Molly is off for a weekend fling

Yesterday, after coordinating with Frank and Caroline, I loaded Molly up into the largest old dog crate in the bed of the pickup and took her up for a weekend fling with Harry Houdini, Prim's son.  Both Molly and Tangie are still giving a decent amount of milk, which I am attributing to the very wet summer resulting in lush green stuff in the pasture even up through the present (when usually the August heat makes the pasture dry out a bit).  Molly's absence was noticeable this morning, as she is still giving a good quart-and-half per morning.

We're all hoping Molly does triplets again.  Frank and Caroline are intending to replace Harry, as he has gotten a bit destructive, and the fencing is his preferred target.  Ideally, they want a polled son, which would be a first for Molly, but they definitely want a kid from this year's crop as I am planning to bottlefeed all kids this coming season.  I also plan to practice with the disbudding iron where appropriate.  It is going to be some work, but I saw with Tim and Andre just how easily bottle babies sell themselves, and the Cocoa/Chaos Puff shows how responsive bottle babies are once they grow up.

The polite version of yesterday's events is that Harry knew Molly was there before he even saw her.  In fact, he met her at the gate - and I had to push her in the last couple steps, as he was right there "with bells on."  Frank and Caroline both have a rather, um, "earthy" sense of humor so I'll spare y'all the ribald jokes, but let's just say Harry was interested and enthusiastic, while Molly had a "What kind of nanny do you think I am?!" look on her face.  Harry finally got the clue, and when we walked back to the house, he was busy wining-and-dining her, probably whispering sweet nothings to her as he licked her ear.  We'll go pick her back up either Sunday or Monday, depending on when hubby feels more up to it.  I won't be able to get Molly up in the truck by myself - she does NOT like traveling.  At least this time, I didn't get pulled over because someone on the highway couldn't tell the difference between a complaining goat and a "wounded deer," like what happened when we took Maggie up there.

Just for the record, Prim is STILL milking after more than twenty months.  That is exceptional!  It's also the main reason Harry is still intact and alive at this point - this breeding has been planned since last year, but Hurricane Irma messed up plans on both ends (they took damage last year).  I've been forced to learn a bit of patience, as things happen in their own time here.

Planting notes for garden box 1

Since I've had C.R.S. (Can't Remember Sh ...Squat) since Iraq, I thought to make notes.  My wall calendar is a little short on space, as it has notes on setting eggs in the incubator and trying to breed bunnies, so here is as good a spot as any to make notes.

• Garden box #1 (the first we set up) was re-weeded three days ago while the moon was in the air sign Gemini (which is good for fruit trees, but not much else I cultivate).  I discovered one of the digging forks' handle is totally toast, as if it had absolutely no treatment for the wood at all.  This was the one we bought new in '13 or '14.  The digging fork I picked up at the flea market of unknown age is still in good working order.  Go figure.
• Since the moon phase is waning (and we hit the 3rd quarter officially tomorrow) this is a good time to plant below-ground crops.  I selected daikon radish, carrots, and beets, with intent to pickle most of the harvest.
• Burpee brand daikon long radish, ordered from website so nothing fancy on the packaging.  Marked 300 seeds, packed for 2017 (except goats happened last year), origin Italy (I so love what Italians have done with any vegetable that catches their fancy!), lot 20.  Three rows, as it's a main focus for this box.
• Burpee brand carrot, Burpee A#1 Hybrid (I think I have Queen Anne's Lace growing out in the uncultivated areas around us, which is basically wild carrot and will cross with domestic carrots).  Again, a nothing-fancy package from the website.  Marked 1500 seeds (that ought to keep me busy this season), packed for '17, origin USA, lot 14.
• Burpee brand beets, heirloom Cylindra variety.  These are supposed to grow as fat cylinders for easy slicing.  Nothing-fancy pack from website, was in the lost-for-a-month package with my Roma tomatoes the other year.  Three rows.  Marked 1000 seeds, packed for '17, origin Italy, lot 14.  I must have planted some a year and half ago, but don't recall if they sprouted or not.

I have this set up as radish-carrot-beet-carrot-radish etc, so the beets and radishes are separated by the carrots.  Beets and radishes aren't antagonistic to each other, but according to the companion planting chart I like, they are neutral about each other but both love being by carrots.

Hubby cheered when he came outside and saw me finishing up planting and watering.  He says he is very much looking forward to homegrown garden-fresh produce again, now that the worst of the troublemaker goats are contained in a hard pen.

Still to do today: test the garlic to see if any still have life in them.  I read in a blog discussion a while back ago that garlic doesn't keep well more than 2 seasons.  I am also going to check some beet seeds from '13 and '14.  Call it a little science fair project.

2018 Ugliest Molt winner

This year's prize for the ugliest molt in the chicken yard goes to Ducky, hubby's yard ornament rooster.  The hackle feathers pretty much all fell out a few days ago, but that doesn't seem to crimp his style with the young layer hens any.

Ducky's ugly molt

For the record, he is NOT a naked neck chicken, though he sure does look like one right now!  All the roosters are missing their tail feathers, except the youngest one hatched this spring.  I think even Mac Daddy, the remaining Silkie rooster, is actually missing tail feathers, but it's hard to tell on him.  It could just be that I gave him three new hens Saturday night, and he's been macking his tail fluff off since daybreak Sunday morning.

Weirdness

This morning, before daylight, I was outside with the dog and heard Molly and Maggie crying.  I was worried one of them got caught in the fence, but no ... when hubby and I got back there with our headlamps on, those two had their butts up against the pen gate and were crying and doing the shameless-hussy routine for Brownie (aka Pepe Le PEW, this time of year).  So, I got in touch with Frank, who has Prim's son Harry Houdini, to arrange a goaty booty call.  We loaded her up in a dog crate in the back of the pickup and headed up to Frank's place north of Palatka.

Harry was certainly interested in Maggie as soon as she went into the pen, and she immediately squatted and peed for him, and the normal goat courtship dance commenced until Cocoa (Chocolate's daughter, and Cocoa Puff's mom) and Toast (Harry's wethered son)came over to interrupt.  Cocoa was jealous ... she really hasn't changed much in that department, and Toast was just excited because a "new" goat was back in the pen.  We left Maggie there, and will pick her up Thursday to give the love-goats enough time to work around the jealousy.  We also left the dog crate at Frank's, so the truck bed had plenty of room for the feed run.

Driving back into Palatka, after we had reached a decision on where to grab some fast (junk) food for lunch, we got pulled over by a sheriff's car.  He had drove up alongside us as if he was going to pass then dropped back and turned on his lights.

"Are we getting pulled over?"  "I think we're getting pulled over."

The babyfaced deputy walked up and didn't take hubby's license and insurance card, but said someone had called in saying we had a wounded doe in the back.  Now, Maggie is a rather vocal goat, and she was certainly complaining all the way up to Frank's, and she is also the goat whose coloring is closest (but not identical!) to a deer's.  However, there are also quite a few goat people who call their billies and nannies "bucks" and "does" just like the deer terms.  So, we heard "doe" and were thinking goat, for obvious reasons.  When we said we took her up to a friend's to be bred, he asked if we had the proper permit with us, or if he needed to call FWC (Florida Wildlife Commission) about it.  At that point, I realized he was thinking deer, and said, "No.  We have GOATS!"  That cleared things up.  He told us bow (hunting) season has already started.

Yeesh.  Apparently, someone thought we had a deer-doe, and that the deer-doe was crying and must have been wounded.  When I told Frank about it, when he got done chuckling he mentioned we should probably mark the pickup "Goat Transport" and of course, put "No kidding!" across the tailgate.  I had already brought the subject of marking the pickup with ALL the species we do to make the farmers' markets a bit easier.  My friend Lynn's comment was, "Gee, don't people know the difference between deer and goats?!?  Really?!?"  Apparently not, not even down here.

Oh yeah, to top it all off ... the register at Tractor Supply did a weird error.  I put my chip card in to pay, and instead of asking for my PIN it opened the cash drawer and printed a receipt saying I paid in cash.  It took a phone call to the regional help desk to fix that on the computer from their end.

I had to say my usual punchline: "More than just a job, it's an adventure!" when we were just about home.

On the chick hatching idea

I borrowed Frank's spare incubator, and got it almost filled before the rain started the other week.  I had already filled my incubator, which has resulted in only two surviving chicks out of 42 eggs set.  I only had nine eggs develop, so 33 eggs were clear/not fertile.  Three chicks hatched, but one was on its back doing the dying cockroach the next morning.  I had also set eight eggs under the Black Swedish hen and Minty, the Ameracauna hen I got from Luanne.  Of those eight eggs, only one chick hatched, but he (?) is doing quite well under the Black Swedish hen's care.  She was wrapped too tight even before she went broody, and the hormones of broodiness made her absolutely psycho until that chick hatched.  Now she is just an angry dragon-mom.

Refilling the incubator is on hold due to weather.  We had about four days without rain this week, and during that time we went to get the new bunny hutch, I went up to Tractor Supply to refill the feed shed, and yesterday went to the grocery to refill our fridge and pantry.  Hubby had gone into town before the previous week-plus-of-rain started to fill the two five gallon fuel cans for the generator, as it really only takes an average-strength thunderstorm to knock power out.  And now, we have the first named storm of the year out churning in the gulf, but the feed shed has plenty of critter chow, the fridge and pantry have enough food for another two weeks, and we have two full fuel cans for the generator in case a tree comes down on the line somewhere.  We're both low on the money side of things, but we won't need to go anywhere except for one appointment up in Palatka.

Oh, baby bunny update:  Gracie's one little kit didn't make it in with Brooke's two huge hungry hippos - but those two are seriously large!  Shalimar is down to three kits, and I suspect the one that died was the one I couldn't get to eat when I was handfeeding them.  I did do a supplemental feeding on one kit, and will check again this afternoon to see if another is needed.  Charky wasn't pregnant, but ought to be as of last night.  I'll pop Brooke in with Jack this evening (she was bred to Larry for the hippos) and Shalimar in with Larry this time.  This should give me a clue as to where the size of Brooke's and Larry's two kits comes from - or if it's a combination of both parents.  I am wanting large, meaty Rex-furred bunnies like these two babies.  I'll get pictures of the kits after they've opened their eyes and gotten more fur - baby bunnies are born nearly-naked, and with their eyes closed like kittens.

Katrina has a new wabbit hutch

Today we went to collect the new Wabbit hutch from Frank the Wizard. He has been working on his design for quite a while. Katrina commissioned one.

These are the pictures Frank sent us while he was building the one we bought.

It's very heavy and very sturdy and very professional in appearance. Frank takes a lot of pride in his work and it shows!
We had to take it apart to put it in the truck, I drove home carefully as it weighs a LOT!
Unloading the truck took just a few minuets much less time than packing it into the truck.

Assembly was fairly easy to do on my own. The parts have weight to them but everything was marked and predrilled so it was just a matter of situating the parts and putting the deck screws back in place.

                                              This took maybe an hour total to reassemble.

It looks like a lot of space for these rabbits and they look quite happy in their new luxury home.

I think that is about it for now. 

Thanks for reading!

Baby bunny time

Let me get my days straight here .... today is Wednesday, so Shalimar kindled Monday evening.  I went out for a cig before evening critter time, about 1830, took the dog out with me, and as I was sitting there I got the very strong impression I needed to go check the bunnies.  I thought to myself, "But we'll check them in less than half an hour," but the impression got stronger - I needed to go check the bunnies.  I walked over, and there was Shalimar, with five kits on the wire floor.  I had planned to put in the nest box at critter time, as that was day 30 for her.  Oops - apparently rabbits can kindle as earlier as day 27!

I don't know if it was lack of the nest box, or the armadillo crashing around (it sounds ten feet tall and bulletproof when it moves around) but Shalimar was stressed or freaked out and started attacking her kits.  I "EEEK!ed" and grabbed them up, then took them inside and pulled a small jar of goat colostrum out of the freezer.  This right here is why I save some in small jars.  I ended up staying up to almost 0200 trying to get warmed goat colostrum in those kits with an eyedropper, because the small kitten nipples I have are just a little too big for them.  I lost the runt that evening, but it had born the brunt of Shalimar's attack.  One kit has only one ear, but is otherwise fine and wriggly and hungry.

Yesterday when we got back from picking up the new rabbit hutch (hubby will post on that) I checked on Shalimar and discovered not only did she look down, but she had pulled a bunch more fur, and bundled it up into the size and shape of a kit ... basically, she made herself a baby doll.  I mentioned this to Frank when he called to ask how the reassembly of the hutch went, and he said he'd never heard of that before, either.  First, I put back the kit who was refusing both eyedropper and nipple, and Shalimar set out to gussy up her nestbox.  I put the other three in shortly after, and I have a happier bunny doe.

After setting up the hutch, I moved Charky, Gracie, and Brooke over, wanting to give Shalimar a day or two before moving her and her kits.  This morning there was a BUNCH of light colored fur under Brooke's section, and she had two big and fat kits.  One has Larry's markings.  Gracie had been pulling fur since yesterday, and finally kindled just an hour ago - just two, one already dead (a BIG blue that may have gotten stuck too long in the birth canal) and one little wriggly black one.  I'll move the survivor over with Shalimar's crew to replace her runt, and also because single kits don't usually make it due to lack of littermates to keep warm with in the nest.  Well, there's also the bit about Gracie's history of killing her kits.

Now, I am just waiting for Charky to kindle.  It's her first time, so she'll likely be late.  Oh, reading Monday night while the milk warmed, I saw rabbits usually have kindled by day 35 .... but the person who wrote the book I need to buy says she's had a doe go 40 days.

Goat pen complete.

Hello again.

Small update, Last weekend I finished the new goat pen. We ran out of fencing just before I could put on the last side. But it's all done now. 

I was really pleased with my work.

Until this morning.

Cocoa Puff took a running start and jumped the fence.  That fence is 48" tall. 

Oh well. Back to the old drawing board I guess.

Aside from her feat of goaty acrobatics we're very happy with this new pen. It's keeping a something resembling of Order. 

The less trouble they get into the happier we are. haha.

Thanks for reading.

Getting caught up

I am way behind on updates here, and hubby apparently didn't feel he had anything to say while I was gone to my son's wedding, so here we go:

• I sold three kids before I left on my trip: Andre, Timmy, and Tyche.  All three went to pet homes - Andre pretty much sold himself! - and that gave me travel money.
• I sold three more kids this past Saturday: Brownie Junior, Hansel, and Snickers (Cocoa Puff's daughter).  Brownie Jr turned on all the charm we never knew he had and got himself a pet home, and Hansel and Gretel won over a young couple, but they want to breed and get milk, so I mentioned the 3 week old Snickers as a potential bottle baby and they agreed to come out to the property to see her.  It was love at first sight, and when the gal asked if she could hold Snickers, I watched her just MELT when Snickers turned, looked her in the eye, and batted those baby blues.  I have full confidence Snickers will be every bit as spoiled as mama Cocoa Puff.  They said they'll probably change Hansel's name (no big deal) but they love the name Snickers.
• Hubby accomplished his mission while I was gone and kept the milk production up.  Even though he ran two gallons through the cream separator after picking me up in Palatka, I still had to make a cheese the very next day, and have been making quite a few cheeses since returning home (all cheddars right now) as I am bringing in between a full gallon and a gallon and a half each morning.  And this is with Maggie still over at Frank and Caroline's to breed to Harry Houdini (Prim's son, if you recall).  Hubby will have plenty of cheddar cheese stocked up before I switch over making butterkase (has an umlatt over the "a") when it warms up.
• Tractor Supply has had Gold-Laced Wyandottes TWICE now for Chick Days.  Both groups were labeled pullets only, but the first group was actually a straight run as I have at least four cockerels out of eight.  I got with one of the assistant managers yesterday about that, proposed a working-out on some more chicks, and he found that agreeable as I took home another ten chicks.  I forgot to ask if they know which hatchery they're getting their stock from, but either way it's a potential new infusion of genetics.
• The week after Chocolate died, a possum got my best hen Beauty.  Yes, I still mad about that ... we trapped and killed the culprit (I thought we were going for a raccoon), but that doesn't change the fact I did not get to hatch any eggs from her.  This is back on my mind as I get ready to fire up the incubator and two hens in the broody house are setting eggs (to be replaced as soon as the rain stops).

Cocoa and here new baby!

Katrina had a dream the night before that she was out of the house and that I called here to tell here that Coca was having here baby.  And then it happened!

                                         

This little one will have a name very soon.

Companion planting herbs article

I tend to pick up the current issue of Herb Quarterly if it looks to have an interesting article or two most seasons.  Tractor Supply usually has it, although I could not find the summer 2017 issue in any of the usual places last year ... I probably ought to subscribe.  I'll get round-to-it.

This season's issue caught my eye the other day last week, and then I got really excited: an article on companion planting with the focus on herbs!  I have Louise Riotte's books Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses Love Garlic (both in one hardback volume), along with Tammy Hartung's Homegrown Herbs and Miranda Smith's Your Backyard Herb Garden, which have some notes on companion planting as well.  Just starting with the HQ article and a stack of 4x6 index cards, I can tell this will be more of a series of posts than just one long post, so I thought to post up my sources in case anyone wants to get these and follow along.  David the Good over at theSurvivalGardener.com has expressed an interest in my notes on the topic.  Right now I am thinking to divide the herbs into common versus uncommon and annual versus perennial, so it's looking like there will be four posts all told.

Strawberry time

Plant City, Florida strawberries are in season right now, and I came home from errands yesterday with a flat of them.  These are picked ripe, so you don't want to wait more than 24 hours to get them taken care of, whether that's jamming them or eating them.

hulling and cutting up strawberries

a little over half done

that's only 4-1/2 pounds in the smidge-over-2 gallon pot

weighing the strawberries out, one pound at a time

I am curious to see how much I get out of a full flat, as last year I ran short of jam jars and only did 2/3 of the flat ... by the time I had more jars, the strawberries were past the using stage (as in, a fuzzy mush).  So here we go:
9 pounds of strawberries per flat, $10 a flat
15 cups sugar, about 6 pounds
3/4 cup (actually, 7 ounces) lemon juice
3 cups water
No, Mom, I am still not using pectin ... just haven't seen it on sale.  No big deal.  Now it's time for the fun part: boiling it down to gel stage.  I ended up pulling my 22-quart (yes, 5-1/2 gallon!) stockpot so I don't have to worry about it boiling over.

Hubby is out bottle feeding the orphan kids right now - he fully supports me doing up a year's worth of strawberry jam.

A pen for baby goats.

We needed a pen for the baby goats. It's 8X17-ish. 

I goofed up and was too far along to stop. I set the post in and didn't pack the sand in as well as I should have and this creates issues in soft sand. the posts are set in the ground 24" more or less. I may build some braces to set between the posts to hold them more firm. I'll worry about that in a few days. Just a few small things to do to it next week nothing much, just tie posts to fencing with wire. I'm beat.

Andre the bottle baby

Andre finally accepted the bottle yesterday afternoon!  We are both so relieved to see him slurping away on the bottle after almost two days of resisting and getting frighteningly thin.  Tiny Tim had no problem switching, and is busy growing in an effort to catch up with his larger brother.  Until they come when called (shouldn't be too much longer now) they are only out of the dog crate with supervision, but they got in some serious bounce-time this morning after putting down about 8 ounces between the two.  Hubby's mom has requested video of the bottle babies climbing all over us, so we'll try to get to that.  Right now, we are feeding every 2-1/2 to 3 hours during daytime, because their little stomachs can't hold too much yet.

Orphan kids

Chocolate died yesterday afternoon.  Apparently she had been hiding how badly she felt, until she didn't have the strength to hide it any longer.  We checked on her in the morning, and hubby checked on her again at noon while I was at my appointment in Palatka.  When I got home and we got the truck unpacked (I bought stuff for a separation pen) we both went out to check on her again ... and the facade had dropped.  She was laying in an awkward position, with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth and a lavender-grey color.  When an animal's tongue turns that color, then it's all over but the death rattle.  Hubby went to get the gorilla cart, then lifted her into it and we rolled her up while I carried the kids.  While I put up the kids, hubby got the .22 and ended her suffering.

I cried a bit while we skinned her, butchered the carcass, and fed the offal to the pigs.  Hubby is getting ready to filet as much meat off the bones as he can, and while I was up in Palatka doing errands before my appointment, I succumbed to the book temptation: "Home Sausage Making."  It has some interesting pork sausage recipes, along with recipes for beef, lamb, venison, poultry, and wild game sausages.  There's even a chapter on vegetarian sausages.  This was not how I intended to try a first recipe, but this happened and while it sucks, we're trying to make the best of the situation.

Tiny Tim is having no problem at all switching to a bottle, but Andre is still trying to resist.  I can get a little milk in him, maybe a swallow or two or three, then he remembers he doesn't like the bottle and hollers while struggling.  This is actually an improvement over last night's feedings, so I haven't given up hope yet.  I tell him he doesn't exactly have a choice now, because either he gets on the bottle or we'll lose him also.

This sucks.  No one is to blame - it wasn't Andre's fault he is so big, or was positioned wrong.  I did what I could, but apparently that wasn't enough.  Cross your fingers that I can get Andre on the bottle, as that is the next crisis-in-waiting.

Andre the Giant and Tiny Tim

Chocolate kidded yesterday, pretty much on time by my estimate last week, and boy was this a rough kidding.  If she had tried to do it overnight while we were asleep, or waited for me to leave the property, we would have lost all three.  That's not hyperbole - Andre wasn't just double the size of a normal newborn, he was malpositioned in a bad way.  He was upside-down, with his head back and pointed towards Chocolate's udder, so every time she pushed he went nowhere.  I ended up reaching in, pushing his front legs back in (I felt bad for Chocolate during this) and then bringing his head forward to point the right direction.  I thought for sure I'd be pulling a dead kid, because I did need to pull him due to his size and mam's exhaustion, but as soon as his head was out he gave a cry.  I was so relieved to hear that.  Tiny Tim is actually about average size for a newborn Nigerian Dwarf kid, but next to his brother he looks small.  He came out breech (backwards, hind feet first) and I had to pull him as well because poor Chocolate was both exhausted and in pain (with good reason).

Tiny Tim

Andre the Giant, Chocolate, and Tiny Tim

a better shot of Tiny Tim

Andre looking for his first meal

Andre the Giant complaining

Andre the Giant

looking in the wrong area for the udder!

Chocolate nuzzling her babies,
trying to steer them in the right direction

After she nuzzled and made sure the new boys were dry and knew who mama is, Chocolate laid down to rest.  I tried bottling both, but Andre would have none of that.  Tiny Tim caught on to the bottle idea almost immediately.  I finally pointed Andre towards the one accessible teat while Chocolate was laying down, and heard definite suction when he connected.  I made the joke to hubby afterwards about how the only parts of Andre moving after he latched on to the teat were his tail and tongue ... then looked at the dog and remarked how familiar that is.

Chocolate is still resting and recovering today.  Brownie and Prim are bugging the everlovin' **** out of her, so those two are in dog crates until Chocolate feels up to standing up for herself and babies.  This really drives home the idea that I need a separation pen in the goat pasture.  I've been talking about wanting one, but hadn't bought what we need to put it together.  That will be fixed post-haste.

And a short video!

Goat kid pictures and video

I'm a bit slow at posting these, but I hope y'all think the wait is worth it.  Here are pictures of Hansel and Gretel, and a video of little Tyche (and Maggie).

Gretel napping in the feed tub

a slightly better pic of Gretel

Gretel, Tangie, and Hansel

Tangie and Hansel

Hansel and Gretel napping in the feed tub

It doesn't seem to matter whose kids they might be, pretty much every kid has napped in one of the feed tubs when small ... and Cocoa Puff was even napping in it last summer when she barely fit.  Good thing these feed tubs are flexible enough to not break.  Any time we can't spot some babies, especially siblings, we check the feed tubs.

Gretel seems indifferent to ear rubs, but if Hansel is in a mellow (read: napping or ready to nap) mood, he'll lean into the ear rub.  I asked him this morning if he gets that from his mom or his dad, as both will lean into an ear rub with a satisfied look.  Tyche comes up to me for attention.  I guess Maggie isn't nuzzling her enough, although Maggie still seems a bit bewildered and confused by this motherhood idea.  Y'all know me - I am happy to take up the slack in that department.

Two days, two kiddings

I meant to post pictures this morning, but didn't get to it.  Tangie kidded twins yesterday morning, a boy and a girl.  This is her first son, and first set of twins.  I named them Hansel and Gretel.

About an hour ago, hubby went out with his flashlight to investigate a noise he heard, then came up on the back deck, tapped on the back door until I opened it, and said, "Grab your boots, a headlight, and a towel!"  I knew Maggie was close, as I noticed a discharge at feeding time ... I just didn't realize she was in early labor.  She kidded a daughter, but hadn't dried the baby off when I got out there.  Maggie is a bit young to be a mom at eleven months, but apparently Brownie (yes, her sire) got her right before the hurricane, while we were busy obtaining a generator and making preps.

So, Maggie's daughter is dried off, has nursed, and has a clue as to who her mom actually is (as opposed to trying to butt my boobs and suckle on my fingers).  As for Maggie, she had her wires crossed a bit, and was a little slow to realize this little crying tyke is her baby, but I think she's squared away now.  Oh, the name Tyche came to me while I was trying to bottle the little tot.  A quick look-up confirms that is indeed a female name ... the goddess of luck and fortune, daughter of Aphrodite.

Because Dad usually asks how many goats I have now whenever I talk to him: Tyche is number thirteen, Hansel and Gretel numbers eleven and twelve.  I think I have about a week before Chocolate kids again.

Planting again

I guess I just can't help myself.  Along with picking up a couple of seed packets, yesterday I brought home rootstock for a peach tree (Florida King variety, a self-fertilizing and "old time" strain, according to Lynn), two American hazelnut shrubs, and five berry canes: two more raspberry varieties, a boysenberry, a dewberry, and a blackberry.  I also grabbed a 3 pound bag of Russet seed potatoes.

The hazelnuts and the peach tree are in pots next to the front porch, until I figure where they'll be safest and happiest - hazelnuts are apparently attractive to squirrels, turkeys, and deer.  If we need to, hubby can put the doors back on the old chicken coop and we can put them in there to protect from marauding wildlife.

First cheese of 2018

I made the first cheese of 2018 now that Molly has (finally!*) switched to regular milk from colostrum.  It's a feta, and half of it was ordered by Larra the waitress up at Leo's.  Leo ordered yogurt and a bit of milk.  We're still working on the colby and cheddar cheeses from the latter half of last year - good stuff.  I shared a colby with Frank and Caroline, but told them hubby is not willing to allow a cheddar out of the house.  LOL  Frank said I need to make more cheddars this year, because he also loves a good sharp cheddar.

I have renamed Molly's second-born white son.  He is now Herbie the Love Bug.  It fits him, and sounds a lot better than "Whitey" so Herbie he is.  I also just got an email from Frank saying their kid and family want Herbie, and can I hold him until March.  He'll get attention (they have school-age children, just like the family I bought Brownie from) and he'll be mate to Harry (Prim's son) Houdini's daughters, making to offspring grandkids of both Molly and Prim.  Prim is still milking from when she kidded last February - just half a quart usually now, but over 11 months after kidding is impressive for a goat.  I am getting between a quart-and-half and two quarts in the morning from Molly, and that is with leaving her udder half-full for the twins!  She is likely producing over 3/4 gallon of milk in a 24 hour period.  Any wonder that I am trying to cross those two nannies' bloodlines?

It's warming up and clouding up to rain again (forecast to start tomorrow night and run until Tuesday morning) so pictures will need to wait until better weather.  I have the idea to see if hubby can get a video clip of me and the kids.  We'll see if goats cooperate.

Meet the new goats

OK, while I napped this afternoon, hubby went out and snapped a few pics to add to yesterday's attempts at pictures.  I've already taken to calling the firstborn Brownie Junior, and his little brother Whitey.  Maybe not the most imaginative names, but I tell them they got better first names than the triplets did last spring.

Whitey and Brownie Junior, tucked safely in the corner

believe it or not, Brownie Junior is definitely bigger than Whitey

shortly after birth, me trying to point them to the right part of Molly's udder

newborn Whitey hunting for the teat

I kept trying to point them in the right direction, but they were a bit confused

Brownie Junior, nearly dry after birth

Cocoa Puff was a bit curious and more than bit jealous

hubby and Cocoa Puff ... I really like this pic!

As mentioned in a caption, there is a definite size difference between Brownie Junior and Whitey, and I am already noticing character differences.  Brownie Junior is quite the adventurous little twerp, so in a night or two they are going into a crate for overnight so we don't have a repeat of overly-adventurous kids getting out at night.  Meanwhile, little Whitey is probably going to be a very affectionate goat.  He already loves having his nose stroked, from tip to forehead.  I did that this afternoon (once the rain stopped) and he just lifted his head right into my hand with a "Oh I like this!" look on his face.  I do hope I can find a good pet home for him.