We see to be inundated with new life around here. In the last 3 weeks we've doubled the size of our goat herd. On the 10th of June, Peace, Temerity, and Mercy each had twins - all 6 kids born in a 2-1/2 hour period. I was on hand to put my two cents in (probably unnecessary) and generally get in the way, but when there is any kind of birth taking place I want to be there. Someone called it being a "birth junkie". If the shoe fits...
Peace has turned out to be a great little mother but a terrible milker, so we have turned her into the pasture with her little ones and they all seem to be doing well. The "big guys" treat them with the proper respect and we know they're well looked after. Mercy and Temerity, on the other hand, were indifferent about their offspring so after a week we separated them. We ended up selling Temerity's kids to a family in Scappoose who were very excited to be increasing their livestock and branching out from chickens to goats. The original idea was to keep two does but no decisions were made as to which two since we needed to wait to see what Pru produced.
We assumed all four girls had been bred at the same time, but Pru showed no signs of following the delivery trend and just kept getting bigger and bigger. Yesterday morning she began to exhibit symptoms of impending delivery so we kept an eye on her and I missed the birth by just minutes. She had two beautiful little does, bringing our grand total to 8: 6 does, 2 bucks. Now that the kidding is over we'll need to make our decision - so, maybe we'll be keeping more than two. They're all so cute! How do we decide?
While the goat herd increases, the chicken flock diminishes - in part due to some clever and elusive raccoons, but also as a result of some judicious butchering. Actually, the two causes are tied to each other. The raccoon raids were knocking our numbers down quickly and since we'd planned to butcher the roosters anyway it seemed like a good idea to do it while we still had a few roosters left. The deed was done yesterday and we have 6 petite chickens resting in the freezer. They won't make a huge meal, but I'd rather they be a meal for us than the local marauders.
Things are busy here as we begin canning season (strawberry jam already checked off the list), gather in our hay, and continue to plant and maintain the garden. There isn't a whole lot of produce yet but we have high hopes for this year. It's definitely our largest and most organized garden yet.
There are new flower and herb beds going in, and with luck we'll have some clean and tidy paths as well. Why is it that when you want things to grow quickly it seems like you can't see any progress, but when you try to keep undesirables at bay (i.e., weeds and grass), they seem to be on steroids and grow by leaps and bounds overnight. I feel like all I've been doing lately is mow grass!
After Katy, Billy, and Sam return from their week in Minnesota we're considering getting a shipment of meat chickens to butcher in the fall. That, however, SHOULD be the last of baby world for this year.
