Skunks?!

Oh No! The skunks are already coming out of hybernation! Vernon saw one down the hill from our house yesterday. So far haven't smelled any, but will need to keep a close eye out when we let the dogs out in the mornings. Hope we don't get baby skunks living under the barn.....

Goat kid due dates

For those of you keeping track of when the "kids" are due. Here are the May dates if you want them on your calendar:

May 1 - Daisy

May 4 - Baby Belle and Rosie

May 7 - Brigitt

May 8 - Annie

May 9 - Josephine

May 18 - Avalon

And I'm going to predict that Baby Belle and Annie will have triplets (I'm going out on a limb here as I'm just as likely to be totally wrong).

Pregnant Goats

I usually breed the does in Nov or Dec so the kids are born in April or May. Annie, Baby Belle, Rosie, Daisy, Brigette, Avalon and Josephine are all due in May. However I had a few that didn't take during the December breedings, so decided to have a second round; these girls are all due in July. Decided to skip June kids, as that is a busy month and don't want to worry about kids being born. So the July mothers are Isabelle, Maggie, Robin, Nutmeg. Sunflower and Lilac are on the list if they come into heat again in the next week).

The milk supply has been just barely enough lately, so wanted to make sure there are more milk producers lined up.

We're famous!

Westfarm Goats has a feature article in a national magazine: Natural Home
Here is the link if you want to read the article.
http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/green-professionals/westfarm-goats-raising-goats-self-reliant.aspx
This doesn't have all the pictures, but should have a PDF file available soon.

Facebook

Well, Westfarm Goats is now on Facebook. This Facebook page is mostly going to be about the goats' milk soap and not so much for personal social interaction. I will keep this blog for farm/goat updates.

Don't forget to visit my website to view and order soap.

http://www.westfarmgoats.com/

A sad time

My young alpine buck Hans, lost his family last week to a mountain lion. Marika, Flower and Oreo belonged to my friend Emily who lives higher up the mountain. Marika gave birth to Hans, Oreo and two other boys last April (her first birth experience). She had enough milk for all four kids but only wanted to nurse two of them. Oreo and Hans became bottle babies. Flower was Marika's "sister", actually she was a pretty black nubian. So very sad that they all perished to a young lion, who was probably just learning to hunt.

Hans came here in September, he is a handsome guy and should have several offspring born in May. At least the lineage will continue. I hope we can get a couple of daughters that have the huge milk production that Marika had. Avalon, my heaviest milk producer has been bred to Hans, so hope for a couple of females.

Hans has matured quite a bit from this picture taken a few months ago. He is now sporting a nice beard.

Piles of goats

Usually by the time I get the barn door open in the morning all the goats are standing waiting to be let out, but since its been so cold they don't hop up as quickly. On Wednesday morning it was -17 (but the sun was out!) I opened one barn door and there was a goat pile in each of the three corners. The first thing I saw was Christopher's and Dash's heads peeking over the back of their mother. I didn't get much chance to observe as they did stand up pretty quickly. I did see that they were laying in family groups. You would think that they would all pile together to stay warm, but no it is strictly kinship groups. In one corner was Susie and her daughter Avalon. The next corner had Iceni and her kids, Nutmeg, Christopher and Dash. The third corner had Isabelle and her family: Maggie, Arlo and Josephine.

Another thing I learned this week - don't leave the black water buckets full of water overnight in minus degree weather and expect to pop the ice out in the morning. No jumping on the buckets would release the ice this time. Some of the ice is falling out now that the temp reached in the plus 20s yesterday.

Keeping everyone warm

It is a challenge to keep everyone warm enough when the temperature is -12.
Took warm water, hot oatmeal and sausage(organic of course) out to the chickens this morning - all seem ok, but glad to have the hot food. And no, my chickens are not vegetarians, they also eat mice and bugs when possible.
Goats have extra alfalfa and grain in their barns. Will take warm water down in alittle while. I'll be milking with silk glove liners on - ohhhh I wish for a milking parlor heated to 35 degrees....

You know you have too many clothes on when it is this cold and you start to sweat. Silk long underwear top, turtleneck, hoodie and carhartt coat are too much. Think I'll ditch the hoodie.

Explorer verses the Farmer

I found this interesting analogy. I fit the farmer type perfectly. My husband is the explorer. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing that we are so totally different..... maybe a little of both.
http://tylertervooren.com/advancedriskology/the-explorer-and-the-farmer/