Our Christmas Miracle

Christmas Eve proved more eventful than we had anticipated with the birth of little Noel, a beautiful Nigerian Dwarf doeling. We had been buzzing about the day, preparing for afternoon/evening festivities when Randy mentioned to me that Fudge had been spending a lot of time in the goat shed rather than out grazing. He asked if she could be close to kidding. I dismissed the idea. Afterall, Annie being much bigger than Fudge, should kid first. But when I went to check Fudge out, sure enough her udder had swelled quite large and she had a few other tell-tale signs that birth was close. In my disbelief, I said, "You're right- tonight or tomorrow we'll have a baby." A few minutes later, Fudge laid down and started crying and pushing. A few seconds later a foot appeared, then a nose, then she stood up and the whole kid came flying out all at once. My in-laws made it just in time, though I don't think my brother-in-law much enjoyed the witness. We left the pair alone to bond, but kept an eye and ear out for signs of a second kid coming as goats often have twins. By evening we were confident she was finished. We moved the shed to a clean area, gave them a few old towels to snuggle up on and we continued our own festivities with extra merriment. Christmas morning, Randy and I gathered our milking gear and headed out for our first bit of raw goat milk. Fudge, all things considered, took to this new treatment rather well. Of course a big bucket of hay in front of her nose helps considerably. We got 6 oz of milk which seems to be the morning alotment for us right now. As the kid grows and finally is weened (at 8 weeks), we can expect to get 1-2 quarts a day.

We've gotten several neighborly visits to see our little cutie. She's especially prized for her blue eyes. Were we to sell her, that would almost double her value. To us, she's more prized for her udder, but I must admit, I do enjoy looking into her baby blue eyes.

Other pregnancy updates- Annie and I continue to enlarge. I have about a month left. Annie, who knows.

Egg relief

December 10th we got our first egg from our second batch of layers, the brutal, fiesty, little leghorns (by the way, all 3 of the remaining wonderbirds have survived re-entry). It was small but very good quality. This is coming at a very good time as our Rhode Islands have seriously slacked off on production. We get an egg a day usually from 7 chickens. Molting, shorter days, whatever the reason, I’m sick of oatmeal for breakfast. I bought some “healthy” eggs from the supermarket this week. Yesterday for breakfast we used 2 of the store bought (organic, free-range) eggs and the only 2 of our’s we had. The picture shows a little of the difference. Basically, our yolks were much bigger, brighter and firmer. The whites showed a better consistency as well. The store bought yolks broke easily and the whites were thin and slimey. We haven’t gotten any more eggs from them yet so we’re still having to eat a lot of oatmeal and supplement with the store bought, but at least relief is in sight.

As for the goats… still pregnant. I’m buying hay for them today because they are as rambunctious as anything and they keep tangling their leads when we tether them. I wish I could be so spry with a big ole belly. It thuroughly tired me out yesterday untangling them every 30-45 minutes. Today, they stay in the pen and eat hay.

A whole lot of pregnancy

I just realized its been almost a month since the last post. Basically, nothing radically new is going on right now. Just 3 pregnant females sitting around getting bigger. I keep saying Annie is going to kid any day, but every day shows no new signs. We originally questioned as to whether or not Fudge was even pregnant. We thought we saw signs of a heat cycle. But she has suddenly popped out so we’re now awaiting the arrival of her kiddies as well. The picture is of Annie scoping out Glorias slide.

As for me, Baby Aaron has been doing all kinds of big moves, making my whole belly shift rather noticably. I like it even if it does somewhat remind me of a weird alien invasion.

We’ve spent the last 3 weekends building better equipment for our goats. Ones NOT made from pallats! One structure is a moveable, 4’x8’x4’ moveable shed for them to hide in during rain and cold nights. Another structure is a milking table for them to stand on during milking so my basketball belly doesn’t scrape the ground. And the third is a pen to put the kids in as a separation device so WE can actually get some milk too. But we’re discovering now that the pen may not be necessary. Oh well. It can double as a chicken pen… or for turkeys. Next Thanksgiving we expect to have a homegrown turkey dressing the table! The picture is of Gloria on Thanksgiving. I dressed her nice, took her outside after dinner… and she had to crawl all the way under a car to find an accessible dirt pile!

While its Florida and not exactly freezing or anything (Gloria voluntarily went swimming today… and it was warm enough to let her), the grass still slows down in growth. We’ve been trying to keep the front yard clear so as to not look like TOTAL rednecks, but we finally had to do it- we moved the chickens to the front yard. For one, we were out of grass. And the second reason is that we needed to sow some rye grass which should be kept between 6-12” in height. I didn’t expect my neighbors to appreciate the health benefits of goats eating foot high grass, so we sowed the rye in the back yard (thankfully Gloria’s over 2 feet tall or else she’d go exploring and I’d never find her!) and have our PVC chicken pens decorating our front lawn.

Hopefully my next post will be one proclaiming a birth. (Not Aaron’s!!!)