Long Time No Blog!

With the busy schedule that March Madness (aka kidding season) brought, I realized that I have failed to blog. 


So much has happened! Each of our three does had a single kid. Tally had a ten pound chocolate buckling who is  already in his new home where he is the Jr herdsire. Hershey gave us a beautiful, chocolate and white doeling. And Lacey, our sweet,wonderful grade LaMancha doe gave us a solid milk chocolate doeling. Lacey, unfortunately was CAE positive and became symptomatic. She was in so much pain that we had to put her down. It was one of the hardest things we have had  to do. We loved her so much. But we have her daughter who was pulled the minute she born into this world since she never received so much as s drop of milk from Lacey, she will be free of the CAE virus. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Lacey, but we have her beautiful daughter to remember her by.


We also brought in a new Jr herdsire and a new doeling!




Without further ado, here is our babies!All registered names are of course pending approval by the ADGA.

This first pic is our new Jr herdsire, Crossroads End's Diamond Rio in the lead, with Crossroads End's Lady Antebellem (the black and white one) and Oat Bucket Farm Lacey's Jewel both following him.

Crossroads End's Lady Antebellem (Bella for short)

Oat Bucket Farm Almond Joy (Joy) in the forefront with Oat Bucket Farm Lacey's Jewel (Jewels) in the background.

Crossroads End's Diamond Rio (Rio)

Bella and Joy

Bella says, "I am just too cute for words!"

Joy says, "I am just as cute."

Jewels says, "I'm cute too and I have jewels (wattles) to boot!" 

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Green!

There is green outside! Okay, so I know that it isn't technically spring yet. In fact we are looking at getting a bit of snow (I am really hoping the weather people are wrong about this) by the end of the week. But, there is green outside. The stems of the rose bushes are turning green, the strawberry plants are starting to turn green,little clover like plants are starting to spring up and there is a faint tint of green in the yard if you look closely.

The humidity is also back. For the past two days there has been a humid south breeze. Oh it was lovely! My parched sinuses were in heaven. It really has been a beautiful couple of days.

I even found some sort of dead flying insect in the goats' water bucket yesterday! Okay I know, getting excited about the return of bugs seems strange, but I am just so ready for spring.

We bought tons of seeds last week and in a couple of more weeks we will be tilling and planting the cold weather plants. I can't wait! We have so many garden plans this year, including reworking an old plot and creating a whole new one. Gearing up for garden season is almost as exciting as gearing up for kidding season which begins next week with Tally.

The dragging days of winter are almost over. Soon they will be replaced with a frenzy of activity. Green things will be growing, gardens will be getting put in,baby goats will be bouncing around and baby chickens will be cheeping. I love spring.

Oat Bucket Farm Website

Through a Child's eyes

Having children allows me to see things through the eyes of a child. It is a wonderful thing that ensures I never fail to see the magic in the world. Whether its magnificent shapes in the clouds, the intricate colors on a bug, or in tonight's case, the simple wonder of a shower.

This evening my youngest, who is three, discovered the novelty of a shower. Baths are fun, lots of splashing and carrying on, but tonight, there was a new element. Tonight the shower was on. And oh the simple joy of water falling from somewhere up near the ceiling. I let him plug up the tub and he gleefully sloshed back and forth the length of the tub, in and out of that wonderful glittering fall of water. The pure happiness that such a thing inspired was magical and I thoroughly enjoyed being yet again allowed to see the world through the eyes of a child, where it was so much more than a simple shower and a couple of inches or so of water.

After he was clean and had played and played and laughed and tried to catch drops in his mouth, he climbed out. I wrapped a towel around him and we stood in the moist warmth of the bathroom together to watch the grand finale of bath/shower time...the draining of the water from the tub. My son never ceases to be amazed that the drain can drink so much water. He stood there, leaned slightly of the edge of the tub, damp toes curled into the plush rug next to the tub and watched as it gurgled and slurped and with a final gulp, the drain yet again drank every drop of water in the tub. To which my son happily squealed, "He dank it all!" 

The world would be better place if adults could find such magic and happiness in such simple things.   

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Women...Who Stare At Goats

Kidding begins here in three weeks (give or take a few days). As the time draws closer we find ourselves staring at the goats.

Out doing chores this morning and while the goats were eating we stared at the does' bellies. Watching.Waiting. And then we saw it. A bump here, a roll there. More bumps and rolls as the baby goats paddled around inside their mommas bellies. We could see larger rolls and then the smaller bumps of knees and little hooves. Squeeeeee! So cute.

But of course, the bellies aren't all we stare at. We are checking hoo-haas for any signs of discharge, we are looking at growing udders and feeling them to see how they are progressing. Our neighbors probably think we are crazy. But this is a farming community with lots of cows getting ready to calve, so maybe they don't.

And while we watch, we worry. In fact we experience a great deal of anxiety. What if there are several babies and they are all tangled? What if there is only one really big baby that will be hard to get out? What if ... ?

This is why Women Who Stare At Goats have no finger nails and thinning hair. We chew our nails down to a nub and we pull our hair out in a combination of anxiety and frustration when our does stand around as their due date approaches (and sometimes passes) and they happily chew their cud while we wake at every little sound on the baby monitor-the other half of which is in the barn- and make multiple treks to the barn throughout the night to check on them. Which inevitably ensures that they will kid in the afternoon while we are already out there, completely rendering the late night trips from our warm bed to the cold barn totally useless.

Despite all of this, we will go through this again next spring, and the one after that, and the one after that. And each year we will once again join the ranks of Women...Who Stare At Goats.


Oat Bucket Farm Website

Cold Cold Go Away!

(I took this picture on my way out to do chores one morning)

I am so tired of the cold. I want green things growing, and baby animals and all of the soft sounds of spring. We have eagerly went through the seed catalogs as they arrived, making plans for new garden plots and marking things we want to grow; some of it tried and true and some of it something new.


As if in mockery of our spring time plans and our yearning for warm sunshine and soft south breezes, mother nature decided to coat us in a layer of ice and then layer us in snow. The temps will be in the single digits tonight and morning feed will be very, very cold. I suppose one could say that if we didn't have the critters then we could lay about in our warm beds. And yet the only thing that will keep morning chores from being miserable is the fact that will be in the company of our critters. I would rather be out in the cold taking care of them than laying about in a warm bed. Those that would rather have the warm bed just don't know what they are missing. I would wager a good amount that I am much happier out breaking ice out of buckets than my neighbor is out scraping his windshield.


Warm or cold, a morning just isn't a morning without goat kisses and happy hens.

Oat Bucket Farm Website

Goats put up with the snow

They aren't thrilled about it. They aren't happy that its in their pen. They are slightly offended that we have not cleared all vestiges of it from their pen. But the sun is out and the temp is almost 40 degrees. So they put up with the snow for a chance to stand in the sun.

Oat Bucket Farm Website

12 Step Goat Program

I am a member of a goat forum and in a thread someone commented that goats were addcitive and that we needed a 12 step program. I realized after I read that, that we already have one. So I wrote out the steps so everyone can know them.


step 1. see goats on TV/in a magazine/on the internet

step 2. think they are neat and read a little about them

step 3. start thinking you might want some someday

step 4. see a goat in person and fall completely in love

step 5. decide that you definitely want goats after you have everything ready

step 6. (this is an important one) join forum full of goat addiction enablers or GAE's

step 7. talk to GAE's and start feeling that you really can't wait as long as you thought you could

step 8. read every link they give you

step 9. read posts on the forum made by the GAE's about pregnant goat bellies and look at pictures of baby goats and talk of wonderful milk and soap.

step 10. put deposits on a couple of disease free doelings (you learned about diseases from all of those GAE's) to be born in a couple of months because you can't stand waiting a moment longer

step 11. drag significant other out into the cold to help you build shelters and fencing as you scramble to be ready for the new arrivals.

step 12. bring home baby goats, fall completely and totally in love and start making breeding plans. Within a couple of weeks you purchase a buckling and friend for him. And the cute little doeling you saw for sale on the forum a couple of weeks later. Then put up another shelter and pen for the buckling, realize that maybe you do have room for that other cute little doeling you saw on that website and that maybe that handsome buckling you saw on the forum would be a good idea too because you will need someone to breed next year's babies too because you have to keep some of them to see how they turn out...


Oat Bucket Farm Website