February already

  It's already February!  We got another 5 inches of snow last night.  Now the goats have a fresh "dinner plate" to eat off of.  There are a couple of feeders out there, but I also put little piles of hay out and around for the lower ranked goats to eat.
  I have a question for you all that raise goats.  How do you keep your bucks together without them fighting and killing each other?  I had to put Hercules down because him and Midnight were fighting and Midnight won.  He did some serious internal damage that I didn't realize until Herk was too far gone to repair.  So now I'm down to just two bucks!  Both black.  Herk and Midnight were the same age, grew up together, and were kept in the same pen, except for breeding, when I took Herk clear to the other side of the place to do his job.  After everyone was done, I put them back together and Midnight tried to kill Herk.  I separated them as soon as I saw what was happening, but it was one blow too late.
  So from now on, there will be permanently separate pens for each buck!  Preferably on opposite sides of the goat areas, too.  
  Only 4 weeks to go till kids start popping out!  I am getting excited to see what comes this year.  What colors they are, and hopefully more female than male this year!  There should be around 30 kids born, so I will probably be selling a few this fall, or next spring.  I might wait till next spring so I can see how their fiber looks when I comb them.

   I get to go on a "fibery" week-end get-away tomorrow.  Six of us are renting a fs cabin down the Swan and taking our spinning wheels, etc., and playing outside in the snow skiing and snowshoeing, then spending the rest of the time spinning and visiting, eating and just having a nice relaxing time with our various fibers.  H&C are going to take good care of this place so I don't have to worry about anything, just go and have some R&R.  I'm looking forward to it very much! 
  The combing of the goats is going well.  Glad they don't all shed at the same time!  It's looking like a very good harvest this year.  I'm getting to them on time this year, so the yield is much better.  I got some free plywood that is in great shape, so we built a solid wall on three sides of the combing area, so now it's much better.  The wind can't blow any cashmere away anymore. ☺ Or, I should say, I can now comb even if the wind is blowing a bit.  The weather isn't playing quite as big a factor in the combing schedule this year.  As long as the goats are dry, I'm combing.  

  Well, Happy Valentine's day to everyone...