31 days or less.......

My does udder changed this weekend. The hubs actually noticed and said "well I guess she is pregnant" He may not survive this birthin' LOL!!!! Her ligaments have gone soft, came back, one would go and one would stay, then finally yesterday they were both soft and this morning they are still soft but I can still feel one. It seems like they are wider on her back than before. The time is getting closer for sure ☺
We introduced the 10 teenage chicks to the flock yesterday. They have been in a pen inside the chicken run for a month so everyone has seen each other they just hadn't mingled. It's pretty cute to watch. Little black Silkie is without a doubt my favorite chickie. When I pick her up she coo's ♥ that bird. I need to sell about 15 more baby chicks but I've been procrastinating. Not a big fan of dealing with strangers.
I think the baby bun is a boy. He is a doll but I don't need another boy, so he will go to a new home when he's old enough. I'm not sure I want to continue with cute rabbits. I would like to try my hand at meat rabbits. I just don't know what to do with the buns I have and my youngest is really attached to them :/
Planted the most beautiful grape vines yesterday. It took longer than I thought so the big garden will be planted today since it's supposed to be over 80* and I'm hoping the garden won't be as muddy ☺
Hope everyone has a great week! Happy Monday ya'll!

Still waiting :/

I have figured out that she should be due anytime between today and 36 days from today at the VERY latest :/ How's that for an estimated delivery date! I'm weary and ready to look at anything besides goat hiney. Tonight is a full moon, hopefully that will drag it out of her. Fingers crossed

Bunny pics!!!

11 days old. Eyes still aren't open but it's soo cute!!!
Okay going outside now to garden and soak up some sun. Have a great weekend ya'll ☺

4/20

My doe has discharge and her udder is tightening up. We are getting closer ☺☺☺
Apologies to my male readers who are grossed out by this! I'm just soo excited (squeal)!!!
Just for fun, here is a picture of my puppy. The one I bottle fed. She has a new favorite spot ☺

Any Guesses??????

This is what I stare at a gazillion times a day :/ Sounds fun huh!?! My neighbor thinks another 4 weeks. The hubs might be with her on that but I'm not sure since he aggravates the living daylights out of me by acting like her udder isn't growing or she's not even pregnant! I've had her "in labor" about a dozen times so my thoughts don't count. What do you guys think?

Goat ?

Last night my pregnant doe had what looked like stomach cramps. She would hunch her body up and squat and push really hard which would cause her to toot. She did this about three times in a row but then stopped. I've seen my buck do this a few times but his was from man business. Fiasco Farms website said that female goats can get "girl boners" too but I have never seen her do that before (hormones maybe?). They stayed in the barn for almost two straight days because of the rain. I'm assuming she ate more hay than usual from boredom, but the feed hasn't changed. Any thoughts on what I should look for or be concerned about?
Also I've noticed her licking metal objects alot lately. I give my goats a free choice mineral supplement should I include a salt block of some sort? I've read that the block will keep them from consuming the free choice minerals and that wouldn't be good but I feel like she's lacking something. What kind of minerals do you guys offer your goats?

Busy

With school coming to an end we are busier than ever. Volleyball games, cheer clinics, and programs are keeping this girl very busy. Back on the homestead my rabbit had one baby yesterday :) I need to check on them since the weather went from 80 degrees and sunny to 34 degrees and raining this morning. My goat is still pregnant, looking at her now I can't believe I ever thought she was close to delivery before (face palm)  DUH!!! I'm new at this goat stuff and it's all a learning experience. My newest challenge is to battle the mosquitoes and flies. They are driving the goats CRAZY! The chickens got a new pen. My neighbor is about to plant his garden and without proper fences you can only imagine what my feathered friends would do. With them penned up the last two days I have worried less about stray dogs, foxes, coyotes, and them being somewhere they aren't supposed to be. The hawks still worry me but they are pretty good at taking cover and my roosters are good at their sky watching job. A few weeks ago I sold 20 of the new baby chicks for $1 a piece. I have 20 more that are selling today and 15 eggs still in the incubator. The broodys all snapped out of it the day I found two babies in the yard with no mamma hen and one that had been trampled to death on the platform where there food was. I took all the eggs and babies and cleaned the nests up and they were over it. There was just too many mammas in the nests for them to care for the babies I think there was seven hens in three nests, and visitors all day long to eat up the food it was ridiculous! I did end up with six silver Cochins that look like my Ms. Squirty so I'm happy about that! I harvested more asparagus for dinner last night, too yummy! My green onions are ready and with this rain my lettuce and carrots are growing really well. We have about another week until its safe to plant the big garden. Enjoy the day ya'll and if anyone has a good mosquitoe/fly repellent recipe for goats I'm all ears ☺

Not so Good Friday

Friday my sweet neighbor texted me that her goat Wilma had discharge. If you didn't read Wilma's story here is the link. Wilma was at day 152 of pregnancy. The hubs was picking up my little one and her friend and I picked up my oldest from school. My middle daughter had cheer tryouts until 10pm so she was still at school. We all got to the house around 2pm and decided to go next door and check on Wilma. After watching her for a few minutes I could tell she was in labor. It was everything you read about the goo, the contractions, the nesting, and it was awesome to see it instead of read about it. After about an hour things were progressing and she was going into active labor. I ran home to get my kidding bag and by the time I got back Wilma's owner had called the vet. New plan, we were taking her to the vet just in case she needed help delivering. My husband picked her up and put her in the back of a Toyota Four Runner and off we went. The only vets around here that treat livestock are 30 minutes away. So here I am driving a SUV that's not mine, trying not to hit bumps or swerve too much because Wilma wouldn't lay down for the first half of the trip. It was nerve racking and the gas light was on, so we had to stop and get gas on the way LOL!
We make it to the vet. Neither one of us has used this vet and they were recommended to me by several people that have goats. The vet gets her out of the car and onto a stanchion where the assistant holds her by her horns. I cringe just thinking about how Wilma felt. They examined her for a long time (too long if you ask me). The hooves were out after a bit but the head was turned back, they worked on that forever (too long). After maybe 30 minutes they decide to do a c-section but the vet that was working on her had to go on a farm call so the other vet who was busy was going to do the surgery. They take poor Wilma with hooves hanging out and put her into the nastiest stall to wait (too long) She was in the poo and pee encrusted stall for almost 20 minutes until the vet was done looking at a calf and had prepped the room. They got her in and on the table. My oldest daughter and I went to the restroom and peeked in the room and saw the baby on the ground and heard them say there was only one. After 30 minutes they said she had one boy and they were both fine but things could change you never know what could happen. We pulled the car around they brought out the baby. It was limp, lifeless and barely alive. We rubbed it's chest and pulled mucous out of it's mouth while they loaded up Wilma. I finally told my neighbor the baby wasn't right she took it and couldn't get it to respond and asked the vet to look at it once again. He said it was gone :( He was the same color as his mother and looked like a Nubian like it's daddy, he was a doll.
I'm not too happy with that particular vet. In my opinion they left the baby inside the mother too long with it's sack broken. For poor Wilma and her owner to go through the c-section and come home with only a scar is a tragedy. I cried the minute we got into the car to leave but quit, since her owner, the 12yr old granddaughter and my 16 yr. old were being so strong. When we got home I ran to my house got the hubs to help unload Wilma took my little ones friend home, grabbed some subs from Subway for my family, did my chores, went back to check on Wilma, came home and finally got my cry out. It was a very long and very sad day :( The only good thing to come from this is a new friendship with my sweet neighbor. She is one tough lady.

Dreaming

I have so many little chicks that last night I woke up yelling at the hubs that we were squishing the babies. I thought they were in the bed with us!!! That's when you have alot of chickens LOL! We are at chicken count 61! I'm going to keep the colorful ones, but most the the black chicks I will post for sale today. 

Also at some point last night or early this morning I remembered that back in December I thought my goat was in labor (remember I am new to this goat keeping thing). Since she ran with my buck which they won't do this year I'm not sure when or if she even got pregnant. Now thanks to my dream or memory resurfacing I realize that she was in heat. This new revelation has given me some much needed relief. Miss Lady isn't due until May!!!!! No more midnight checks for a few weeks and maybe I will get some sleep. I will eventually figure this goat stuff out, it's a learning experience and hopefully this time next year I won't be such a sleep deprived lunatic and I WILL HAVE A DUE DATE ☺