somewhat wordy wednesday

I'm sorry about the recent lack of updates - cashmere harvesting is well underway, and it's been a challenge just keeping up with daily chores. I've been trying to write ever since I posted that one photograph of Azalea with her newborn girl, but more than once in the past week I have actually fallen asleep while uploading photographs. Jolting awake because you start to fall over in your seat is a very unpleasant sensation, and I don't recommend it!

Anyway...

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Azalea and her little girl,

on the baby's first outing in the barn paddock at 3 days old:

And here is another picture of them, taken this morning:

I wonder what has captured their attention?

Could it be...

 ...another kid?

Vinca's boy was born Monday evening.

Today, both mamas brought their babies out of the barn and into the bright sunshine.

It was still below freezing, but the day gradually warmed up to around 40F.

The girl isn't wearing her jacket because she runs around like crazy outside.

She still wears it at night, though - it's gotten down as low at 18F this week. 

In case you are wondering about names, so am I!

As I've mentioned before, all the goats born here have been named for something that was either blooming or leafing out when they were born.

You can imagine the difficulty I'm having in coming up with suitable names for these two, with the ground still mostly frozen.

Will I have to change my naming system?

I'd rather not.

Feel free to make suggestions.

I'm thinking of calling my BFF (Best Forester Friend) and asking if he's seen something I've missed. Even bud-break would qualify at this point!

Meanwhile, right on schedule at 10 days old,

Azalea's daughter tackled Goat Mountain for the first time:

And at not even 2 days old, Vinca's boy was doing extremely well learning to manage those long legs while climbing around the many obstacles in the paddock:

When Vinca was calling him this evening, I pointed out that

her baby had already put himself to bed in the barn.

He must have had the most exciting day of his life :)

~~~~~

one more saturday night

Staying up til 330AM on a Saturday night just isn't what it used to be, you know?

Instead of:

Don't worry 'bout tomorrow,

lord, you'll know it when it comes:

when the rockin-rollin music

meets the rising shining sun*

 I feel like I've been drug through a knothole backwards.

But the rewards can be pretty substantial:

Azalea's baby boy, 4.5 hours old...

and 7 hours old.

Azalea had a very uncomfortable day yesterday, and since there are no barncams, I was lucky she didn't mind me camping out in the barn to keep an eye on her - for what turned out to be 13 hours. But once the baby was on the ground it was clear she needed some quiet, private time. So apart from taking a quick peek every few hours and making sure she has plenty of fresh water and a buffet of tasty food items, I'll be staying out of the barn today.

I expect she'll be back to her very sweet and laid-back self once she gets used to her new mamagoat status.

Flashback to baby Azalea, with her own mama, Lily of the Valley:

And if you're in the mood for a little goat-drama, here's the story of her own birth day.

~~~

*from One More Saturday Night

words and music by Bobby Weir

Grateful Dead

(so many memories)

~~~~~

barn check

Just stepping out to the barn for a moment, to see how everyone is doing.

Would you care to join me?

Here are the charming Azalea and her mum, Lily of the Valley. Azalea seems to have forgiven me for trimming her hooves this morning. I want to be sure they are flat and smooth well before the 26th. I try to make sure the does' hooves aren't sharp-edged or jagged when they are due to kid. A mamagoat will often paw at a newborn kid with a degree of enthusiasm that will put the heart across you.

In the other side of the barn, we find Vinca having a nice snooze.

That little dark shape off Vinca's starboard hoof is Iris. 

See?

And then we turn around to see this:

Rocket, in the old chair kept handy for visitors.

Goatherd hand for scale.

 Twelve days old.

Little Big Goat.

~~~~~

day six

  

~~~~~

barn visit

I still haven't got really good photographs of the kids, I'm afraid...just hundreds of blurry ones! But I'm going to post a few anyway, because Time Goes Fast.

The above picture was taken early yesterday morning. Less than 24 hours old and both kids were already leaping straight up into the air their full height, and also scrambling up the Big Kid Rock by the barn.

In fact, the little girl toddled up to the base of Goat Mountain and cast an appraising eye when she was less than one hour old:

Enough mountaineering immediately after birth!
Back to Mama for more washing and drying.

Likewise, when he was only a few minutes old, her brother managed to wiggle half his body through a 6-inch fence opening before I could reach over and extricate him. His mama did something very similar when she was exactly the same "age" - 

I had to laugh!

If you've been following my gang o' goats for a while, you may know that every goat born here is named after something that was blooming or leafing out at the time. So...allow me to introduce:

Rocket

and 

Iris

Rocket, the boy, was the firstborn.

And that unusual white marking helped me tell the two kids apart right from the start. He also has one white foot, one white toe, and a little light spot beneath his mouth.

 Iris, the girl, is a tiny bit smaller than Rocket, and solid black except for a few white hairs right in the center of her forehead.

Interesting!

Mama is solid black and the buck is solid white.

The replacement barncams are a total bust, to my great frustration. They don't work At All in the barns and I'm missing a lot of interesting observation and fun. So I've been spending some time just visiting the big barn, which is where Vinca moved her babies the night they were born.

After chores and gardening were done today, I brought my sketching chair to the barn for my daily markmaking while enjoying the sights and sounds of the new family group.

I plucked one troubled little stalk of campion from the path to the barn and did a few pen sketches.

Vinca came over and asked if there happened to be any peanuts (there were) and then hopped up onto the bench. She hopped effortlessly - you'd never know to look at her that she was heavily pregnant two days ago.

Well, until you notice her udder. Just like her own Mama, LeShodu, Vinca has an udder that I would be pleased with on a dairy goat.

I am so happy with the way she's attentive and caring to her kids while being laid-back and unstressed about it. In this picture, for example, Vinca is having a little think and maybe a little snooze, but she's got both the kids tucked under the bench.

Vinca is the Cool Mom.

~~~~~

the twelve-legged goat

Just a quick post to show you the first-ever photograph of a twelve-legged goat. I know, it's a bit murky and it's hard to see all the legs, but there are definitely twelve. This is an eye-witness account, and you heard it here first.

Yes, Vinca had her babies this morning! A boy at about 1030 and a girl about 9 minutes later. All are doing well, and Vinca - a first-time mama at the age of 4 - is being just wonderful. A natural.

They are having lots of quiet, private bonding time today, but you may expect one or two pictures of cashmere kids in the near future.

~~~
P.S.

Afternoon update:
I got a reasonably clear snap of the babies.
You may have to click to embiggen; lots of black plush there.
I

Boy on left, girl on right.
Mama out of frame, but only about four inches away.

~~~~~

four weeks

You know how I mentioned yesterday that I am having trouble

getting decent snaps of Tansy and Fern?

Here's why:

~~~~~

presto chango

Presto...

chango!

I had to laugh when the kids struck the same pose

in the same spot, seconds apart!

Can you see the size difference in the two?

The silver girl has gotten heavier and bigger.

The black girl, by comparison, is still a peanut!

But only by comparison.

She is growing, fit, and active, and getting plenty to eat.

They are both very active.

One day I shot 327 images, trying (and failing) to get

a decent picture of each kid so I could do a special

"introducing" post to tell you their names.

(Which are NOT "Presto" and "Chango."

Nor are they "Bloodroot" and "Lungwort,"

but thanks, Tanya. HAH!)

Their names are:

 

TANSY

and

FERN

Tansy knew her name the first time I used it.

Fern is taking a bit longer,

or else she has just been too busy to respond.

In the picture above, she is checking

to be sure she has tracked dirt into both compartments

of the mineral feeder.

Because any job worth doing is worth doing well.

~~~

And now, before the looming rain begins to fall,

I'm going to take this girl for a run in the woods.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

~~~~~

meeting the matriarch

Today I moved all the goats out of the South Paddock,

so Tsuga could bring her babies down

and introduce them to the bigger goats, 

through the safety of a fence.

Also, so Tsuga could really run around and kick up her heels.

Which she did.

The babies discovered a rock that,

compared to their rock by the barn, is a massif.

It is a continent.

They were ready for the challenge!

Scrambling up, and leaping off.

Over and over and over.

There was a lot of exploring.

Goats explore mostly with their mouths.

Here is Tsuga,

starting her daughter off on what could be

a lifetime of tree destruction.

Nice job, Tsuga!

(If I want to keep particular trees alive here,

it is up to me to keep the goats well away from them.)

I was keeping as eye on interactions through the fence,

to make sure the big goats wouldn't get too rough.

(A goat smashing its head against a fence,

especially when you are a goat on the other side of that fence,

can be a very scary thing.)

Most of all, I was looking forward to seeing LeShodu,

the Matriarch,

meet her greatgrandkids.

I perched in one doorway of the little raised barn,

so I'd have a bird's-eye view.

(A low-flying bird, but still.)

Betula thought this was a great idea.

He immediately trotted up the ramp and 

joined me at the adjacent door.

That lasted about two minutes.

Then he moved over to share my doorway instead.

Even some of the hens had front-row seats!

Right on cue:

LeShodu walked out from her shady spot under the barn.

Tsuga saw her from across the South Paddock

and ran straight over with her kids.

They all stood at the fence, 

very smart and lovely,

looking through at LeShodu

who was only a few feet away.

Here's what LeShodu did:

She ignored them.

She very deliberately Did Not See Them.

She turned broadside to the fence.

She yawned dramatically.

She looked away from Tsuga and the kids, Very Hard.

Then she walked right back into the shade under the barn.

(Curtain.)

I said, "Betula, did you see that?"

And Betula said quietly -

because he was only a centimeter from my ear -

"My mother has always been...complicated."

Oh, Shodu.

Well, it could have been worse.

The babies didn't seem to feel the snub, by the way...

They scampered off and got busy deciding

how to take down this red maple.

I have no doubt of their eventual success.

~~~~~