Mason Dixon Fair 2015

We survived another fair, although the weather was once again uncooperative.  This year we had lots and lots of rain, which led to some serious flooding in our animal pens, as well as super muddy conditions around the fairgrounds.  We had to move all our animals to one pen at one point because the other pen was so full of water.  They weren't particularly keen on that, but settled in better once there was lots of hay for everyone.

Monday was the breeding goat show.  Colleen's friend Alli came to help her show this year.  They both did well.  There was a hilarious moment, which I unfortunately did not capture on camera.  As the goats and handlers were lined up for the judge, Colleen and Alli were placed next to each other.  Copine, who was being showed by Alli, apparently felt that Colleen was giving too much attention to Butterscotch (her sister), and jumped up to put her front feet on Colleen's back in the middle of the show ring.

Alli (in blue) is showing Copine.  Colleen (in orange) is showing Butterscotch.

Butterscotch is not cooperating for Colleen.

The girls and goats are both paying attention to the judge.

The girls, goats, and their ribbons.

Butterscotch and Copine snuggling after their showing is finished.

Tuesday Colleen showed the angora goats; Alli again came to help.  This time the goats were pretty well behaved (Sassafrass sat down in the middle of the ring at one point, but it was really hot out).  However, while the show was going on, a pig escaped and was running around outside the ring.  Overall, the goats were relatively chill about it.

That pig in the background is NOT supposed to be there. Sassafrass is not too pleased about it and is trying to get away from it.

Colleen with Sassafrass; Alli with Nikki.

Alli with Nikki.

Colleen and Leah.

Sassafrass claiming the water bucket.

A few other interesting moments:

The cow barn was located behind our tent.  At one point, I turned around to see a cow helping herself to one of the water spigots.  I thought someone had left it on, and was commenting on it with someone.  One of the cow 4Hers walked by and told me that the cow had learned to turn the water on whenever she wanted a drink and help herself.  I did not realize cows could be that smart.  Here's a photo of the cow getting a drink:

Wednesday, the last night we were there, they held the tractor pulls; at least until the thunderstorms of mud and doom rolled in.  Colleen loves tractor pulls for some reason, so she and Chad went to watch them.  They tried to continue them once the rain started, and all the fans ran to the barns and tents to watch.  After awhile the mud got too bad and they had to stop.  Also, they eventually used some of the tractors to help pull cars and trucks out of the mud when they got stuck as people were trying to leave.

Chad and Colleen enjoying the tractor pulls while staying dry.

Spring!

It seems like Spring has finally made a commitment to stay.  Which means several things here at the farm: mud season, spring cleaning, and shearing.  I never knew the meaning of "mud room" until living here, and am already plotting for how to expand ours.  Either that or how to make our kitchen look like an exact replica of the many shades of mud/leaves/sticks and other things that seem to be tracked inside every single day.  Seriously, having a brown pergo floor does nothing; it needs to have nuances of outdoors.  Even with daily cleaning, I will not see my actual floor again until the dry summer.

So I focus my energies on cleaning other things, like the barn.  Spring is when we do one of our major semi-annual barn cleaning events.  It's warn enough to stick the animals outside for a day while we overhaul and do general inventory. 

Spring is also shearing time for the angora goats.  The other goats always find it interesting and want to know what's going on, seeing the angora goats as strangers without their long coats.

Sassafrass was the first one done.  As usual, she was best behaved of the group for her haircut.  She did not take kindly to having her picture taken though, high-tailing it for the barn before I could get a good picture.

Basil, our buck, wasn't far behind.  He was the last one shaved and apparently figured out what was going on.  He jumped the fence and made a break for the pasture so that he wouldn't have to be shaved.  Unfortunately his head was no match for his stomach, and we were able to get him back with a bowl of grain very quickly.  But he wasn't sticking around after his trim either.  Or maybe he thought there would be more grain in the barn, since Sassafrass went in there so quickly?

Leah decided to let me know what she thought about the whole thing:

As much as they do not seem to appreciate having been shaved right now, I bet they will appreciate their hair cuts once the weather really warms up!

 



Goat Kids!

Well, all our does have finished kidding for the winter.  We started in December, right before Christmas.

Here is the first doe kid of the season.  She is the only all-brown one that we've had survive, and so is already being spoiled by my husband and daughter. We could not decide on a name for her, so she got three: Cocoa cinnamon bon bon. Sounds pretty snooty and high-bred, right?

 

A day later, Muesli, a buck kid was born. Since he's a buck and therefore won't be staying permanently, no one cared what I named him.

After that, we had a break until late January, when Squeaker was born. She got her name because she doesn't make normal goat kid "maaa" sounds. Instead, she sounds like a squeaky toy. Since she's otherwise healthy, we aren't too concerned. Plus, you always know when she's talking.

After Squeaker was born, I was lamenting not seeing any of the goat kids actually coming out. Well, Snowflake decided that she would wait for me.  One day in February, when we had been without power for 24 hours due to an ice storm (and would continue to be without power for another 3 days), I went out to check the goats. It was dark in the barn, even with the flashlight, but I thought I saw a baby. I did.


















As my husband and I went about doing our goat feeding and watering, about an hour later another one came out. So we stood and watched the two for awhile, making sure everything was ok, since Snowflake is a first-time mother.

Well, after about another hour, she had a third kid!

We ended up bringing the third kid inside as a bottle baby, since his mother didn't have enough milk for all three of them.

He enjoys romping in the kitchen with the corgis, and getting into trouble as well. He is well on his way to being spoiled.

Our final kid was born just before Valentine's Day: our first angora kid! Unfortunately, her mother wants nothing to do with feeding her.  So she has also become a bottle baby.  Happily, all kids are doing well and are super cute!

 

 

 

 





New Angora Goats

Last week we acquired three angora goats from Flying Goat Farm.  We have a new buck and two more females.  After a week, they have settled in pretty well.  It only took them a few days to learn that seeing me come to the barn at a certain time of day means grain, and they all come running to their stall.

Here is Basil, our new buck (and his crazy horns).  While not as friendly as most of our goats, he is approachable enough.

And Leah and Grace, our new does. Leah is the larger one; usually where you see one, the other is not far behind.

Leah, wanting to know if she is going to get some more grain.

Grace, posing for the camera.

 And Sassafrass, our other angora doe.

"Tinsel" yarn

I was perusing one of the local craft stores last week, and noticed that they had some eyelash on clearance.  So I bought some to put in my angora-merino yarn blend as I was plying, just to see how it would turn out.  My husband says it looks like tinsel. I have to agree with him. Not sure what's going to happen with it yet. Maybe my sister (who actually crochets, unlike me), will have some good ideas. It would certainly make an interesting hat!

Spring is finally here!

​It's finally started getting warmer (not counting the week of summer we had), and the goats are happy to be back outside and munching in the pasture.  The bunny has left her winter accommodations on our front porch and is back in her hutch, where she can spend her time watching the world go by while the corgis nap in the yard and defend the house.  Both of the angoras have had their spring shearing, and had lovely warm little coats put on. But the other goats made fun of them in their coats, so they fidgeted and bit at them until they came off.  As you can see below, Midnight looks rather naked and scrawny without all her fleece. I'm surprised the other goats weren't making fun of her for that.