Moving Right Along

The days fly by, with new births and growth.  Since I last visited you here, we have new chicks and new baby goats.  This is Nightfall, the mama Nigerian Dwarf, and her two doelings, Eve and Dawn.  Eve is dark and Dawn is light!  They are miniature dairy goats, and the little girls have already gone to be bottle fed at their new home.

Nightfall is coping fairly well, and we expect her sister, Fawn, to kid any day now, and she looks like there will be babies enough to share!

You can see how broad she is in the beam!  Her mother had 4 the first kidding, 5 the second, and 6 the third.  She has genes for multiple births!

And little Nightfall milked a pint today, about half of what she had, which is super in a goat her size. This is her udder.  She had never been on the milkstand and wasn't thrilled about being milked, but it did make her feel less uncomfortable.

Both of the silkies that were broody on the porch have hatched their babies. One has two, the other has one.  I'm not quite sure whose eggs the one mama hatched -- one is tiny and black like the old English game, and looks nothing like a silky.  The other is yellow, with wings barred in black, and looks nothing like a silkie!  She is the hen I transferred from the broody pen together with her eggs when I sold her pen mates, so I have no idea what the breeding of the babies is -- The other hen has a beautiful silkie chick.  With the onset of cold weather, she, too, has moved from the porch along with her baby, back to the pen with her flockmates and the baby.  She is the hen I kept in my kitchen last winter, who hatched babies there in the spring!

Four new goats are being delivered from Night Sky Farms on Friday (Thanks, Jennifer!) Two of them are LaMancha grade does for my milking herd and breeding program.  The other two are Boer and Boer/Nubians bred to a Nubian for Pam's farm, and the babies will probably go for a breeding program Chris (Griffin's Ark) is looking into.  Because they have been de-horned, and are pregnant, I'll keep them here with my hornless herd for now.  Later they will likely join the herd in Union Hall.

Weather has been good, friend Neil has been busy with shrub trimming and leaf blowing so my yard looks fantastic.  There's a new shed being built down on Pam's farm to house the tractor and haying equipment.  Another friend stopped by today and offered me truly awesome hay at $2 a bale -- a blessing from God!  Because my pastures are small, I feed a LOT of hay, and prefer to mix different types for my girls.  We have several different grades of hay from Pam's farm, and I am happy to be the beneficiary of that, too -- but I like having some "gourmet" hay available for my girls as well!

Friend Stephanie brought a wealth of half gallon canning jars and an old metal washtub that I am planning to paint with enamel paint and put to use.  I think it will be a water container for the goats, since they jumped on the (admittedly sun burned) plastic tub and broke it.  Five gallon buckets need to be refilled too often!

Last Sunday we held our Harvest feast at Pam's.  Good friends and family came, everyone ate until they were very full, and we enjoyed one another's company in between visiting with the horses, goats, and chickens outdoors.  And never being in favor of wasted trips, Chris and Tina brought the feed order Sunday, too.  We're so glad you joined us!  There was Waldorf salad, Black Eyed Pea salad, Green bean and mushroom casserole, birthday cake (Happy birthday Pam, Stephanie, Chris, Claire!).  Sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, and Tina's homemade cheesecake headed up the dessert list.  Oh, and there was ham and turkey in abundance and some roasted sweet potatoes, along with a wild rice and a brussel sprout casserole dish.  It gave us a chance to celebrate the blessings of the year and pray for the blessings for next year!  It should be a fruitful one.

Ducky Duck has suborned the turkeys -- he likes them, they like him -- but he is teaching them to leave the pasture and stand around the truck bumper to look at their reflections.  That is Ducky's only duck friend. The rest of the day he spends trying to tempt them to fly up onto the farm building roofs with him.  I think he was just trying to be nice, but it is not good to have turkeys in the driveway.  So I gave them a mirror of their own: 

Of course, if you peck the mirror hard enough, you can get it to flip around!  It is more important to me to have it available from the pasture side, as they free range through the day and I prefer them to be in the pasture instead of in front of the truck bumper.  The longer they stay in the pasture, the longer they get to stay out free ranging.  Once they make the trip to the yard, it's time for them to go back to their pen.  They have a small outside run and a large inside coop.  Thanks for the beautiful birds, Stephanie!  Tommy and Chelle (Shelley) are not destined for anyone's holiday table.  I am looking forward to their spring eggs for hatching.

Have a lovely day, and come visit!