Baby Pictures

Captain Chaos

Calliope in rear and Hazelnut out front

Polka Dotted Pirate

A Present Farmer

I have never felt more like a farmer than I have this week. I am either milking someone, feeding someone, giving calcium to someone, or cleaning up something, while still working my full time job. I'm busy and to-the-bone tired.

Cora Belle has had a rough recovery from having her quads. At times I didn't know if she was going to pull through. As a result I am bottle feeding her babies with Alice supplying the milk. Alice, unbeknownst to her, is feeding 7 babies. She still thinks she only has two.


Cora Belle has turned the corner and is starting to act like she is going to stay amongst the living. She is feeling so good now she is fighting with Alice through the fence, bending a few wires and loosening a few boards. A good sign.

So my mom couldn't have picked a better week to show up with a gift bag when we got together yesterday for lunch. Wrapped in tissue was a framed certificate from Future Farmers of America awarding me Chapter Farmer on March 16, 1976.

It just took me 36 years to feel like a farmer.

Skeleton in her Closet

Yes I know you think Cora Belle is perfect. The typical overachiever. But Cora Belle is not quite perfect. In fact she's a bit dysfunctional. She has taken a huge dislike to one of her little daughters. With three of the babies she is June Cleaver, with the little buckskin doeling she's Joan Crawford minus a coat hanger. She just bites ears. Tender young baby ears. Cora Belle won't let Calliope nurse or come into the goat house if she gets caught out. I had to intervene. Now all the babies are in an X-pen and I control the milk bar. Seems to work just fine for both of us.
Cora Belle believes in using playpens with babies.

Now I have two little bummers. What's the world coming to?

Cora Belle's Quads

Yes, 4. She is in shock too. Two boys, two girls. With all those kids underfoot you are always stepping on somebody.

I'm Next

Any day now.

Deuce-Rejected

Poor little Deuce is odd man out. Alice will not take care of him. Luckily she tolerates him and does nothing more than walk away and glare when he tries to nurse.
So he can stay with his brothers, the chosen ones.

A Saint Patrick's Day Miracle

Last night when I went down to check Alice and her boys I found Deuce, the second born, cold and unresponsive. The other two were warm and lively with bellies full of milk. Deuce was cold and lifeless. I wrapped him in my coat and brought him into the house. I laid a towel in a cardboard box, put him in it, and set the box close to the wood stove. He lay flat out on his side barely breathing. I petted and massaged him and encouraged him to live but my gut told me he was on his way out. A few times, Hubby would say, "I think he's gone." I would put down my knitting and feel his chest. I could barely feel his heart beat...but just barely. He had no reflexes and lay with his eyes open. Just like he was already dead. I checked him right before bed and imagined his heart was beating a little stronger. But maybe I just imagined it.
I stoked the fire and went to bed knowing full well he wouldn't survive the night. He just couldn't.
This morning I got up extra early because the dog wanted out. I let the dog out and then went over to pick up the box and set it outside, sure that the kid had died. I lifted the box and a head popped up and said,"Maaaaaa" I almost dropped the box I was so surprised. I ran in and woke Hubby and told him to listen.

"Maaaaaa."

He did live and seems just fine although Alice won't have anything to do with him which is probably why I found him cold and almost dead. So now I have a bottle baby. I took him back to Alice because he likes his brothers and I think it is always best they grow up with other goats but I'll be feeding the little tyke.
Alice only does two babies, apparently.

My Three Sons

Meet Alice's boys....



Uno Dos Tres

Did you hear that?

Star Milker

I'm sure most of you are getting tired of me going on and on about Cora Belle. Cora Belle this Cora Belle that. Blah Blah Blah.

But I am very proud of my locally grown girl. After a year of hard work, mostly on Cora Belle's part, she not only earned her championship in the show ring, she has also earned herself a star as a milker. She may have even made it into the top ten milkers in her breed if it hadn't been for the stress of showing and a few vacations on my part....oh and I dried her up too early. Her numbers are that good.

So I would like to thank Herron Hill Dairy for allowing me to buy Cora Belle when they didn't want to sell her. I would like to thank the farmer at Herron Hill for mentoring me through the process of rediscovering goat shows and pushing me to put CB on milk test. When she didn't know something she found someone who did.

I would like to thank Cathy Reaney for taking on the task of being my milk tester and doing it so well.

I would like to thank my family who put up with me saying, "I have to get home and milk the goat" or "I can't go because I don't have anyone to milk the goat."
I'm afraid there is more of that to come.

Mostly I'd like to thank Cora Belle for coming into my life when this empty nester needed something to do and something new to think about. You saved my mind.



So ladies and gentlemen, I give you GCH Herron Hill CJ Cora Belle.

Blah Blah Blah Blah.

Scenes From The Farm

We are experiencing the calm before the storm. Nothing much going on so there are no stories of my own to tell.

Alice has about 2 weeks to go. Blue eyes are expected.




Cora Belle is due at the end of the month and I am looking forward to some buckskin babies...and hopefully a little dalmatian one too. Her daughter Wedding Belles is due April 5th or so. Wedding Belles is cooking up a pretty little coin purse udder. Hopefully her momma's capacity is going to go along with it.



Riot only appears to be due at the end of the month.



And Willow.......



She is my shadow.




We love her.