It turns out, our goats are not pregnant. Yes. We are beginners, and we thought they were, and didn’t really know what to look for, and were confused by how not fat they were. Birthing time came and went, and went by a long stretch, and nothing. We talked to our Goat Mentor, Sue, who had them out to her property for breeding, witnessed the deed, and she asked if they had had any chance to get into chicken feed. They had. We had to build a special door to keep them out of the chicken coop. Apparently, if goats get into chicken feed, it affects things. I don’t know the whole science of it, but suffice it to say, no babies of our own this round.
So Sue gave us some of her baby goats for our herd, because she had an abundance.This is actually the second round of baby goats she has given us. Then, on top of that, she loaned us a couple of mama’s so we could learn to milk. In her world, she has mama goats that birth, and that is called freshening, it brings on more milk. The babies are bottle fed to make them people friendly, and the mama’s are milked. Sue makes all kinds of things with the milk, and will be teaching us the same. So she ends up with all these babies, and what she really wants is the milk. So, she is helping us build up our herd.
Scott has been milking two goats for the last two mornings. He is very proud of himself. It is a lot of work, on both his and the goat’s part. It becomes something they work on together to accomplish. He is just so good with all the animals.
This evening, I came home from work, and he had been out doing estimates all day for the tree service. It’s that time of year, and people are starting to think of they yards again with these longer evenings of daylight.
He said that when he came home, he walked over to the rabbit yard, at the corner of the barn. From there, he can look out into Goat Knox, the totally protected, and electric-fenced yard where the babies and milking mamas wander. He can also see out into the back field where the bigger (fake pregnant) goats are grazing. In that back field, the pigs are rooting around and the baby pigs are playing tag. He stood there and called out, “Babies!” and from every little corner of our farm baby animals responded and started making their sounds. The baby goats were baahing and skipping in his direction. The bigger goats in the field all came running too, the pigs started snorting happily, the kitty woke up from her nap and stretched on top of the barn, even the puppy was making happy puppy sounds at his feet.
He said he stood there and felt like a conductor – like he should take out his imaginary baton, tap on his music stand, and spread his arms wide to bring on the music.
And I remember, that he is just as much of a lover of art and music as I am. He is just as much of a dreamer. We are so in this together with all the ups and downs. This farm life is a wonderful adventure with a partner like my man.
photo from here and it really makes me want to get busy with some artistic welding projects around here!