Kids!

 Here are some kid pictures.  Top one is Aurora and Arthur.  They are out of Ariel   Arthur is a really nice color, not sure exactly what color he is, but he's striking.  The next one is Chocolate sunning himself.   He's out of Ming and has a twin sister.  

 This little black girl with the open page book on her forehead is Ebony.  She's a cute feisty thing.   Her mom is Oreo.  Oreo finally gave me a girl and a solid colored one at that!

 Here are Elsie and Athena looking out of the log. They are out of Celeste. None of the kids liked the 6 inches of snow we got on Mother's Day!  The last of it melted off today.  This seems to be the winter that doesn't want to end.

 This last one is of Savannah and Toby discussing the icky snow. :-)  Toby is actually Ebony's twin brother.  Savannah has a really nice looking cream colored twin brother.  Those two are out of Arianna.  She accepted both kids this time.  Last time she had twins (her first) she didn't want both of them, just the boy.  Tiki was a bottle baby.  She's turned out to be a really nice doeling!

That darn snow broke off about half the tulips by the fiber shed.  The snow slid off the roof onto the tulips and buried them.  I noticed today when it melted that a lot of the buds had broken off.  Bummer!  They always look so pretty blooming.  There are around 200 blooms.  Now there will be less than half of that.  The daffodils survived anyway.  This weather is getting old.  We get nice and warm, then another cold spell with snow descends on us and we get snowed on again.  Now it's supposed to be up around 70 this week, with yet another cold spell coming over the week-end again.  Sure hope there isn't any snow with it this time!!
  So far the over-wintered spinach has survived and the asparagus is starting to come up.  I'm not weeding it till after it gets warmer, that way the grass and weeds will shelter the asparagus and it won't freeze.  That's my hope anyway. :-)
  Well, it's almost a full moon out there so I think I will get my native american flute and go give the goats a little concert. :-)  Probably a short one since it's rather chilly out there. ☺

Kids

    

 Kidding season is now over.  20 babies all together.  These are just a few of them.  The top picture is of Matilda and Magic playing.  They are Speckles the dairy goats' kids.  Matilda is rather a flighty girl.  Magic is more calm and will come up to me to be petted.  I'm going to have to work with Matilda some more.  She's starting to come around, but she is very skittish.

 Here are Hershey and Mars.  They are out of Luna.  She wins the prize for the most colorful kids for the second year.  Last year she had twin girls, and this year, twin boys.  I think Hershey is buck material, so I'm keeping him intact.

 Here is another picture of Magic and Matilda relaxing in the morning sun.  Magic just looks too comfortable!  The bottom picture is of Nice and Sugar.  They are out of Spice.  I let my neighbor name them, and she decided that "Sugar and Spice and everything Nice" was a good saying.  So that became their names.

All the does had twins this year.  Even Ming had them for the first time.  Even split between boys and girls.  All the does drank their molasses water so nobody had any problems at all.  No bottle babies!  yippee!  I went for years without having any, then I had 5 the one year, 3 last year, and now I'm back to none.  Thank heavens!   There are 93 goats here now!  Anyone want a goat?  I'm selling a few, this is just too many for me to take good care of by myself.  Contact me if you are interested in a couple of goats.  Breeding stock to pet quality are available.
  I'll be taking more pictures of all the kids, maybe even a video or two.  One thing about it, even if you are having a really bad day, sitting out in the pen watching the kids bouncing around playing will cheer you up no matter what.  There is no way you can stay sad after watching them for a while.  They just exude joy.
  It snowed overnight.  I woke up to see two inches of snow out there!  It all melted by mid-afternoon.  It hasn't been really warm yet, except for two days last week in the 70's.  Now it's in the 40's.  I guess that is good for keeping the snow melting slowly in the high country so there won't be any major flooding around here.  We had an above average snowpack in all the surrounding mountains this last winter.  There still is a lot up there.  It's melting slowly and soaking in pretty good.  Our road dried out way faster than it usually does this year.  The earth is thirsty!
  I finally got all the goats combed now.  Finished the last one yesterday.  I've been washing a couple of fleeces a day.  I'm going to finish up a few outdoor projects this week, then start on the dehairing next week.  So many things to do around here and only so many hours in the day.  I make a list of things to do each day.  Some days I get them all done, and on others, I don't.   The important things are getting done, though.
  Well, that's it for now.  I'll get some more pictures taken soon and get them on here.