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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…..

Here’s one of the yearling wethers named Andy, with his fiber all combed off of him. For such a small guy, he gave quite a bit of cashmere! There is some nice fleece this year. I’m about a third of the way done with the combing for this year. I get two to three done in a day. I’d better up that by a goat or two, or I’ll never get them all done. At least they don’t all shed at exactly the same time.
We are having some spring weather the last week or so. A lot of the snow has melted, although there is still enough to keep the ground white, for the most part. Good thing we are going to get quite a bit of rain in May. I hiked up to the rocks with a friend on Sunday, and we didn’t need snowshoes. They would have been nice in only one little section towards the top, but otherwise, the snow was only about 6 inches deep! There were bare spots under the trees. I even saw some green grass!
I plowed the road some yesterday to get rid of some of the slush and ice. Now it should melt off faster. I also made some turn-outs from the spring up, so if we meet someone, one of us can get out of the way.
I trimmed Rascal’s hooves the other day. Now they are back to what a normal horse should have. It only took 6 months to get them back to normal. Now I hope he will be able to stretch out and gallop properly this summer. He was so short strided from having such overly long feet that he is having to make some major adjustments back to normalcy. He is a nice little guy. Never threatens to kick, or bite or anything, even when I slip and fall against him. He’s a good boy.
The other night I heard a mountain lion scream, a couple of coyotes in the distance and an owl hooting. Obviously I wasn’t sleeping good that night. The youngest deer in our little group that hangs out here got killed by the lion a week and a half ago. When we were coming back down from our hike, we saw the four legs, back bone, and hide scattered all over a wide area. The coyotes cleaned up what was left after the lion ate it’s fill. Mother Nature at work. As long as there are deer around, I don’t have to worry about the goats getting done in. Especially with Nellie around barking at anything that moves, or she hears. She’s a good guard dog.
There is one deer that is not afraid of the dogs, though. Tonight it was coming in towards the house on the trail when Nellie and Dani went up to it barking. It just kept walking forward, and the dogs backed off. I’m thinking it has struck at them before, and they are afraid to get too close again. That does not bode well for the yard and garden this summer! We need a ten foot fence all around the perimeter of the yard to keep the deer out. I planted a bunch of flower bulbs last fall that I really don’t want eaten this spring. I’ll have to figure something out.
Well, back to work. I’m getting closer to having the cotton spun up and I finished the afghan. It looks pretty. Very bright colors!
More as it happens….

This year is going by fast already! Winter is pretty mild around here, unlike other parts of the country. Hope everyone is staying safe and warm.
I’ve started combing the cashmere off the goats now. It’s going to be a good year for it! No dander, very little vegetable matter, and it’s sooo soft. I love working with the stuff. The goats are liking the brushing. It must feel pretty good to get rid of all that hair.
I’ve spun and dyed 3 skeins of cashmere yarn in the last few weeks. Dyeing is so much fun. I never know for sure how it will come out. So far, so good. Now I’m crocheting a baby or toddler afghan for a friend of a friend. It will be a very bright blanket! Should look pretty neat.
I’ve learned, or I should say, I’m learning how to do the Tunisian crocheting. Also called the afghan stitch. It’s easy and fun. I’m not sure why I didn’t do that years ago. It intimidated me before, but not now.
I’m spinning some organic cotton now. I don’t think I ever want to spin cotton again. It’s harder to do than cashmere by far. Although now that I am getting used to working with it, it’s getting a bit easier. But, I still don’t think I want to do any more after this is done.
There is an un-planned pregnancy out in the goat pens. I went out to feed one morning this week, and here is Rusty entertaining one of the yearling doelings in his pen. He had bashed the fence enough to make a hole she could crawl through. They were looking quite pleased with themselves, so I am sure there will be a baby in July. I really didn’t want one that late, and it’s going to be the only one, so I think I will sell the doe in May or June, and someone can have a baby born on their place. She is one of Speckles’ triplets from last year. She’s half dairy and half cashmere. She has pretty markings, and her name is Molly. I was going to keep her, but I really don’t want a single kid that late in the summer. I’ll ask $100.00 for her and her unborn kid.
The one neighbor has sold his place now. We shall see what comes next. I hope a nice homesteader couple will buy it. The land is really nice, I wish we could have afforded to buy it, but it just isn’t meant to be at this time. Maybe it will just sit there empty till we can come up with the money, then we can get it! It would be perfect for my fiber arts education center that I will be building pretty soon. So, we shall see.
Well, that’s it for now….

We are in a mild spell again. This winter has has been different, that’s for sure. We have a few days of really cold temperatures, then a week or more of mild temps. We have been in a very strong inversion the last few days. It was in the 20’s in the valley and in the 40’s up here! Our snow has really settled the last couple of days. We did have around a foot of snow, but it’s settled down to about six inches or so now.
I’ve started trimming the goat’s hooves. There are a few of them that are starting to shed their cashmere already! I brushed a couple today. Maxwell and Nicolas are both definitely cashgora. I think I will sell them for pets. They are so cute and friendly. They would make someone a duo of excellent weed-eaters. They are way too cute to put in the freezer! Since they don’t have the top quality cashmere, I’ll sell them pretty cheap; $40.00 each. They do have nice fiber for spinning, it’s just not top quality cashmere. Maybe I’ll keep them and spin up their fleece, then sell it as cashgora. We shall see.
I got all eight of the yearlings done today. Tomorrow will be the four bucklings (that will be a smelly job!) and then start in on the main pen of does. I should be all done by Friday, Saturday at the latest.
I made a really nice looking cashmere beret out of the hand painted skein of yarn that wasn’t selling fast enough, and a rust colored skein. I just might have to keep it for myself, instead of selling it. I really like it!
I’m trying to get as much yarn spun up as I can this month and next. After the middle of March my spinning time will will decrease by quite a bit. Kids start being born around the 22nd. After that, I won’t have much time for spinning. I need to get some more accessories crocheted, too.
The chickens laid five eggs today. I hope this is the start of the egg laying season for them. We got a Murry McMurry Hatchery catalog today. I was looking through it at all the various breeds of poultry. We might try raising some meat chickens this year. We’re discussing that now.
I’m letting some of the chickens hatch out some chicks this year. We need some more laying hens that are young and will lay lots of eggs.
Well, that’s it for now. More as it happens…

2009 is a thing of the past, and 2010 is now here! It’s going to be a year of wild and wacky happenings, with lots of good things thrown in, too. I’m looking forward to it!
We are having a pretty mild winter. There are only about 6 inches of snow on the ground, and it’s a wet, heavy snow. It’s been in the mid to upper 30’s temperature-wise. I’m rather enjoying it. I think May is going to bring a ton of rain, so the lack of snow isn’t bothering me.
The goats are all doing fine. The chickens still aren’t laying very many eggs. I hope they start pretty soon. I’m tired of having to ration them. The turkeys are all well, and the guineas are being guineas.
Yesterday some mountain lion hunters killed a 120 lb male lion about half-way down our forest service road. When I was out feeding in the morning, I could hear the hounds baying not too far away. They worked their way all around the perimeter of the “bowl” we live in, and ended up back down on the fs road. When the neighbor came home, she saw the hunters on the road with their lion. It’s kind of sad really. Here this lion was just out minding his lion business, not bothering anyone, and gets chased down and killed in the matter of a few hours. He must have been one tired cat at the end. He led them on a very long chase! The hounds probably slept pretty good last night.
At 120 lbs, he wasn’t a young lion, so he’s been around for a while. Never has bothered any of our animals, just killed the deer that are plentiful around here, just like he’s supposed to do. I’ll bet the deer are a bit relieved, at least till a new one moves in. One less predator to watch out for. It’s still sad, though. Who knows, as the winter wears on, he might have come here to try his luck with the goats, or something. Then again, he might not have. We will never know, now.
I am still in the “getting rid of stuff” mode. It’s nice to get rid of some of the clutter around here. I want a fresh start to the new decade.
Well, that’s all for now.
Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas has come and gone once more. I had a nice Holiday. The weather was tolerable, it was quiet, peaceful, and enjoyable. We had a wonderful dinner at some friends’ of ours place. Good food, good company, a good time all the way around.
The animals are all well. Squeaky isn’t pregnant after all. She was, but someone, probably April, butted her hard and ended the pregnancy. It’s too late in the year to breed her now, so I’ll wait till next fall to breed her again. I might sell her in the Spring. We’ll see what all happens between now and then. So there are 11 does pregnant. Probably around 15 kids will be born in April.
We now have 12 turkeys left. That will be what we have till March. I think next year we will have 6 hens and the two toms for a breeding flock. They sure are tasty! Not a large bird, the heaviest one was 13 lbs, and the one we ate yesterday was only 6 lbs. But, they make up for lack of size with more flavor.
The chickens are laying one egg a day now. I got one every day this week. Maybe next week there will be two or three eggs a day. This year I’m letting at least one hen sit on the eggs and hatch them out. We need some young layers again. These girls are two and three years old. A little past their laying prime, but they will still lay fairly good. I’m not pressuring them, so they will last longer.
Our road is pretty icy now. We had a nice snow, then it warmed up and rained for two days, then got really cold again. So except for the very edge where there is a gravel strip, it’s ice. We are putting the chains on every time we go up and down the road. Rather an inconvenience, but such is life. It could be worse, so I’m not complaining.
Today there was a really pretty scene. We were under a cloud inversion, but up on the top of Wild Bill Mtn, there was a hole and the sun was shining down on the side of the mountain. Everything was covered in snow, so it was a beautiful bright white with a patch of blue sky. Hopefully tomorrow the clouds will lower down a few hundred feet, so we can be in the sun. That would be great!
Well, that’s all for now. Hope everyone is having a great Holiday!