Babies

Baby goat count is now 4, three girls and one boy all full of cuteness and quirky behaviour. Sadly Ninny the mother of the first twins born hasn't made it. We are not sure why she got sick it was very sudden and after talking to my local vet, she said it could of been a few different things from milk fever to snake bite. So far the babies are going fine Ninny's twins ( Sugar and Spice) have adopted Petal as there mother even if she isn't keen on the idea. I am bottle feeding them and they also sneak feeds of Petal in between feeds.

In between playing with and feeding goats I  have been doing a little leather crafting, making quick and simple covers for my garden journal and a second on as a gift.

Whats Cuter

Whats cuter then a baby goat (kid)...... TWO!!!! Yes two baby kids and we are super excited, they are both little girls. So far both are doing really well and if all goes to plan we should have at least one more baby within the next week.

Lately the weather has been wild, with Monday afternoon been the highest we have ever seen the creek. As you can see in the photos below the dry creek bed which is always dry was flooding. By Thursday the creek was back down and the dry creek was dry again. The Goat paddock is down in 4 places. Luckily over Christmas the veggie patch fence finally went up, so the goats are in there till there paddock is fixed. Clover (the kid/baby goat) has grown she is huge, so she is been weened from Moonie. So far its going well. I am still milking, Ebony had a still born in November an she is my main milker now. She is a bugger to catch but is great to milk. I am milking her twice a day and get roughly 1.2-1.5 litres each milking.

Monday afternoon

Thursday afternoon

Clover

Clover , Ebony on the right, Matrix in background and Moonie on the other side fence

Milk

Glorious raw goats milk. Two days into milking and all is going great. Clover ( the baby) is also going great though she does seem to favour one side more then the other so I am making sure I take more out of the other side when I am milking. My milking process is quiet simple I don't even have a milking stand. We have a small meat house behind our house and this is where I store all the animal food. So what I do is around 8.30 am ( this is when i get back from the school bus drop of) I take Moonie up to the meat house shut the door behind us so she can not get out and place a bucket of feed in front of her. She is quiet happy to just stand and eat I then give her teats a quick clean, strip the first little bit of milk out then away I go. Moonie isn't a friendly goat when out in the paddock she will only come to you if you have a bucket of feed, so it has been a huge relief that she is so easy to milk. I am only milking her once a day and the Clover has access to her 24/7. So far I seem to be getting just under 2 litres of milk a day ( 2 quart jars full) which  is plenty for us, for our day to day needs and for me  to start making some cheese. So be warned there will more then likely be a few cheese making post coming soon.

A Little Girl

Its so exciting. I had a feeling Moonie ( that's the doe) was pregnant but thought that she wasn't that far along. On Friday night around 10 pm I heard a funny sound outside and thought it was a fox, as we have been having a bit of problems with the foxes. Instead of it been a fox there was two tiny little kids. As soon as I looked at them I could see one was a lot more alert and active then the other but I assumed that  the more active one was the first born. I dried the little boy of and left them with there mum. The next day the little boy still wouldn't stand, I gave him some milk but he wouldn't suck. Sadly we had to make the decision to put him down as after two days he still showed no sign of having any sucking reflex's and he still wasn't standing. So far this experience has been a mixture of emotions. Trying to reason with Lincoln has been the hardest, he is really upset by it all. However we now have one beautiful little girl kid that the children have named Clover and we also have fresh goats milk.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Joining in with SouleMama

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Joining in with SouleMama