Asking for Answers

Last year Kizzy had triplets, Peter, Paul and Mary.  It was really hard on her carrying that much baby, and she struggled to keep up with them on our poor quality drought affected pasture.  Besides, she always gets run down raising kids because she give them everything she’s got.

Kizzy with Paul, Mary, and Peter

I decided to give her the year (or forever) off.  She’s gained weight over the winter since I let her and Mary in to eat without the other goats.

Bonnie, Kizzy, Mary

Then I noticed something.

Yep.  It looks to me like she’s making an udder.  Look at that belly!

Here she is with her girl Bonnie.  Bonnie is due May 31st.  I always track all of my goats’ heat cycles, and the last date I have written for Kizzy is January 11, which would make her due June 10th.

Bonnie and Kizzy

It looks to me like there was some unauthorized rhumba dancing going on.  I want to know how this happened.  I never put her with a buck.  The boys never got out.  I don’t have young bucks that could have bred her.  Pretty sure we didn’t miss anything wethering Marley, Myson, Casey and Bud.

Myson and Casey

I have only a few ideas.

1.  Immaculate conception.

Haley

2.  She’s our second false pregnancy.

Annie

3.  She isn’t really pregnant, but is in the habit of making an udder, so she thought she’d be like Minnie and make milk without having kids.

Minnie Pearl

4.  It’s our first through the fence breeding.

Fionn, Marley and Boeris

Well, I have to think the fourth is the most likely answer.  Now I have to ask, who’s the daddy?  I guess for now the answer, my friend, is blowing  in the wind.

Linking to Alphabe-Thursday.  This is the start of round seven for Jenny, and it is my sixth time!  I’m also sharing with Rurality Blog Hop and Thursday Favorite Things.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Somehow with the drought last year, it didn’t dawn on me that we could also be in the midst of setting a good record.  But we were until it came to an end yesterday.  We had 359 consecutive days without a tornado warning in the state.  It was hot and humid, and we were warned of storms coming.

I did my storm preparations of picking up feed pans and then I went out to pasture to tell the goats and llama they needed to come to the barn.

Millie

The bovine wanted to go back north, and I tried letting them, but I opened the gate too late.  They’d changed their minds and were going to stay in the pasture.  Now, if you think I can convince a 3000 pound steer to move when he doesn’t want to, it’s not going to happen.

MJ and Maxine

I jumped up and down behind him and hollered, “Get up, Hyiah!”  He stood.  I had a hand firmly on each rump roast pushing as hard as I could, and he didn’t notice me.  I finally gave up and reminded them they could come to the barn. They drive me crazy when they stay in the pasture in stormy weather.

I sent my nephew a text saying it was time to quit farming for the day and then went into town to get my mother since she doesn’t have a basement.  We got back to my house just as the first jagged streak of lightning hit.  Mom went in, and I went to make sure some silly Cinnamon goat was getting her butt out of the pasture and into the barn.  About that time the thunder came and everyone was scared inside.

By the time I got inside, I saw we were under a tornado warning.  I looked out the wind0w again (yeah, I know that’s not what you’re supposed to do in a tornado warning, but still) and saw I had a goat outside.  I headed for my boots and had just gotten them on when my mom told me the goat went in the barn.  For some reason the geese just sit out there in the tornado warning.  They could go in.  Really.

Then they said a tornado had been spotted five miles south of State Center.  Well, that’s just north of town.  Then we got a text from my son asking if we had electricity and did I have any ice cream.  I can’t make this stuff up.  Of course his next text was that he’d driven through the funnel cloud (I believe he meant the rotating wall cloud that is associated with tornadoes and not the actual tornado).  That would have been just about five miles south of State Center.

Well, our streak of no tornadoes has ended, but everyone in my world is safe.  The cows survived. The geese are all here and everyone is fine.

We had more storms come through in the night and there are more chances again tonight.  So how do you prepare for storms?

Linking to Homestead Barn Hop and Clever Chick’s Blog Hop

Scavenger Hunt

This week should have been easy to do the scavenger hunt.  The words were: three, hand(s), fence cuddly and sign. I really struggled with it though.  Here’s my best efforts.

Three:  We have two sets of triplets running around right now.  I think Sugar did a pretty good job of wrangling her babies for a photo shoot.  She also is the winner of the Best Mom award for actually raising all three on her own.

Litha’s kids are all over the place.  That’s kind of how they are all the time.  They have, um, well, a lot of personality.

Hand:  This is Litha’s boy, Robbie.  He likes to give me a hand whenever I’m feeding Reva her bottle.  To keep him for pushing his sister around, I usually give him a hand in turn and scratch between his horns for him.

Think he likes it?

Cuddly:  Coral is my sweet cuddly girl.  She has been from the moment she was born.  It’s looking like she didn’t get bred last winter.  That’s good.  I didn’t want her bred after having the C-section last year, but I put her in with Fionn for about two weeks, and it was possible she could have been bred.

Here’s another shot for cuddly.  Muffin (mom in back) and Jelly (daughter in front) are always curled up together to sleep.  Goats are really neat because they maintain those great family bonds for their whole lives.

Fence:  Another bird shot.  I really seem to be turning into a bird blog.  I have no idea what this one is, but it was flying along the fence just in front of me for quite some distance.

Sign:  I mentioned that I wanted to try and switch bird foods to attract some goldfinches.  I think this is a pretty good sign that my plan worked.

At one point there were three males and two females all out there at the same time.

I hope you all have a great week!

Linking to Scavenger Hunt Sunday, Macro Monday, I Heart Macro, and Monday Mellow Yellows.