Due Date

Today is Felicity's due date.

Still no kids on the ground.

It's driving me crazy.

That pretty much sums it up.

Here is a picture from today. It doesn't do her justice, she is much bigger than she looks here. When she lays down it all spreads out and she looks a bit like a whale. Plus she has taken to sitting like a dog. Poor thing. Hopefully the kid(s) decide to come out soon.

Farm Name

I think we have finally landed on a farm name!

Hiraeth Farm

Now we can get it registered with the American Goat Society and all goat kids born to does owned by us will be registered with our farm name. For example, if Felicity has a doeling (girl) one name that is on the possibility list is Hiraeth Farm Pippa. Chances are it won't end be exactly that name for a doeling (though I really like the name Pippa. If we get two we could have a Pippa and a Kate/Catherine ;-), but you get the idea.

Penny is not registered, so her babies will not be included in this. But, we are planning on adding another registered doe, either through purchase or retaining a doeling from Felicity. Our plan is to see how much milk Penny produces to see if it is worth keeping her in the long run. If not we will phase her out and replace her with registered stock. Long term we will probably keep 3-4 does. We are starting small with 2 to see what our family dairy need is. Then add does accordingly.

Really the only reason we are looking at this as an option is because we are able to sell the kids for significantly more if they are registered. It takes the same amount of feed to keep a goat whether or not it is registered, so we might as well have registered stock that we can recoup some of our investment.

Felicity Update: her ligaments are almost gone. Unfortunately they can be "almost gone" for several days or they could disappear this afternoon. I check her about every 3 hours (except at night, I'm so not giving up sleep unless I know she is in labor. Ain't nobody got time for that.)

Soon

Felicity is getting closer to delivering, but not as fast as I anticipated. Last week she changed drastically from one day to the next and I thought for sure we were really close. But then things stayed basically the same. I am a very impatient sanguine and don't wait well. This. Is. Killing. Me. And, her due date isn't even for another week. So she *could* go longer. Oh, dear. Let's hope for my sanity that it is sooner rather than later.

She is getting bigger, but I can't seem to capture that in a photo and her ligaments are going away, but not gone yet. I have noticed that her udder is starting to fill, though it should get a lot fuller.

Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture of a goat udder without including other bits that don't need to be part of a family friendly (mostly) blog?

Today we did the final preparations for the impending kids. The heat lamp is hung in the shed and lookin' all kinds of classy. What, with the orange extension cord running through our back yard and all. It's hung, over what looks like a KKK cross, across the small space between the fence and the chicken coop. Then along the chicken area over to the shed. All in an attempt to get heat to the shed without the chance of the goats eating the power supply. It's classy I tell ya!

I am now closing the goats in in the evening just in case Felicity decides to deliver in the dark of night. I don't want her delivering outside. Even without the heat lamp they should be fine if they are closed up inside the shed. I'm still keeping a close eye on her though because I don't want to miss the big event.

We had the first sign of Spring yesterday. TWO EGGS! Whoo Hoo! That means that we should start getting more and more eggs until each one of the chickens are laying every day. It was definitely a nice surprise to see multiple eggs. We are really missing our own eggs. They taste so much better than anything we can get anywhere else.

Hopefully the next post will be baby pictures!

Getting Closer

Felicity is getting closer. We are at T -12 days, but I don't think she will go all the way to her due date. She has dropped and her udder is starting to fill. Not that those necessarily mean that she will go early, but her tail head is raised. That is usually a sign that labor is close. There are two ligaments that run at an angle to her spine that will "disappear" when she is within 12-24 hours of delivery. If you are interested this is a good website to go to (scroll down for ligament info).

I can reach around Felicity's tail, but I can also definitely still feel her ligaments. So we are waiting and watching for those ligaments to go. Her udder should also totally fill, though timing for udder fill is different for every doe, so that isn't really a 100% indicator like the "lost" ligaments are.

Because Felicity is already carrying low when she "dropped" the baby(s) didn't really go anywhere. I am seeing her get wider though. This is the time when the babies will be putting on weight.

Here she is today...

Here you can see how her sides stick out, especially when she tried to turn.

In other farm news, we have moved the fence back and the goats now have the back part of the yard again. We are trying to walk a fine line between giving them access to help keep up the yard and too much access and yard destruction. We were starting to get mud around the front where the fence line was. The current fence is temporary. Our plan are to put up a permanent fence that the chickens can't get through. You can see where I have spread the (now defrosted!) hog fuel. That will be where the new fence will go. The chickens and the goats will share that area. We will still keep the other fence and move it around to give the goats temporary access to some areas of the yard.

I cleaned out the shed yesterday and got it bedded and ready for the delivery. Such excitement!

And lest I start thinking that I can really tell when Felicity will deliver, there is the Doe Code...

Doe Code of Honor (author unknown)

The doe's secret code of honor is as old as goats themselves and is the species best kept secret. No doe shall ever kid before its time. (Its time being determined by the following factors):

1- No kid shall be born until total chaos has been reached by all involved. Your owner's house must be a wreck, their family hungry and desperate for clean clothes, and their social life nonexistent.

2- "Midwives" must reach the babbling fool status before you kid out. Bloodshot eyes, tangled hair and the inability to form a sentence mean the time is getting close.

3- For every bell, beeper, camera or whistle they attach to you, kidding must be delayed by at least one day for each item. If they use an audio monitor, one good yell per hour will keep things interesting.

4- If you hear the words, "She's nowhere near ready. She'll be fine while we're away for the weekend," Wait until they load the car, then begin pushing!

5- Owner stress must be at an all time high! If you are in the care of someone else, ten to fifteen phone calls a day is a sign you're getting close.

6- When you hear the words "I can't take it anymore!" wait at least three more days.

7 -You must keep this waiting game interesting. False alarms are mandatory! Little teasers such as looking at your stomach, pushing your food around in the bucket and then walking away from it, and nesting, are always good for a rise. Be creative and find new things to do to keep the adrenaline pumping in those who wait.

8- The honor of all goats is now in your hands. Use this time to avenge all of your barn mates. Think about your friend who had to wear that silly costume in front of those people. Hang onto that baby for another day. OH, they made him do tricks too! Three more days seems fair. Late feedings, the dreaded diet, bad haircuts, those awful wormings can also be avenged at this time.

9- If you have fulfilled all of the above and are still not sure when to have the kids, listen to the weather forecast on the radio that has been so generously provided by those who wait. Severe storm warning is what you're waiting for. In the heart of the storm jump into action! The power could go out and you could have the last laugh. You have a good chance of those who wait missing the whole thing while searching for a flashlight that works!

10- Make the most of your interrupted nights. Beg for food each time someone comes into the barn to check you. Your barn mates will love you as the extra goodies fall their way too.

Remember, this code of honor was designed to remind man of how truly special goats are. Do your best to reward those who wait with a beautiful doeling to carry on the Doe Code of Honor for the next generation of those who wait.

Update

Wow! I didn't realize that it had been so long since an update. Now you see why I can't grow anything. I take care of plants about as well as I take care of my blog. My plants shrivel up and die before I even notice that they were dry. Good thing blogs don't shrivel. Or die.

What is happening with the goats? Good question. Felicity is two and a half weeks out and is starting to waddle.

Here is a picture from 1/20/13. The picture does not really give a good feel for how big she is. She is carrying the baby(s) deep (more down) instead of wide (sideways). From what I've heard, it is harder to figure out how many babies are in there when they carry deep. We will know soon.

 Here is a picture from 12/31/12 for a comparison.

And just because I happened (read: stalked the breeder's site and eventually found old pics. I also found quite a few pics of various grandparents. Or maybe goatparents. Anyway, kinda fun) to have a baby picture of Felicity I thought I would share. Wasn't she a cutie?!

Penny? She is indeed pregnant! Whoo Hoo! Third time's a charm. Her due date is April 24th. I am starting to see a baby bump on her. Here is a picture from 1/20/13 as a "before" shot to compare to. So far, she is carrying higher. Felicity's beginning baby bump was much lower than where Penny is starting. She might carry higher and more out to the sides. 

The chickens are mostly continuing to be free loaders with one giving me an egg every 2-3 days. I have chosen to not put lights in their coop this year. I'm thinking that I will try the lights next year to keep production up even through the winter. That is, if I can figure out a way to run power out there where the goats can't eat the extension cord. 

Our weather here has been wonky. We had an inversion. Which I had no idea what that even was (and still don't really understand why our sky got turned upside down) until we had day after day of fog and freezing temps. Seriously, I love fog and by the end I was so tired of it. I chalk it up to low vitamin D. Because it surely wasn't PMS, probably, well maybe. 

I got a load of hog fuel to spread in the new goat area. I had to wait until the ground was frozen so I could drive through our yard without seriously messing up the grass (and septic system). Then the inversion came and I could drive across my yard, but then my hog fuel froze and has been sitting in a pile ever since. Oops. 

This is what our backyard looked like for a week...

We are back to sun and I didn't even have to break ice on the goat's water bucket yesterday! Yeah! Though I've worked out a pretty good system. I keep an extra bucket inside at night and run warm water out to them in the morning. Ah, the luxury of the life of a goat in suburbia. 

In the mean time, we are prepping for kids. I will be pulling together my kidding kit this next week. Hopefully all will go well and I won't have to assist this time. *fingers crossed.

I will do my best to post pics as soon as the baby(s) are here.

Update

Our little farm is still plugging along. Winter has set in and things are slowing down a bit. Which is good since I have been down with a pretty nasty sinus infection and cough. Bleh.

The plan for ultrasounding the goats didn't work out, so we did blood tests on both goats. Felicity is pregnant and due February 11, 2013. Penny's blood test came back negative, so we bred her again a couple of weeks ago. I will pull blood again in January to see if she took this time around. The blood draw went sooo much better than last time. It took seconds and amazed both my husband (who was geared up for another fainting goat episode) and myself.

Scout came back over for a visit a few days before Penny was supposed to come back into heat. Unfortunately Scout was more interested in the new alfalfa hay than in Penny. As my sister-in-law said, poor Penny, passed over for a buffet. The owner of Scout brought their other buck, Dusty over. Dusty took to the challenge much better and I'm hopeful that Penny took (got pregnant) this time. If not, we will probably look to sell her in a few months and pick up another doe that is either pregnant or milking.

Felicity is starting to get a belly on her and every now and then I can feel the kids moving in there. My preliminary guess is 2 or 3, but we will see how big she really gets. We are 8 weeks out and starting into the time where she should be gaining most of her weight. I am already seeing differences from day to day. When she started to dry up I slowly stopped milking and she has been dry for a couple of weeks now. We sure are missing our milk.

With winter here the kids (human, not goat) are not using the back yard as much so we decided to change things around a bit. We brought the fence line forward. Now the goats have most of the back yard. While goats are great at clearing brush, their hidden talent is eating fallen leaves. They munch them just like potato chips. So far this year we have not had to rake leaves yet!

Some day I will look out on my yard and not see a single toy/truck/sand box. I'm trying to enjoy the days now that my kids are young. This time will be gone too fast and my kids will grow up. So, for now, here is our totally messy back yard. 

Our panel fence has worked really well. We zip tied each panel together and put them up with step-in posts. You can also see that I have attached the water buckets to the fence to give it a bit more stability. They are not galvanized, but they work great and are a fraction of the cost of cattle panels. I wouldn't want to use them for full sized goats and if they were to be used as a main fence (we have a privacy fence all around our back yard, so if they get out it's not like they will have access to a busy street) I would put them in with concreted posts.

The best part of this particular fence type is that it is totally movable. And, anyone that knows me knows that I love to rearrange!

We still have our squirrel hanging around and we have named him, Jumpy. If you are familiar with the Curious George cartoons you will recognize the name. Jumpy has gotten to the point that he will climb into our lap to get food. He will also come to our back door and beg if he gets hungry enough. I think he has fun tormenting our dog and standing just on the other side of the glass out of reach.

Otherwise, we are settling in and enjoying the Christmas season and looking forward to new kids in February!

I worked hard a few weekends ago and got the shed outfitted for the goats. We still need to do permanent fencing for the outside part (so please excuse the white trash look that we're sporting), but the temporary fencing will do for now (I think). With all the rain the last couple of days Penny and Felicity were happy to get a place with a bigger floor plan.

I'm happy with the new set up because I have a dry place to milk. You can see the "wall" that divides the shed down the center. The goats get the right side and I get the left side. I now have storage for feed and I put the milking stanchion in there too. We don't have power to the building, but I bought a Coleman electric LED lantern that I hung from the center rafter. It works pretty well. 

I'm also happy that when kidding time comes around in February we will have a warm, dry place. My back-up plan was the garage. So, not only am I glad to have the shed, my husband is really glad to not have goats in his garage.

The temporary fencing is made from panels of steel reinforcing for concrete. I got that tip from a guy at the hardware store who said his grandparents had goats and used this for fencing. Works great! And is way cheaper than cattle panels.

We have a new animal around the farm (shocking I know! I seem to be collecting animals like they are going out of style). Somehow we have a tame squirrel. He showed up a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't go so far as to let us hold him, but he has no problem with coming up to us to get something to eat. We now have a ton of nuts buried all over our flower beds and lawn. My husband is thrilled let me tell you. It is just for the squirrel that he put in hours upon hours of work to relandscape the front yard. I'm sure that is what he would say if you asked him.