She's a Keeper!

Betty Bob suprised me with a middle of the night delivery. The goat pen is right outside our bedroom window, and I woke up to hear grunting. I sat up while I was trying to wake up and process what was happening. I realized it must be Betty Bob in labor since it was the same sounds Bambi made and different than I've ever heard them make before. So I pulled on clothes, grabbed towels and gloves and a flashlight and headed out. She was in labor and pushing some, but the baby didn't seem to be coming quite out. I waited a while and she would push and you could see hooves and nose--so the presentation was normal--but the baby didn't seem to be coming along. Finally I applied a little pressure to the head as she pushed and the baby slid right out.

Since Bambi had twin boys, I kept telling Ivy she'd better have some serious talks with Betty Bob before she kidded. It must have worked because Ivy got what she ordered! She wanted a little elf-eared, blue-eyed doeling and that's what Betty Bob delivered. Momma and baby are both doing well. Unfortunately, Ivy is over at a friend's house and missed the delivery and doesn't actually know she got her order yet. I doubted they would appreciate a 5 am call...

Kidding time!

We have kids!

Bambi kidded this afternoon with two adorable bucklings. The birth was simple and unassisted, although we were there with her. She pushed those two little boys out within a couple minutes of each other, and they were nursing very shortly after. She’s a great mother so far and has taken right to them. They are little and sweet and soft and shall I go on? They are both colored very similarly to Bambi. One has more white on him and blue eyes like his dad, Cowboy.

Ivy was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a doeling for her to raise, but she is counting on Betty Bob to have one for her. I know there is going to be one unhappy little girl if Betty Bob only has a boy. I really think Betty Bob will just have one when I compare her size to Bambi’s size before kidding. Bambi looked so large when I saw those tiny babies come out, I thought there was a good possibility there could be at least another, but she stopped at two. I’m thinking that Betty Bob is about a week behind Bambi, but with the range in delivery dates, it could be two weeks or so before she kids. Her udder is full and tight, but other signs seem to be lacking still. Of course that can all change very quickly as we witnessed today.

When I went out to check the kids around 8:30 this evening, they were actually playing a little with each other. It was such a cute thing to see. They were on very wobbly feet within an hour of birth. And they knew about looking for milk, they just didn’t always know where to look. They spent a good amount of time nudging around Bambi’s chest and one managed to get a little suck on her ear. She talks to them if she feels like they get too far away from her, but it didn’t bother her for me to take them. She was willing to leave them in the stall with me while she went to get something to eat. They, on the other hand, scream quite loudly if removed from her presence. There is already a bond there. So far, they are unnamed, but hopefully we'll figure some names out soon.

Wordless Wednesday #11

"Hey... err...hay!"

What would you make?

Heads up for a scrap bag giveaway from Sevi Designs. She's divvied up all manners of scraps into 5 bags and is giving them away. Just stop by her blog and let her know what you'd make if you won. I'm thinking little pincushions and little pouches.

Cute and Cuter!

Just wanted to share a couple quick pictures of our latest additions. These little guys hatched this week on Wednesday. They are so tiny they fit right on your palm with lots of room to spare. And you have to put marbles in the chick water dish so they can't hop in and drown! I had a momma hen go broody on me, so I ordered some guinea eggs from eBay. Sixteen eggs arrived, but only two developed to keets. Lots of things can happen to shipped eggs that can lower hatch rates, but I'm glad we got something out of them. I would have been really disappointed to wait a month and get nothing. It takes 28 days for guinea eggs to hatch versus 21 days for chicken eggs. Guineas are supposed to be great at keeping down ticks and other bugs. They are loud, but our neighbors had some that would come into our yard and they just sort of grew on me until I needed some of my own. I like their chatter.

Our little chicks have gotten quite big. The past two mornings I have heard funny sounds coming from their little coop and realized it was one of the roosters trying to crow. It's so funny to hear when they first start doing it. It sounds nothing like cock-a-doodle-doo! I can't really think how to describe it--like something being squeezed, I'd say. The two lighter colored ones in the picture are two of the ones that we hatched from the incubator. Actually, the reddish one could be also, but I have a hard time telling them from the banties we bought that are Easter Eggers also.

I'd love to be posting more, but things have been really busy here lately and our internet has been very unreliable. It works fine sometimes and other times it takes ages for anything to load if we can connect at all. Annoying to say the least, but hopefully we'll sort something out with it soon so I can get back to more regular updates.

We're waiting anxiously on goat kids, too. Bambi's due date is the 20th of this month. Which basically means she really could go any time now. Her udder is filling in nicely, and she's pretty wide. Can't wait to see what she has. Betty Bob isn't as big as Bambi, so I'm wondering if she may just have one and Bambi might have twins. I've been able to feel babies moving in both their bellies. Ivy is going to bottle-raise a doe if either of the girls have a doe. She said she'd like a kid out of Betty Bob if it had little elf ears, but since Bambi is due to kid first, I think she'll take a doe of hers if there is one just in case Betty Bob doesn't have a doe. Betty Bob's udder is developing also, but not as much as Bambi's. I think Betty Bob is probably about a week behind Bambi for kidding, but not quite sure on the dates since I didn't actually witness her being bred. Maybe my next update will have kid pictures!

Wordless Wednesday #10

"View from the driveway..."

Playtime at the Park

Over the weekend, we took a little drive to a goat show. Although the camera was tucked in my pocket the whole time, I completely forgot to take it out and get any goat pictures. So I didn't get any shots of the goats with amazing udders! I think I was so busy ogling the size of their udders that I just got distracted, actually. I knew Bella wasn't milking anything to brag about at around 3 cups a day, but I didn't fully appreciate how lacking she was until I saw these girls with udders so full I'm not sure how they walked without dislocating their hips! So now I know what a real dairy goat looks like. Can't wait for Betty Bob and Bambi to kid this month so I can see how they measure up. This being their first freshening, they won't be at full production potential yet, but I am definitely expecting better things out of them than I'm getting from Bella currently.

I did remember to pull the camera out a little later when we stopped at Cedar Creek State park for lunch and play.

Finn didn't want to leave the goat show and cried when we put him back into the car. But after we picked up lunch and told him we were going to a park, he perked back up. He chattered excitedly almost nonstop until we got to the park, which we took as a sign that he was looking forward to it.

Getting Holly to look at the camera proved to be almost impossible, and when she finally looked at me, Ivy was looking somewhere else.

Holly and Finn both had fun sliding with Paul, but neither really got the concept of taking turns.

The swings were another favorite. Finn had to make several visits to them.

We had a tiny visitor join us for lunch. After trying to get a decent shot of him, he hopped onto my arm and seemed content to climb around on my sleeve.

Make Something Monday #17

I read an article a while back from Mother Earth News about planting things where the soil wasn't ideal. One of the suggestions was simply to take bags of soil, poke drainage holes in the bottom of the bags and cut a window from the top of the bag. Then you lay the bag where you want to have something growing and plant directly into the soil in the bag. Easy!

I've wanted to plant something right in front of my porch since we have lived here. I've actually tried a couple times, but between birds snatching the seeds and the rock hardness of the soil, nothing seems to take off. So this year, I made use of the potting soil bag suggestion and planted an herb garden out front. I used one bag for each type of herb and planted basil, dill, marjoram, oregano, parsley and spearmint. I got the basil and dill planted about a week before the others, so they are just a little bigger. The spearmint hasn't quite sprouted all the way like the others, but I see some hopeful signs, so within the next day or two, some green should be showing nicely there, I think.

basil