Prius gives birth to Twins!

Hi everyone!

What a great weekend we have had! Prius, one of our first freshening 2 year old Saanen does, freshened this afternoon with a set of healthy twins: 1 buck and 1 doe. We are really excited about these two - and they are extremely tall! The new kids were happy to drink from a bottle and Prius was thrilled with some alfalfa and warm water.

We did have a bit of an eventful evening. We give pre-kidding Bo-Se and CDT shots to our does to help with muscle tone, kidding and to pass immunity on to the kids. After giving a Bo-Se shot to one of or Nubian does tonight, she had a reaction. She had what seemed to be an allergic reaction. Although we were extremely scared, and she was most likely scared as well, we got her calmed down and her breathing returned to normal. We did call our vet in the process and she informed us that this can happen and the best defense is to have epinephrine in your medicine chest. Luckily this doe was able to come around after this spell. She went back to eating and socializing with the other does. I guess this just shows us that life is always unpredictable!

We are loving the chances we get to play with our new kids! Here is a shot of the group of them.

Kidding Season begins with Triplets!

We are so excited that kidding season has officially begun! This morning at about 9:30 AM, one of our Saanens, Sherry's C Tilly gave birth to a healthy set of triplets (2 bucks, 1 doe). Everyone is doing well - the kids all drank from a bottle right away and Tilly was thrilled to have a nice snack of alfalfa and warm water. Here's hoping that all of our kidding go as well as this one!

These kids are aslo the first kids from our first home grown buck: FSF Nitro Cosmopolitan. So far, we like what we see!

We will be keeping the doe kid, who we named Seattle. The 2 buck kids will be available for sale.

FSF is on Facebook!

Hi all! We have taken the plunge and developed a Facebook page for our farm. This will be the quickest way to see updates and photos of new babies comming very soon. If you would like to become a fan of Four Seasons Farm on Facebook just search for Four Seasons Farm (FSF) Dairy Goats. You can also just click the title of this post, and it will take you right there. We'll see you there!

Enjoying the calm before the storm

Hi everyone! We are still here, things have been quiet the last 6 weeks or so, which is a nice change of pace. Chores are getting done and the does are getting bigger. It's nice to be able to do morning chores in less than 30 minutes before work. Then in the evening everything takes about an hour. During evening chores we make sure all the hay feeders are full, water buckets are freshly filled and everyone gets a grain treat. Of course, we also have to allow time for a scratch on the head, a neck rub, or whatever attention each one craves at the time.

The first doe is due on March 4th and we can already see that she is starting to change her routine due to her ever-growing belly. All the girls in the barn are getting a little anxious (and a little bit crabby) as they get bigger. We are really excited to see our new arrivals soon!

Before the babies start to arrive, we have a lot to do in the next few weeks. We have already started giving does their CDT and Bo-Se boosters. This will help give the new babies immunity for the first few weeks of life. We will be loading in hay to make sure we have plenty of nice grass hay and wonderful alfalfa to get the does started right when they freshen and start their lactation. We will get the barn cleaned out and everything freshly limed and bedded so that everyone has the best environment to live in and be born in. We will also have to change our groups of animals around in the barn, to make room for the new babies. This will lead to a little bit of friction for a day or so. But, in the end, we will try to group goats together that get along well.

As we anticipate the new arrivals, we are also thinking of name options. Each year we use a theme. We are thinking that themes this year will be around "magic" or "stars". Names that we have come up with so far include: Chant, Charm, Potion, Spellbound. We need names for gilrs and boys... so start thinking! If you have ideas for names please leave us a comment on the blog and we'll take them all under advisement!

Christmas Eve Snow!

Hi all! Well, we got 6 inches of new snow over night just in time for Christmas eve... makes Four Seasons Farm a winter wonderland! People often ask us how the goats do when we have cold weather or snow. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get out the camera and show you! The goats are snug as ever in the barn. They have no idea that it even snowed outside!

In other news, Tempo continues to improve! Yeah! We got some great news a little while ago. We had our vet come out to ultrasound all the does to confirm if they were indeed pregnant. All 11 does that we checked we confirmed! Wahoo! And even better - 2 of those does are bred to Tempo! Not bad for a great guy we thought we might lose there for a while. We are so excited that he is doing better ad that we can look forward to new babies in March and April. There are 3 more does possible bred, but we will have to wait a little while before we can confirm them. The goats usually need to be 40-45 days pregnant in order for the vet to see them clearly.

Enjoy the photos and have a very Merry Christmas!

We need to apologize for being MIA from blog land for a while. This fall and summer has gotten so incredibly bust that there has not been one minute to write. We had a wonderful time at the MN State Fair - meeting new friends and catching up with old friends. We were happy with the consistency of placings for our Saanens. Tilly was the first place 3 yr old. Prius was the first place dry yearling and Gazette was the first place aged doe. Our Nubians placed in the middle of the pack. Our biggest highlight from State Fair was placing 2nd in herdsmanship in the entire goat barn. Every year we have gone to the state fair we have moved up one placing in herdsmanship. Let's see if we can get that first place spot next year!

The fall has brought its trials an tribulations. Our senior Nubian buck, Tempo, got sick this fall and we ended up having to take him to the U of MN vet hospital. I never thought that we would be that type of people - but when it's an animal that you care for deeply, and an animal that has done as much for your herd as Tempo has - you do everything you can. After spending 2 days at the University, receiveing a blood transfusion and getting some IV antibiotics - Tempo came back home to us. We have been treating him at home, and he continues to improve. Let's hope that trend continues!

In October I headed out to NY for hte ADGA National Convention. I tried to make the most of the trip by combining a few things. I went for the conference, visited my family and picked up a buck and brought him home - all in one trip. It was a great trip, and our new buckling, Merlin, is a wonderful addition to our herd. We can't wait to see what our kids look like in the spring.

We have been breeding goats as they come in heat. From October 1 until now, we think that all 14 eligible does have been bred. This means that next March and April we could expect to see approximately 28 babies! That's a lot of babies!

Just this past weekend we attended and helped to coordinate the MN Dairy Gota Associations's 32nd Annual conference. It turned out to be a great event! Lots of people attended and heard great topics from wonderful speakers. We also donated a Nubian doe kid for the auction. Congratulations to the Dunham's from Pelican Rapids, MN! They purchased FSF Wild Malibu Breeze for $285.

Off We Go to The Fair

We are headed to the MN State Fair in St. Paul, MN over Labor Day weekend. We includes Laura, Chris and 22 goats. It is quite an experience taking a full livestock trailer on Hwy 494 - but that's all part of the fun, right? If you're in the area, and decide to take part in the great MN get together - be sure to stop in at the Goat/Sheep barn and say hello. Laura will have her cell phone with her if you want to check out where abouts before hand. Although we will be showing most of the day on Saturday, we will be there from Friday through Monday. We look forward to seeing old friends, making new friends and enjoying the chaos and energy that is the State Fair!