Aberdeen

Gonzo

Snow and the lambs

I have a love hate relationship with our colored Angora goat, Roquefort. Actually, I never hate him. I guess I have a love/are-you-freaking-kidding-me? relationship with him. Roquefort was a bottle baby and he is by turns affectionate, hilarious, infuriating, pesky and sweet. He is ALWAYS up to something. Like today, when he decided to see what it’s like inside the chicken coop.

Mind you, the chicken coop two feet OFF THE GROUND. I don’t even know how he managed to get in there.

Once he was was up there, he decided he might as well sample the juniper.

I swear he’s laughing at me in this shot.

Next, Roquefort decided to check out the front porch.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a goat Peeping Tom but it’s disturbing.

He also got into an altercation with the concrete ornamental rooster on the front steps, trying to knock him over. Due to the fact that the rooster is made of concrete and weighs approximately 10,000,000 pounds, the rooster won.

Roquefort is a cautionary tale about bottle babies. Since bottle babies aren’t scared of people, they can grow up to be real handfuls. They are always the first to defeat a fence or break into the barn and tear open sacks of grain. But they are also our best ambassadors. Visitors to the farm love Roquefort because he’s friendly and curious and funny. And I love him too. I just wish he was only half as curious and funny.

It is stupidly, insanely, brutally hot in Central Virginia. Yesterday the high was 102. Today is expected to get up to 103 and tomorrow will also top 100.

The sheep are suffering mightily.

The goats on marginally less so.

The flock spends most of the day seeking shade and drinking water. We’re going through 150 gallons or so a day and we have to top off the tanks every hour or so with fresh, cool water to keep them drinking it. We’re adding electrolytes and apple cider vinegar as well.

Everyone has a very spot that they return to each day. Colorado and Buster share one of the run-in sheds.

Cosmo takes up a whole shed by himself.

Miss Linda and the rest of the goats stay in the back pasture where the shade of the trees and the slight breeze keep them cool.

Hannah

Jasmine

Waldorf and Statler

Ernie is the one I’m most concerned about. He’s just so big. He’s panting like crazy, but he’s hanging in there.

Even the chickens are suffering. They spend their afternoons in the landscaping, only coming out when I call them to come over for cool treats like watermelon and peaches.

The forecast is calling for cooler temps (92!) starting Monday. Till then we’ll just keep encouraging everyone to hydrate and keep the barn fans running.

The heat index at Juniper Moon Farm was 110 degrees today.

Lots of this going on today.

The sheep are so miserable. You’d think they’d spread out to stay cool but they don’t overmuch.

It’s sweet how the mamas still let their babies snuggle right up to them even though it must be like being plastered against a radiator.

Linda, on the other hand, loves this heat. Her arthritis doesn’t seem to effect her as much and she’s getting around much better.

All the goats are happy enough. Dimples has grown like a weed since the Spring Shearing.

The chickens spend most of the day trying to stay cool under the landscaping.

Ethel and her chicks, scratching for food. I have to say, having a mama hen to raise the new chicks is so much easier than ordering day-olds and doing it ourselves. Natural clearly knows what she’s doing.

We had a brief but lovely thunderstorm this afternoon that cooled things down a lot. Cini was thrilled.

I’m sure the gardens were happy too. It has been so dry out there! But still, we have at least a dozen varieties of lilies in bloom and my Magnolia tree has one great big beautiful bud. Can’t wait to watch it open.

Nothing makes me happier than turning my flock out onto fresh pasture.

Feenat was sheared for the first time last week.

She was much bigger under all that wool than we thought she would be.

She’s still  super sassy.

I love seeing my dogs happy.

Daisy was grazing today like she was getting paid for it.

Even Miss Linda seemed happy to get to the green stuff.

Meanwhile, in the small barnyard paddock, Statler and Waldorf went outdoors for the first time.

This is Statler. He is easily recognizable by his wonky ears.

Waldorf is pretty cute too.

Gonzo and Camilla seem so huge compared to the new kids but they’re only a couple of weeks old.

Statler and Waldorf investigate a piece of firewood in the barnyard.

Hannah and her babies.

Reader and lambcam watcher Sandra asks, “Why is there a sheep in the kidding area?”

Daisy is my only Babydoll Southdown ewe and she is what they call an “easy keeper.” She can get fat even when she’s only eating hay. Even though she’s bred, I pastured her with the boys and lambs this winter because they were on an all hay diet and I didn’t want Daisy getting even fatter by feasting on grain all winter. Now that she’s getting close to lambing, I want to move Daisy in with the ewes and start her on some grain to give her the extra nutrition she needs for her last month of pregnancy, but putting her in with the ewes and their ample portions of grain would be too big a transition and would make her sick.

Daisy is in the kidding area so that I can control the amount of grain she gets for a week or so, and slowly ramp her up to get as much as the other girls. Hannah is furious that Daisy has invaded her space by Nanny McPhee and Mrs. Doubtfire don’t seem to care.

In other farm news, we had to giant round bales of hay delivered this morning by our friends the Hopkins.

We put one round bale in with the non-breeders and one in with the ewes.

Then, while everyone was busy eating, we fenced them into small paddocks with moveable fencing.

Keeping the flocks confined to small areas now will allow the new pasture to come in and establish roots before the greedy sheep and goats are turned out on it. We practiced rotational grazing in New York and on Martha’s Vineyard but we never gotten started so early before. Green grass in March is like a dream.

The main advantage round bales is that they are about 1/2 the price of square bales. (Each round bale equals 20 to 25 squares.) There is also a small time savings in that we won’t have to haul hay out to the flock twice a day. The disadvantages are that they are difficult to move and subject to the weather. We put the ewe’s bale in the large run-in attached the barn so it would stay dry, but that wasn’t an option for the non-breeders. They will still eat the hay after it’s been rained on, but it isn’t as appealing and loses nutritional value.

Hopefully we will be able to turn the flocks out on to pasture in two or three weeks. It’s going to be 70 degrees today and the green grass is coming on fast. Rain tomorrow and through Saturday, but we need it, and at least it’s going to stay warm.

Still no babies in the kidding pen. Stay tuned.

I don’t care what the calendar says. Today is the first day of Spring on Juniper Moon Farm! It’s going to be 66 degrees today and stay in the 60s for the next five days. I couldn’t be happier if it was raining money.

The nanny goats are settled into their stall in the barn awaiting the arrival of kids. If you’ve been watching the lambcam and wondering who the goat with so much to say is, it’s Hannah. I adore Hannah, but I might be the only one who does. She and her twin Martin were my first goats and my first bottle babies. Hannah is a spoiled brat and very entitled. She can’t believe she is being forced to share a stall with Mrs. Doubtfire and Nanny McPhee and she lets me know it every time I come in the barn.

[Thankfully, FoF Nancy figured out what was causing the echo on the lambcam; refresh your browser and the echo should disappear!]

The lambcam is in the white box mounted on the wall pointed down at the goats.

Miss Linda, Dimples and Jasmine were evicted from the kidding stall to make room for the nannies. It was time for them to get outside, but I do worry about Linda. She isn’t very competitive at the trough and the ewes tend to push her around a bit. I’m keeping a close eye on her to make sure she’s getting enough to eat and I’ll move her back in if she starts to lose weight. I’m also giving her a very strong pain reliever every morning to help with her arthritis.

The three of them seem happy to be outside with the rest of the flock, although they are still very much a family unit. When one of them wanders away from the others, they call to one another the way a mama calls her babies. Remember, Jasmine and Dimples aren’t Linda’s babies; she just adopted them when they were all thrown in together.

Do you see what I see in this picture? Yup. That’s green grass coming up in my pasture! The flock has been grazing for a few days, but I assumed they were just picking at the brown, dead stuff from last year. That grass is as good as money to me, cause it means I will be able to cut way back on hay very soon. This is much earlier than we ever saw green grass in the Northeast; my love for Virginia increases every day. I might be able to get away with only buying one more big load of hay this season.

It was a lovely morning with the ewes. I’ll spend some time with the non-breeders [whethers, buck, and lambs] this afternoon and take some more pics. In the meantime, I have to get back to dyeing our Fall 09 Yarn CSA Shares.

Erin came over today to help Paige and I work the flock. It’s been about six weeks since we last wormed everyone and we also needed to vaccinate for CD&T and delouse the goats. Since we’re only a few days away from the nannies kidding and about a month from lambing, it was a good time to check the ladies to see how their pregnancies were progressing.

The nannies are so wide! Judging from the size of their udders, I’m betting that Hannah will kid first, followed by Mrs. Doubfire and, finally, Nanny McPhee.

When they aren’t bred, the udders on ewes and nanny goats almost disappears, becoming completely flat, and their teats shrink down as well. Although she’s laying on her side, you can see that this nanny definitely has milk coming in.

The end of each teat is plugged with a waxy substance that prevent bacteria and gunk from getting into the udder. When the kid is born, we will make sure that the plug is stripped out so that the babies can nurse.

The ewes are all showing signs of bagging up as well. They aren’t nearly as far along as the nannies, and with good reason; they shouldn’t start lambing until April 15th.

All the ewes have loads of glorious fleece! On March 19th, Emily, our A-MAZ-ING shearer, is coming on March 19th to begin the shearing process. We have way too many animals to shear in one day without rushing and risking excess nicks and cuts. We’ll shear about half the flock in March the rest at our Shearing Day Celebration on April 24th.

The bad news from today is that there is a possibility that Miss Linda might be bred. We thought we had kept her well segregated from the buck but it looks like she may have gotten caught anyway. Of course, there is a chance that she’s experiencing false pregnancy- Linda lives to have babies, and she has produced a set of twins every year of her life since she was a year old. (We think she’s around 15-years-old.) I am hoping very hard that she isn’t bred, because Linda is just too old to feed one baby, let alone two.  If she is pregnant, we will bottle feed her kids from day one but leave them in with Linda to mother. But keep your fingers crossed that she’s not, please.

Alabama

Feenat

Daisy

Delaware

Alabama again.

Feenat extreme close-up

Big Ernie

Delaware extreme close-up

Miss Hannah is as big as a house and she is bagging up! That means babies sooner than later.

Mrs. Doubtfire has a slightly smaller udder than Hannah.

And Nanny McPhee is just starting to show signs of milk.

Babies soon, y’all!

I have been so busy dyeing yarn for the retail shop that I haven’t had any time to take new pics of the flock this week, so I’m posting some of my favorites from the last year or two. Some of these you’ve seen before but some are new to the blog. Enjoy!