Maybelle & Her Kids

So I thought you might like an update on our two baby goats & their milk stealing mama.

The kids are doing great. After a day of helping them nurse every couple hours, Maybelle's motherly instincts kicked in and she let them nurse without us holding her still. They quickly gained their strength enough to make their way over to her and nurse anytime they wanted. Yay!

Now to just keep Maybelle from stealing their milk.  

After scrapping our first attempt to keep Maybelle from nursing off of herself (crazy goat!), 

we finally tried this contraption.

I'm still not sure it's working. I actually haven't seen her try to drink her milk since she's had it on, 

which seems like a good sign to me.

But the kids say they've seen her do it and it doesn't work. 

So, we'll just have to watch the kids (speaking of the goats now...lots of kids around here :-)
to make sure they are getting enough and doing well.

So far, so good!

I wish you could have seen Abel when he first met the little goats...

He was happier than a tornado in a trailer park (practicing my redneck sayings...they crack me up! I'll still never forget when I asked the man down the road how he was doing and he said, "Fine as frog hair." I'm definitely going to be using that one).  Anyway, back to Abel...

We had to keep close tabs on him since he would grab them, pick them up and then throw them down in excitement. 

Last year Maybelle had her first kid and we named him Mayson (he was born in May like his mama). 

This is Mayson the other day...taking a comfy little snooze.

 Not sure what to name Maybelle's new little boy & girl.  Uh...Marchbelle & Marchson?  Just kidding.

Need suggestions!

Oh, and I was obviously off in my estimation that we'd be having another goat birth right away.  After the kids and I spent what felt like an entire day watching Freedom, expecting her to kid any minute (and playing with the little goats), I decided it was time to get back to normal life...she obviously isn't in any hurry.

We'll keep ya posted...

Goat Surprise

When the winter months drag on, with it's cold rainy days, it's nice when God throws in an early springtime surprise...a warm sunny day, and two little goats.

Yesterday, as we were outside enjoying the Sunday afternoon weather and playing some baseball with the kids in the backyard, Steven happened to notice something looked different about Maybelle.  He told me I should go check it out, that she looked like she may have given birth.

We had been wondering if she was pregnant, since we thought she was "accidentally" bred by one of the male goats that was born last year.  Just a head's up...better to castrate right away. Yeah, I'm sure that's just what you thought I was going to say. :-)  Well, goats are funny cause it's often hard to tell if they're pregnant or just fat.  They tend to have round bellies...and in this cold weather their hair gets really fluffy and they look even bigger. 

So, it was a surprise, but not completely. This was the first of the four goat births we've had on our little farm that I've missed. When I walked into the goat barn the two little goats were huddled in separate corners, cold and dirty. We just couldn't leave them like that.

So...in they came.  

After a nice warm bath and some comfy time by the heater,

 they were dry and clean and ready to go back to their mama.  

So back to the little barn they went...

Unfortunately, their mama doesn't get the Goat Mama of the Year Award.

 In fact, she's a little bit of a goat "freak."

  She nurses off of herself.  Yep, she bends her head all the way back and drinks her own milk.  

And she won't stand still to let her babies nurse.  So that means some extra work for us... 

every couple hours we go out and help the babies nurse.  

And we are working on a contraption to keep Maybelle from stealing their milk!

Yeah, this attempt didn't last long. She had it off in no time.

 I think it's time to break down and buy a dog cone.

And if Maybelle was pregnant then Freedom probably is too. 

 In fact,by the way things look, my guess is we'll have another goat birth adventure tomorrow.

Liberty Belle & Rob Roy

I just realized that I never posted to say that our goats arrived!  That was 2 1/2 weeks ago.  I guess I've been a little busy :)  I'm milking morning and evening and have been hanging all our clothes on the line for about a month while our dryer was out of order.  I now have a working dryer (as of a couple days ago) and am sitting down at the computer for the first time in a loooong time!  But since I still have to make this short, I will just say I'm really enjoying our little farm.  I love milking our goat.  Jake and Zack are taking turns coming with me in the morning and learning (hopefully) how to care for them and even milk one day.  Steven and I have made the evening milking our new daily "date night".  We head out with our head-lights on and get some good laughs.  Here is a video of my first milking the night Liberty Belle arrived.  It was so funny! I'm milking in the chicken coop and the chickens had their feathers ruffled with the new guest in the house...

We also got a little boy goat as a companion for Liberty.  His name is Rob Roy.  He's such a sweetie.  And for those of you who know about goats, don't worry, he's wethered (castrated) so he won't be stinking up the place.

Rob Roy

Liberty Belle

Our first taste of the milk! Straight from the goat.  It was delicious.

Lazin' around...

Isn't he the cutest?

 For more pictures of our goats, check out our boys' blog - www.menaboysadventures.blogspot.com (in sidebar links).

Well, that's it for now. Until next time...

Our First Goat!!!

I'm so excited, I just had to stop and write this blog to let you know that we are getting our first goat!

As many of you know, I've always wanted to live out in the country and have some land, animals, etc. and live a more back-to-the-basics lifestyle.  It's been 2 years now since we moved from the busy city of Ontario, CA to slow-paced southern country in Terry, MS.  We love our little 3 1/2 acres. We have wide open space next to us on one side and lots of trees on the other, and wonderful neighbors back behind us a little ways.  Last November we got a flock of chickens from a friend who was moving and needed to get rid of her beautiful, diverse flock (15 of them).  We've really enjoyed getting eggs in the morning and watching all their antics.  We've had our hand at gardening the last 2 years and this year we even have a pumpkin patch growing!! Right now the pumpkins are still tiny, so I'll have to post some pics when they get bigger. I've always wanted a pumpkin patch!!

I've been wanting to get goats ever since we moved out here, but it just hasn't been the right time.  But now we have friends who are giving us a wonderful little milk goat for free! They got it as a buy-1-get-one-free deal when they got a new little doe recently.  So, they thought of us and are giving it to us! This was a real answer to prayer for me.  I've been praying that God would allow me to get a goat, and recently had to pass up a great opportunity because we didn't have the money to invest in it right now.  When I told the lady who was selling them that it wasn't going to work out, she said, "Just wait and see what God has planned!!! Remember, his ways are always best!"  Boy was she right!  God's desire was to GIVE me a goat as a special gift.  He just loves doing things like that for me! He loves to convince me over and over again of His steadfast love for me...and His friendship!  This morning I read Ps. 24 and these verses really spoke to me, "All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies." (vs. 10) and "The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him.." (vs. 14).  My Lord is so sweet to me!

Ok, back to the goat! She is a purebred Alpine, first freshener yearling, registered with a good pedigree.  Now, for all you non-goat people out there (I'm just figuring this all out for myself!) that means she was born last year and had her first babies this spring and is now giving milk. She is registered which means both her parents were registered purebred Alpines (this is good if you want to show them in 4-H or sell her babies).  So, it's a good goat!  Our friends are keeping her at their place for us until we get the little shelter built.  So, we went over there last night for "goat training 101."  They even had goat cheese for us to eat, homemade goat ice cream and goat milk and cookies!  Oh, and lots of varieties of goat milk soap!

Here she is... 

On the milk stand

Here I am trying to figure out how to trim her hair! She was a mess and needed a good haircut. I said, "I guess God was preparing me for this with all the boys heads I buzz every year!"

My first attempt at milking her.  It was fun!!

Jake's turn.  They were fighting over who got to go next!  I think I'm going to have some good helpers (although everything is exciting the first time around...just wait till it's every morning and evening!)

Zack's turn.  They learned really fast!

Yep, Daddy wanted a turn too.  His hands are so big it was a little hard but he figured it out.

We are still deciding on a name.  Her registered name is Bell, but we have a cat named Annabelle, so that may get a little confusing, especially because Hailey now calls all cats "Bell."  We are thinking about adding a name to Bell, like Liberty Bell...and call her Liberty.  What do you think?  Let's hear your vote.  And give us some of your name ideas and we'll have a family vote and let you know!