It's official, summer is here

I don't care what the calendar says, summer is here. I know it's here because I heard what I call "the bird of summer" this morning. It took me years to pinpoint what kind of bird I was hearing because it is never seen. Tucked away in the woods you will hear its lifting song. It sounds circular to me...if that makes any sense. With the help of an app. or two a friend of mine identified this bird of summer as a Swainson's Thrush. Migrates to our area just in time for a fun filled summer. When I hear its song I think of bonfires and bbqs, long warm nights, and no school. Although the temps are in the 50s and I'm wearing a sweatshirt, I heard it this morning...summer is officially here.

Life is Good

I See a Pattern

Boots' beautiful babies. First we have Cameo.

Then there is this handsome guy. So far nameless.

I do hope someone wants a buck because he's pretty.

Surprise!

It is always fun to go down to the farm and get a surprise...like new babies. Boots had her babies sometime during the night. By the time I got down there this morning they were dried off and fed and afterbirth passed. The Buttons' family are good kidders and mommas. No drama. Buck and doe in Minter Bay colors-Dalmatian spotted with blue eyes and wattles. Pictures after work.

Happy Mother's Day

A friend gave me this card today for Mother's Day. She always has a way , like my mother, of finding just the right cards. Card courtesy of Hallmark Shoebox

Note to Self

Next year, don't breed so many goats. I have never been so busy in my life as I have been the last few weeks. There is so much to do with all the milking, babies, cheese making, barn building....and what? I have to clean my house too? And cook? And go to work? It is starting to slow a little as babies get older and some go off to new homes but Boots is still due and I think Buttons is due in July. We are getting in a nice milking routine. Alice is now fondly called Jersey Girl as she is giving as much milk as a Jersey cow. I almost couldn't milk her out but my hands are getting stronger. Cora Belle is also milking like a cow and is doing well on her milk tests. We have added Wedding Belles to the line-up and she is giving a fair amount of milk. Thus all the cheese making going on around here. Several more weeks of school and then I can spend more time....milking, cleaning, painting....and not cleaning house.

My Barn

Yes, I'm getting a barn. My very own barn. I am not letting any animals in. Maybe to be milked but then straight out.

A few months ago, my mom and I went to the Home Show. I followed her around not really seeing anything I was interested in and we turned a corner and ran smack dab into my barn. A mini barn for my mini farm. It even has a loft...a big loft. The only hay that is getting up in my loft is the couple of bales I arrange to sit on....right under my skylight roof vent...in front of my little window.
I have plans to line one wall with old dairy scales.

There has been a lot of work to get ready. Stumps to pull and ground to smooth. I had wanted to get rid of the stumps and old motorcycle jumps/yodeling hills for a long time so this was motivation to get it done.

I think I'll paint it green with white trim. What do you think about curtains?

A Surprise

A surprise is coming to the farm next Thursday. I'll give you a hint....it doesn't have two legs or four and it doesn't eat or poop. I have been waiting for it to get here for about 40 years.

Some of you already know because I have been telling anyone that will listen. The rest of you guess.

Poor Riot

This afternoon I was giving the goats their dinner and noticed a black and white hump down in a depression in the pasture. It was the same color as my older wether Riot. I took a quick look around and he wasn't munching on the hay I just thrown down so I knew it had to be him.

I clapped my hands. Nothing.I clapped harder. Still no response.

I opened the gate and walked up to him with dread in my heart. He was curled up just like he was sleeping. He wasn't breathing.

What could have happened to him in just the few hours I saw him last?
He looked so peaceful.
I bent down and petted his head and said "poor Riot" several times.

His eyes flew open and he jumped back just as fast as I did. I could tell he was fine the minute his eyes opened and I saw the look of someone who has just been woken from a very deep sleep.

He stood in shock for a second (while my heart pounded)then noticed the other goats eating the choice green orchard grass. He ran over, butted a few heads, and I knew we weren't digging any graves tonight.

Just an old goat sleeping.

I'm in Love

A Little Experiment

Early in the fall, my son and daughter-in-law were down at the farm and we were discussing how to get a clone of Cora Belle (my favorite goat ad nauseum). They, being both scientists and well-versed in genetics, suggested I breed Cora Belle's daughter Wedding Belles to her son Easter Island. They have different fathers so it wasn't a straight brother to sister breeding. I know it sounds Yuk but it's called line breeding in the goat world.
That was exactly what I did then waited the five months to see what we would get. Wedding Belles wasn't very big and I expected a single buck kid.

Here is Cora Belle as a kid. My goal.



When Wedding Belles went into labor last Tuesday, I was pretty pleased to help her deliver a lovely little doeling that is almost a carbon copy of Cora Belle.





And if that wasn't enough...an almost (a little more black) carbon copy of Cora Belle's full sister, Boxcar Betty.



Here is Betty as a kid. She lives and works at Herron Hill Dairy .



I'd say our little experiment was a success. I love science.

Airing Out Babies

It was a beautiful day in Western Washington. After church and an all you can eat Easter buffet it was time to open up the gates, grab a lawn chair, sit in the sun, and watch the show.

Follow Me

We are now on facebook. Everyone is doing it so why not us? I'll tell you why.
I am really bad at facebook.
Minter Bay Dairy Goats

Today

Today was one of those days when everything was agin me. I am now milking two goats and that is one too many for my getting ready for work schedule. I barely got to school on time, throwing on just any old thing. I forgot it was class and staff picture day. I had bad hair and a tired old shirt on so I spent all day dodging class pictures and just happened to be outside at staff picture time. The day didn't get any less hectic.

So on this hectic day Wedding Belles presents me with two darling doelings and one looks awfully familiar.

I'm never too busy to welcome a couple of babies into the world. They didn't give a rip about the state of my hair.

Good to the Last Drop

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?