Rose

Rose is a sweetheart. She is due to kid on May fifth. Last year she kidded on her 147th day of gestation and I'm guessing that she will kid early this year as well. By the looks of her I'm thinking two or three kids. I think we are due for some doelings. Rose has taken to laying around quite a bit. I've never seen anyone lay right next to the feeder like this, but I'm guessing she thinks she is pretty clever being able to reach up for mouthfuls while laying down. When our nights started warming up a bit we noticed that Rose was sleeping outside, a sign that perhaps our doe stall isn't big enough. She decided she'd rather have a peaceful nights sleep outside than get picked on, pushed around and have to put up with the general mayhem that goes on inside the stall. I was worried about her sleeping outdoors as she seems vulnerable at night time, white against the dark night.

A couple days ago we moved Xan, Yin and Maggie next door so that the little guy (Zen) could be out and about for the afternoons and hopefully start bonding with his mom. We left Rose in with them because we knew she'd be a non-issue. Rose is the only doe that is not picking on Xoe, nor does she go out of her way to harass Zen. We had to seperate Yin from her mother because Yin was emptying her mother's udder! Imagine! It took me a couple days to figure out what was going on. I was thinking I was going to need to buy some fennel, dill and fenugreek (all lactation stimulation herbs). I thought that maybe her production had slowed down to meet his consumption, and then his demands had grown more rapidly than she could keep up with. Then right before my very eyes I saw Yin duck her head under and start nursing. Tsk tsk. Well I moved Yin next door that very moment. The irony that Xoe will not nurse her baby willingly (when we are actually letting our does raise their young unlike so many goat owners due to disease issues) but she will stand patiently for her yearling is frustrating to say the least.

About midnight last night I crawled in thru the goat door to let Zen have one more nursing session for the night and Rose was sprawled out snoring in one of the stalls. I was so happy to see her enjoying some peace and warmth indoors during her final days of awkward pregnancy. The other three does are irate with me for moving them from their usual quarters but I don't feel bad at all. Giving Xoe and her son time together and giving Rose some peace are necessary.

Rose's real name is Xara. She and Xanadu were shipped up from the same farm in a kennel together and they had been born on the same day. I'm guessing they'd been in a kid pen together since birth and have always had a strong bond. They have stuck together since day one and have been the only goats that would eat out of the same dish without pushing eachother away. Recently Xan has moved up in the herd and tends to push everyone around including Rose. This last year we milked Rose up until early February. She is an awesome milker, gentle and easy going in her disposition, eager to please, has a lovely high wide udder. She really kept up the production level all winter. Her milk quality is high in fat. The last couple months of milking Rose and Maggie, I felt guilty putting milk on my cold cereal because it seemed more like half n half than whole milk. If Rose has a doeling we will be keeping her. With a daughter by her side I think Rose may have a more comfortable niche in the herd.

Rose meet Avery

Avery has been getting outside almost daily now that it is much warmer out. I usually do farm chores in the morning before Dustin goes to work, and then again after he gets home. On his days off I try to make it out in the afternoons as well. From now until October, it will be much more convenient to take the kids along for chores. Often during summer months we spend more time outside than in - getting our fill and making up for all the time we spend indoors during the winter. Last winter Noah usually accompanied me for chores unless it was extremely cold. We dress warm, pull a sled along if he gets tired and come inside when he is cold. Sometimes he only makes it for the lower farm chores and then I finish up after dropping him off at the house. It is more difficult to take the baby along on my back because I do a lot of ducking and bending over. For a couple months the air was too cold for her to even breathe, it would take her breath away. If I have to do chores when Dustin is gone and it is severely cold I wait until she naps and then Noah and I do a quick run. Unfortunately I've tried out two different brands of baby monitors and neither of them seem to work when I'm up top at the does stall/greenhouse and garden. The monitors are suppose to reach the distance that I am away, but maybe the trees interfere?

Avery is fascinated by the animals, cat, dog, chickens, goats. Her intentions consist of grabbing their coats/feathers and holding on, possibly leaning over and feeling them on her face. She would probably try and taste them if I'd let her. Avery loves to be outside and the sun doesn't seem to bother her. Noah was born in the spring so for his first summer he just laid on a blanket, and by the time he was one he would walk up and down the hills on his own and he knew not to put inedibles into his mouth. This summer will be a bit different. I don't think Avery will be able to be on the ground unsupervised. I think we will have to put a play-pen by the milking stanchion so that she will have a safe dry place to play while I milk and do chores. Last summer I got milking down to around five to ten minutes a goat, but then there is walking them back and forth, cleaning them, measuring grain, so milking four goats probably took about an hour. With the rest of chores, feeding and watering different chicken pens, morning chores would take another fifteen minutes. But with a kid in tow, you can almost double both those numbers. It would take me at least two hours to do all morning chores with Noah in tow, and I'm guessing this summer it is going to take even more time. I think we are going to simplify things by not raising turkeys this year. Also, I've been wanting honey bees but I think I'll be waiting one more year. I am hoping to get a gravity irrigation system set up so that we won't have to spend so much time hauling watering cans back and forth.

On a different note, here is Rose investigating Avery. Rose is my most gentle and timid goat. She gets pushed around a bit. Last spring she had one buckling and was a wonderful mother. This spring she is due on May fifth. She is already so big that I cannot believe that she has four more weeks to go.

Today our temperatures were in the fifties, our porch thermometer said eighty (in the sun). The snow is melting fast but there is soooo much of it. I'm guessing it will be a couple weeks before it is all gone up here. The upside is that we get a lot more direct intense sun before the leaves come out on the trees. So the next few weeks are really the sunniest of the whole year. Our sun isn't setting till around nine p.m. and that is only getting later. It is a fine time of year.