The First Moves

The first change I made last week was kicking some of the girls out of the buck room where they were with Xerxes.  The buck room is the nicest facilities for winter, but it’s not huge.

And there were too many goats in there.

Zinnia, LilyAnn, Sidney, Daisy, Xerxes, Margarita, Joy (Ava not pictured)

Especially when you have goats that can’t get along, and, trust me, no goat gets along.

Margarita

I had already swapped Astra back into the main herd after she was in heat and brought Sidney over in her place.

Astra and Perdita (with Wanda in front)

I planned on leaving Zinnia and her daughter Joy with Xerxes to give him company and to let them get bred because they are good moms and I need my milking girls to have kids.  They’ll be able to handle little ones while I’m gone on vacation next summer.

Zinnia peeking into the garage where we’ve been milking

I’d seen everyone else (except Margarita) come into heat, so I decided to move them all back with the main herd on Sunday and Monday before we got stupid cold again.

Ava

I didn’t want to mix goats when it was so cold because I don’t want someone to get pushed around and left outside in the cold. It would not be so crowded and easier for me to haul hay for three goats instead of eight.  And everyone else would just have to wait until it warmed up again. At least that was the plan…

More From the Storm

My dog was not happy that I did not start with scooping snow in the yard.

Sky

But, honestly, he spent a lot of the time (and I had a three-day weekend) lounging in the house.

Sky–wet from being out in the snow

Salem, Tiger, and Sky sharing the water bucket

And I did get it scooped Sunday morning because I wanted to make sure it would melt the last of the snow/ice I couldn’t get when we were back in the upper 30s on Tuesday.

The cats were all snuggled in too.

Tiger and Salem

My driveway was really drifted too.

Luckily my nephew came with the backhoe and cleared it out.

I am so grateful that he comes to do my driveway.

Finally, I’ve started seeing some of the girls with Xerxes coming into heat.

Xeres

Xerxes with LilyAnn and Daisy. I think they’ve both come into heat.

But I seriously hope I’ve missed a bunch of them coming into heat because of the weather.

I already moved Astra over so she could be back with Perdita

I’m getting ready to separate them because I don’t want to have kids all summer with the planned genealogy trip.

The Breeding Groups

Okay, so Xerxes is in the buck room with his girls. (Pictures are from last weekend because the days are still short.)

Xerxes

He has Astra, Ava, Joy, Zinnia, LilyAnn, Margarita, and Daisy.

LilyAnn

Freddie and his girls in the greenhouse and pen.

Freddie

It’s not a big outdoor pen, but with the cold weather, they don’t care that much.  As long as I give them hay.

Flora

He has Flora, Purl, and Onyx.  Penelope decided she wanted to be in there too, so she also joined them even though I think she’s bred.

Purl

I also put Popcorn in there because he’s a wimp and needs at least one friend with him.

Popcorn

Benji is up north with his girls.

Benji

He has Trace, Venus, 2TC, and Chiffon.  I also threw Cutie in there because she was in heat, but I’ll let her out tomorrow.  If she settles, that’s fine; if not, she’ll get the year off.

Trace

I have the old ladies and the ones I’m pretty sure are bred and the young ones in the main barnyard.

Reva is not getting close to a buck!

They and the llamas have access to the Back Forty.

Maybeline

I doubt they want to go out much because we’re back in cold weather again.

Aurora

Having it set up this way lets me still try to give Aurora and Dolly some extra food.

Dolly

We’ll see how this works.