Trimmers at Work

This weekend, since the girls have done a pretty good job of cleaning up the lots they have been living in we put the goats to work in a new section. I fenced off the end of the mobile home yard and "tried" to protect a small cherry tree with some woven wire. They were more than happy to get to work. They did have some help from a couple of cows and calves that are sharing the space.

The group of them did a great job. We usually mow this section, but that leaves the edges needing some trim work. You can see by the edge of the mobile home they got the grass and weeds cut all the way to the ground. They also cleaned out under the edges of the storage building and all along the fence lines.

Ace managed to get so into the trim job that he fell through a gap and ended up inside the goat yard again. They can't climb out this gap without touching the electric fence, but obviously a little goat can slide under it on the down hill. I opened the gate that is in the picture to make sure he knew there was a safe way to get to the rest of the goats. Otherwise he might have tried to go through the fence and that is not a safe trip.

While I am here...remember Flower and her baby Clover?

This is them 6 weeks later.

They are discussing the cat who is on the other side of the fence.

He had everyone's attention for a while.

The crew did such a great job in that area, on Sunday we set up the panels to let them work on the main driveway. It might take a couple of days to get it cleaned up, but we have time.

See the tiny spots in the gravel? 

Those are sets of twins enjoying the heat off of the rocks while they nap.

Next up on the work detail.

The driveway to the barn.

Goat heaven.

I have my own work detail.

Cleaning the goat house. They are very messy.

The goat door with the ramp is on the left and the people door with the cement blocks is on the right. The clean out door that I want to put in will be in that lower area to the left of the people door. With that in I can park the cart under the clean out and not have to work around the goats coming in the door to see what I am doing. They are a curious group. The shelf is where we keep bales of hay, the medicine box, and my folding chair. I like to sit in the field with them sometimes and the ground is full of goat berries. 

Anyway, that is a weekend on the farm and I haven't even gone into the cow side of events. Coming this week - five more does are due. Three look like it could be any day now. The other two could surprise us.

BRSK Farm Daycare Center

The week was pretty busy in the goat yard maternity ward.

With nine new babies born in four days the yard was pretty hectic. On Friday most of the mommas decided to make a run for it and get some snacks, which left Sunny as the babysitter. She had her hands full.

There was lots of running, jumping, flopping, and climbing.

The kids were playing King of the Steps. 

And just like in a normal playground, these kids were getting told -

"You kids be careful up there!" 

"Yes, Miss Sunny."

Life is an adventure!

Solving a Problem the Ugly Way

As you may recall, the goats have been in a 2 acre lot that has electric fencing around the perimeter. Now that everything is greened up we want to move them into another 4 acre connected wooded lot. The electric fencing in that lot is not finished yet, but the thought was that maybe we can get away with it and let them in while we are completing the work. That was a good idea for a couple of weeks, but now the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.

Sweet Pea decided she no longer needed to respect the fence. Unfortunately, she can not get herself back through the fence without help. I don't have a picture of it, but her babies, Jack and Jill, really like to take advantage of her when she is in this position. 

She seems to be saying, "Just help a goat out before those kids show up."

She won't learn though, this was the third time she got stuck today and that was before 9am!

We had enough of that.

FaHub found a piece of PVC and drilled some horn sized holes in it. Then using black electrical tape he attached the contraption to her horns so that her head won't fit through the wire anymore.

It is an ugly fix, but she hasn't been stuck again, yet.

She isn't hungry, I put some hay out, but no one is eating it.

She just like being in trouble I guess.

Sweet Pea is not a sweetie!

Wednesday and Thursday Added MORE Goat Babies

This has been a busy goat baby week.

Today is Friday and so far none of the remaining momma goats look like they will kid until maybe tomorrow, but then we don't know what is going on with them most of the time so it is hard to tell. Wednesday evening we got home to find that Rose had presented us with Petunia and Peony. 

They are the cutest little girls! 

Then on Thursday we got home to find that V (she came with no name and V just works) had very recently birthed triplets! We named them Huey, Duey, and Lilly on the spot. Then we checked again and Lilly was renamed Louie. Sometimes the confusion makes it hard to keep track of those things. 

Later that evening I remembered that earlier in the day when it was raining really hard one of the guys in the office asked if we were expecting ducks or goats that day. Naming the babies after cartoon ducks was pure accident, but worked pretty well. They were pretty dirty from being born on such a wet day and not anywhere near this nice grass. So the next picture is from their second day. Still not 24 hours old though.

The boys are all black headed like their momma and eating as often as she comes around. We are keeping an eye on them to make sure everyone gets enough to eat and will supplement with a bottle where needed.

Just to fill up the blog with cute pictures I also took these today of this weeks babies.

Monday's Victor and Vince playing on Violet.

 Tuesday's Sam and BE Susie with Sunny.

New this week... so far anyway

On Monday Violet II had twins.

This is Victor and his brother Vince.

They were born outside when it was pretty cold out. Victor wasn't really moving much, could hardly stand, and his feet were really cold, so we got them inside and sat with them for a while to warm him up. This picture was taken on Tuesday after he started moving around a lot better and they got their ears tagged. Their momma had decided to keep them inside once she figured out it wasn't so cold in there.

On Tuesday Sunny had twins.

They were down by the creek when we got home.

They weren't very old, but they were clean and enjoying the sunshine.

This is Sam

and this is his sister Black Eyed Susan. 

I am already calling her Susie. 

She got a flower name since she will probably be staying since her daddy doesn't live here.

That leaves us with eight pregnant does to go, though if one of the new girls is pregnant she is either pretty far behind the others or hiding it really well. Either way, there are still a bunch of babies due. Wish us luck!

Wide Loads

If you have been keeping up, only four of the 14 goat girls have had their babies yet.

So much for Farmer Smoot saying they were due in the first two weeks of April.

Some of them are getting really wide. 

This is Five. She came with no name, just a V and a number.

Just as a comparison note, Sweet Pea was NOT this big when she had twins.

Oh boy! 

This is Jasmine. 

For reasons I will not show you here, she should have her babies before I get home.

If not my other theory is proven.

That is this:

the girls are having a competition to see who can kid last.

Winner gets what?

All the briers she can eat?

I don't know, but somebody better get this game started or one of them is going to explode!

Off the the dentist.

Later

Looking for Elves?

Sunday morning while the girls were grazing this side of the creek.

The babies decided to go Elf hunting.

This morning they are searching another stump, so the game must be fun. 

Have a Beautiful day.

No there aren't any new babies as of 8am!

First Day Out of the Goat Yard

The kids were getting a little rambunctious.

They discovered the exit and wanted to see what was on the other side.

So we let them and their Mommas out into the new section, which is full of great things to eat.

The girls really enjoyed climbing the hills and working on the fresh briers.

Ace showing his brave side. 

Look how high up he is!

Well, that is high for a baby goat. He had fun running back and forth along the edge.

Momma wasn't far away though. 

After their outing all I had to do was call and they came running for their feed. We are keeping them in the original field at night. It is mostly interior fence where the new area is perimeter fence and we don't want them being discovered in the night by neighbor dogs or worse. 

Four of Fourteen and Five Babies!

Mom and I left for town at about 11am and all was quiet. I had a look at Sweet Pea on the way out, but nothing seemed about to happen. By the time we got home again at about 230pm things had changed.

Sweet Pea had twins. 

A boy and a girl. 

Mom named them Jack and Jill. This is at about 4 hours old. FabHub dipped the navels, tagged their ears, and we put them in the goat house for the night. They should stay in there since they probably can't figure out how to get out.

What will Sunday bring? I can't wait!

Tulip's Baby Boy

This morning I took Mom out to see the goats and check on if any new ones were here yet. When I got outside I heard a baby yelling and first thought Ace might have gotten lost in a brier patch again, but when we got over there we found an absolutely fresh baby laid out flat under the edge of the goat house. Momma and the other yearlings standing there looking at it like they didn't know where it came from or what to do with it. All the big goats were standing further away trying to ignore it.

Since the baby was laying in a bunch of mud I picked it up and moved it over to a grassy spot and then got a towel to try and clean off some of the mud. I really didn't want Tulip getting sick from that. After a couple minutes she still wasn't coming after the baby, but she is sort of stand offish anyway, so Mom and I got out of there to give here some space.

Later on we went back and Tulip had moved them down toward water. We brought her a container of grain and some hay, which she appreciated so much she let me towel off the baby some more and dip his navel in iodine. Then we left them alone again.



A couple more hours later and they were doing great. I gave her some more grain, the other goats came to help her eat it. The babies all smelled each other and then the big ones all wandered off again.

This baby, like Violet's Ace, is also from a Boer Nubian cross momma, but he obviously has the distinct Boer colors.

Look at the muscles on this boy!

 In case you were wondering, Ace has grown a lot in the last week too.

Mom enjoyed meeting the new boy, though his Momma wouldn't let him get too close. I thought I heard "stranger danger", but no one got overly excited.

Mom's dog Molly should be a Boer goat protector, she would fit right in!

Oh and in case you are wondering, he doesn't have a name yet, as of 4:24 pm... His date and sire number is B-42, which is the answer to the  Ultimate Question so - I am letting FabHub name this one.

Update - he named him Sweet William, going with the flower name just so I won't keep one with that name. Silly man.