I'm a great grandma!!

 My daughter's dog Daisy had 9 puppies yesterday. Jason had to take her to the vet for a C-section early and brought her home later that afternoon with 9 puppies. 5 girls and 4 boys. She's a bit sore and overwhelmed, but doing pretty good for her first litter. And they're all so cute! She's a Boxer and a Shepherd got to her. But the pups all look like they have that cute Boxer nose. Adorable! And she's the best little momma ever. Constantly licking and cleaning.

I love this. She's such a good dog. And has always been so gentle and nice to everyone. These puppies will be good dogs.

Anyone need a cute adorable little puppy soon?

Around and about the farm

 It's been crazy here lately. SO much to do and not enough ME to do it all! And now another bottle baby. I had to take her to the market with me Saturday. Everyone loved her. She followed me all over the place. I had some other things to do before going back home. Like stopping to check on my very pregnant grand dog Daisy. She got to meet Mirabelle too. She's such a sweet dog.

This is the goat playground. A pile of big rocks. There has been a whole lot of baby goats playing right here over the years. Little Mirabelle got to play too.

                       All 10 apple trees are in full bloom. And now it might freeze tonight. Crazy weather!

We finally got all the hive boxes put together and the old ones cleaned up. Put all new frames in them. I've painted them all too but will show that in another post when they are finished. They look so pretty. Hope the bees like their new homes!

                   We had 2 of the grand kids for the weekend. This is Chloe, feeding Mirabelle a bottle.

And I had no idea alpacas liked to get wet. There's a hole in this hose and when I was filling up the water buckets, I saw them doing this. Sugar just laid right down on the water, silly boy! I turned the hose on them and they loved it!

It's Tuesday. My day with mom. And it's rainy and so cold out. I hope you all have a nice warm Tuesday.

Little Miracle

 Tuesday evening, Zeeboo had triplets. Just like I thought she would. I wasn't here to help though. When I got home, she had the 2 boys all dried and fed. But there was another baby. When I found her, I thought she was dead. She hadn't even been cleaned off and it was nearly dried. I picked her up and she was breathing. So I put her up to Zeeboo's udder and she got a few good swallows of colostrum in.

I grabbed Zeeboo and took her into the back stall then went to get the kids. She wouldn't have anything to do with the poor little doe kid. Just the 2 boys. So I went ahead and took her inside. I milked Zeeboo and got about a good quart of colostrum and got a bottle to try to feed the little baby. She would hardly even try by then. I tried to tube her but couldn't get the tube down far enough and it looked like it was hurting her. So I used a syringe to get milk in her.

I really didn't know if she'd make it or not. She was leaning to the right really bad and could not stand at all. I was at the point last night when I just asked God to let the poor baby die. I guess that's why Zeeboo didn't do anything with her, something was wrong and she knew it.

But then something happened and the little girl got up and stood on her own! Without leaning! And took a whole little bottle of milk! All at once too. Then she stood on her own for awhile. We were all so happy for her. And relieved too. It was just a little more than I could take at this point. Like I had so much to do and I needed to care for a handicapped goat too?

This is when I took her back out yesterday morning, to see what would happen. It was so sad.

                                                        Here's her 2 brothers. So cute!

                            This is last night when we saw her standing. Kansas was so happy for her.

                                                  So today, I've had her outside several times.

She went to see her brothers and mom. Zeeboo almost bit her one time so I knew she didn't want her.

              Then she went out to meet the lambs. Look at the size of Carabella next to her! Like a giant.

      Then she met Misha. He was so interested in her. And was so nice too. He's just a big teddy bear!

                                                         He was such a nice big guy.

And here is little Mirabelle, getting some sun. It's a beautiful day here today. Great day to be outside soaking up all that warmth.

I am so glad she's going to be ok. I was really worried. I had said I was going to take her to a vet today. But guess I won't have to now. I think the little gal is going to be fine. And she weighs 4 1/2 pounds today.

Forgot to say that this is John Henry's 3rd set of triplets this year! My friends up the road used him on their 2 does and one of them had triplets but 1 was still born. Then another friend brought her doe here and she called a few weeks ago to tell me Trudy had triplet doe kids. They are all doing great! And then Zeeboo. Also had a call today from a friend who has goats and has used John Henry before but not this last time. But one of her does just had triplets.

Zarah had twin does!!!!

Look what I found this morning! Zarah finally had her kids. And they are both little does! I just new the tan one would be a buck, but it's not. They were born probably about a half hour before I got out there. They were all cleaned off but a little damp. Both nursing and look really good. And so cute. I put them all in the back stall so I could give her some warm molasses water and feed. It's supposed to rain later again so I'll leave them in awhile.

I found these pictures from last year and wanted to show how much they look like her new kids. The little black one is a doe and looks just like her mother. The tan one is the buck and looked just like John Henry. He's the dad of the new ones too. Almost identical kids this year.

                                                  So yay, 3 does had 5 girls and just 1 boy!

Now just waiting on Zeeboo. Look at this fat girl! I am liking the looks of her udder and teats. I think she'll be an easy milker.

Still waiting...

Oh my goodness, these 2 goats will not have their kids! What is wrong with them? Zarah, in the 1st picture, has a very full tight udder but still hasn't had kids.

Zeeboo, the black doe in the back, is huge and waddles all over. But still nothing going on with her either. And it'll be a week since Sandy had hers. It's just crazy.

It started raining this evening and is supposed to rain til Tuesday around noon. I betcha these 2 goats will kid sometime in all this rain. I just betcha. It's just like a goat to wait til the most crappy weather possible to have kids.

I have no idea what little Woody is doing, so don't ask! It looks bad anyway.

All is well!

                                           Jewel finally got the hang of it! I am so glad she did.

                                (I didn't realize this was such a bad picture when enlarged. Sorry.)

Goat kids and farm visitors

 How does life get so busy all of a sudden? I hardly did anything all winter. Now, it's like every day, there is something that needs to be done or somewhere to go. Or animals being born. Or markets to go to. Things to get planted. It just goes on and on and on lately.

But today, I stayed home. I told my husband I am not going anywhere. I had bought 3 big bunches of onions and a 9 pack of cabbage that I was going to plant and that was about it for me. Well, besides the house needs cleaning SO BAD! And all the farm chores. And lamb feedings. And farm visitors.

And now I seem to have another bottle baby. I noticed this little cutie of Sandy's yesterday, looking rather small and wonky looking. They were all outside yesterday afternoon and this little gal just didn't look right to me. So I scooped her up and brought her inside. I gave her some Vitamin E oil and a bottle of milk wixed with colostrum. She sucked it down! She was SO hungry. And SO tiny. She was born first and her sister is way bigger than her. I figured out that Sandy's teats are just too big for her to get in her mouth. So she hadn't been nursing. And I had been too busy to notice. So I gave her another small bottle after market, then again at 11 pm. And already today, 2 bottles. And now she thinks she belongs to me.

She is so adorable. Yesterday, when I picked her up, I called her my little jewel. So that her name now. Jewel. I am hoping that if I keep her with Sandy and her sister and the others, that when she gets a bit bigger, she'll be able to nurse from Sandy. Will that happen though? Has anyone had success with this? I don't know.

A few days ago, I started driving up to my friend's farm to milk their 2 does. I am getting up early to go milk them first. Their kids are about 6 weeks old now. And need to be sold as soon as possible. So I have gotten a half gallon both days. I did keep most of the first milk for me. It's the first goat milk I've had since Penelope dried up. And it was SO GOOD! Other than that, these lambs and Jewel get ALL the milk.

I sure wish Zarah and Zeeboo would have their kids and get this over with already! Zeeboo is huge! I am thinking she's going to have triplets. Wouldn't surprise me at all. John Henry has already had 2 sets of triplets from this breeding.Not my goats though.

This is Jewel's sister. Yesterday, I picked my grand daughter Kansas up to help me at market. We were talking about cute goat names and she said she likes the name Aslan, that it sounds magical to her. It does, doesn't it? So this little girl's name is Aslan now. I think that is from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe? And it was the lion's name? But I like it for her anyway.

Here are Penelope's kids, all stretched out. They've had a busy morning. I think Emmy Lou is going to be naturally hornless, like her momma! But Woody's horn buds are already showing.

This is one of the little girls that came to the farm to see all the animals. She wanted to gather the eggs. She did such a great job getting them all one by one and placing them ever so gently in the basket. Cameron wanted to help her! She got to help feed Jewel her bottle too. Such a fun time on the farm! These are some people I met at the market. I love it! I had a really good time at market Wed. Met lots of people. I love this market in Chattanooga. Such fun people that come shopping there. Can't wait to start bringing produce soon.

My sister Heidi has been in surgery today. The moved her to another hospital and are doing this surgery to try to get her lungs working better. My mom and Heidi's middle daughter, who lives in S. Ga. are going to leave Sat. morning to go be with Heidi for a week. I am so glad mom's going. Heidi has a long recovery ahead of her. And I would want my mom there with me. I know Heidi will be happy to see her.

And Tiny went to the wound care doc this morning. It's infected. AGAIN. More antibiotics. I'm beginning to wonder if this ankle will ever heal. Ugh.

 Hubby went back to town to get tires for my car. I went to drive down the drive way this morning and the back right tire was so flat. So we need new ones anyway. Gotta get dinner fixed now. Y'all have a great evening!