Cool and Cloudy, a Quiet Spring Day

It's a cool and misty day today, and we hope to get some rain out of it before this front is over. The oats are all in and just waiting for some moisture to get started growing. One of the prettiest things I can think of is a field all green and growing.
We planted some peas in the garden, and I put in two short rows of red potatoes. That should ensure that we get some fresh vegatables as soon as possible, even though the weather is a little uncertain for many other plants quite yet.
We have also been waiting for the fields to be finished so the tractor can come and disc the garden. Since they were finished up yesterday, we should be next on the schedule.
We checked the hives again this month, and were faced with a very sad thing. Hive A, which we had needed to feed some sugar to in February, was dead. The loss of a hive is a minor tragedy in itsself, but I had little idea of what exactly had caused it. Today I did some research on the computer and found out here that they had most probably starved. (I feel so awful! I should have made more candy in Feb. or checked on them in March!)
I will definitely know better next time.
I'm so sorry, bees!
But the other two are really doing great, so I hope to get my third hive back yet this spring. Perseverance is essential in any new endeavor, and while I cringe at my mistakes, I will use them as fuel for future sucesses. Hurry up flowers, hurry up balmy days... we have a hive to make!

Margin for Human Error

Well, this waiting dragging on and on was getting to my nerves. So yesterday Abigail and I got out the breeding book and re-calculated all the due dates, just to make sure we had them correct.
And we didn't. In a big way! Argentina was off by almost two weeks... which would make sense because that's how much overdue we had her figured. Turns out she was actually due on the 24th. So giving her the usual delay time of somewhere about five days, puts her babies arriving within the next few days. She is looking like she's getting ready to have them, put it is always impossible to tell exactly when a doe will kid. They like surprises!
And Ave is due on the 28th, which is a move of a week from where we previously had her figured, and she looks like she could keep the appointment pretty close.
So those two should be starting off the milking season this upcoming week, and there's no telling who will go first. Then we can let Elma go dry until she kids next month.
We are only milking Elma once a day lately, in the mornings, and she is filling up our half gallon jar for house milk. Seeing as this is the very tail end of her lactation I am pretty pleased with her performance. In previous years she has usually been one of the earlier kidders, and Tigiris is our 'old reliable' that keeps us in milk until the other does freshen and then takes her quick turn at being dry.
But this year Tigir is in the 'first battalion', and Elma is our last doe to kid. So she got the honor of keeping us in milk, and has done pretty well at it.
Tigiris is due the week after next, sharing a day with Egypt, Elma's '08 daughter. She is a leggy young doe, and we are looking forward to how her udder freshens out. She is also completely black, so we may have a black line in the making.
Of course we are hoping for doelings. And especially from Tigiris, she has had a heavy leaning toward bucks all her life. But she really looks like she must have multiples in there again this time, (she is huge!) so the chances of at least one doe are good, and if we're lucky she might have several.

Oh, the agony of expectation that always accompanies the start of kidding season!

Scales and Pails; (in which we get the one, and not the other)

Well, we're getting the tail end of a storm it looks like, a drop in temperatures and no drop in wind! But it isn't as bad as they were calling for, and is now expected to be in the 50's somewhere. I don't know if it's supposed to last a while or not, I guess I'll find out!
I ordered a Pelouze Dairy scale from Hoegger's yesterday. Our old one was pretty worn out it seemed. (Had a nice talk with a very nice lady there, from GA. She said they'd had bad weather, it froze the previous night. I had to laugh. Makes me feel not so guilty for our own weather compared to South Dakota.)

I wanted to order the scale from Caprine Supply, because I really super-like their 8 qt. milk pail and have been wanting to have a second one for years. But we order so very rarely... so I loved the idea of the perfect excuse; we were going to be paying shipping on the scale anyway!
But... they didn't have it! (They had other scales, but not the Pelouze, which accurately measures to .10 lb. )
How could they! Ruin my beautiful plan, to get a beautiful milk pail. Now I am back to where I started... just wishing.
Oh, well.
Now that things have pretty much settled down from the move, we are going to try to get the does milk production recorded, in-house style. I had thought of trying DHI, but we don't have much for a dairy community around here locally, and finding a tester is bound to be like a needle in a haystack. (And not knowing if the needle's actually there!)
So we are going to go with barn records, which will not allow us into the Top Ten, but I don't really expect to be going there anyway. We just feed regular alfalfa and grain... and if it turns out we have a whopper in the barn, we can always go official next year.
Anyway, so now I am actually hoping that Argentina will not kid until the shiny new scale arrives. If she is contrary and kids out anyway, I guess we'll just measure until it gets here.


And hey! What'd'ya know? Very First comments!
Thanks, guys!

Hey Vanessa! Thanks for stopping by, I love to here from neighbors! Which town are you by? And thanks for the compliment, I can't wait for the grass to really green things up, and the leaves to come out on the trees. I guess that translates into 'summer'? Well, late spring.

And Livelife100percent, thanks to you too! Not quite picture perfect... you'd be surprised some days! Still, you're absolutely right, and I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have before me.

April, and we're waiting for the kids to start...

Well, here it is April already. And it seems we are just flying through it.
I can almost hear the whistle blow, Too-woot! "Next stop... May!"
I am anxious for our first kids to arrive. We usually have already had some by now, but this year we bred the does too kid out pretty late.
It sort of just worked out that way, and I thought it might turn out to be a nice break, certainly save us from the, 'the goats are kidding and it's storming out' scenario.
But we just got a storm here last week. Not a bad one, but nothing I'd want to be born in, if I was a little goat.
Our first doe, Argentina, is due later on this week. Of course she will not, (it's almost guaranteed!) With years and years of waiting for does to 'just kid, please!' I expect that she will actually kid next week sometime.
Which will work out all right, since the weather has cleared and become nice again. One nice thing about spring storms is that they rarely last long. (Of course, depends on where you live. Can't just tell that to the folks up north! Fargo Flooding and Snowfall )

[On a side note, friends up in the western end of SD. tell us they've got six foot drifts in some places, and worse in others. (Was I just complaining about the weather? We got a few inches.)]

Back to the subject, I am a little surprised at how anxious I am for the little critters to get here with them being scheduled later than normal. I didn't expect it of me! I have been through so many kidding seasons I should think that I would be a very old hand at this game. Which I am, but I guess it still gets to you.
Goat people are just like that!