Saying Goodbye To The Farm

This post is sad and hard to write. We have had to make a lot of hard decisions in the last few months and one of the biggest is letting go of the farm. The expense of running the farm, the way the animals deserve it to run, has become prohibitive. Hay is up to $18 a bale so that alone with our long winter season is beyond our means. There were a lot of personal things behind it as well. We gave our beloved goats to a friend so we will still get to visit and see our spring babies born. For now though the best interest of our family is to move to town and scale back. I will be doing my best to urban homestead and provide my children with the same values and lifestyle we have established.

Work Day

Fall is fast approaching and that means it is time to get the farm ready for a long winter. The chore list can be daunting. We have to shore up fences, build new shelters, cut and stack wood, clean and store tools for the season. It is a lot of work and a lot of fun.

The Fall animal routine is special. Fall is breeding time on the farm. Goats and sheep are seasonal breeders and usually only come into season in the fall. That being said, we did have a complete surprise this year. Our sheep had delivered twins and triplets in February. They should not have come into season again until October. Despite breeding science and a 5 month gestation period, they managed to pop another set of twins out in July, 3 weeks short of a full term gestation. The twins are robust and healthy. We are floored at the miracle but we will take it.

The sheep are out for fall breeding but still need the yearly work up. The goats are due to be bred, so decisions need to be made. Sarah's dairy goats need improvement if she wants to show the offspring. We order up a buck from a local breeder for her goats. We need a buck with good udder formation in his pedigree. My fainting goats are easier but we did have one pair I won't breed again, the baby was not as quality as I like. In preparation for mating we trim hooves, vaccinate, worm and fix fences. Bad fences are a farmers nightmare when bucks go into rut!

Jacob preformed his annual acrobatics while catching the goats and ended up covered in goat berries!

Anna was very interested and wanted to do the shots herself.

Dixie was also very interested, in eating everyone else's share of grain.

Jacob and Sarah handled the shots and wormer.

Sarah, Wyatt and I went out to shore up the fences.

The T-post driver weighs 50 lbs.

I am super woman!

After all the T-posts are finished I am off to find all the little rascals that disappeared during the hard work.

Riding BIKES?

What?

But who could be mad? Look at that face!

Baby Goats Are Here

This post is a long time coming. It seems with trying to squish a year of fun into a summer, running the farm, having a baby and getting ready for a new school year with seven kids, I just ran out of spare time! Anyway, we had been waiting on pins and needles for these girls to go into labor. I thought I knew when they conceived. I was wrong! So, after much back and forth between Robert and I on whether they were actually pregnant, we came out early one morning, to find this little guy. He was only minutes old. I was a combination of thrilled he was here and sad I missed it. I forgot what a brat his mama was though until I went in to check him over. She is SASSY! He is a good sturdy boy and she is just doing her job.


Sarah and I started Goat watch 2010 at that point on our second mama to be. We went out every 15 minutes to see if anything was going on. It could have been days or weeks but lucky us it was only hours. I want to send out a warning that the photos to follow are graphic birth shots.

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Between pushes Delilah and her new baby would come over and Gretyl would kiss on the baby. It was the cutest thing I ever saw.



She would push and then she would look over and check to make sure I was there. She would bleat at me as if to say "HELLO...A little help"









Right about here I think I went into sympathy labor. I caught myself breathing through a few contractions. Thank God we don't have neighbors...can you imagine! Can't you just feel her determination. She was amazing.



The kids were glued to the spot. They whispered , quietly cheered her on, asked a lot of questions and were very concerned. They were so good! Ok, ok so they were slightly grossed out too!





It sounds weird but it was so amazing and beautiful to watch.






Finally after about 45 minutes of hard labor the baby was born.








Gretyl was very generous about sharing her baby and letting me check him out. He is another beauty. We were a bit disapointed we did not get a girl (boy goats are stinky and not cuddly) but then she sneezed and this fell out.



I kid you not! She just fell out onto the ground! I was completely shocked.



I looked a little like this I think!


I stepped in at this point and cleaned and dried the baby and got her nursing. Mama was a bit overwhelmed and seemed to appreciate the help. She kept giving me little kisses. She is a sweet goat by nature but this experience really was special. Baby girl's name is Cleo but the boys need names. Any ideas?