All Terrain Babies

I mentioned that we recently let the babies out into their outdoor playpen which includes a giant rock wall.  We finally had time this morning to take a few pictures of them playing.  This wall has been one of the best ideas that Chris ever came up with.  The babies really enjoy it and everyone loves to watch them play.  Our niece and nephew even enjoy playing on the rock wall with the babies.  Happy Easter!

Calves Arrive

Our first batch of calves for 2009 arrived yesterday.  We went down to Nicolet, MN to visit with our friends, Hilda & Kevin, and picked up the calves.  The 3 amigos we have right now are Oscar, Monte & Lonestar.  They are quite a bunch!  We think that the white spot on Lonestar's face looks like the outline of Texas.  Oscar is all chocolate brown with no white spots, and Monte has the all-white face.  These 3 fellas should really help take care of all of our extra milk.

Babies in April

Gazette was giving us little signals during morning chores that she might have her kids yesterday.  She would look at us in a far off sort of way, she was  lot more talkative or vocal and she was extremely uncomfortable.  The poor thing couldn't find a position that was comfortable.  She kept getting up, and laying down.  Only to get back up again.  All of this was enough for me to say "Okay sweetie - I'll stay home with you this morning in case those babies come."  And, she was not pulling our leg.

By about 9 AM we had another set of babies born yesterday (April 6).  Gazette, our best Saanen doe, kidded with a set of twin bucks.  I guess this just proves the point that we are having a buck year this year!  So far out of 22 kids born, we have had 7 doe kids.  I swear it is written somewhere in the universe that we are only going to have a maximum of 3 Saanen doe kids on our farm in any given year.  Gazette was our last Saanen doe to freshen this year.  I guess I should just be grateful for the 3 Saanen doe kids that we do have.

We are expecting 2 more does to kid (both first time freshening Nubians) - but not until June, so things should calm down around here for a while.  That will give us time to catch up on other chores like hoof trimming, fire wood, and a few very old recorded tv shows!  (that's a joke...)

I'll try to get photos up soon of the new kids.  We also opened up the outdoor kid play pen area which contains the rock wall we made a few years ago.  The kids were pretty amazed at how large their world had become!  We'll be sure to include a few photos of that as well.