A Barn Yard Romance

As I had posted a bit ago, we rented a buck goat to uhmmm....*service* our lady goats.
Henry did his job well and I am assuming that all our girls (except Nikki) are in a family way.
Nikki was far too young, so we kept her confined while the adults...uhmmm....*frolicked* across the back yard.
Henry's favorite was Lily. She was the last doe we presented to him and it was a case of mutual infatuation at first sight. They were inseparable. Yes, he dallied with the otthers, but he always returned to Lily and she was okay with that.
Then, the day came for Henry's owner to come pick him up.
Henry protested LOUDLY when we removed him from the goat pen.
Lily started bleating at the top of her lungs and trying to ram the fence down.
Henry, the gentlest of buck goats, broke free and ran to the pen, bleating at Lily through the fence.
The two nuzzled each other through the fence and bleated at each other.
The owner and I looked at each other.
A decision was made and after a few negotiations, Henry AND Lily were loaded into a horse trailer. Or rather, Henry was loaded on and Lily eagerly followed!
I loved my Lily, but Lily loved her Henry and he, her.
Who am I to stand in the way of true love?
Lily will have Henry and more acreage and a snug goat shed and lots of good food and lots of attention from her new owner.

New Goat Baby Pics and Updates!

Six days old today and looking fine and frisky!

Lilac (standing), Liam (laying down)

Liam has a lovely white patch

"Why does everyone laugh at my ears?"

Mama Lily's bar, always open!

Both have a white blaze, but Lilac has those ears!

Yes, Lilac's ears are the cutest, floppiest ears a baby goat ever had!
Lily was a little slow at getting started on nursing her babies, so we put her on the milk-stand when the babies were 2 days old and milked her out and fed the babies colostrum from bottles.
Lily was a perfect lady on the milk stand! However, we sat outside and fed the babies...who eagerly took the bottles!...and Mama Lily got a trifle upset watching us cuddle and feed her babies. We gave the babies back to her and she bathed them and snuggled them. About three hours later I went out to check on them again and Lilac was trying to nurse...Lily stepped away. Lilac tried again. Lily stepped away again. I finally got in the pen and held Lily still while I petted her. Lilac dove in for another try at nursing and Lily didn't step away (Lily LOVES being petted!). Lilac nursed vigorously and Liam decided to join in. Both kids suckled vigorously and Lily stood still for the first time. I had to do this a couple of more times, but eventually, both the kids and Lily caught on and now she nurses her babies just fine, she just needed a little help in learning what to do!
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I got a vicious flu virus.Fortunately, we had all the sickroom supplies needed to get me, my son and The Girl through the worst of it.
Remember when I posted about supplies for the Homestead Sickroom?
I forgot one thing...one VERY important thing.
When my fever broke, I was drenched in sweat. I felt so icky!
I needed a shower, a good, hot soapy shower!
However, I was so weak and dizzy from being ill that I couldn't stand up for more than a couple of minutes.
My solution was to bring a plastic lawn chair into the shower.
I am definitely adding one of those sturdy but inexpensive shower benches to my sickroom supplies!
They take up so little space and being able to sit down in my shower was wonderful. Thank goodness I had that plastic lawn chair!
When I got over the worst of the "sick" part, I was left with massive bouts of vertigo.
Ugh!
My solution, as I posted last night, was to slice up fresh ginger, simmer it in honey and then can it up.
I get a spoonful of the honey every once in a while or a slice of the ginger to gnaw on. Sometimes I add it to my hot tea.
Also, the ginger honey is an excellent cough syrup and a great soother of sore throats!
So, back on track now! I only had one mild vertigo attack this morning and it passed quickly.
I don't know why ginger works, but it does. I have had friends and relatives use it for vertigo with good results. My mom (now in her 80s!) had severe vertigo and went to the doctor. He prescribed THREE different medications...all of which had side effects, not a good thing for someone that age. After two weeks on the meds...no improvement. She was essentially bed ridden.
I told her to get ginger ale made with real ginger, ginger snaps and to add ginger to her diet when-ever possible.
She went back to her doctor, told him what I had suggested and he told her to try it since the medications were having no effect.
Three days after started on ginger, she could get out of bed for a few hours. Three weeks on ginger and all her vertigo was gone.
Her doctor was surprised, but pleased.
My mom now takes a couple of powdered ginger capsules a day to keep away vertigo and snacks on ginger snaps. No vertigo attacks in a year!
Might not work for everyone, but ginger can work!

Meet Liam and Lilac...FINALLY!

Lily finally gave birth to a lovely set of twins...fathered, apparently, by Geordi, by the look of them!

Sunday Morning...

Penar and his girls over by the milking stand

Max, Xander and Heloise enjoying the sunshine

Persephone and the new peahen, Phobe

Phoebe is smaller, Persephone has the white patch on her wings

They get along well, as long as Phoebe agrees that Persephone is in charge!

Lily is still waiting...and waiting...to kid

Yup, bagging up and pouchy goat butt...she is close!

Pendar looking magnificent as usual!

Yes, we have acquired another peahen. She was offered to us at a price 1/4 of what peahens usually sell for, so we decided to go ahead and get her. We named her Phoebe.
Lily is getting closer and closer to kidding...just wish she would go ahead and kid already! Poor thing is waddling around her pen and seems to have that "Oh, I am so fat and miserable" thing going on. Frequent ear scratches and tummy rubs help.
Little Max is growing by leaps and bounds and enjoys head-butting the geese. Tonight he will spend the night with Gerte and Gustav in the kid pen, as his mama will be milked in the morning. We have been conditioning Molly to the milking stand, but she is still pretty fidgety, so milking her will be a definite TWO person job!
Pendar loves being "cock of the walk" now that Red is gone. He takes good care of his hens and Ugly Betty has moved out of the peafowl pen and into the chicken coop! Pendar made sure the other hens didn't pick on her and Betty has adjusted well.
That's Sunday morning here, hope all of you are having a lovely day, too!

Odds and Ends and Pieces

Lily still hasn't kidded. She seems to be in some sort of  "holding pattern" waiting for the most perfect moment to kid.
No doubt it will be at THE most inconvenient moment possible. Driving rain storm or a sandstorm most likely.
Still, she is enjoying the extra attention. I check on her several times a day and make sure to scratch her right behind the ears. I go out at night and make sure all is well. I have even sat in her pen at night and given her ear scratching and tummy rubs until she falls asleep...with her head in my lap.
Not spoiled much, is she?
So, still waiting on her.
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The Boy and the Girl have each had horrendous colds in the past couple of weeks.
I finally got it and it blossomed into a Class 4 sinus infection.
I have been combating it with lots of hot tea with lemon and honey, hot, HOT baths with lavender soap and bath oil and Halls Menthol-Lyptus cough drops.
The first hour I am up I am miserable...after that I am more or less okay.
Just takes two of three cups of tea.
The kids recovered nicely, the Darlin' Man hasn't caught it and my son hasn't caught it.
I should be okay by the end of the week, I hope!
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Today I go to the dentist to get a recheck on the extraction that was done.
While I am out, I plan to stop by the feed store as we need some sweet feed.
I think I will stay glued to the Darlin' Mans side the whole time we are there!
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 Weirdness abounds in recent news stories..
The Russians grew an extinct plant from a 30,000 year old seed.
Good thing or bad thing?
I dunno, but I have seen Jurassic Park enough times to be nervous about any extinct species being resurrected. They say the Japanese are hoping to resurrect the Mammoth from frozen specimens found in the tundra in Siberia.
Is that really wise? I mean...what bacteria did those animals carry in their digestive tracts?
That's just one thing that worries me.
Also, meat grown from stem cells?
I see all kinds of problems cropping up from that!
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Well, time to hang up the laundry and then I think a shower for me. Lots and lots of lavender scented bubbles!

Playing the Waiting Game...Again

So, I have two more goats that are pregnant. Lily and her best buddy, Nina.
We bought them at the same time, brought them home at the same time and Wang, the buck we had, had access to them at the same time.
However, Nina played "hard to get", so she was bred about a week later than Lily.
By my count (remember, I am terrible at math!), Lily should be due the first week in March, and Nina the second week of March.
Lily apparently is going to jump the gun by a few days....maybe.
Yesterday, Lily let out a horrendous squawk/ screech/bleat that sounded like she was being tortured to death! I ran outside, convinced she had gotten her head stuck in the gate or perhaps a coyote had gotten in the yard and ripped off one of her legs! It sounded that bad!
Nope, she was just standing there in her pen, looking a bit distressed, but all in one piece.
I got in the pen to check on her and noticed she was bagging up.
Nina, jealous that I was petting Lily, starting head butting poor Lily.
So, Nina was transferred to the nursery pen with the younglings.
Now, when I got the girls, their udders were :high and tight" as neither had ever been bred/kidded.
Look at Lily this morning!

Yup, definitely bagging up!

"Excuse me!? This is NOT my best angle!"

 So, on kidding watch again!
Meanwhile, Lily continues to bleat in the most pitiful manner every time she thinks she feels a contraction, I swear!
The neighbors keep coming out to check on her...I think to make sure she isn't being tortured!
Like my friend over at Krazo Acres was about her Nettie goat, I am anxious about this goat Lily. It is her first kidding. She was bred to the same buck as the rest of them, and all of the others had twins!
So, besides keeping an eye on Lilys' hindmost parts today until whenever she kids, I have a full plate today.
But a break to watch Mollys' little boys cheered up my morning!

"Oh...Max is still sleeping!"

"GOTCHA!!!"

"WHAT!? Sneak attacks are legal! I'm a GOAT!"

Quick Update!

Lily the goat is in the beginning stages of labor! And so is Molly!
Lily was panting a bit,and some discharge and her udder was filling.Molly has a mild discharge and her udder has filled out more.
So, I moved Lily into the milking goats pen so that Molly (who is a bully) won't endanger Lily's newborn when it arrives.Or they arrive, as I am pretty sure Lily is going to have twins.
Of course,when I moved Lily, I had to move her best buddy with her, as Lily bellows her head off when separated from Nina!
Picture reference:

Nina lookig svelte (before she was pregnant)

Molly with her cute "bobby sox"and spiffy red collar. (Another pre-pregnancy pic)

Lily, her first day here...with Wang introducing himself! Wang is the daddy...but he has been sold to another enterprising goat owner that liked the look of his offspring.

So...we should have new kidlings by the weekend. Goats are hard to predict, but I will be keeping a close eye on both of them!
Somehow....I see this ending with my spending the night in the goat house holding Lilys' hand hoof. It is her first kid and she is a very people oriented slightly nervous animal. Whenever upset, she makes a bee-line to the nearest person...with Nina in tow, of course!
I have my kidding kit ready...to that I have added a pillow and blanket...just in case!