A Week Old

It's hard to believe it's already been a week, but it has.  Both sets of twin are doing well and growing quickly, so clearly both Moms are doing their job.  I got the other goats moved to another pasture so I could put the little families outside - or at least leave the barn door open during the day.  I will close them up at night.

I love the coloring on the speckled ones, but unfortunately, they are both boys.

Here's Licorice and Nutmeg.

 

 And here are Rosemary and Thyme snuggled together.

And another set of twins

Mocha, daughter of Yazmeen from last year, kidded on her own about 12:30.  The goats were making a ruckus around 10 and I went out and everything seemed OK.  I checked Mocha to see if she was filling with milk, but didn't seem to.  When Lily came home at 12:00 she said Mocha was not with the guys.  We went out and looked for her and there she was with her two little kids - one girl, one boy.  Girl is Rosemary, boy is Thyme.  They are so cute.

New Kids on the Block

Yazmeen came through with twin boys yesterday afternoon.  Lily and I helped a little, but I think she would have done just fine on her own.

This is Licorice, weighing in at 4# 15 oz.:

And this is Nutmeg, 5# 5oz.:

Nutmeg had the most interesting coloring.  Here's a photo of the current herd.  I bought a little buck in December, but wasn't sure he was up for the job, but he at least got Yazmeen pregnant, but she's the little one.  I just don't know about the others.  I haven't observed any signs of heat, so they may be.  We'll just wait and see.  I am hopeful that Yaz

meen's Mocha will kid this year.  She's bigger than her Mom and hopefully would be easier to milk.

No April Fool

My Kinder goat delivered twins last night.  They are actually 1/2 Kinder and 1/2 mini-Nubian from a buck out of my Nubian doe.  I sure wish there'd been a Kinder buck in the area, but Ike was available and did the job.  They are so tiny, compared to Nubian kids.  I might try to weigh them later today.  Right now, I want Mom and babies to figure out where the milk comes from.  When I was out this morning, they were still trying to figure it out.  The dark one is a boy and I'm naming him Cappy (for cappuccino) and the other is a girl, Mocha. 

Birth Announcement

Jackie did it again.  She often surprises me with her kids in the morning, even when I've been watching her closely for signs that she will soon be kidding.  But she knows her stuff and this morning there were two beautiful clean and shiny kids, and no afterbirth either.  They are beautiful - a male and female, Ike and Tina.  Ike is in front with the white patch on his head.  They are considered mini Nubians since Mom is a Nubian and Dad is a Nigerian Dwarf - both are milk breeds.

Pregnant goat

Last winter, I found a lovely woman on the coast who had a Nigerian Dwarf buck and she was willing for me to bring my rather large Nubian doe to him for breeding.  As it turned out, Tami went beyond duty and had to construct a soapbox, sort of, for her buck, Dusky, to stand on to mount Jackie.  Would you like a visual?  It's pretty funny.

As you can see, he's just getting ready and you can see he really does need a platform cause he's a little guy.  Now it's 4-1/2 months later and Jackie is looking very PG.  I'm hoping for multiple births and I don't think I'll be disappointed.  In the past she had singlets, boys. 

 

Her side is kind of in the shadow, but if you look closely you can see it bulging just this side of the fencepost.  So her due date is June 30, which is 150 days after impregnating, but can be from 145 to 155, so I'll pay particular attention to her from now on.  They will be cute and colorful.

Gardening

So what else is new?  But seriously, I do love being out in the garden with the birds and bees and all the amazing growth taking place in the last few weeks.  Finally, my tomatoes are beginning to look like hearty plants with blooms and a few tiny green tomatoes.  Although we have what might be called mild winters, our last frost date is still mid-May.  I usually plan on getting the tomatoes in around Mother's day, but they sit there wanting the soil to be a little warmer and the nights a little warmer, but eventually decide that they'll just go ahead and grow anyway.  So now they have their second cage around them and are good to go.

When I plant, I put one of those ubiquitous cages and wait for them to get some growth,  Then, hopefully before they outgrow those, I put the final cage around them.  I make 6' rolls out of fencing and stake them down.  I also tie them together in the middle so if one plant wants to try and fall into the path, it can't because it's tied to the one on the other side.  Here's a photo so you'll get the idea.

The garlic in the foreground was planted in October.  It's been watered a few times after the rains stopped, but I turned off the irrigation the end of May.  Now I pushed the tops over, gently.  I have some hardneck mixed in there and don't want to break off those tops.  I'll let them stay in the ground for another week, then dig and hang them, tops, roots and all, in the garden shed for a month.  During that time, I'll select some of the really nice ones for making braids, but leave the others to dry completely.  The tops will most come off of their own accord at that point and I'll store them in a cool, dry, dark place.  My garlic lasts a whole year, treated this way, and I've been growing garlic for 20 years now.  The head are huge which makes peeling one clove pretty easy.  And when a recipe calls for 2 or 3 garlic cloves, mine are probably the equivalent of 5 or 6 of the kind you buy in the store.  But I use the same quantity anyway.  Love that garlic.