Kids & Lambs

(Goat kids making good use of Tom)

The weather is finally starting to moderate and get above freezing during the day. When the sun shines as it has in the last two days it feels downright balmy out there. It was dry enough on the west side of the barn to let the goat kids out with their Moms. They have the best time running, jumping, spinning, sliding on the snow and basically making the Does nuts trying to keep track of them. They are simply happy to be alive. We try to spend time with them each day although I've been immersed in tax preparation which just makes me treasure my time with them even more. As you can see from the photo, they just love it when Tom gets down on their level.

(kid toys )

Tom and my nephew, Dave built the kids a jungle gym to play on. They are on it all the time! They are growing so fast. They really don't look like babies anymore. They don't stop long enough for me to get good photos of them either. Now that they are outside I'm hoping to get some closeups and I'll post them here.

"Bella"

Sheep Update: the calendar said that lambing could start on 4/6/o8. Someone forgot to tell the sheep that! The day I took this photo of Bella, she was laying in the barn, complaining about her condition and I was just sure we would have lambs by choretime that evening. Nothing.......that was two days ago. Oh well ~ I'll get busy and not be thinking about lambs and when I get to the barn for morning chores, they will greet me at the door :-)

Barney................

Description: Houndog, loyal, farmdog, ornery, friendly, cantankerous, faithful, resilient, independent, overall dam good dog.

When we were expecting our last child, there were two things that seemed to be really important to my husband at that time. One, our child should have a dog to grow up with and two, our child was not going to grow up watching that ridiculous purple dinosaur, Barney! We had a dog, but she was an old dog. We wanted our child and a pup to grow up together. We started looking for a pup. In the papers, on the vet's bulletin board and of course, no one had any pups for sale. As we waited for our child and the right pup to come along, we talked about what we would like for a dog and dog names. We already had child names picked out.

Barney & Frodo

(a bottle lamb that lived in the house for 3 weeks)

I saw an ad in the local paper one afternoon for "mutt" pups in Dresden, NY, free. A hike for us but for free what did we have to lose? We headed out Saturday afternoon, trying not to have expectations so we wouldn't be disappointed if we came home empty handed. What greeted us was this bedraggled female dog with a dozen of these scrawny little pups. They were just 8 weeks old and just rolls and rolls of skin. The Papa was nowhere to be found and the owners had no clue who he was or what these pups were. They were so homely, they were cute! Didn't take us long to decide to take one home. For some reason, this pup just looked like a "Barney". Steve wasn't thrilled but he had to admit that it fit this little fellow.

Barney's retirement spot

Barney has been with us now almost 14 years. Up until 2007, Barney always lived outside, which was his preference, and has been the "watchdog" that we needed on the farm. He stayed near and watched over Tyler from the time he was a little boy in the sandbox. We weren't always sure where he was but we always knew he was around, keeping an eye on things, day and night. Last year we built a new modular home. They delivered it in two sections. As I cut the plastic over the door to go inside, Barney bolted in before I did. This was so unusual for him but we didn't think anything of it at the time. He hasn't moved out since! Apparently he thought it was time to retire. He has a sheepskin near the woodstove where he lies by the sunny window most of the time, collecting his retirement check and enjoying his old age.

Barney's Pups

He's been a great dog - he's only wandered a time a two in all these years as you can see by the photo above. There have been times when his disposition could have gotten him tossed off the place but hey, who doesn't have bad days? He's been loved by this family for all these years and hopefully for many more to come.

ps...Tyler did grow up watching that purple dinosaur, Barney :0)

Goat kids & friends.........

Tyler & Kelsey made great jungle gyms for the kids....

We spent part of the afternoon playing with the new goat kids. They are so much fun! They really love the attention and the Mom's don't mind having us all in the barn. Tyler & Kelsey were happy to roll around and let the babies climb all over them. Took them awhile to get their sea legs.

Raven getting a taste of Brian's hat

Goat kids explore everything with their mouths and their teeth. They do not walk. They boing.......this is a run, jump and spin all at the same time. It often appears that they have springs for legs. :0) Hard to catch this in motion with the camera.

Kelly getting a snuggle from Falcon

They now run to the gate when they think a human is approaching. Playtime!! They are already eating hay and taking small drinks of water from Mom's bucket. They all climb in the grain feeder in the mornings during feeding time which definitely aggravates the mom's.

Kelsey getting a smooch from Crow

We have a family with four small children coming to visit. They will have such fun with these little creatures. We certainly do. Like everything else, they grow quickly so we will enjoy them while we can. We are so lucky to be able to spend time just enjoying them.

.....and then there were Five!

Babies that is.......five great little goat kids. Four boys and one girl! Lark, Hawk, Raven, Falcon and Crow. Each year we try come up with a theme to name our babies that has many choices. As I'm sure you've guessed, this year it's birds. :0) We significantly reduced our goat herd last year and kept just three white does. Kidding is over for this year and all went well.

This is our friend Shane who stopped by today for a visit. She's holding all five of the little rascals! It's very hard to detain them even at this size. It never ceases to amaze me how active and curious they are at three days old.

Lark and Hawk are already trying out their acrobat routine on Mom, Lace. They are so agile and seem to have rubber legs.

The last to be born Crow, arrived early yesterday morning. I could hear him bleating from the barn while I was standing on the front porch! His Mom, Ribbon, had triplets last year. I was amazed that she only had a single this year.

This is Falcon and Raven, twin bucklings. Falcon is in the front of the photo. Their fiber doesn't seem to be as curly, the curly fiber being passed on by the angora buck, as Crow's and the first set of twins, but that may change as they get older. It is definitely soft and silky.

We will spend as much time as we can with them now, letting them get to know us, playing and snuggling with them. :0) Generally, our babies love people and attention and make the transition easily when they eventually have to go to their new homes.