Friday, April 16, 2010

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year



I was once a major aficionado of Autumn. I liked the crisp air and smells. My firstborn came in the fall, and it made me love the season all that much more. Other than copious amounts of rain, the Spring season held nothing of interest for me. Granted, as everything in my world switched to mommy-mode,I began to appreciate Spring more, if only because it meant that the confining weather was finishing up.
Now at the Micro Farm, I finally understand. I watch things come up from the ground, like gifts buried for us by the previous owners. I've so far discovered a lovely bleeding heart plant and the beauty of rhubarb; while trees bloom to reveal that I was totally wrong in how I'd identified them.
The baby animals are delightful. Though I am still learning the ropes, I am learning to trust my instinct in animal midwifery as I would in my own pregnancies and births. Since I last posted, we've gained two new does, Eliza and Zammy, both of nice heritage. We dealt with some health issues on Dolce's part and have not been able to milk her. However, with Eliza's kidding on the morning of April 10(Dolce's birthday), I think we will be making up for lost milk :o) Her udder is just wonderful, and when I expressed the colostrum to start the kids, it just poured out like melted butter.
The kids are lovely; a little doeling and buckling this time. The doeling is bigger and has much nicer conformation, at this point, but the buckling is polled (naturally hornless) and will make a nice enough sire for Dolce and Zammy' improving on their udder capacity if nothing else. They are both very pretty and roan, and at this point, every member of the herd looks totally different. to the untrained eye, they may even look like different breeds of goats.
Zammy, or Solar Flare, as she is properly called, stands out by not standing out, so to speak. her coloring is the plainest, or as I would prefer to call it, the most subtle. She is white with very light, very round spot of cream, gold, and chocolate. She lost a single buckling do to the cold, just before we got her. She is very loving toward Eliza's kids, more than I could imagine, cleaning them and playing with them. Mr. MicroFarm think it must be good therapy for her, and I look forward to giving her a chance to raise her own as soon as the buckling is ready.
The Micro children chose the kids' names, and we chose registered names to suit and tie them together; we want full-blood siblings to have themed names to make it easier to identify relationships.
Behold: Deliteful HS Poseidon's Dragon and Deliteful HS Serendipity Siren Drago and Mermaid