Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Life is sure full of surprises and unexpected turns.

Surprise #1
   
I am use to Little Bit taking off now and then so when I did not see her on Feb. 25 I did not think anything of it.  But as each day passed and Little Bit did not make a showing, my concern grew.  Usually she was only gone a day at a time.  Two days is usually the max.  So when an entire week passed and still no Little Bit I was pretty sure the worse had occurred.  Little Bit and her sister Tiger, who thankfully is a home body, are barn cats.  They have access to a cabin where food, water, and pillows for sleeping on are available, but they are free to roam anywhere they wish. 
    

   
There is risk to any animal living outside, which includes the cats.  So when Little Bit was not seen for an entire week I knew in my heart she probably had become someone’s lunch.  The thought really saddened me but I have always known that is a risk.  I grieved for a few days for my kitty and then moved on with life.  I still had Tiger and there is always lots of work to do around here. 
   
Little Bit had not been seen for 13 days when I went outside the front door one evening, stopping in my tracks.  Was I dreaming?  A few yards from the steps, I saw Tiger and Little Bit sniffing each other.  Little Bit was not injured or skinny.  Where ever she had been she had been eating. 
   
Surprise #2
   
We never witnessed the act, but by December we were positive our Boer doe, Lawn Mower, was pregnant and very suspicious Bambi, our dairy doe, was also pregnant.  As time passed Lawn Mower grew larger and showed many signs that she would probably kid in early March.  Around February 10 her udder started filling up, a sure sign she would soon be kidding.  Bambi on the other hand, who is a much smaller and younger goat, was just starting to develop baby bumps by the end of February.  The evidence was clear.  We were 100% positive Lawn Mower would kid first and Bambi would follow second. 
    
On March 7 around 10am I decided to take some treats out to the goats.  I was half way to the goat enclosure when I noticed Bambi curled up sound to sleep.  The fact she was sleeping so soundly I found troubling.  I am use to her lying down chewing the cud but it is rare for her to be out cold like that.  As I continued to walk closer to the enclosure my eyes feel upon a small black object.  It didn’t take me long to realize what it was.  Bambi had kidded. 
   
I quickly returned to the house, grabbed my camera and told Rick to get his shoes on, and back outside I went.  As we approached the fence Bambi woke up, along with her new little baby girl, who we later decided to name Susanna.  Bambi was found in the road by a friend and raised by humans, but that has not prevented her from knowing how to be a good mommy.  Bambi is doing an excellent job of raising her little girl. 
    



Bambi looks tell us she is part Nubian and Alpine, both of which are dairy breeds.  She is also very small and appears to have some pygmy, or some other small breed of goat, in her ancestry as well.  Dairy goats must be milked, so that afternoon I found a video on how to milk a goat and have been milking Bambi every since.  Since Bambi is so small and I am allowing her to feed her baby 24/7, I am not getting that much milk.  By the time Susanna is weaned I hope to have Bambi use to the activity and I should be getting a decent amount of milk by then. 
   
Lawn Mower is still pregnant and though she is huge and looks very uncomfortable is showing no signs of going into labor.
 
 
   
Unexpected Turn:
   
Our Spanish buck, Midnight was only two weeks old when he came to live here.  He was so cute I could not see ever getting rid of him.  But all cute babies eventually grow up.  Midnight shared the goat enclosure with both does until sometime in January, when the situation became intolerable.  The problem with Midnight is he is an intact buck and well, he started acting more and more like a buck.  Last fall, literally overnight he went from smelling like a goat to stinking like a buck.  When bucks go into rut they stink.  Female goats apparently find the odor very romantic but not humans.  Thankfully Midnight only stunk for a month but I am told it gets worse as they age.  But like all boys do, Midnight suddenly became very interested in the girls and started harassing them more and more.  He also started treating me like I was part of his harem.  All my attempts to make him behave were futile.  As the weeks passed by his behavior just grew worse.  Finally in January I removed him from the goat enclosure and put him in the vegetable garden by himself.  That helped a little bit for a short time, but did not totally solve our problem. 
 
 
   
Our plans were to fence off another area and build a shelter that later could be converted into a chicken coop.  As time passed by though it became clear to us that the only ideal solution was to find Midnight a new home.  He was not happy being kept by himself, even though only a fence separated him from the rest of the herd.  Feeding him was becoming a very unpleasant and even dangerous chore.  On top of that we are in a drought and it is winter, so I have been forced to purchase alfalfa for the goats.  At $16 a square bale, feeding Midnight was getting very expensive.  There was also the issue of his purpose.  Midnight had already bred both of our does so it was very doubtful we would use him as a breeding buck next year, let along ever again.  So the decision was made to sell him.  I put ads in various locations and put the word out.  But after weeks passed without any response, we decided we would have no option but to take him to auction.  Rick spent a day building a goat tote for transporting him and last week we hauled him off to the auction.  We both prayed a friend at church was correct, that a rancher would purchase him and let him out in a field with a bunch of does to play with.  I know that would be the perfect environment for Midnight to spend out his days.  He will be one year old in April so he has many breeding years left.  I got $92 for Midnight.
   

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