Breeding is over for this year. I broke up the shag shack and put Richie back in with the boys up front. After some preliminary male stupidity over whether Loki was available for Richie's amorous attention, Ari and Richie got down to business. I expect this would have taken longer but Richie took a heavy crack to the neck and gave up in pain. No ( Read more... )

That whole Madeline business earlier in the week was because I planned to swap Ari and Richie out in the shag shack this weekend to have Richie cover Madeline and Anna. But I was only going to have Richie stand through shearing, which is in two weeks. Angora heat cycles are three weeks, so Madeline would miss the window ( Read more... )

Madeline was in heat yesterday morning, so last night I took the bet that she was still in heat and threw her in with Richie for a night and a day. Madeline is Mona x Jared, and Richie is Talla x Baja, so this is an opportunity to have Madeline kid for the first time without crossing the streams. Madeline has a soft fuzzy fleece and Richie has the ( Read more... )

The Wombat was entirely correct in his supposition that the camper goats were ready to come home. Catching/haltering/loading the goats from camp into the trailer went smoothly and easily. We started with Anna and Lerris, then Ginger and Taffy, closed the middle trailer divider, then loaded Pan and Lily, then Dahlia and Fiona. The one water bucket ( Read more... )

It's been a while since I've done a public post. Hi! I'm still here. And so are all of the goats. ( And there's not a lot to report, but I can babble about goats all day! )

Pan told me this afternoon that Elsa was in heat. That brings the count down to two probably pregnant goats: Taffy and Emma ( Read more... )

We have only enjoyed one freeze so far this winter, and a LOT of rain. The pastures, especially right around the barns, are miserable mud pits. Everyone needs their toenails trimmed, but I don't want to touch that muck. Eeeew. And because of the rain, I've been feeding the girls their hay in the barn, so the back barn is in desperate need of a ( Read more... )

Earlier this week, I tossed a note to my shearer mentioning that we were due for rain on Wednesday when we had a shearing date booked. We went back and forth about days and dates, with me trying to be as flexible as possible. On Friday, I got a note from her saying that she could stop by on Saturday just before noon a shear a group of eight or ( Read more... )

I went out to feed the goats their breakfast (in the dark) and Ari's I'm huuuuuungry whine sounded suspiciously far away from his usual gate. Only Dahlia and Elsa showed up for breakfast in the shag shack, but Ari kept whining. Where were Ari and Taffy ( Read more... )

Emma has not been doing well in the shag shack group. She's been steadily loosing weight from being picked on and pushed out of the food area. Rather than fail at my lesson from Penny, I pulled Emma out of that pasture and put her back in with the baby girls and Jessie. While Jessie will bite to defend her chosen bowl, Emma certainly can push the ( Read more... )