Our Glen Hill Farm family is growing!
Two weeks ago, we brought home two doeling kids (girl baby goats).
They are Nigerian dwarf goats.
We were planning to get a few goats this spring, assuming that was when baby farm animals are usually born, but when we found out that our friends at The Hillside Farm had some kids ready to go, we decided to jump in!
We first met these kids back in October, but they were too young to leave their mom at that point. Kit Kat (the darker one) and Cream (the lighter one) were born in September with their brother Milkshake... Triplets! We decided to just take the two girls, and that way the mom would still have her little boy by her side. And I think two goats is plenty for us right now. Our long range plan is to get milk from our goats to make cheese, so that is why we opted for the girls. But it will be a while down the road because in order to give milk, the goat needs to have a baby first. So once these girls are grown and once we are ready, we hope to breed one of them. Goats can have between one and three babies at a time, so our herd could double in one go! But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now we are just enjoying these two crazy characters!
Kit Kat and Cream are super sweet and totally hilarious. There's a lot of crazy running about and spastic jumping happening around here these days! :) They love leaping onto the doghouse roof, climbing up the slide, and gently head butting each other. But their most favorite activity is hanging out with us humans....and especially jumping onto our backs. If you lean over to pet one goat, I can guarantee that the other goat will be standing on your back in a heartbeat! So silly and it actually feels good! Like a mini massage! I'm sure this cute trick will lose its appeal once they grow some more, but for now my boys (and our kids!) are loving it!
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| So "helpful" to have goats jump on my back while I was trying to fix their feeding station! |
Ryan holding Kit Kat. Ben holding Cream. (We may give them new names, we haven't decided yet. But we're thinking maybe Sassy and Holly...As a nod to our current and previous neighborhoods.)
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Our ride home from the Hillside Farm with the kids in the back...
They found the hay. Look how tiny they are!...
And the door to their outside pen...
Down the ramp...
Outside, inside the doghouse...
On top of the doghouse...
Eating my hat...
Kit Kat (or Sassy?) having fun on the slide...
Cream (or Holly?).... Such a cutie!
They've already grown so much in just two weeks...
Our dogs are VERY interested in the goats. Lots of stalking and barking going on. Very similar to when the horses arrived last year. So, learning from that experience, I know that in a few short weeks the dogs will calm down and they will adjust to the new normal of having goats on the farm. I bet sooner than later they will all be playing together.
If you want to see some cute goat activity (nothing too exciting, just 2 minutes of normal goat playing), I've uploaded a video here. Because really, tiny goats are pretty stinkin' cute, just because.
Video Link: Goats Playing On Slide
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Jonathan and Ryan working out Thanksgiving morning (crushing the "Murph" WOD)...
We hosted 15 people for Thanksgiving this year...
And Jonathan fried a 13 pound turkey! I have to admit that the fried turkey was the best!
And lots of help from everyone else with delicious appetizers, side dishes and desserts...
Ben baked a pumpkin pie all by himself... even a homemade crust!...
It was a great day! So much to be thankful for!
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The hens are all doing well. Penelope and Reese are going through their molts right now, so they look just terrible, but they should finish up in a week or two. I can't wait to clean out the coop afterwards to get rid of all those feathers! (Wish I could think of a good craft project to put all these feathers to good use.) They are the last two to molt, so once they are done, we should be finished... until next year, that is!
Silly Minerva Louise keeps laying her eggs on the floor! She goes in the nesting box, sits for a bit, and then she gets bored or hungry and comes out to eat, and ends up laying her egg on the floor! Silly girl. But I just appreciate that she's still laying eggs for us. Egg production is way down due to the shorter days and their molting. Keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have to buy eggs this winter. I haven't bought eggs since we got chickens and I'd like to keep it that way. We're totally spoiled at this point.
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I am loving this weather lately! Beautiful days and no snow yet. Don't get me wrong...I love the snow, too, but the landscape's colors are beautiful right now.
