Weather

The photo of the geese is dedicated to my son, Kyle. He said we should get geese for the pond. A few mornings ago, Marc came in to tell me that geese were in the pond. I went out to look and found 4 geese. These two have remained. They were mating and have created a nest in the pond area. We don't know whether they are migrating or native to the area.

Yesterday morning I woke up to fog. It had rained the day before and we ended up moving all of the angora goats back into the barn. The kids were soaked and had to all be towel dried. None got sick, which is a blessing since I have been bottle feeding two and will probably have to bottle feed the buck born yesterday. He pushes against his mom's teat, but will not suck.

The white buck that Marc is feeding is named Orphan. He has a mom, just no interest in her. You can just barely see Flower, a black angora doe, wrapped around Marc's ankle. They both had pneumonia and are doing well. Flower is the sweetest.

This has been a year for bucks: two white does, one black doe, and 5 red does. The Shetlands have given me two ewe and the rest rams. I have three more Shetlands to deliver and two Merinos. The goats are done, thank God! The last to deliver were first time moms and had to be sheared before the kids could find the teats. I sheared the last three immediately and still have yesterday's buck that will not suck.

Here you can see the variation in shades of the red angora kids. This photo was taken right before letting the goats back out.

All of the rain has meant that the grass is starting to grow. Marc and I are already plotting which area we can fence in next, so we have less to mow. We do have grass eaters, after all! We are thinking of a fence around the front of the barn, so the animals can roam and get back in the barn when it rains.

The goats were not eager to leave the barn - but they finally got the message that the pasture was waiting.