update

It has been a long time since I posted, no excused except life has been pretty busy. Between milking and caring for the goats, the garden went in, BBQ at friends houses, finishing school, chasing chickens out of the gardens, helping out friends, park day, home school activities, add in canning, cheese making...you get the point;) Anyway here is the garden in May and this month.


We had the idea of bringing in truck fulls of compost, since I can't make compost to save my life. But that didn't happen, we bought bags of it instead. It would have been cheaper I am sure if we would have stuck with our original plan. It just never worked out. I lost two tomato plants to our wonderful wind we have here. They were quickly replaced with others. All together we have 34 tomato plants...ummm I think I will be busy;)
I am milking three out of four goats this year. The fourth one has too small of teats to deal with. Hopefully next year they will be a little bit longer. Chevre cheese is my newest addiction, Thanks to my friend Dalyn and her cheese making abilities.
Rob has been busy at work, fishing with the kids, and trying to keep up with all the projects around here. I think we both need about 6 more hours in the day. On top of all he has to do, our van's transmission went out about 6 weeks ago...grr. It will all get done, I know, just hard not having a second car, especially when the vehicle we do have is an Excursion. Can you see $$$$$$??? Needless to say we won't be going to too many places this summer.
Hope you all have a great week!!!

2011 kidding~It's over!

Yesterday our last goat Starburst had her kids, twins, and they were big! I ended up pulling,I mean pulling really hard cuz they were so big! They didn't want to come out! Here are some pictures from this years kids.



Starburst and her kids:

The girl(haven't picked out a name yet)

The boy

Spaz and her triplets:

Boy on left, girls on right. Peggy in the back and Half-pint in front.

Praise and Mimi:


Smores:

Mocha

Praise and her kids(Had triplets but one died):

Boy:

Boy:

That is a total of 5 girls and 4 boys. What a fun time we have had, but I sure am glad it is over;)

Head over to Homestead Revival to check out more!

MiMi's Girls

Another long night Jordan and I had last night. I noticed MiMi's udder was a lot harder than before when I was feeding her her grain. So we watched her a little bit closer and then decided to put her in the kidding stall. Off I went to drop Jacob off and do some grocery shopping. Rob and the girls took turns checking on her. By the time I was ready to turn out the light she was showing progress(figures, especially since I have a busy day today). Got Jordan up and stayed out in the mid 20 degree weather until 1am. Headed inside for some shut eye, then went back out around 2:30 and she was gooing. No more progress until I went out again at 3:45 and the babies had just been born. I tried to call Jordan on the walkie talkie, but she must have been sleeping pretty hard cuz she didn't hear me. They are so cute and so much stronger than Praises kids. Look Dalyn she has spots!! OK not exactly spots but I will pretend she does:)

The boys are here

Thursday night when I got home from our home school meeting, I went to check on Praise and Mimi before heading to bed. Praise had started to goo so I got the "stuff" ready(towels, gloves, lube). I got Jordan out of bed and we watched and watched and watched until 1am. Praise wasn't progressing and it was COLD!!! So we turned on the heat lamp and headed to bed. I woke about every hour to check on her and still nothing. By the next morning Praise started to goo again so we were on watch again...well to make a very boring and long story shorter. Praise delivered triplets around 2:30pm. Unfortunately, the first had gotten stuck in the birth canal and died. He came out butt and elbow first. Poor Praise worked and worked. I had to pull and pull (she wouldn't let me turn it) so it was done the hard way. The second and third kids were fine just really tired and weak. Rob (of course) wasn't home and I don't do shots:) so it was strong coffee and colostrum until he got home to give them their BOSE shots. It took a lot of work but after about 1 1/2 hours they were up and wobbly. This morning they look great. I did have to milk Praise off a little bit, she was so swollen. The chickens, cats and Daisy enjoyed a nice bowl of goats milk. The boys will either be sold or butchered, so we don't name them, but they sure are cute!


This one looks a lot like Dalyn's Handsome Rob.

This one looks like his half sister Starburst(header picture).

The Girls sporting their wears

This morning it was 2 degrees. Since the heat lamp isn't working thanks to the goats, this will have to do. Thankfully it is supposed to be back up in the 30's for night time temps tomorrow night so I won't have to wrestle with the goats to get them on.

Goat Pictures Galore

Jaelyn and Praise


Teats of Praise


Victory, my first goat given to me by my friend Dalyn. She has a mass in her udder so I haven't bred her the last few years. Someone had told me to use a mastitis treatment on her. Haven't tried that, any suggestions would be helpful. The vet wasn't helpful at all.


Jaelyn and Praise


Dot

The girls laying in the sunshine, all except Dot. She wouldn't lay down if we were in the pasture for fear we might come near her. She is a bit wild still. We've been working on her.


Praise resting in the sunshine.


Dot


Victory, Jocelyn, Jaelyn, and Spaz


Dot


Mimi


L to R~ Spaz, Mimi, Praise, Dot, Victory, and Starburst. Jordan in the back.

Praise~look at the belly. She is due sometime between mid April and mid May. Mimi is also due at that time(if it took;0). Spaz and Starburst are due mid May to mid June(if it took). Praise is the only one I can "see" so far as being prego.

Looky Looky

Guess what rob is building me?? Any guesses? Here are 2 hints: 1) It's NOT for me...2) Where it is now, it won't be when its done...

Bad Goaties

Came out to the pasture to find this:

Except no one is fessing up to doing it...

Who me?

Not me mom

The they won't even let me in there.

Could it be mother daughter duo?

Well if the goats didn't do it then maybe the chickens did, they seem to be hiding out under the porch.

This is what we get for buying a cheapo shed. Rob has plans on building one this Spring/Summer.