Lost And Found Bradley

Bradley is an adorable little chum! We have not EVER had a baby like Bradley, let me tell you - or a mother like Charlotte either. Let me explain. A couple days ago, Bradley was let out into the orchard with his mommy and the other goats. Our fingers were crossed that he would stay with his mother and not get lost. Well, he didn't. So that night, when we were closing our 19 goats, you can only imagine the horror that swept over our faces when we realized the little fellow was missing. We searched high and low - in the dark of all times! And we just could not find him...it was almost like I was reliving the goat masacre (when a dog came and killed our three does, only not quite as bad). My whole body was going limp and my heart was aching to find our Bradley. After a few minutes of searching my older sister cried out, "I found him!" - to my GREAT relief! And where do you suppose the little boy was of all places? Bradley was found laying in a dog house in our lagoon area! Why do you ask? Well this is the funny, innocent part. My younger brother earlier in the day had put him in the dog house thinking that that would be a nicer place for him to lay down and rest while his mommy and the others graze. Well poor Bradley really took it to heart...and STAYED THERE ALL DAY. I guess he thought, "Well, I've been put here for a reason..so I guess I'm not supposed to leave until my mommy comes to get me." with pure innocence. But see here's the catch...his "mommy" didn't know where he was. So Bradley is sitting here in the dog house thinking his mommy has put him here, while his mother is oblivious to where in the world her son could be! It was just a big mix up.
So we took Bradley in our arms coddling him all the way up to his mother who gave him her motherly attention the moment he was set on the ground. Whew! I was so glad he was alright!
And then another time, probably the next day, the same thing happened again! We found he was gone, went frantically searching, only this time he was behind the gas cabinet which sits behind the loafing shed...what in the world is that kind of a place to rest, Charlotte dear? She obviously brought her "little dear" to the cabinet and told him to stay put...but why behind the gas cabinet? Oh well, she's a new mother - what can I say?

Starly And Momma Annaliese

Well Starlene is doing just fabulous! She's walking around ALL the time, loves to explore by the way - but doesn't like to be too far away from her momma. If she is, then she gives off this loud alarm for her mom to come! She's nursing almost constantly...it seem like it's every five minutes! She'll suck on one teat for three seconds and then move to the other teat for three seconds and then repeat...baby goats can be so entertaining! She has not learned the little goat dance yet, but I'm hoping she will soon - it's always fun to see! And Miss Annaliese is doing a beautiful job raising her sweet doeling. I can tell she feels a little left out as she's not with the other 16 goats...but she will  be in a couple days. Other than that, she seems to be perfectly happy with her new little companion. She's a good mommy, just like her mother, Velvet.
Normally with each baby goat born on this farm we give them a nick-name. So Starlene's nick-name is Starly. Isn't that cute? Here's her baby information:
 Starlene: March 4, 2010  - About 11pm - Dad: Pete - Mom: Annaliese   Female

My House Baby, Now OFFICIALLY An Outside Baby

Well, Mr. Spencer is back outside once again! I know you must be thinking..."And in a few days, the 'rebel' is going to return to your house again, right?". Wrong. This is permanent, unless teen to negative weather comes in again. Otherwise he's officially an OUTSIDE BABY. And I really think he likes it out there ten times better than in here. There's more room to run, and I think he realizes that it's where he belongs...with other goats - no matter how mean they are to him! Although I think they are all beginning to warm up to the idea of having him be a part of the herd...forever. One way I can prove that to you is last night COMET of all goats was laying next to him outside of their goat house! AMAZING CHARACTER COMET! I think he's finally beginning to see that life is not all about HIM. Who knows. I just thought it was very sweet.  :)

"Gee, thanks."

THE RETURN OF THE REBEL

Well as I am sure you can tell by the title of this post...Spencer is back inside. I'm sitting here in this room with the big guy moving around in his cage. It's kind of nice. :) I'm sure you're wondering, "Why is he back in the house?". Well I have two words for you...MORE SNOW. We have a lot of snow that has come and is coming within the next day or so, the temperatures are going to be in the teens, and all the goats are ignoring him and pushing him out of the house...we couldn't help but bring the poor thing back inside as it's warmer and he needs some love from us - he's had it really tough since he's moved out there. All the goats just despise him - except Gracie. That dear sweet heart has almost taken him in as her own baby...and she's not even a mother yet! Gracie I have to say is truly one of the sweetest goats I have ever had the privilege to know. And I'm not just saying that because I am biased. She rarely pushes anybody around, she's very content, barely ever makes a peep, loves us dearly...what more could you ask for? I'm very proud of her reaction to the "newcomer" of the herd. She's handled him better than any of the other goats ever could. They're just all too into themselves and have way too much pride and selfishness inside to even think about a poor baby goat out there with them that has no mother and no one to take care of him except us. It's the sad truth. But that's just animals and in particular - goats. ESPECIALLY PYGMIES. Sure they can be very sweet, but sometimes they can get a little too haughty. Now I'm not talking about all 15 of them out there. Arthur and Essie aren't too bad to him, but they're still nothing like Gracie. Cookie, Pete, Hosea, Annie, Charlotte and Gennie are the main goats I am talking to. But that's just the way they are...sometimes it can be a little entertainging but in this case, it's not - it's just down right mean. So that's my lecture to "my babies" - be nice to the poor kid...and be more like Gracie! Too bad they can't understand English! :)

My House Baby, Now An Outside Baby

Well our "house baby" has finally left the roost finally. I do miss Spencer being in here with me as I post something on my blogs...it always made life so much nicer. But today we couldn't stand the smell and decided to take him outside - permanently. So he's been out there ALL DAY, hasn't had too much trouble, other than it's cold, there's more snow on the ground, and the goats are ignoring him and being mean to him...but other than that...HE'S JUST DANDY! I knew this day was coming, and I knew it was going to be hard not only for him but for me. My heart just aches when I hear him cry out there for us...we're all of him mommies. He has no one else and probably never will. That's another reason why we are not selling him. He's here to stay either as a pet or a buck to breed our does. Either way, he's not going anywhere...he's stuck with us, which I'm sure he's very happy about. :) I am praying that during the night he won't be pushed out of the goat house and made to sleep in the snow...that would be aweful and I would feel like a really bad mother. So I'm just hoping that everything will work out and Spencer will be accepted...and get the hang of eating solid foods. :) :) :)...

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. :)

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! :) :) :)...

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! :)

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! :)

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.

~Gracie~

We named Essie's baby Gracie, but this past month has been pretty hard with her. We thought that Gracie was blind and so we started patting it with water to get the goop around her eyes off. It helped a little but we finally decided to take her to the vet. We found out that she had an internal eye infection, and that she could be blind. The vet gave us some ointment and antibiotics to give her each day. So we did and wa-lah! It worked! She's running around and following her mom everywhere...it is VERY obvious she can see. :) Thank the Lord! It has taken a big burden off my back now that I know she's okay. :)