windthread

marble is still rolling

i can't possibly describe this day.  if i tried, it would seem flat on the "page", so i won't.  but just to say, i WORKED on how to make a space for moving Onday and little Mercy back into the Bitchy Girl Pen.  And yes.  that's the new little doeling's name...Mercy.   and soon after i'd just begun making headway, i began to notice Snowbunny making all the textbook moves a laboring goat would make.  Oh, La.  so i shifted gears and got the birthing pen ready and moved her in there in hopes i was right.  and i WAS!  this was the first birth that didn't take place on dirt or sticks.  TaDa!  i am improving!!!.  So after i got her settled in, i went back to the original plan of creating shelter in the Bitch Pen.  the only remaining one of those, Ona, and her two bad boys.  They were very happy to have me working there and paid very close attention, inspecting everything.  So, that  was nice, to make them happy.   Snowbunny labored long and i wanted to photo document every step but that somehow felt funny so, i only have these.  Her, in her very uncomfortable LARGE state and then the rest.

i didn't yet get a pic of the second ~buckling~.    he is mostly white with grey markings.  one grey hind leg, one white.  very nice.  This one spent an enormous time with just his head born.  his legs were positioned wrong and had to be born against his chest.  ordinarily front legs come out with head.  She WORKED, HARD.  many vocalizations.  Which seemed to inspire the first born buck, Sunny Ray who was careening around the large pen doing very adult buckly things and it was really terrible.  he can impregnate.  Fortunately, no one there was able to be impregnated but that didn't stop his zeal at trying.  it was awfull. 

SO after the first baby was born, during the breather, i  moved him.  He is now among those of his kind.  With the bucks.  Tenzen and Gideon pretty much thought it was Ho Hum but Buckwheat was all into it...someone "below" him on the pecking order and so the remainder of the afternoon was pretty much pandemonium and there was a great Wind Storm to add to the celebration of it all.  Sunny Ray, the amature debaucher CRIED to his mother across the way. (he still nurses) and she CRIED back.  which made every one else put in their 2 cents.  OH JEEZZ.

But now, it's heading toward dusk.  the marble is rolling.  it's pretty quiet out there.  If we were breeding bucks, we would be GREAT.  ALL of them are beautiful and ALL of them different in their patterns and colors except for Los Dados.  They are Stunning little beings.  But a herd of 20 milking does really only needs one buck.  and there are no lions around here.  so.

i think one more doe to go.  Barbara.  maybe two, Arctica.  and then, knock on wood, we will be DONE!  daughter Jenny has ordered a MaggieDan milker for me till i figure it all out.  These freshened does can be milked maybe a year before re~breeding.  Cross Your fingers!  enough is enough.   we have, so far:

Bucks:  Sunny Ray, Darth Vader, Inky, Dado, Dado, Nogal and the two today = 8

Does: Cinderella, Magic, Just Going and Mercy = 4

ok AND A WONDERFUL, REALLY SURPRISINGLY AMAZING THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nelia noticed, out front of one of the restraurants (sp)  in town....oh....EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE a WALNUT TREE.

Walnuts.  More than enough there.  AND among them, the tree outside the Old Folks Home...guess what?  an almond tree.  these are the pale green husks.  So, into a pot they will go.

 

 

 

 

 

when will it END????? oh, eeeeeee.

so before i could even take a pic of the new little buck who is Grace's son,  today there is Onday's DAUGHTER!!!, a little doe.  oh hooray.  finally.  and here is what my head is like:

it might rain.  Ona and her two sons, Darth Vader and Inky, Onday and Snow bunny are all in that new pen for bitchy does.  However, that new pen does no longer really accomodate a baby.  the little bucks, Darth V and Inky are pushy already as is their mother Ona and then Snowbunny the Matriarch.  SO.  not good to leave Onday and her new one in there for the night.  i need to take her out.  Where, tho?  if i put her back in the large doe pen, how will they all feel?  and Lucky Star has taken over being alfa doe with her three babies, los dados and Just Going.  because Grace is so quiet, she was able to merge with her new buck baby.  Not so with Onday.  eeeee.  and i COULD try it.  but that would mean that during the night would be the comotion and i really don't want to chance it.  I could move Arctica over with Snowbunny and Ona and the boys, but who knows how that would go and/or Barbara, who is VERY pregnant and likes so much to isolate herself on the shelf in the guinnea hen pen.  hmmm and ack.  what to do.  So, what i have done is move Onday out with her new doeling into the inside Albatross area closing it off to the main pen.  All of them will have to sleep outside tonight or in the guinea hen palace and i have no idea what they will all think of that.  and only 2 does  in the third pen and everything always goes better with 3, but ......

the back part of this place now looks like this

at the far end you can see the only open space anymore.  there will be a 12ft gate there.  maybe tomorrow? , but soon.  and here we have it.  it is extremely Private.  which i love.  really LOVE.  i can sit on that back porch and be in a very seperate reality.    but i have also further insulated myself from my community, passersby.  it's Closed.  i am the only one around here like this.  What does that mean?, i wonder.  But envisioning the goats out here, so much SPACE for them even if it is Space with Walls.  I am dreaming of building them a play structure.  Their lives will be more...FUN.  FUN.  fun is good. yes?  so it's ok, yes?