Well, as you can tell, it took a while to post again. Sorry about that…kidding season got pretty hectic. We have finished kidding at BHF unless Liberty or Maybelline end up surprising us. I still have high hopes for Maybelline, but I think Lib got lucky and ended up with the year off.
Anyway, here is the short version:
March 24 – Challenge kidded at 145 days. Triplets: 2 boys and a girl. Textbook kidding, but since it was our first time, we were nervous and called a friend who is a midwife (of the human variety) - who also has goats. She came right over and helped us get through the morning, and when all was said and done, we named the doeling LeeAnne after her. (Luckily her name fits into our naming convention this year – Country Singers. LeAnn Rimes is her other namesake.) One of the boys went back to the woman we bought Challenge from and the other went to a home down near Victoria where he will become a herd sire.
April 6 – Peggy Sue kidded at 151 days. Triplets: 2 boys and a girl. The girl came out first – she was facing the wrong way, but since she was so small (only 5 pounds) it didn’t really matter. We named this one June. The boys were next, and were quite large, so Christian actually helped pull them out. Her second baby – the first buckling - just melted my heart. He may well be the cutest goat I have ever seen. We are not ready to keep bucks yet, though – so I was not allowed to become attached. The boys were re-homed.
April 7 – Jade kidded at 152 days. Triplets: 2 girls and a boy. These kids were all HUGE. It was a difficult kidding with all three kids presenting backwards. Christian very actively assisted in the delivery of all three, and even though it was scary at the time, he never balked. (There was a slight hesitation when two tried to come out at the same time, but he worked up the courage to push one back in.) I am still so incredibly proud of him. The girls were named Naomi and Wynona and their brother was placed in a home as a pet. …not sure what they named him, but we had been calling him cookie head.
So on April 7 we were bottle feeding 14 kids and it was – to say the very least – overwhelming. On April 9 we re-homed all of the boys, bringing us to our current total of 9 kids.
Here is the list of kids and their moms:
Patty – Lucinda, Emmylou and Carrie Underwood. (All were purchased from Stritch Farms)
Kelly – Miranda and Loretta (These girls, too, came from Stritch Farms)
Challenge – LeeAnne
Peggy Sue – June
Jade – Naomi and Wynona.
Add Maybelline and Liberty and the herd, which started as 5 does in December, is up to 16. Wow.
At this time, the babies are drinking pretty much all of the milk that the moms are making. Since we do not have a license yet, we are just going with the flow, but I will start making cheese again soon. The oldest babies (Lucinda and crew) are two months old now, and so will be able to be weaned in another month or so.
Our other big animal news is that we got three chickens last month who are laying delicious eggs and we are getting our LGD (Livestock Guardian Dog) this weekend. We have already named the dog Goatrude and can’t wait to get her to BHF. I will post pictures in the gallery soon.
In non-animal news, we have sold our Houston house. Once we close on April 30 we will begin planning and construction of the dairy. We could not be more excited. We are just that much closer to being able to sell you raw milk, regular milk, cheese and eggs. Keep checking back for more progress.
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