We've Had An Explosion!

Well, wha'd'ya'know... in the last two days we've had ten kids. Yes, that's right. Ten.
Egypt kidded out first on Wednesday morning with a tiny single buckling, a little chamoise with a star. Then Tigir went into action and produced triplets, two sundgau bucks and a little coal black doeling. All three were pretty small, (which is good, and understandable with triplets!) and the one little guy is the tiniest baby we've had for several years. He's super cute!
Then Verde decided to include herself into the mix and kidded out late that evening with triplets as well, two big chamoise bucks and a slightly smaller black doeling.
("What is it with black doelings?" We ask!)
With the size of those three it is amazing that they all fit in there! But she never looked especially huge, so... wonders will never cease, I guess!
Then the next morning Ave kidded with the third set of triplets! A tiny edition of her mother, a little larger chamoisee, and an even lankier sundgau buckling. We were glad to get the two little does, our percentages were kind of getting murdered there for a while!
So that keeps me busy running to the barn for feedings.
I will have to try and get some photos of them taken and posted. My camera went walkabout with my sister and so I won't have that until she returns late, late, late on Sunday. (Yes, that sister. She is gone, and so I am all alone in a forest of little goats!)

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.

Introduction

Hello!
This is my first post, so I'll just give myself a little intro. This blog will be about whatever happens to catch my fancy long enough to make it to the net, mainly, most likely, things that go on around the farm here and in my 'rural living' life. Since this has been the way I grew up, (for which I am thankful!) I'll probably mostly jot down things that are out of the ordinary, or something that I am trying to figure out.
In this day and age, and with the way things are going in the world in general, I am also very grateful that the Lord has blessed me by placing me in a family that sticks together and that wouldn't consider living in anything remotely resembling a city. By having an animal based family business that allows us to be located in some pretty remote places, we have had the privilege of experiencing as children a sort of freedom that probably mainly went extinct at least half a century ago.
I must confess it's pretty addicting.
We moved the whole kit and caboodle to western Nebraska in the summer/fall of 2006, and have been blessed with really terrific neighbors, pleasant winters, and green, green summers, ever since.
Since childhood, my siblings and I have always had lots of exposure to all sorts of the common domestic animals, and one species that we last picked up when I was seven, and has stuck with us ever since, is our own dear dairy goats. Although Dad talks of a cow, we two goat-keepers won't hear of parting with our pretties. They are reliable and prolific milkers, despite the vagaries of fortune which often brings changes in their grain.
Last year I did the research and purchased two packages of Italian bees, (which begat a story unto itself.) Having our own honey has been a 'bee in our bonnet', (if you'll pardon the pun,) for years and years. Previously living in droughtier and colder climate, we had not gotten up the courage to make it a go, but with our relocation to the sunny hills of Nebraska we decided to do it. It especially helped to see all the flowering things beside the roadways, and in every draw. We were encouraged that bees could readily thrive here. So far, so good!
There are several more things I need to get figured out about this format, but I hope to put up some more soon. Until then...
Thanks for reading!