Odds and Ends

Not alot of anything exciting going on these days. Just lots of anticipation for spring. Neil and I are planning the garden area and he has said that he will take a few days off to help get things set up..... WOW!! I can't wait. Neil works nearly all the time and certainly all of the daylight hours. We don't usually see him unless the sun is going down.

My poor preemie goat baby died this morning. About 2 days ago she hit her peak and began to slowly get weaker. That is a pretty good indication that the colostrum I gave her wasn't enough or wasn't "good" enough. Since she was born early, her mother's colostrum must have been weak,too. I supplemented it with powdered colostrum but it just wasn't meant to be.

We weaned another set of lambs and their owner came and picked them up. I am now down to only 30 lambs and it seems so easy now. He would like for me to take more lambs but bedding is an issue. We can't seem to find any straw to use and hay is just not absorbent enough. It just ends up being a big mess. If he can come up with bedding, I will probably take another 30-40. I just realized that if I do take more--- that will be over 100 hand raised lambs!!

Another doe is due to kid today. When I checked her this morning, I could still feel her rump tendons-- barely-- so I am thinking that she will probably kid tomorrow. She isn't showing much and I am guessing that it will be a single. This is her first kidding and I have been letting her in the barn to learn to get up on the milking stand to eat. I checked my calendar last night and discovered that I have 3 more that are due early next week. I have been so busy with lambs and life, I let this slip up on me.

My barn has been an action packed place with all the lambs and milking Holly. Now I have to make room for a goat maternity ward, goat milking area as well as a place for some bottle calves. We are expecting 6-8 Angus/Holstien cross calves from a friend to start arriving sometime in March.

Time for the second round of chores: putting out hay.