Wilderland...

Today, my daughter, her 2 Boxers Rousey and Daisy, and me and my dog Stella, went to the most beautiful place to walk. It's a private property at the foot of Lookout Mt. It's beautiful. I want to live there. I would never leave.

The dogs had a ball, jumping in every lake and stream and mud puddle they found.  Just look at that water! All blues and greens. Magical. That's Lookout to the West.

This lake is at the top. There are about 7 or 8 on this property. Maybe more. But each one is amazing. Little waterfalls and streams all over. Even some natural springs with wonderful cold water!

One of the guys who own this property has a son who walks tightropes. There is one across this lake. It goes from here to the other side. He has done this from the 2 Aquariums in Chattanooga. He's good. But what a great place to fall, right?

The most peaceful place ever. And a beautiful day to go for a long walk.

kids...

This morning we went out back to see what we needed to fix the electric fence. Thorin and Alva came to say hello to Tiny. All the kids were out this morning early. We had a hard freeze last night and it was really bone chillin' cold out. I am so ready for some nice warm weather please!

I had let the sheep and alpacas out back last night, after I put the goats to bed. After I fed the sheep and alpacas, I let the goats out. All the kids were out and I saw Misha and Sugar at the gate, checking the babies out. They love babies. They practically raised the 3 bottle lambs 3 years ago. They are still good buddies. So I told the boys they will have plenty of baby lambs to take care of real soon. I'm sure Amarillo, the ewe that had the quads, is going to have quads again. She is rather huge right now. Some of it is her wool because she was the only one who didn't get sheared in September last year. But it is babies too. I called my friend Carrie to see if she was serious about wanting bottle babies and if she was, she better get ready for a few! She said yes, they were really wanting some babies. I am happy about that!

I kind of wish we had gotten snow instead of this frost the past 2 nights. I didn't cover anything, so I know I've lost my few blueberry bushes that had tons of flowers on them already. And the 3 fig bushes had tips of green. The elderberry bushes had full leaves too. It's been a wonky winter for sure here. I'll be so happy to see it leave us.

And we're all done!

In less than 12 hours, kidding season started and was over. Last Tuesday, the 7th, about noon, Freya was in the back stall in their barn, laying down when I checked on them. She didn't show any signs of labor at all. In fact, I had written dates down, starting March 9th through the 24th, so I wasn't even thinking about kids then.


I was in my studio, which is right in front of the barn. I thought I heard a baby goat, but thought there's no way. But I heard it again. So I went out and sure enough, there were 3 little goat babies. 3 of them!! I knew Freya had more than just 2 kids in there, as huge as she was.

So got some towels and helped dry them off as much as I could. They are all girls!! All are doing great. I have tried to give them a bottle, but they will not take it. I have had to milk her some, because the kids will just nurse her right side. Her teats are SO big, they can't get their little tiny mouths on it. So when I get most of the milk out, it helps them.  She's such a good momma.

It's been really cold here and they are small, so I decided to put little sweaters on these guys.

Then, about 11 that same night, I went to check on Olga. I had noticed earlier that she was laying down, getting up and pawing, then laying down again, quite often. So I was watching her.

When I went out at 11:30, she'd already had 1 kid, and the head and a leg of another were coming out. I couldn't find the other leg, so I gently pulled when she'd push. And out came another kid.

The darker one came first. It's a buck. I named him Thorin, after the dwarf king under the mountain, in the Hobbit. I was hoping I'd get at least 1 buck so I could use that name.

The lighter one is a doe. I named her Alva.

I am milking Olga because she's SO big and the kids cannot drink it all yet. Her milk is really good and we are drinking it already. I have missed goat milk so much and it's SO good! I wish Freya's kids could nurse on Olga. She has perfect little teats, just the right size for little mouths.

So I was way off on dates. That buck must of got them both as soon as he went through the gate here! Just bam, bam, done! And I kept him here 6 weeks.

These kids are SO cute and sweet! And I am SO allergic! I'm having to take Claritin just so I can breath. And hay too.  But I have to love on these sweet babies!

I'm sorry I haven't been posting here. I take pictures with my phone so it takes forever to load them onto this blog.

I will try to post more often though.

Oh, if anyone has some really cute Irish, Celtic, fairy, elf, hobbit names for girls, please let me know. I need 3 for Freya's girls.