This week we went to Oregon to pick up another buckling from Trisha, the breeder I got my LaMancha girls from. Last year we had Ajax, who was all white, this year we have a black one! …and I forgot to ask what his name is. :)  We also took Sundae back. She did not kid this year, which is really a bummer. She looked pregnant, and even developed a little bit of an udder, but alas, it was all a facade. So instead I have a new doe kid, who is still nameless.

I still need to give BoSe to the girls, and copper boluses, and then we’ll let the mating begin!

I’ll get photos up soon, it’s been an exhausting week!

So, she waits until after Newton is born, which is good; we were taking bets as to who would give birth first-me or her. Then she waits until the middle of the night, which wouldn’t be so bad, except that the kid presented nose first (Front hooves are supposed to come out first, followed by nose), so I had to assist by reaching in to find the legs and pull them out (a first for me!). She had a single doeling (I had suspected just one, she wasn’t very big), who is tiny, and wouldn’t suck, so we ended up tubing her that night, and then again later in the morning. The doeling is doing fine now, sucking bottles down like a champ.

Here is Debut from last summer.

Here is her chocolate doeling. The white specks are milk :-). The photos aren’t the best, as I am still learning how to take photos while holding Newton.

7 days old, July 4

We had a checkup yesterday. At 11 days old, he weighed 8lb 8oz, and is looking great!

Of course, Jeremy has been a super firecracker, helping me, and taking care of animals, including milking the goats for me. It helps now that we are automatically milking the girls. Someone gave us a vaccuum pump in pieces, and he has successfully made it into a working unit!

the pump

the bucket

It has streamlined milking so much! And I think makes for cleaner milk. And now we are ‘legal’ to sell raw milk through the ISDA’s new small herd exemption program! Which is awesome! It did require getting the girls tested for TB and Bruscellosis, which they are negative, and getting the milk tested almost every month, but it means the girls now pay for their own grain! And we have very little surplus milk, which is nice.

And then Sunday, everything changed.

Newton Kenneth was born June 27, 2010 at 8:29pm at a birth center in Boise, ID (yes, the car ride was tooooo long!).  He weighed 7lb, 14oz, and 21in long.  We came home Monday morning and are both doing great.

See our names on the board?? Our Tuesday checkup…Day and a half old.

They are bit far away here, but you can see part of the large canal that runs along the front of the property, I’m sure after naptime they’ll take a swim here.

Yesterday I also caught Azalea napping in odd positions in the house that has been convienently “redecorated.” (Don’t worry, there is another house in their pen that is more weatherproof…this one is the, uh, ’summer house’). Anise is in the house with her, and Hershey is just outside.

She is actually awake, staring at me in this photo, either posing very chic, or wondering what I am doing.

Yes, those are horns you see. The disbudding experiences have been less than successful for our first year of kids. I borrowed a calf dehorner today, so hopefully they won’t be there much longer. They stubbornly refuse to not grow back!

So now I just have the two doelings, and Hershey-Cinnamon’s boy, whom I am trying to sell still. Sundae may or may not kid, and Debut is due the beginning of July.

Hidden Lake, Hagerman, Idaho

my poor belly button

We spent Memorial Day weekend as vendors at the Hagerman Fossil Days Festival in Hagerman (of course). It is another small town, in Gooding County. I sold pottery and goat milk soap, did face painting, and Jeremy sold glasses of homebrewed soda: Licorice Root Beer and Ginger Lemon. Both are super tasty! (There aren’t really any rules reguarding selling fresh brewed soda, so the Brewery is trying to make some money, and get some exposure with the soda). It was an okay turn out, the weather was less than cooperative. Sunday evening after we packed up, we went to this little lake, near one of the trout hatcheries in Hagerman to walk around and relax a little. The belly is 35wks, 5 days in the photos.

As of now, I am 35 wks, and am seeing midwives at a birthing center in Boise, ID. Due to a change in care at about 28wks (my midwife had to close her practice), we are paying catch up in terms of paying for my care and services yet to be provided. Work is slow here in the Magic Valley for Jeremy, and I just barely meet expenses at the pottery shop. So, I’m having a bake sale. I have two weeks to come up with the remainder of what we owe the birthing center ($1850). We have things listed for sale, including goats I hadn’t planned on selling, and are just working non-stop to make the money.

You can look and purchase on our site at: www.intothedomesticated.com/babybakesale.htm

I’d appreciate your support; at the very least spreading the word around.

Thanks,

Jillian

Can you say yum?? Lamb and apple sausage, courtesy of Blue Sage Farm, and crepes! I love crepes. The filling on these is homeade chevre, and raspberries. It isn’t my normal morning fare, but if it were, I’d be a happy girl, and probably look pregnant all the time.

 Here are their day old photos.

boy #1

boy #2

 Yes, I got 2 black and white bucks out of Ajax, the white buck I used this past fall for breeding. funny. This black and white one, with the dot, I sold to a friend. Now the chocolate brown one is for sale. We call him Hershey, since he is chocolate color, but I suppose for registration purposes, I’d give him a more sophisticated name, though I don’t know what at the moment. Here he is as of this week, a month old.

trying to get a decent body shot!