And The Hits Keep On Coming!

So, yesterday afternoon, we came home from a brief trip to town and Nora was in labor!
But the kid got stuck and I had to help deliver by pulling kid. Poor Nora! She is a smallish goat and this was her first kidding, so a really huge buckling was NOT a good idea!
Yes, a buckling and a HUGE one as far as newborn goat kids are concerned!
We named him Windsor.
So, here's the kids that are here:

Otis, son of Nikki, twin of Opal

Opal daughter of Nikki, twin of Otis

Daisy, singlet daughter of Clarabelle

Windsor, huge son of Nora

Nora is being a wonderful mama to her little one. Nikki, not so much. She feeds them, grudgingly, but doesn't snuggle them or stay close to them at night. We may have to pull in the twins at night to keep them warm and supplement their feeding.
Champagne and Lilac still have to kid. Any day!

Y-A-W-N...Pulling An All-Nighter....

I am staying up all night tonight.
Why?
Because....goats!
My girls have FINALLY started kidding!
Nikki was first, around 3 this afternoon:

"I know hay is good, mama, but I want MILK!"

My son holding the wee doeling

Getting photo-bombed by Inky the chicken

Already on their legs and curious!

     

The little white one is a girl, the black and white one is a boy.
At around 10 pm....Clarabelle had a bouncing baby girl as well! A really lovely doeling. No pictures as of yet, will get some in the morning.
While I was attending to Clarabelle, I noticed Nora scratching here and there in the barn....she is in labor right now. I run to the barn and check on them about every 20 minutes.
I hope the rest of the kidding goes off without a hitch!
See you in the morning!

Again...Waiting! And TV!

None of my girls have kidded yet. All five have bagged up, some more than others, and a couple have the *dear god, I am about to explode* look. (Lilac and Nikki, I'm talking about you!) I think Lilac will kid first.
The last couple of weeks always drives me crazy. I am absolutely certain they will all kid at the same time...probably when I am in the shower. All having complications. Yay! Pessimism rules!
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When we moved out here, we discovered the expense of a tv service (satellite or through phone company...no cable in my area) was WAY too high to make it worth it. But, we did get internet.
So, a lot of you-tube and other free stuff. We have a blu-ray player and it gets wifi.
The Darlin' Man finally broke down and got Netflix and HuluPlus. Each runs around $7.99 a month.
I get WAY more than I could ever watch in my lifetime and have discovered shows and movies I never would have found on my cable or satellite package. Plus, a lot of older shows and classic movies.
So, we *cut the cord* as far as tv service is concerned. I don't watch a great deal, but I think what I do watch is better in quality.
Our latest obsession is a British show, "Waking the Dead" which is a police drama. Cold Case + CSI + Law and Order type show. Two episodes of an hour each for each *case*. I think we all like it because you can't figure out who *dunnit* and why they *dunnit* within the first 10 minutes (as you usually can on US police dramas). If you get a chance to watch it, please do! It has nine seasons, so it's going to take us a while to watch them all!
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Time to go out and check the goats again....c'mon Lilac, you can do it!
And please, no complications!

Short Post on Busy Morning

I ordered a shirt and hat for the Darlin' Man.
Here's the shirt:

He was very happy with it and wore it to our Grange meeting last night. The other Grange members liked it, too. I tried to keep it simple. Although, I am considering a re-do to add a couple of alpacas and maybe a chicken or two, plus adding the name of the town we live in. Dunno, yet.

The hat is less impressive,just has *Frippery Farm* and the town name.

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On to current projects. I really can't afford to buy lumber for my chicken house and other building projects. Then I discovered that a local guy that has a small sawmill dumps his *lapwood* nearby. I checked with him and he said I can all of it I want!

This is what some of the wood looks like:

Pretty neat, huh?!? That's just a small pile of it. I have access to several TONS of it!
Lumber problem solved!
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Well, onto shoveling manure....

Spring. Ahhhhhh.....Spring...

Spring is finally here. After a short repeat of winter in mid-April when we had 3 days straight of snow every single morning...ACK!....the snow has melted, the heat is turned off and I no longer have to wear a coat to go feed the critters.
The new ducks have been named.
Duck comfit and duck l'orange.
Reality, people.
I'm starting to clear the land a bit, and with some luck, I'll get my garden area tilled this weekend.
Got my seed order from Bakers Creek and I am happy about that! Heavy on fodder crops. Pumpkin, turnips and beets. My plan is to use the fodder crops and hay to feed the livestock this winter, along with as many apples as I can find. Cut my feed bill by more than half.
We have a mama moose and baby moose wandering on the property and while clearing some small trees out yesterday, I found moose poop within about 50 ft of the back of the house! Going to have to be careful when I am out and about. Mama moose are very protective of their babies!
The agenda for today includes cleaning the barn and starting the wattle fence for the chicken coop I will be building.
Hope everyone out there is enjoying their Spring!
I'll post pics of the chicken yard fence as I am constructing it and when I finish.