Introducing Asiago, Manchego and Parmigiano, the first triplets ever born at Juniper Moon Farm. They are two boys and a girl, respectively. Although Bertie, their mama, is black, these three take after Jack, their daddy. All three are healthy, although tiny! More pics soon.
The new doelings born this morning are super cute and very vigorous. A few people asked in the comments of my last post why we were feeding them with bottles rather than having them nurse from their mama. Very observant of you to notice! While we generally avoid bottle babies at all cost, dairy goat kids are born to be bottle babies. By bottle feeding the babies, we are able to milk the mamas to make cheese and raise baby goats that will be far more valuable to the farm later in their lives.
Caroline and Zac are going to be training our new baby goats to be hiking companions! We’ve been reading Practical Goatpacking for the past few months in anticipation of kidding season. Basically, training goats to pack involves getting them to imprint on humans from the moment they are born. Blanca and Fresca will spend their first 48 hours in the house, listening to our voices and getting cuddled and petted regularly.
So far, it’s a lot of fun and a lot of work!
In between cuddle times, the peanuts are sleeping in a hay-filled box in what ever room we are in at the time.
I was nervous that Sam might be troubled by us taking her babies away from her, but I should have known better since this is her second kidding. The dairy farm we purchased Sam and Bertie from had bred them both before and milked them while bottle feeding their kids, so Sam had zero interest in nursing her babies. She looked at them like they were from outer space! When we lead her out to graze, she fussed for about 2 minutes and then happily munched clover for the rest of the day without a second thought.
In addition to food, Blanca and Fresca seem to thrive on affection which is a win-win as far as we are concerned.
Miss Sam gave birth to twin doelings this afternoon. Warning: if you don’t like photos of goats being born, this post is not for you.
Both girls are big and healthy. Their names are Queso Blanca and Queso Fresca. More pics soon.
We are now officially in the lambing and kidding window, which means that there are at least three frustrated people at the farm at all times. This happens every year, so I expected it’s arrival and I know that it will end, but it’s still my least favorite part of lambing.
We only bred 13 (I think) sheep this year, and I think there is a strong possibility that one of the colored yearlings didn’t get caught, as they say. We know that she was bred by Aldo, the ram we rented, but she may not have actually gotten pregnant. I hope I’m wrong, but she doesn’t look bred to me and she has none of the udder development we expect to see in a sheep this far along. So we are waiting for 12 sheep to lamb, and maybe one will surprise me.
Of course we also bred two of our dairy goats, Sam and Bertie, and they both look like they could go at any time. And the geese are sitting on 9 or 10 eggs that should be getting close to hatching.
So we wait. And while we wait, we find other things to do that have needed doing for a while. Fixing fences. Cleaning out stalls. Clearing away the cobwebs of winter.(I mean that one both literally and figuratively- you would BELIVE the cobwebs in out run in shed! Like something from a horror movie.)
Today we have dedicated to the kitchen gardens. Zac is outside tilling as I write this and Caroline is tending her precious seedlings, preparing them for the journey from the greenhouse to the garden beds. We have some lovely guests right now and my sister and Aunt Ann will be arriving in a couple of hours for a few days at the farm, and we plan to put them all to work.
So it’s not that we have nothing to do while we wait for lambs. Far from it. But the waiting itself gets exhausting very quickly.
The bright spot in all of this, of course, is that we have little Camembert to entertain us while we wait. He’s a bit of a cheat, since we bought him, but he is a delicious cheat.
My friends Jen and Tessa were here earlier in the week and Jen took loads of cute pics of the peanut. Here are a couple of my favorites.
We are also eagerly awaiting our T-1 line’s arrival. All of the equipment has been installed and now they just need to turn on the tap, as it were. We were promised it would be operational by April 1st, but I don’t think that’s likely at this point. I will let you know when it’s in, so that you can turn on the lambcams and wait with us.
Guess what we’ve been doing all day?
We are still anxiously awaiting the beginning of kidding and lambing here at the farm, but we do have a couple of new faces to introduce you to. Caroline and I purchased another dairy goat yesterday and when we saw her buckling kid, we knew he had to come home with us too.
This is Camembert. He and his mama are La Mancha dairy goats.
La Manchas are easily recognizable by their tiny, almost human-like ears.
Cam’s mama is named Fib and she is a lovely, sweet doe. We just adore her already.
Our current plan is to keep Cam intact and use him to breed the other dairy goats next season. In the meantime, he is about the snuggliest thing in the world! His feet have hardly touched the ground since he arrived at the farm.
More pics this afternoon!
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Tagged kidding
If my math is right (and that’s a mighty big if) Miss Sam should be the first of our bred sheep and goats to give birth. She’s due any moment now, but the kid (or kids) hasn’t dropped yet, so I’d say we’re a few days away. Actually, I expect her to be born at noon on Saturday when Zac (who will be experiencing kidding and lambing for the first time this year) is home alone (Caroline will be at Shearing School and I’ll be in New Jersey for a shop visit).
The good news is that Sam is reported to be an easy kidder and that Zac will only be home alone for about 24 hours. The bad news? Murphy’s Law.
So, just in a nick of time, I present to you this year’s naming conventions. As a reminder, these names were nominated and voted on by you, so no bellyaching, please!
The goat kids will be named for…Cheeses! I am so excited about this one. Well done!
The lambs will be names for…Adventurers! Another great pick. Seriously, y’all could go pro.
Now we play the waiting game…
While we’re waiting, we’ve extended the deadline for entering our 2012 Flock Giveaway, so get those videos in!