Stella's Baby

I was up all night the other night because I heard Stella on the baby monitor. She was talking away. I kept expecting her to go into full-fledged labor any time so it was a long sleepless night on the couch. She never progressed any. In the morning she was still doing the same, I was hoping she would do alright during the day. She did better then expected and when I got home I found a handsome new baby boy. Stella did a great job on her own. 

This little guy is very handsome, he has great markings and waddles, just like his mom and grandmom!

to top it off! He has a mustache! 

Also, just as an updated on Coco, she is doing well! Her babies are doing well! There is a possibility that we will be retaining the chocolate doe. Coco is getting older and since she is one of our special goats, I would really love to keep her mini me! 

Coco's Easter babies!

I came home from work yesterday and these cute bouncing babies were waiting for me! We have been on baby watch all week and have been anxiously listening to the baby monitor through the night. We were happy to see that mom and the babies made it through the delivery okay! This is Coco's fifth set of kids and she certainly is an expert! By the time I got there, the babies were clean, dry, fed and shakily walking around. So, now we need some names! 

This is the boy, he looks JUST like his daddy Reginald (Reggie)!

This is the girl, she looks JUST like Coco!

Please feel free to send over your name suggestions!

Next up to kid is Stella, her current due date is April 24! We will be anxiously listening to the baby monitor again soon!

Spring Has Sprung

The snow and ice have ceased for this year and spring has moved in! The hundreds of daffodils are in bloom, the ground is covered in this beautiful purple flower and the red buds are showing their appreciation for the sun. Spring has certainly sprung! With the beautiful weather and budding plants also comes babies on the farm. 

While Chris and I were on vacation the first weekend in April, my mom was watching the farm and when we came home we had a brood of 7 (out of 8, not bad!) chicks hatch from coop 3. There are 2 yellows, 4 blacks and 1 turken in that batch. This group of peeps also has, two hens over it. They did not incubate together, one of the hens sat on these babies ever so carefully, when they hatched the second hen must of had that motherly feeling and decided to help her out. Not a bad idea, since there are 7 of them and they all seem to go in different directions!

my mom holding the turken peep

This weekend we also had the eggs in coop 2 start hatching. We started with six eggs, but are down to five. So far one BIG black turken/cochin cross has hatched and we are anxiously awaiting the other 4 eggs to come and join us. I will be candling them tonight if they do not pip by this evening. 

the black turken/cochin peep

The goats are finding the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, so they have taken to jumping through and over to see what trouble they can cause while out. Here is Sable, being a bad little goat!

Not everyone is causing trouble this spring! Here Daisy May just needed a nice relaxing belly rub from dad as she laid down and enjoyed the beautiful spring sunshine!

With nicer weather means we are out more working on projects. We are still working on the new girls barn, progress has been made and there were over 300 bales of hay stored there this winter, pictures to come soon! Here is a smaller project that we did, we got a new goat hay feeder since the wooden one in the picture has finally rotted out! This new metal bunk feeder is great, much less waste (at the moment). I also constructed a PVC hay shelter to keep the hay (and goats) dry. Don't worry, the posts are set with 5' rebar in hopes that it will not blow away!

Naturally it is kidding time again, in case you forgot, last Easter weekend we had a CRAZY amount of goat births! Currently we are expecting two! Coco first and then Stella. Coco is not due until April 21, but is already showing signs of being ready now, and with her, typically giving birth a week early, the timing would be perfect! I will keep you posted!

Have a great spring day!

And More Babies!

As we were getting ready to put the animals up for the night so we could settle in to enjoy our Easter meal I noticed Sadie laying down with her legs all locked behind the chicken coop. Chris secured our meal so the dogs did not eat it and came out with towels. I sat with Sadie, in the rain, while Chris put up all the animals.

Sadie is a seasoned mom and within 20 minutes she had two beautiful girls on the ground and cleaned. I was amazed to watch her with her babies, especially with all the trouble we have been having with Lela not wanting to be with hers ... yet! The girls were having a hard time getting the milk to flow from mom so Sadie reached her neck around and started massaging her own udder with her mouth to aid in the dropping of the milk.

I will work to get pictures of Sadie's babies as well as Lela's!

Lela is bonding well with her babies. One of the boys is able to nurse from her unaided. The other boy (Duke) and the girl (April) are not yet at that point so I am assisting with bottle feeding until mom takes that over. The family was able to all sleep together for the first time last night and is spending the day walking around my basement so I can supervise and continue feeding.

Hope you all have a Happy April First!

Happy Easter!

We certainly have entered kidding season with a BANG!

This past Thursday - Petunia delivered one healthy boy and one healthy girl.

The girl is the fawn colored and the boy is the more white one.

what a great hiding place!

This Saturday - Coco delivered one healthy boy and one healthy girl.

The boy is the brown/black one and the girl is brown and white.
Coco came over to where we were working on the barn and started hollering for us to come over to her. Once we got over to her, she began having strong contractions and finally after an hour and half she had her two babies. Coco certainly prefers for us to be with her when she delivers and does whatever she can to get our attention when its time!

This Saturday - Lela, who is a first time mom, delivered 3 boys and 2 girls! - wow that's a lot of baby for one small goat! Sadly, one boy and one girl did not survive the delivery, Chris and I missed the delivery and cannot say for sure that our presence at her delivery would have changed the survival rate of the two babies. Lela is still in shock and has not yet accepted the babies as her own. Chris and I are working with Lela to make sure the babies are fed and working to get them acquainted with her. This afternoon Lela started sniffing them and began to lick them a little, so there is still hope!

Pictures of Lela's babies will be up soon!

More kiddings to come!

Barn Update!

Well due to the mild winter we have had construction of the barn has not been delayed! Three out of four sides have been framed in (the fourth has not been done yet because there is still quite a bit of material under the barn and we need a way to get it out!) Two of the sides have been sheathed!

Things are moving quickly around here and we are all getting very excited! The end feels like it is almost here!

Here are some pictures of the progress from this past weekend!

A few weeks ago we had a minor emergency with one of the goats! Mamma cracker her horn and it needed to be removed. Since she had cracked it basically all the way off, we were able to remove it quickly and she has been healing well. Here is a picture of the old girl with her new "uni-horn" look!

Barn Building Continues

Well, Chris informed me that I need to keep up with the blog on a more regular basis, so I am going to do my best to spend time updating the blog, facebook, website, etc!

This weekend Chris and I spent time cleaning out chicken coops and working on the barn. Chris' dad came over on Sunday to help with some more barn progress. The barn is coming along, and it is hard to not get excited about the girls being able to move into it!

The back wall is almost completely sheathed, the second stories windows are sheathed. Here are some pictures of our progress. 

Three views of the back side of the barn. 

Windows at the very top

Second story hay storage

And Deva was supervising the guys the whole time, she is pleased with the craftsmanship and was cracking the whip to get the guys moving!

Here's to hoping the winter stays mild so we spend the cooler days working the barn. (I prefer this time of year for barn work then the summer, too hot and too much gardening/canning to be done)

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Dad!