Ready or not, here we goat!!

When in doubt--celebrate everything! This weekend not only did the goats come home, but the kids both competed with their 4H visual presentations at the state level! Rebecca did hers on maple sugaring and placed 2nd and got invited back to the Big E! She also was one of 4 kids chosen to be photographed and interviewed by UMass extension. This was Sophie's first year competing at state (last year she was a cloverbud and they only do club and county). She did an awesome vp on tacking up a horse!

So naturally my mother baked a cake.
The cake baker. If you know how to rotate her please leave me a comment!
They're here! Mother and baby--mom's name was Beullah, we're calling her Bella. The baby is 2 weeks old and so far has no name. We're considering Charlotte, Shadow, Tiny Miny, and Melissa. It's not a democracy, but if you have an opinion please put it in the comments.

We came out to this this morning:

We milked Bella morning and night on our brand new milking stand. We got 2 cups each time.

Ready to Goat

puppies

Happy Spring

The forsithia were forced--there is nothing springlike about what's happening outside. There are still patches of snow and no redwing blackbirds to be seen or wood frogs to be heard.

Here's to all of us finding balance as the Earth finds hers.

I Kid You Not!

One of these little doelings and her mama are going to be ours! I am hoping to have everything all set for them her in a couple of weeks. Here are my kids with the 4 day old goat kids. Aren't they cute!

kidding around

Beulah (one of our soon to be goats) had quads tonight. I just missed the birth but arrived soon afterwards. The black babies are all girls, the white one is a boy. They are adorable. It was a miracle. They are so tiny, and they were wobbling around and bleating (baahing?) and nursing. Very, very cool.

another day, another gnome

I knit the second gnome on smaller needles and with doubled yarn to keep the stuffing from showing thru. Sophie made him a little backpack

spring is sprouting

We're forcing forsythia. (I don't know why I can't rotate the pictures again!)



Sophie hung up this bag of fleece and yarn for the nesting birds yesterday morning . . .

. . . and by yesterday afternoon the chickadees had put some of the green fleece in the nesting box outside our front door. (Sorry it doesn't show up that well in the picture.)

My friend Sandy has a son whose birthday is May 15th, the same as Rebecca's. Sandy just bought a sheep who is due to lamb on . . . May 15th. If she has a set of boy/girl twins, their names will be Rebecca and Hank!

The sap is freezing in the buckets over night and dripping like crazy by noon. We're getting over 5 gallons a day from our 7 taps.

And, ok, this isn't strictly a sign of spring, but Agway delivered the panels for our goats today!

a book and a knitting project

My latest knitting project. I want to make a village of these little gnomes. http://www.naturalearthfarms.com/ sells the pattern for $2. These little guys are all over http://www.ravelry.com/. (Please note that I was able to post a vertical photo!)

I finally finished Song Not Yet Sung. I was savoring it, and trying not to finish it. It's been a long time since I've done that with a novel. It's a great read!

March weekend

We went and saw this adorable puppy, Merlot, at the NEADS graduation (http://www.neads.org/). It was very moving to see folks graduating with their dogs. (And yes I still don't know how to rotate photos--can anyone help?!)

We have tapped our trees and the sap is flowing!

And I knit some on my scarf:

http://atimetoknit.blogspot.com/2007/10/holding-hands-feeding-ducks-pattern.html

I love simple patterns that seem complicated!