Good-bye Gidget

Late summer seems to be the worst for the goats and copper.  It is progressive and I have a lot of girls who have to be depleted, but I just don’t know how much.  After I weaned Gidget’s kids this year, she did well, but starting in August, she has just seemed to lose ground.  I shut her in for intensive feeding, and she seemed a bit better, so I let her rejoin the herd.  Within just a few days, I started to see a loss in weight.  By the time I shut her back in the Love Shack, she had bottle jaw again.  It was time to say good-bye because no goat wants to just be shut in alone.

Gidget van de Yell (24 Mar 2014 – 16 Nov 2021)

I will dearly miss this girl.  She was beautiful from the start.

Gidget

She was one of my beautiful spotted girls who came from Kizzy’s line.

Gidget, Blaze and Kizzy

She got her looks and her udder from her maa, Blaze.  They both had crazy udders with way too many teats.

Top Blaze with Duke and Duchess; Bottom Gidget with Andre

I wish I could go back in time, knowing about the lack of copper in my soil and treat them before it got so bad.

Hera and Gidget

She will live on through her girl Hera, and a lot of grandkids from Zeus.

The Calendar

I have finished my calendar for next year, and I am especially happy with the variety to this one.

Odie, Aurora, and Maybeline

Perdita

Chiffon’s boys: Nestle and Sonny

Sky

Hera and Gidget

Astra

In fact, it might be my favorite one so far.

Edited:  Due to interest in people wanting the calendar, I am adding a LINK that I think will let you purchase the calendar directly from Shutterfly.

A Beautiful Weekend

We had beautiful weather this weekend; honestly, it was way warmer than it should be this time of year.

They noticed me and had to come see what I was up to.

Pretzel

Antigone seems to want to know why I’m spying on them.

I took advantage of that to go walking in pasture both Saturday and Sunday.

Myson in front; 2TC behind

Maybeline

I also decided to take advantage of the good weather and let Gidget out of the Love Shack.  She’s been in there for two weeks, and she is much better.  I’m not sure how much more improvement I’ll see, so I decided it was best to let her rejoin the herd and be happy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still keep trying to get her extra food.

Gidget in center; Chiffon in front; Perdita and Wanda in back

It’s like Grand Central with all the goats who think they should get to go into the milk room for extra food.

Tansy still gets to come in for a bit extra food too.

walking along the bottom

Of course, I also found Astra making out with Xerxes at the fence.  That means she’s in heat and didn’t settle for spring break babies.  Dang.

Xerxes and Astra

The neighbors have their corn harvested, so they let the cows out on the field.

Aurora

It looks like the fence is going to keep them out of my field this year; plus I don’t have corn out there for them to snack on, so they are content where they are at.

My goats seem pretty happy with the weather and pasture too.

Athena

heading back up to the barn

I’m not sure how many more of these nice days we’ll have this fall.