Sandy

She's getting bigger. If I get this right, she should be due the end of April. I sure wish she'd have been sooner. But that's ok. I can't wait to see her kids now. After Penelope's little cuties, I know Sandy's will be adorable. I think they are already sold too.

Magic sheep?

Or just a stupid shepherd. 

Yesterday, I put the sheep at the far end of the garden. You can see it here at the end, near the road. It's a pretty big area where we used to have hundreds of strawberry plants. Now there are 6 apple and 3 pear trees. And lots of grass. 

So I got my husband to stand by the gate that goes out the driveway and then when the sheep go in, to get behind them and make sure they go straight and not detour into the garden. Where I have cabbage and broccoli. Well, of course they did exactly that. And ate about 6 of the cabbage plants in about 5 seconds flat. We did finally get them all down there and the gate shut. Darn sheep.

Then after taking hubby back to his truck in Atlanta, I got some fence and more posts. I did this this morning. Put fence all along the garden down to the bottom yard. The sheep can mow all this for me. 

BUT, after a few minutes of the sheep being up here, I saw 2 lambs in the garden. I thought they must have gone under the fence. So got them back over and checked the fence. I really didn't see any place where they could get under. So a little while later, I'm standing out there watching them and saw one of the same lambs, Biatrix, go right through the fence into the garden. Like magic, right through the fence. I ran and got her out again and really looked close where I saw her go through.

And this is what I found. A little opening just right for a lamb to walk right through. What about that? I had to use this piece of older fence to get it all the way to the other fence. And forgot there is this little opening in it. SO, I got another little fence piece and fixed that little problem. Darn shepherd!

Milking Zarah. Or not.

So this is what Zarah's udder looked like this morning after putting the kids up for the night. And Ella Belle was out this morning. Apparently she had just gotten out. If you look real close or zoom in, you can see her teats. About maybe 1 1/2" long and the size of a pencil width. I could get 1 finger plus the thumb on them. She was tight as a drum. And SO hard to milk. I have not even attempted to milk her since I had wormed her with the Dectomax 4 weeks ago. And it has a 32 day milk withdrawal time.

So, between her kicking and raising her feet or else just plain sitting down like a dog on top of the bucket, I was plum worn out. She did not like this or want anything at all to do with it. I even tried to get Ella to come in and nurse some. But what happens when you actually WANT a kid to nurse on the stand?? Nothing. She ran around and played hide and seek and "catch me if you can", which of course I couldn't in the milk room. Too much to get behind and under. So, after about 20 minutes of me not wanting her to think she was gonna win this first round, I quit. Went and got Ira Joe out of the stall. They both tried to nurse but she only stood still for a few seconds. They did some more for a little while, while I watched. I sure don't want Zarah to get mastitis.

So, a few days ago, a friend in Tn. called about a milking machine she had just bought from a man near her up around Nashville. He makes these machines. For $175.00. Everything except the battery, which is only a little more. She milks about 9 goats and she is loving this machine. It filters and cools the milk. Really nice. Well, when she called, I thought I didn't need a machine. But after this morning, I called the guy. I told him about Zarah's small teats and he said he didn't think the suction things would stay on such small teats. But he said he'd look for a smaller size. Because I think I really want one now. Just for Zarah. Because I am worn out and it was NO fun at all. For her or me. And I don't want her to hate this.

So my 1st day of April has not turned out so good. Like the guy suggested, get the kids up on the stand and let them nurse some milk out, then try again. Sounds like a plan, if the kids will do it. They should be hungry enough to. I was so hoping that Zarah would take after her mother Abby. Maybe next time? She is a first freshener.