This morning as I went about my chores I let Pocohontas out of the kidding stall noting that her udder looked bigger than last year and bigger than yesterday. Considering she was a week overdue I felt that was good news. I fed her, noted her ligaments were pretty loose and that udder pretty tight so I stuck her back in the kidding stall making a mental note to check on her after finishing the other chores. Since I spent Saturday tired after checking on her all night Friday-Saturday, I wasn’t getting excited. Maybe just another false alarm. So I went about my chores. An hour later as I passed by the stall I heard little goat kid squeaks in there and was surprised to find two new babies!
Poco had two bucklings and they are strong and both up and nursing shortly after birth. Amanda and I named them Chestnut (the red one) and Black Walnut (black one).
I have to say Poco is a keeper mom, she has easy deliveries and takes good care of her babies. Now back to that giant pile of laundry waiting for me from this weekend…
Monthly Archives: March 2014
Tri again
After sciatic nerve problems and a concussion that took 11 months to resolve, I was finally able to resume training. On Thursday of last week, I competed in an indoor triathlon at the gym on base in Newport. The transitions between events didn’t count towards the totals, only the events themselves. Here is how I fared:
8:40 for 450m swim
22:33 for 10 miles on a spin bike
13:04 for 2 miles on an indoor track that is 12 laps to the mile
Overall, I was 9th out of 53 participants and, while my swim needs work, it was great to be able to Tri again!
Bringing home the bacon
Last weekend, we picked uo 3 young shoats (that’s farm speak for pigs). They will be raised until June and then will be participating in the freezer restocking program.
The last pigs we raised were on organic, GMO free, soy free feed. While the meat was good and we believe in the principles of organic feed, the cost is just too high. It was a hard choice, but we have decided to keep our farm on commercial feed due to the significant cost difference. Regardless of the feed decision, we still firmly believe the locally raised meat is safer and healthier because there are NO antibiotics given to the animals.
Amanda
Amanda loves to ride. At three years old Huey is the only pony I will let her ride “by herself”. Sometimes he leads the way, sometimes she tells him what to
do. Either way, the relationship is working out. Huey seems content to wander around the ring at a walk or trot without breaking much of a sweat.
More goat babies…
Lamancha babies
Last night, Anna went to bed as I stayed up working on some things (ok, I was on Facebook). Around 11, I was ready for bed, but first went to the barn to check on West View Swan’s Saffron, one of our Lamancha does, who was in the kidding stall for the night since she was already 2 days overdue. I discovered she was in labor.
I headed back in and woke Anna to tell her I was getting more warm clothes and heading back out to the barn since Saffron was in labor. She thought I should get a couple of hours of rest first and then go out around 1. I didn’t think so. As she drifted off to sleep, I headed back to the barn. When I arrived, the first kid was already on the ground. She was a long legged doeling that looks a lot like her sire, Blue-Ridge Apache and weighed in at 6.6lbs. Her brother followed not too long after and weighed in at 6.9lbs, and has the look of his mother. Both started with wobbly legs, but by this afternoon, they were getting around a little better, so we took them out for some quick photos.
Introducing Sawyer Farm’s Sassafras (dark colored doe) and Sawyer Farm’s Birch (light colored buck).
Turbo, our Sheltie, was watching over the photo shoot. After we finished, he went back in the barn and hopped up on a bale of hay to take a break.