notes from day three

I thought the little grey baby might benefit from a goat coat, especially during yesterday's rainy, raw weather.

Here's a general thought:

no matter how much a person learns from books,

raising animals involves a lot of guesswork and gut feelings...

will such-and-such help? will it hinder?

You rarely get instant confirmation when you make

these judgement calls, but this time I had to laugh:

literally within seconds of donning her polarfleece coat,

the baby simply dropped over sideways

- on her sister - 

and was sound asleep.

Soooo warm!

 ~~~

Tsuga has phenomenal mothering skills.

She's not a fretful helicopter mum,

but she is aware of her kids

and communicates with them frequently.

In the barn, she even sweeps her feet along the ground

instead of picking them up and plunking them down;

a technique I recognize because I use it myself

when there are new babies underfoot.

~~~

Today while there was a little more sunlight,

I tried to get some pictures of the black kid.

She's pretty darned cute.

Don't you agree?

 ~~~

I had to spend a lot of time mending fences today,

but went and sat in the barn a couple of times for a break.

Tsuga is being very nice about sharing her kids with me,

but mostly she needs quiet time alone with them.

She doesn't want the other goats around yet, either.

This is all fine.

But it had meant a lot of rearranging of goats,

and hurried mending of winter-damaged fences.

There was a lot of excitement today when Vinca figured out

that she could slip through a tiny gap

into the pen with the big wethers and the matriarch doe.

Good gracious.

And then the boys found that tiny opening and made it BIG.

Instant Priority Task.

I did such an ugly job of temporarily patching the gap,

it is truly embarrassing.

It was, oh my gosh - you know what it was?

A stop-gap measure.

I just hope very much that when I go out in the morning,

all the goats will be where I left them tonight.

Especially Vinca!

~~~

Day Three:

a good day in the barn.

~~~~~