Confident And Carefree Spencer

On Saturday our Spencer had his first LONG visit outside. When I mean long, I mean for a few hours WITHOUT us out there with him. Yes I know, I'm thinking the same thing..."He's growing up". And what I find so wonderful to know, he loved every bit of it! That boy has no worries or cares in the world. He's so confident,  he thinks he owns the herd! Who knows, maybe he will someday. But that's just between me and you. :)
He went outside again for a couple hours today as well. His favorite things to climb on are the fire pit and these really big rocks in our ditch. The fella's a climber, that's for certain. :)

King Of The Mountain :)

I have to give it to that Spencer. He's a little onry "rebel". Every time we've taken him outside he seems to fit PERFECTLY in. And I mean perfectly. Spencer doesn't get too scared or frightened when a goat comes up to smell him or butt him. In fact, when one of our goats does come up to butt him...he butts them right back! I've never seen a baby goat be so confident before...and those are the ones raised outside. He's a bottle fed, house raised goat that is full of pride and confidence...inside the house and outside. That little fellow can also be pretty greedy.

One situation that would demonstrate his greediness would be earlier today. Arthur had been standing on two or three cement blocks all grouped together. Well, Spencer sees him and decides he's going to get on top of the blocks too...even if it means butting or pushing Arthur off. Now you have to understand the size difference. Compared to Arthur, Spencer is a little "David"  while Art is Goliath (only to him anyway).
So he walks up to the blocks and tries to get on top. He runs into some trouble (which was suspected) with Arthur as his "enemy" butts him and pushes him away. Now most babies would stop at this point and waltz off some where else getting distractted. But no, Spencer was determined. HE WAS GOING TO GET ON TOP OF THOSE CEMENT BLOCKS. So he starts rearing up at Arthur with furiousness. Butting him and pushing him and butting him and pushing him. It was like that little "rebel"  was saying, "Let me at him! Let me at him!". Arthur I could tell was a little shocked that this "little goat" was so "viscious". But Goliath won in the end of the fight as David was just too small. (Definitely a twist of the bible story). :) Spencer ran away a few steps back and occupied himself with something else. Eventually Arthur plopped off of the cement blocks...and who do you think followed after him? Spencer. His perfect chance. So he walked right up to the blocks and stood on top. He proudly became the "King Of The Mountain". :)

You'll have to excuse the eye color in the picture above. I guess it was just the flash that made it look like the blue you see in his eyes.  :)

"I thought we weren't supposed to get anymore." - All of my "babies"

Well I'm sure our poor goats outside are looking at the snow thinking..."I thought we weren't supposed to get any more." with distraught faces. Yes, as sad as it is for the goats....IT SNOWED AGAIN. I wasn't watching the forcast very closely, so it came as a huge surprise for me....and I can't imagine how it was for the goats! Those poor things were just getting used to their regular grazing...and wha-lah! It happened again. That white stuff has appeared once more...and I don't think it's going any where for a while as we are said to be getting more on Wednesday and Thursday. Oh well. I'm not as against it as much as the goats I'm sure are. It is really pretty to see snow in your yard and fields...I can already here the goats saying now...."Yeah, well you don't have to live in it!". Yup, you guys...I don't...but I get to walk in it while I take care of you all, but I know it's nothing compared to having it as your home. They sure do "tough" things out...and for that my hat is off to them. God bless my "babies".

I guess I'll continue my "goat snow pics" as it's snowed again. :)

Spencer And... "THE TRASH BAG"

Everything has been going wonderful with our goats. The goats are still enjoying the well-deserved grazing time they've been getting these past few days. I think we won't get any more snow, so Lord willing they won't have to endure that long wait again.
Spencer has been growing so fast! His horns are about to be visible. Right now the hair above them is popping up making it look like he has "hair horns". But those little studs are very tangible as I've been feeling them every day. :) Earlier today I had to get out a new trash bag for all of his "precious gifts" he gives WAY too often! (He's a goat, what can I say). :) Now you have to understand that, as I've said before, Spencer is VERY sensitive to noise. Most of the time it's good noise. For instance, my voice and my siblings voices. But there is some bad noise that he is so scared to hear. And I didn't realize HOW scared of this noise he was until today. So as I said, earlier I was getting a new trash bag out for his dirty stuff, and in order to open it you have to lift it up and down...which makes a loud noise. Well, Spencer is out...THE MOMENT he sees the bag...he runs away as fast as he can and hides behind our computer chair while his little head is peeking out from behind it! He DOES NOT like the noise of "The Trash Bag". My heart goes out to him. I could see him saying as he runs away from it..."WUN!! (run)".
Bless his dear little heart. :)

Our Miracle Spencer :)

Right now I'm sitting on the computer waiting for our sweet little Spencer to go to sleep. It seems like he's more tired during the day than he is at night! Now whenever we feed him at night, we have to wait in the same room until he falls asleep....because otherwise he starts going nuts. So it's early in the morning, and that's what I'm doing at this moment. Putting Spencer to bed. :) But it's all worth it. I wouldn't change him for the world even if I could. He's such a special baby boy that I guess you could say we saved. Because I know he would have died like the other four babies had we left him outside that night he was born. It's also possible that we might not have known about him...he had a very slight chance if you think about it. Because had he been born let's say in the early afternoon, we would not have known until later that night...and it could've been too late at that point. So our little (more like BIG now!) Spencer is a miracle and I love him so much. I don't think I could ever sell him or give him away to someone else...HE'S HERE TO STAY. :)

OUR GROWING BOY :) :) :) :) :)...

Here are some very recent pictures of our adorable, growing Spencer. Compared to the pictures we took last week, he looks like he doubled his size since then. My baby's growing up. :) He took another visit to the goats earlier and found that he liked to nibble the grass...thankfully! I was so surprised to see him do it, I thought it would take forever until he even started to lick it...but surprise, surprise...he did it on his third visit. :) He might have eaten a little too, I couldn't tell. I guess he just thought..."Well, I see all the others eating this stuff, maybe I'll try some too...so I can be like the big goats!". He's such a sweetie. :) Although, he doesn't know  that he can run, jump, hop, and walk around out there yet...it just hasn't registered very well in the little brain of his. But it will in time (hopefully!). :) :) :)...

Right now he's being fed by my younger sister. He gulps that whole bottle down in less than 3 minutes! I've never seen a goat eat as fast and as heartily as he does! Like I've said before, he's a GROWING boy! :)

Enjoy the pics! :) :) :)...

Saying GOOD-BYE to the snow :)

Today was just a little too chilly for our growing Spencer to take a trip outside to see the goats this morning. So I just went down to open them all up. It was so wonderful to see them all go out and start grazing again...it feels like forever ago when they were doing that. Almost all of the snow is melted and I am very thankful for the 40 degree weather we've been having pretty frequently lately. And I KNOW that our goats are too. They have been so "cooped up" for a long time since before Christmas...so I know that they are celebrating out there! Here are a few pictures of our goats in the snow to which they are now saying good-bye to. :)

Spencer's First Visits :)

Spencer's visits have now begun as the weather is in the 40s right now...it's so wonderful to feel grass under your feet again! Yesterday was the first time I took him out there to make introductions with our other 16 goats. They did not seem to mind him too much, but they also weren't sure if they liked him. His mommy looked like she thought she recognized him as her baby, but then shoved it off...because there was no bonding that she did with him. But Spencer acted  like he knew her as his head went straight up when he saw her. My grandparents thought that maybe rubbing some of Valorie's spit in his coat may help her recognize him because he'll smell like her. I think it's a really good idea. We haven't tried it yet, but we may do it here pretty soon. Today though I think the goats were a little more social with him. Gracie really liked him, so she might actually be the one to take him in! (She's not even a mother yet!) :) But none of them except his sister, Charlotte, bucked him or was mean to him...they were simply trying to figure the poor little guy out. He liked to walk around on the ground though...it's just all so new to him. And he didn't seem to mind all of the goats coming up to smell him, which I thought was amazing as he probably has barely a memory of any of them. But I think he felt like he fit in. That he was missing something by being in the house with us. So here in a couple weeks he will most likely be with the other goats learning their ways. It will be very sad when he does leave the house, I will miss him a lot! But it will be good for him.

Since yesterday we've been trying to give him a little grain...he spits it out and sneezes. Although once today I think he actually swallowed one othe pieces I gave him. I can already tell though that it's going to be VERY hard to get him to eat grass, hay, and grain. It will be a challenge, but he's going to have to learn how sometime.

I'll have more recent pictures of him posted soon. He's grown a lot! :)

Winter Goats

The weather outside this weekend has been EXTREMELY COLD. We were all worried that some of the goats might not make it as it was going to be in the negatives at night. However, we are VERY thankful to say that all of them are still alive and doing well! :) Me and my sister have been giving them a new hay bale each night to help them produce enough energy to fight the frigid temperatures. So far I think it's worked. I think the worst is over as it will be in the 30-50 degree range for the rest of the week after today - which is good news. So our growing Spencer will start taking visits outside to the other goats starting tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm hoping that the goats will accept him and that maybe his mommy, Valorie, will accept him too - and it would be even better if she actually remembered him as her son...but that's a very slight chance. I'm also hoping that when he does leave the house permanently, there will be at least one goat that takes him in...because he'll need it. Spencer's probably going to feel so lost at first. But hopefully that will change in time. Right now, we've just got to focus on getting him his milk, exercise, and love he needs. :)
Here are some recent winter pics of my sweet "goat babies".

Adorable Spencer :) :) :) :) :) :)...

Well the really good diaper idea was discarded as we decided that super absorbant underpads would work better. But I still like the diaper idea. :) Spencer's fifth day of life went very well. Apparently from my mom's and sister's point of view he looked like he had a little diarrhea this morning, but he's been perfectly fine since. So I'm not so sure he did. But that's just my opinion. Our little guy has started jumping on boxes and carriers to our great delight! I'm glad he's not missing out on the different skills his mother would have otherwise taught him. The only thing that will be hard to teach him is eating grass. Hay and grain should be taken care of by the time he's weaned (Lord willing!). But he's such a very easily pleased baby...I guess you could say Spencer's almost perfect! He loves it when I take him out of his cage to stretch his legs for a little while. He especially likes to fight a pair of boots we have near him...he buts them and buts them until their fully defeated as they fall to the floor! I find it very ammusing to watch.:)

Next week if the weather gets nicer we will start taking him to the other goats for visits. And hopefully he can begin stretching his legs a bit on the porch as there is much more room out there then in here for him to roam around.

I've started seeing different traits he's recieved from his mommy and daddy. One in particular is the way he looks at you and blinks his eyes. Valorie is a pro at this and it's very difficult to explain. Just understand that she has a very distinct way of blinking her eyes and they're constantly twinkling at you...it's very sweet. So you can only imagine how sweet it looks when her baby son does it. :) A trait from his daddy would have to be the way he makes noises with his nose. Pete has always snorted a lot when he eats and breaths...I could never figure out why. It's like he's always had a cold - but yet he's a perfectly healthy buck. Spencer thankfully doesn't do this very much, but he does it every once in a while. It took me a while to figure out where he got it from but then the answer came...THAT'S OUR PETE! :)

Little Spencer also has very long, big ears as I'm sure you've already noticed through the few pictures I've shown you of him. He's got Nubian in his blood somewhere. Valorie I've found has quite a few different goat breeds in her line. Saanan I'm almost possitive is one of them. And now Nubian we think as well.

We ADORE our baby Spencer and enjoy every moment we have with him! I will definitely miss it when he has to leave the house. :(

Trying New Things With Spencer :)

Little Spencer is sleeping in this room where I am right now. He's always so peaceful and calm. He's one of the sweetest babies I've ever had the privilege to know. Last night we put up a nice big dog cage for him to stay in as the plastic box was gettting a little small. :) He doesn't seem to mind it too much...it's definitely a lot more roomy which I'm sure he appreciates. These past couple nights he hasn't woken us up at all. I feed him right before I go to bed and my sister gets up at 6am, but he sleeps pretty soundly through almost the whole entire night - which I'm very thankful for! The first night he was getting me up almost every hour it seemed like (although I could be exaggerating). :) We're also going to be brave and try something new with him. We're going to get Spencer diapers. Yes, I know, I'm sure your first reaction is almost a burst of laughter. But seriously, think with me. We already tryed one on him and we think it will work very well. He's "going to the bathroom" almost ever 10-15 minutes it seems like and within these 4-5 days we're all ready out of paper towels! So the diaper might save us some trouble and money. It's an experiment, but I truly think that it will succeed, right Spencer? Like I said, he's a sleep. :) :) :)...

Baby Spencer

Spencer has been donig wonderful these past few days. Sadly, his mommyValorie dried up and did not accept him when we took Spencer outside to see if she would let him nurse. So he's going to be a full-time bottle fed baby. This is definitely a new experience for all of us as we've NEVER bottle fed a baby goat before, but we're learning very quickly. It's actually not that hard. We've figured out a good feeding schedule for him. Four times a day at 12am, 6am, 12pm, and 6pm. He's also become more playful...he's starting to do the little "goat dance" - if you've never seen it before just understand that it's REALLY cute! :) I do enjoy having him inside, because you can hold him in your arms or lap, you can take him for walks in our utility room...and actually picking up any of his puddles or droppings is not as hard as I thought it would be. He's one of the cleanest babies I've ever known!  He has this special ball now that he likes to cuddle up to when he's laying down. It's so funny to watch him rub on it and hug it next to his head...the ball has become his friend as strange as that sounds! He sure is a pampered baby though. He's getting more love in a day than any of our babies outside got in a week (we can't be outside all the time). :) :) :). Our nightshifts also have been working out really well. I'm still the midnight-4am shift and my sister is the 4am-8am shift. I am more tired but I'm telling you...it's so worth it! I love our little Spencer and I wouldn't trade him for the world! :)

More Death...Thanking God For Spencer

Well, Cassidy finally had her babies in the middle of a night we weren't expecting, it was cold and they didn't make it sadly. These were the babies we had been looking so forward to having...and these were the ones we were for sure about. But nature had its way again. Those does just have to kid overnight while we're not out there. Because had it been during the day, we would have been able to take the kids in as soon as they were born. Those twins would have been cuties. I'm not possitive, but she might have miscarried a third baby. But there's no guarantee for that, so I'm just going to say she had twins (whom I believe were a boy and a girl). It's so sad. And it was hard for me because I was the one who had to take them out. Poor Cassidy though, she was devestated. I've never seen a mommy doe like this before when she looses babies. I feel bad for all the mommies out there who lost babies, including Valorie...even though Spencer's still alive and doing well with us. These few days have been sad. We've had 5 babies born over the course of four days, and one VERY special baby boy lived...and I'm praising God for it! I don't know what I would do if I lost him too - that would just be way too much for me to handle. But we are not going to let this happen next year. From now on, I think we're going to make sure all of our does get pregnant in the winter or late fall, so that they kid in the spring or summer...that would prevent so much hurt. What's so strange though is that we've had A LOT of babies born in the winter before and almost all of them did fine. I guess this winter is just extra cold, that's the only explanation I can come up with. I'm thanking the Lord for little Spencer - or should I say big Spencer...he's already grown a lot since his birth. Here are some cute pictures of the very special baby buck who's being pampered and loved inside our caring home. :)

Happy Birthday Annaliese And Gennavieve

Today we are celebrating a couple goats birthday! Annaliese and Gennavieve have now turned one. After this past weekend I'm not so sure it's a true HAPPY birthday, but at least we have little Spencer to cheer us up. I still  remember the night we found Anna and Genna already born and being cleaned by their wonderful mother, Velvet. They were born around 11:00 pm on a Saturday last year. It was deffinititely an exciting night as our first twin girls were born. They sure were cuties! I remember a song we used to sing to them when they were babies. It was taken off of some song called "My Girls" I think. But anyway, it went like this..."My girls, my girls, my girls! Talking 'bout my girls! Annaliese, Gennavieve!". You'd have to hear it with the tune. But I liked it and we sung it to them as "their special song". I love those two. Sadly, later this year we will be selling them...I'll cherish the moments I have with them until then. Happy Birthday you two!

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Annaliese and Gennavieve! Happy birthday to you!"

Wha-hoo! :)

The Memory Of The Twins...But Spencer Lives On

Well I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is, Victor didn't make it. It's amazing how fast death takes a hold of something. Like I said earlier, he was doing great...and then it just hit him like a baseball bat. He just slowly died the same way his poor sister did. They both fought a good and long fight...but I think they are both better off now then they were this morning. We'll miss Victor and his sister, but to be honest...I'm relieved that it's over. They were half dead this morning and it just seems that since then this whole day has been sad...and I don't think they would have made it anyway had they stayed alive a little longer. Victor and Victoria will never be forgotten and I'll always have them close to my heart.

However, the REALLY good news is...Valorie had a baby! Yes, not Cassidy (once again)...but Valorie! Those does out there are full of surprises! We've got a VERY healthy little boy who I believe we have named Spencer. He's a big guy with a BIG appetite. We took him inside right away and he'll be spending the night with us for the next few nights. Tonight me and my older sister are going to take shifts for watching and feeding him. The couch is going to come in handy. :)  Since he's strong though, we're going to take him outside to his mom for food at certain times each day. He's almost all white with different patches of light tan and maybe gray...Spencer is a cutie! I'm just amazed at how much this day has brought. We've had three babies born over these past two days...two died and one lived. We lost two but the Lord gave us one back as a reminder that he's in control and that he wants to bless us. "The Lord giveth and he taketh away". Thank you Lord for giving Spencer to us! :)

Life And Death

Those two babies fought and fought earlier for life, and sadly the sweet baby girl, Victoria, died about an hour ago. It was very sad, but at the same time I think she's better off...it was a huge struggle for her. Little Victor though, who just so happens to be the one we thought probably wouldn't make it, is doing great! He's been eating and is able to stand and walk around. We think he's going to be fine after a day or two. But there's no guarantee of him being with his mom soon...the weather for the next few days is going to be 20 degrees and below. We might have to bottle feed him all the way. But we'll cross that road when it comes. I'm just so thankful to the Lord that he's okay.
But poor little Victoria...she was so beautiful and sweet. I'm glad she died early though so that we didn't know her very well. Because had we known her well, it would have been even harder to let her go. We'll miss her and she'll never be forgotten.

Victor And Victoria Fighting To Live

This morning I went to take care of the goats to find the new twins half frozen to death. I knew yesterday would not be a good day to have babies as it was supposed to be 9 degrees. I just had no idea about Velvet being that pregnant. So, I picked the babies up and took them inside the house to defrost and get fed (I don't think they got very much from their mother since they were so cold). We wrapped them up in towels and hot pads, gave them some milk, and now they're sleeping in a box together. They look a lot better...I'm praying that they will live. We have names picked out though, neither of them are the ones I told you about last night. The girl is named Victoria, and the boy is Victor...isn't that cute? We thought the names fit perfectly since they are fighting to live right now. Here are a few pictures I took earlier. The one on the left is Victoria, and on the right is Victor. As you can see, they are both wrapped up really well, but at least you can see their faces. I'll post more about them soon.

New Year's Babies :)

Okay, I can barely believe that I am telling you this...WE FINALLY HAD BABIES!!!!! Yes, after this long wait we finally have more babies to cuddle with and love...only one thing. THEY ARE NOT CASSIDY'S BABIES!!!! Yeah, I know, as shocking as this sounds, they're not hers! So who's are they? Velvet's. Yes, they're Velvet's...the goat that surprises us all the time. I figured she was pregnant but I didn't know HOW pregnant until tonight. But she fooled us BIG time today!  I'm just so thankful that we had some more born...and on New Year's Day of all days! We have a new baby girl and a baby boy...which is pretty normal when it comes to Velvet. The girl is so cute! She's almost all brown with white on her legs and stomach, and black on her face...she looks like a paint! The hansom little boy (whom I believe came out first) is almost all white with a little bit of black on him...they're still a little dirty so it's kind of hard to tell. We don't have names yet but eligible names are Christine and Emmit - but we're not possitive. What I just can't get over is that they're not Cassidy's! Since we didn't know Velvet was REALLY pregnant, she was with all the other goats. Tonight was just another typical night to go and close them up. I went in their "house" to count them and there laying next to his mother was the little white boy. At first it's just kind of like "A baby? We have a baby? Who's is this? WE HAVE A BABY!"...it almost seemed like a dream. "Where did this baby come from?" was the question whirling in my head. I checked Valorie..."No" I looked at other females..."No". The last one I checked was Velvet's and YES, that baby was hers! I finally found the girl who was behind the "mama". But I'm telling you, I was in shock for a while...I was so surprised. And now I'm just plain happy! New Year's Babies! It's a great way to kick off the New Year! Thank you Lord! :)

"How could you not know I was going to have babies soon ? Are you dumn or something? You should know me well enough by now!" Well, Velvet...this time...YES we were a little dumn this time!! But glad everything went well! Ha, ha, ha, ha ... :)