Tuesday

The Phoebes are back.
"phoebe, phoebe" greeted me at yesterday morning when I awoke.

I had a Mercury retrograde day today. I am still convinced it is Monday, lol. first, I overslept. Somehow I shut my alarm off instead of hitting snooze. I am a chronic snooze button user, so I can immediately go back to sleep. Luckily I awoke 5 minutes before I had to leave for work. I was starting coffee and Willow, who was staying home, down with a bug, said, "the goats are out. "

Ok, I won't bore you with the details of how much fun that was (not), but I am afraid of what the neighbors think of me shouting like a wild woman at errant goats at the crack of dawn. Oh yeah, the neighbors must have heard me.

I was about 15 minutes late to the farm, and was paused outside the gate trying to huff down a cigarette before I went through, (no smoking inside the gates) and my ex-boyfriend's co-worker drove by, honking. Now I knew I had to drive by the two of them working at the rock lot on my way home.

I walked over to the upper gate, still nursing the smoke, and there was a small pile of shavings and some blood and a few white feathers, and I thought, "something tragic happened here."

Boss was coming down from the house and I queried her as to the evidence, and she said, "we had the old gander put down."

I imagined a gun to the back of the head, and felt sad for the "oldman", at least 15 years old as just as a guess. I saw the barn cat circling licking his/her lips (there are two gray and white long-haired, both neutered, male and female, and I can't tell them apart- nor would their teeth and claws allow me to attempt to do so)

I thought I , or someone, should clean up the evidence, and followed Boss into the barn for some tools, as she said, "a lot has been going on..." and gestured, and P said, "Bonnie and Dancer had their babies!"

Which was so exciting I forgot all about the loss of the gander. Bonnie has had boys for the last four years. She is a super-attentive mother. In fact, she sort of was adopted by one of Lillemore's kids last year, who would sneak-nurse her while she was raising twin bucklings of her own.

One year she wasn't bred; she fought with one of the mothers so badly because she didn't have her own babies. Bonnie had her ear split so severely it still dangles in two pieces.

Every year at the three-month mark, Bonnie's boys have been taken from her across the hill for weaning, since bucklings can breed a doe when they are three months old. Well, I have always felt pretty sorry for her and have wished to find her with a girl for the last couple of years now.

Bonnie had twins does this year! They are out of Prince, a tall brown and tan, blue- eyed, side-horned buck. And I am sure at least one of the brown doelings will have his blue eyes.

I have joked that this is the year of the blue eye. Last year was the year of the wattle.

The other surprise was beautiful black Dancer with the long fringes had a pair of gray does out of Grand Champion, currently on the injured list, Homer, who Willow showed when she was 8 and who is also the sire of my Badger.

Oh no, I'm off on goat bloodlines now, boorrrinnng, lol

anyhow, Dancer and Homer's girls are adorable! As are Bonnie and Prince's. Bonnie looked so stunned, lol. i know had she feels-I remember learning I was going to have a daughter after two sons and I believe I had that look on my face as well.

Sunday

Busy day!

Finally some sun again! So it made a good day for the farm!

Boss had Linnea and Bonnie in mind-neither one suitable for Willow, so I headed over to the wether pen and picked out Jackson, Lincoln, and Jasper as possibles for her. I brought Jackson right over, and Willow just loves him. He is a giant, and the joke at the farm is that he was raised on poptarts-he came back to the farm from another household. He was raised with rowdy kids (poptarts) and is very gentle for Willow.

I took on Linnea, very cautiously. She nearly broke my kneecap last year, so today I kept my distance, but actually, she was very good. She only tried to get me once. I got two big bags of fiber off her, and Willow combed a ton off Jackson, too. Then I brought the other two wethers over, but Willow said Lincoln wasn't releasing, and she didn't want to deal with Jasper's long guard hair, so she chose to hang with the new babies.

That's right, the babies have started arriving at the farm! Last week Coretta dropped a set of twins, both does, and Bonnie had a single buck. Then Dancer had twins, one of each, two days later.

I released Lincoln and cleaned Jasper up, and then moved on to Bonnie. I opened the pen after I chained Bonnie. She wasn't releasing much fiber, and then her buckling darted out of the stall and she started flipping out, so I released her. Dancer's babies were napping, and since she was the only goat not out in the field, I collared her and cleaned her up. She kept trying to get me, so I had to hold a horn in one hand and comb with the other.

In the meantime, Coretta and Bonnie had moved out of the barn, and Willow was hanging with them and the three kids. Bonnie has her hooves full with that little buck!!! He was romping with the little doelings, and Bonnie was having a fit!!! He would run and she would go after him with buggy eyes. Then Corretta's black kid was trying to nurse and Bonnie butted her because she thought it was her little black buck!

Finally we went to Prescott and I combed Duke. He was being very jumpy-finally I had one of the weekend boys hold him, and Boss worked on his neck while I wailed away with the slicker.

I found some pussywillows in full bloom as we were leaving, and they joined the vase of forced forsythia on the kitchen table when we finally arrived home.

I have been looking for at least one more goose for our lonesome gander. I found a couple of female pilgrim geese down in New York, but the price and the shipping is steep. We could get eight goslings for a better price from Metzer. Hmmmm-I don't really want a big flock of geese, so Lucifer might have to content himself with the chickens for company for awhile....