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I am now waiting for Speckles to have her kids. I’m pretty sure she has triplets again. She was due today, but nothing has happened so far. So another sleepless night for me. I’ll be checking on her often tonight.

Ariel had her kids yesterday. She had beautiful chocolate brown twins, a huge boy and a petite girl. Bruiser and Mocha. Both are healthy and strong. So, the boy/girl ratio is half and half this year, so far. Hopefully that will continue. Rusty is throwing some really nice looking kids this year! Angus has thrown two nice ones, too. I’ll be posting some pictures one of these days.

Today was a spectacularily beautiful day. I got the yard all raked and cleaned up. Worked on the flower beds some more, and generally spent as much time as I could outside. The daffodils and tulips are coming up good now. I also played with the kids and brushed Rascal. He’s shedding pretty good. It’s almost all out already.

I love watching the kids playing and being kids. They bounce around and just look so happy and care-free. The does are following them around making sure they stay out of too much trouble. Since these are very active, vigorous kids this year, the moms have their work cut out for them!

Spring is a good time of year. Especially this year with the early, somewhat dry one we are having. A good rain would be nice for a day. The ground was pretty dusty when I was raking today. Although come June when we are getting too much rain, we will look back on these days with fond memories. ☺

Well, that’s all for now.

Tonight at 6:50pm Mindy had twins. After waiting all day yesterday, checking on her just about every hour, on the hour, during the night, and waiting all day today, she finally gave birth to a little girl, and a big boy. They are both healthy and strong. Cream colored and cute. I named them Rosy and George. Mindy had an easy, picture perfect birth this time. She didn’t even bellow. Last time she yelled with each contraction. So this was nice and quiet. I’ll sleep good tonight! I didn’t get much sleep last night, what with waking up every hour or so to go out and check on her. Now Lucky will have some playmates.

Lucky was out and about today exploring the goat pen. He’s only three days old, but he’s getting adventurous. Bridgett follows him around everywhere he goes, keeping the rest of the herd away from him. She’s got her work cut out for herself for a while! He’s a busy little boy.

Now I have a couple of days off before the next round of kids start coming. Ten more Does to go, then it will be over till July when Molly gives birth. Well, that’s all for now…

Yesterday was quite the day. When I went out to feed, here was Bridgett laying by the fence with two babies that were not moving. They were half-way through the fence and colder than cold. I picked up the one, expecting it to be dead, but it let out a faint yell. The other one was dead. So I took the live one in the house and used the blow drier on it to warm it completely up. Then I went out to Bridgett and milked her a bit to get some for the kid. I took it back in, warmed it up again, stuck the “save a kid” tube down into his stomach and got some nice warm milk/colostrum into him. Then I left him in the laundry basket lined with towels and a hot water bottle in there while I went out to milk the dairy goat, Belle.

When I was opening the milk parlor door, I heard a noise behind the building. I looked, and here was a turkey impaled on a piece of re-bar! It went up through the front corner of her breast muscle. No blood or anything. I lifted her off the bar, she struggled and got away. She seemed fine, oddly enough. But I caught her and put her in the cage we have for containing critters and John did her in when he got home. I figured she would get infected in that hole, it was pretty big and went all the way through the muscle. She was wild enough that we probably wouldn’t be able to catch her to doctor her, that would put too much stress on her. So we butchered her and will eat her. After all, that is why we have them. It’s too bad she did that, she was full of eggs! She even laid one in the cage. We still have eight other hens, and the two toms.

After that ordeal and getting Belle milked finally, I went back in to deal with the kid. He was doing much better and recovered pretty rapidly. I milked Bridgett again and he drank a bottle of milk. Then when he could stand and walk, I took him back out to Bridgett, who was very glad to see him! He’s fine now and will grow into a nice wether. It’s too bad the girl died. She was a rich dark red-brown with a white spot on her head and an interesting white band about 2 inches wide on one of her front legs below the knee. She would have been a beautiful goat. Oh, well. These things happen. Bridgett must have had them around 5:30am. They were both dried off entirely and fuzzy, so they had been alive for a couple of hours anyway. I think what happened was they went down the incline a little, started through the fence, and being the uncoordinated little babies, couldn’t get back and got thoroughly chilled. If I had gone out a bit earlier, I probably could have saved them both. It was the coldest morning we’ve had in a while, 18 degrees. Bridgett wasn’t even due till next week, so I wasn’t watching her for anything yet. Mindy was due first. She hasn’t had hers yet. I named the little guy Lucky. He’s a solid black color. Sturdy little guy and strong, too. So he will make a good fiber wether. He’s got his Dad’s folded ear, so he’s not going to stay a buck. Although, since his mom and him are for sale, if someone buys him with-in the next three weeks, they can decide if they want to keep him a buck. I’ll be posting a picture of them together pretty soon.

After all of that, I was going to go to town to run some errands, went out to start the pick-up, and the batteries were dead. So I had to plug in the charger and charged them for a couple of hours. I took it to the parts house where just bought new batteries two weeks ago. they took their diagnostic tool out and determined the alternator worked fine, the batteries were fine, so there must be something that was staying on, or a short somewhere. So this morning when I went out to check on everybody at 5:20, I noticed a glow coming from under the hood. The hood light was staying on! So I opened the hood, and turned the light till it went off. So that will have to be fixed. Should be an easy fix. Solved that problem.
So after a rocky start to the day, it ended okay. Now I am going out a couple of times a night and checking on the goats till all the babies are born. I do not want to lose another one!
HAPPY SPRING!!!

Today started out on a bad note, and it didn’t get much better as the day went on. When I was taking some minerals over to the buckling pen, I slipped on the ice and fell pretty hard and fast. I banged up my arm and cut my thumb, and almost hit my head on the pile of rocks I landed by. Luckily I didn’t hit my head. The arm sure hurts. I saved the jar of minerals though! Only a little fell out. ☺
Then I came in and fixed breakfast, afterwards we went out and butchered a tom turkey. He was a Bourbon Bronze,(BB) one of the crosses we got last year. He was starting to get in trouble with the two main toms, so we decided to do him in before they did. He was very hard to catch! Now he’s cooling in the fridge for 12 hours before I either cook him or freeze him. Now we have 11 turkeys. The two toms, and 6 bourbon red hens, plus 3 bourbon bronze hens. The BB’s are too small yet to butcher, so they get to live for a while yet. They have pretty feathers. Unique coloring on most of them.
The hens have started laying eggs, so one of these days, one of them should start to sit on a nest. I’ve been finding the eggs all over the place. One likes to lay them on top of the roof of the turkey house! I’ve found others just laying on the ground wherever they happen to lay them. Only one has actually been in the nest box. Obviously they aren’t serious yet.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon doing some spring clean-up outside. I raked the inner yard and made that all look much better. I noticed some of the tulips are starting to poke through, and some crocuses are starting to come up. The turkeys are getting into the flower beds, so I trimmed a wing on each one to inhibit their flying ability. I have two left to catch and trim. They are very hard to catch. They are like wild turkeys. Now maybe they will stay inside their nice giant pen we made them last fall. It’s plenty big enough for them to run around in, and get bugs, etc. It’s even on a hillside, so they get plenty of exercise. They like the yard and gardens better, of course.
Since we are getting such an early spring, we might just start planting some of the garden. That might be a good thing to do. John planted some lettuce and spinach in the greenhouse, so hopefully we will get an early crop of those. We haven’t had very many salads this winter. We like to buy most of our food locally, so lettuce and spinach aren’t in season now. A fresh salad will taste mighty good!
Well, that’s all for now….

We had a fun time in Helena Saturday night. My nephew Reid had a gig at a nice place called Riley’s Irish Pub. They have good food, and a good atmosphere. There was a decent sized crowd there. Reid sold a few CD’s, and played for almost four hours. I had a good visit with my sister and family. It’s been quite a few years since we’ve seen each other in person! We live in opposite corners of this fine state, and Montana is one big State! It’s a good 10 hour drive to get there. With both of us having farms it’s hard to get away, especially for me.
Helena is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from here, so that is easier to do. We might be doing that again if Reid gets called back to play there again.
I’ve only got four more goats to comb. They are slow in releasing their fleece! That’s okay. Now that spring seems to be here, at least for a few days, the snow is melting at a good rate. The road is now a muddy/slushy/icy mess, depending on which section you are on at the time.
When I built the roof over the cashmere pens I didn’t take into account the seasonal soft spots that are there. I put two gates right in front of big soft spots. Now I have a yucky, smelly area of goo to walk through every time I feed and water. ick! I am going to have to either move the gates or bring in a good amount of gravel to fill that in. Not sure which would be easier at this point.
The kids are almost here! Mindy should be having hers this week-end. Then the rest start coming next week-end until the 16th of April. I might even get one on my birthday. I sure hope so! That would be a nice little present.
That’s all for now. More as it happens…

I combed a couple more goats today. Now I just have eight left to do. The fleece is looking quite good this year. Much better than last.
The snow is melting faster now. We have had some really nice sunny days in the upper 40’s to low 50’s with a bit of a breeze. That melts the snow quite nicely. The forest service road is in pretty good shape so far. About half of it is bare with the last couple of miles still snowy or icy.
Next week-end we are going over to Helena to hear my nephew, Reid Perry, play. He’s a great country/folk singer/songwriter and guitarist. Writes all his own songs and plays a pretty mean guitar. I am looking forward to seeing this.
I haven’t seen him, or my sister since our mom’s funeral nine years ago. Reid was just a little kid then, so this will be interesting. He’s 17 now. I think he’s well on his way to the “big time” in the music world. He’s got all the time in the world to improve and grow from here. He’s got a pretty good following in the Billings area. He’s also on a bunch of college radio stations around the country. He’s got a CD out too, called “Till the End”. Go Reid! The kid is pretty good! You can check him out on “My Space”. www.myspace.com/reidperry.
There sure are a lot of geese heading North already. Spring is early this year! The Robins are back, too. I think we will get a lot of rain the end of May into June. Not to worry about the lack of snow right now. There will be moisture this summer! Almost too much at times.
Nellie barks at the geese as they are flying over. She gets quite worried about them. I explained to her today that they are okay, they won’t hurt us, they are heading way up North to have their babies. She quit barking at them after our little talk. I think she gets it now.
Thursday I brought home another set of “boomerang goats”. I sold them a couple of years ago, then they discovered they could jump the fence they were in, so the people decided to get rid of them. So I took them back. They are Dottie’s kids from two years ago. They actually have some cashmere on them; they are out of Angus, so they should. I combed some of that out. I’ll give that to the lady that had them. She’s a spinner, too. So she can spin it into yarn and make herself a hat or scarf, or something.
I have now put Bridgett and Lucy on my website for sale. They are on the “goats for sale” page. I think I’ll sell Squeaky, too. They have longer guard hair, and I don’t want that in my herd. They have nice fleece, and both Bridgett and Lucy are pregnant. With their longer guard hair they need to be in a herd that gets sheared instead of combed. By the time I see the fiber ready to come out, it’s starting to matt up already. So if they got sheared, it would be at the right time for optimal yield without matting. Since I don’t like to shear them, someone else can get them and have some wonderful fleece. Bridgett throws some really nice kids, too. She had a really nice buck kid three years ago that has outstanding fleece. He’s over by Spokane now. She’s also the mother of Lucy. This will be Lucy’s first kid. So whoever buys them will get the kids, too. All for the same price! Can’t beat that. I think since they are getting pretty close to their due dates, I’ll keep them here until they kid, then whoever has bought them can take them home and have baby goats to play with. Bridge is a really good mom. Hopefully Lucy will be, too.
Well, it’s getting late, and there is a lot to do around here tomorrow. More as it happens…..