip home from the school house pasture.

Cooper comes to visit.

We had a special guest visit us this morning: Cooper Sylling! He and his brother got to help milk goats, drink fresh goat milk, and eat a mound of hot french toast. It was a great morning with our most loyal blog-follower!