Time

Babies in the creep

I do apologize for not having taken the time for some updates and news.  The days just fly past and suddenly another week or month is gone.  The babies are growing like gangbusters, and we are finally, finally getting some reasonable weather, 70F, breezy and sunny.  Playtime out on the big rock may now being in earnest!

Twig’s little boy

Unfortunately, I have news of the farm.  I struggled with this all late winter and early  spring, and finally have made the decision to let the goats and Jingle the Donkey go.  I can’t even tell you how difficult this is for me, but I am not up to the work anymore, and I don’t think I could manage another winter as icy as this recent one.  I suspect that winters here will continue to get warmer, which will only mean that much more ice for us here on the coast.

I am certainly fine with the day to day chores in the fine weather, but I am falling behind on the real infrastructure maintenance, both physically and monetarily.  I am on a fixed retirement income, and am just managing the hay prices, which keep going up.  (I ran out of hay right around the time the babies were born, and this time of year is not optimal to be buying it as everyone is jacking up the prices to ridiculous levels).  I am hoping that farmers are out making hay this weekend, as we are having a beautiful 4-day stretch of lovely!

Peanut with her new friend

And so awhile back I slowly put the word out that my goats are available, and I have to say that all but one buckling has been spoken for at this point.  Peanut was a particularly special case, as I needed to find her a home where she will not be bred (not easy at all).  But, a friend contacted a friend of hers and Peanut now lives the life of luxury not far from here, on a place where some horses and another adorable goat were rescued.  I have visited her and she is loving life!  Not being pushed around by the older goats here anymore, she is simply best buds with the dwarf goat over there (they have a great view, also!  I am jealous).

I have also found wonderful homes for the other mamas and babies, and Jingle the Donkey is going up to a farm not far from here to live with other donkeys and horses.  A great setting for my lovable girl.

And so it goes.  I have always thought that I would have my goats until I was at least 70, but that may have been wishful thinking!  It took a very long time for me to make the final decision, but in the end I knew that it was the right one.  I can never go anywhere between April and October because of kidding and then milking, so this will allow me to do a little traveling in the good weather, as well as actually having the money to do other things.  (Although I am seriously mourning the loss of that lovely milk and the chevre…)

The mamas and babies will be leaving toward the end of this month or early July.  It’s going to be altogether too quiet around here very soon!

 

 

 

Advertisements

The Saffron conundrum

Saffron

When waiting for the babies to arrive, I always think longingly of when I can start getting more sleep, and of when the order and organization of the day can get back to a new normal.  I don’t know why I am so surprised when that doesn’t happen like the flip of a light switch!  And this year is not going to pass without a bump in the road, either.

Saffron had a very tough time last year when I thought she had toxemia or milk fever after her babies were born and it turned out to be mastitis.  She mothered her babies but had almost no milk for quite a long time.  We bottle fed those girls and they did fine in the end, though.  I have been watching her very closely for signs of mastitis this year, and unfortunately, she has it again.  Although this year I didn’t waste time treating her for other things and just got right to the antibiotics, vitamin B, and udder massages.  Her babies are only drinking from the right half of her udder (which runs out of milk pretty quickly), and the left side keeps getting bigger and bigger, and they can’t get on the distended teat.  I can get the girls on that side after I milk some of it out, but once I am back in the house I don’t think they touch it at all.  It also seems to be a little tender for Saffron, and that could be part of it.  And so my new normal has been making many trips a day and into the evening to milk her left side and also to get the girls on that side of the udder.

Freedom!

The biggest difference this year is that Saffron does not appear to feel sick like she did last year, which is a huge relief.  She has been very much herself, and never stopped eating her grain and hay.  I have had her and the two sweet little girls in a nice large pen in the back of the greenhouse where they are surrounded by everyone else, but I know that is quite restrictive and I was as ready as Saffron for them to be released.  Her girls gained a pound since yesterday and are really full of beans, so after the worst of the rain today, I let them out into the big paddock world.  (The girls had not been gaining as well as they should have, although they have fared better than I expected).

Oh my gosh, those girls did not hesitate a moment!  They began running and jumping with all the rest of the little ones, and mama Saffron was standing in the middle of the action trying to keep them in her sights, calling to them the whole time.  They didn’t stray too far, but they are fast little imps and took great advantage of their new freedom.

If we could just get a nice stretch of weather at some point, they will really be tearing up the place and enjoying the days.  Nothing better than sitting with the girls on the rock pile, watching the action in the sun.  And in the meantime I will ponder whether Saffron should ever be bred again.  And so it goes on the farm.

Saffron’s day

Saffron and one of her girls

And so our last but not least girl, our herd queen Saffron, had her kids Thursday morning around 8 a.m.  It was a warm day, cloudy and a little breezy, but really pretty perfect all around!

Wednesday night as I was doing my midnight rounds, I found Saffron up in the paddock whining and crying, very softly.  I was a little alarmed, and couldn’t tell if she was talking to her babies and encouraging them to make an entrance already, or if she was upset at being alone up there!  The two other moms were in their jugs with their babies, and Peanut unfortunately doesn’t count as a real goat with the rest of the crowd, so for all intents and purposes, Saffron found herself on her own.  It was quite unusual, watching her walking slowly around the paddock under that bright moonlit sky.  She definitely had no signs of active labor, so I went in and got into bed but didn’t turn the light out so I would get up in another hour or two and check on her again.  Same thing going on at 2 a.m. as well!

Saffron’s girls

John checked on them around 4 and 6 a.m., so I headed up to chores about 7:30 on Thursday morning.  It was already comfortably warm, and Saffron was still doing the same thing.  Talking, crying and walking around!  She didn’t show any signs of wanting breakfast, though, so I knew she must be getting close.  And sure enough, while I sat in the greenhouse with the babies and moms, I was able to watch her on the little hill, pop that first doeling out.  She made quick work of getting that little girl dried off, and nursing, then her second doeling made her entrance a little under a half hour later.  I left them where they were for as long as I could, but the breeze was a little stiff and I didn’t want those babies to get chilled.  As I was carrying the doelings slowly toward the greenhouse, Saffron was frantically licking them both, and ended up washing my arms into the bargain!  She is such a good mama.

Bellies are full, time to nap!

And so our kidding year is closed now.  I am very grateful, and getting more sleep is a very good thing.  I am still sitting up around midnight wondering why I am awake, though!

Twig’s big afternoon

Twig’s first!

It’s been a busy few days!  All of our girls have now delivered their babies, just in time to avoid the rain that is coming in this afternoon.  (Actually, I think it is already drizzling).

Yesterday I came and went over and over again up to the paddock, and around 1:30 I decided to take the lawn chair to just outside the girl’s greenhouse, and relax for a few minutes.  The sun was warm, and there was a breeze, but not a bad one.  I closed my eyes, and then realized I was hearing two things:  Eleganza, who was in the greenhouse penned with her babies, was calling to Twig, her 2 year old daughter, who was outside in labor, grunting.  Oh my!  That goes to show that you are never finished with being a mom!  It was so sweet.  Twig grunted and growled, and Eleganza called.

Lighter is the doeling

Twig was doing really well, and didn’t even get up to get that first baby out, a little doe.  What a cutie she is, very spunky at a minute or so old!  I didn’t have to guess her sex, as after only a moment, she squatted to pee!  That is something I have never seen before.  Twig is showing herself to be as good a mother as Eleganza; she had that baby cleaned up and on her feet in record time.  As the afternoon wore on, however, I realized her next baby in line was having issues.  He had his head tilted up and back, and one leg was all the way forward and out, while the other was all the way back.   I don’t think I have had to help any goat births in about 10 years, and here we had two situations in two days that needed a little push.  You just never know!

As soon as I got the little guy’s head down and out the back door, she didn’t have any problem getting him out.  He’s another beautiful red buck, with a little white blaze on the top of his head.  They are both very active babies and are doing well.

And so it goes!  4 babies down.  I’ll tell you about Saffron a little later!

New life

First baby

Is always so precious and wonderful.  We finally have had our first babies of the season!  Eleganza, our beautiful Guernsey girl, went into labor this afternoon.  I wasn’t there for the very beginning, but when I went out around 2 PM, I knew that she had not just begun her labor.  She is a real trooper, and last year had two 8.5 lb bucklings without any help from us.  This time seemed to be a bit different.

Goats and sheep usually deliver their babies in an intact sac filled with amniotic fluid.  You can usually see the head resting on the two front legs, as they come to meet us as though they are diving into a pool.  This one was no exception, nothing wrong about his presentation, but there was something wrong with her ability to get him delivered.  This poor little/big fellow was coming out and going back in, which is not unusual, but our girl Eleganza was not making any progress.  I don’t tend to interfere with a birth if it looks normal, but after almost an hour, as she began to lose steam, I waited for my chance and helped the little bugger along as she was having a contraction.  He is a very big boy, over 9 lbs, and I am glad I did help him out as he had been so stressed that he was passing a lot of meconium poops into his amniotic sac.  And so we have our first baby of the season!

Baby #2

And then his brother made an appearance an hour later, just as I like to see it, so that the first could have all his mother’s attention for a bit before having to take care of the second baby.  Our little guy was up and nursing before I knew it, and the second large buckling was born with no help from me, thank goodness.  The darker red buck is actually the second born, and the smaller of the two, although he looks bigger because of the camera angles.

I love it when we have babies in the daytime!  And no, we still have no spring peepers!

Waiting, again

For goat babies, and for spring peepers!

Everyone has spring fever!

We have had some lovely weather in the 50s (F), and now today it is sleeting and snowing and blowing, but isn’t too very cold at least.  Just what I want with one of the does due to kid tomorrow!  I hope she waits until tomorrow, but compared to some of the years we have kidded and lambed, I can’t really complain too hard about the temperatures.  We have historically lambed and kidded in early March.  Brr.

Eleganza waiting patiently

Our Eleganza is the one up for tomorrow, and our Saffron due a week from today.  Both are experienced and wonderful mothers.  Twig, our two year old first time mom, is due next Tuesday.  All in all, a nice tight cluster of sleepless nights and early mornings.  Not too bad, really!  In looking back on the two older does, they have both kidded every year during the daytime.  I would be very grateful if that trend continues!

We have also been enjoying our local wild turkey population immensely.  Our house is on a mostly wooded site, with a beaver pond down back just barely visible through the trees.  And so our yard is a heavily travelled turkey route, which currently includes the back of the house at our bird feeder.  There are two or three fairly large toms that are traveling with a large group of females and a few jakes (young toms), as it is the mating season.  We have been treated to a daily show under the feeder by the tom.  His harem, however, doesn’t even give him a glance!  They are busy eating the fallen seed and the little chunks of stale bread I throw out there, and as they move on, the tom moves with them – after he has put on quite a show!  I think when he is showing off he looks like a wind-up toy.

And now I think I will be off to check on our expectant mamas again!

Icemud season

Ice and mud

What a lapse in blogging!  The days have been flying by, even by winter weather standards.  I think most of us in the northeast can agree that this has been the winter of ice, which was definitely not an easy-to-handle one.  Each snow storm we had ended in rain and sleet, and the buildup of ice in all the areas where the shade predominates has been epic.

Sunrise over the pigeon loft

And so we enter the in-between time of icemud.  Not yet mud season, but mud mixed with layers of ice… and everything re-freezes at night.  Gotta love it because there is nothing to do about it!  I am enjoying these 40F days, though, and afternoon chores are my favorite time of day.  The sun is high and warm, and even the unrelenting wind has not spoiled how nice it feels to be outside.

Peanut, Twig, and Eleganza (left to right)

On the goat front, we are just 3 weeks away from our first babies!  Eleganza is our Number 1 this year, and is due on April 9th.  The other two are due a week later.  Our first-timer, Twig, has begun to have a nice little udder, so even though she does not look incredibly pregnant, she is chugging along well.

And so it goes!  Spring is not a season that we really have here in Maine, but the trees have buds on them and the overnight temperatures are in the upper 20s and low 30s, which is delightful.  Maple trees are tapped and syrup is flowing well.  And Daylight Saving time is here, which always makes my day :*)

And now December is upon us

Autumn was beautiful

And then this happened. Twice.

Holy cow!  Time is really flying by.  Much of what is going on in our lives is the minutiae of getting older and dealing with some health problems.  I am not feeling quite as energetic as I used to because of higher beta blocker doses (that really seems to sap the energy!) and my ongoing battle with some crazy painful bursitis in my hips.  And so I am moving more slowly and trying to be mindful of not doing too much, as I always have in the past :*)  It feels like it’s becoming a full time job.

Pippi on the left, with Twig

After our yearly NY Sheep and Wool/Rhinebeck trip in October, my dear Pippi went off to the butcher.  Thankfully, her boy found a great home, so we were spared sending him off for meat.  And then breeding began and ended as quickly as I have ever seen it!  Everything just fell into place in spite of itself, and in spite of not having much of a plan in place.  Our girl Peanut, who I am not going to breed this year, if ever, was in heat middle of the first week in November.  So that passed and on Sunday the 11th I woke up to the sound of aother goat in heat, screaming at the top of her lungs.  Eleganza made no bones about her predicament, and so I grabbed our sweet Ephraim, the very laid back buck, and threw him in with the girls.  I gambled on Peanut not coming back into heat, which could have happened, but it didn’t.  (Although I will keep in mind that she was in with the buck and make sure I don’t miss anything as the winter goes on).  And as if I had planned it, Saffron and Twig came into heat during that week as well, and all of our 2019 babies are due between April 9th and April 16th!  It really couldn’t have worked out better.

Eleganza giving her opinion on the stink of her very attentive suitor!

And I don’t believe I have to worry about Peanut, because she has just spent the beginning of this week screaming at the fence, in heat again (and I am sure the whole neighborhood knew about it, too!).

And now we are 8

The last few weeks have been very busy ones.  I had been advertising the goats I needed to move along, without any response, and I was feeling a little down about it.  I really hated the thought of sending these beautiful girls to the auction, but I was beginning to think I would have no choice.

3 of the Guernseys around the feeder

Saffron stuffing her face

Jingle and Fergus

But, then, I actually found a farm that wanted all of them!  Edna with her two doelings, Battie and her daughter Betsy.  All together, which made me the happiest of all.  And so last Friday they all got a nice ride to their new farm.  I hope they do well, they are in a very good place.

Pippi and her buckling from this year are still here, although they have a butcher date in late October.  Pippi is still milking well, but she is losing her teeth at an alarming rate, and she is elderly.  If I leave her to try and winter over another year, I am afraid I will lose her at a time when we cannot bury her…  and I hate using the goats as coyote bait, but a lot of folks do that around here in the winter when they can’t bury dead animals.  And so she will provide us with a little stew meat, and her circle of life here will be complete.  She’s been such a great little goat, my fierce Herd Queen!  (Saffron is lining up to challenge that position, but Pippi is no slouch, she is not giving in one little bit).  Pippi’s buckling may actually have a home lined up, but if that does not work out, he will go with his mama.

And so the seasons are moving forward, and I am moving forward with our little farm.  Chores are so wonderfully uncomplicated now that we are smaller, and much more enjoyable.  More time to actually hang out with the goats and enjoy our time together.  They are awfully good company!

And I should not forget Jingle the Donkey, who will never leave!  So maybe I should say, now we are 9 :*)

Is it almost August already?

Happy girls this afternoon

And boy does it sound like it out there!  The crickets and the grasshoppers are playing their music frantically.  I don’t know if it’s the drought, or just the usual.  Whatever the reason, I love sitting and listening to them, it’s a most comforting sound.  The rain is finally making a brief appearance every once in awhile, but the days are growing shorter again, which always surprises me for some reason.

Fergus the wether. Trying to look innocent!

We have had an insanely crazy summer so far.  My husband has been traveling back and forth to NJ.  His dad, 94, was getting feebler, and ended up in the hospital and passed away just before the 4th of July.  And so many trips up and down, alone, with me, with our son and grandson later, it’s been nuts.  Very sad to have lost my sweet father in law, but also nice to have had an opportunity to see much of the family again.

Sam and some of the girls last November. We all miss him!

In the middle of all this upheaval and emotional stuff, my older son, the one who has been with us for a little over 2 years and has been a huge part of the goat farm, had the opportunity to move back to NJ, which he did this past week.  And so it goes!  When it rains, it pours.  Change just is, and I am old enough to not be surprised by it.  But it does every time.

Today John came back from NJ once again, and I think he can stay for a week or two before heading back south.  The summer traffic is epic, and it took him almost 10 hours to get back today (it’s a 400 mile trip, should only be about 6-7 hours).  In the meantime, my schedule has changed drastically, as my son was doing a lot of the feed prep each day, and it will take me awhile to get into a different groove.  I know the goats are standing around scratching their heads wondering why everything is taking so darn long :*)  Ha!

3 cottolin hand towels, Summer & Winter weave

My weaving work has continued well, and we are exploring double weaves right now.  It’s so much fun!  I also finished a set of Summer and Winter weave hand towels a few days ago, which I just love.  I made them from cottolin, and the colors are lovely.  We only have about 2 months left tin the grant timeline, and I have a few projects I need to work on aside from what I am doing with Nancy.  I need to really get cracking on them.

Detail of the middle towel which I will probably use as a table runner (a small one)

The hot and humid weather can turn me into a very cranky soul, but so far we have had pretty small doses of it until this past week.  It’s been a tough one, and I know that the animals are feeling it as well.  I certainly am not very sprightly during this hazy, humid stuff, and living in Maine, we do not have air conditioning except in the bedrooms (although living only about a mile from Muscongus Bay definitely helps, particularly when we get breezes off the water).  The next 3 or four days are supposed to be better, and then the stickies make a return appearance.  Ah well, this is summer, and this too shall pass!  I am not wishing it away, the green and the warm don’t stick around for more than a blink.