We had bunches of kids this year – here they are in the order of their arrival!

Oreo begat  Tino (buck)  & Tina (doe) 2/14 My first set of twins!

Bambi begat Ace (buck) 4/23 Tim got to the birthing minutes after Ace arrived

Cocoa begat Pepper (doe) 4/30  Got to the farm & there was Pepper!

Chausette begat Gizmo (doe) 5/25 Another surprise birth.

Brownie begat Deuce (buck) 6/11 One minute Brownies pregnant, the next, she’s not!

Boo begat Herman (buck) & Peewee (doe) 6/14 Helped Boo a little with PeeWee

Blacky begat Sammi (buck) & Sadie (doe) 6/22 Second set of twins for her!

Noel begat Puck (buck), Tessa & Terra (does) 6/24 First set of triplets, no help needed!

Molly begat Muffin (buck) 7/3 Uneventful birth!

Total count 7 bucks & 7 does!  50/50 NOT BAD!!

Most are sold – I’m keeping Herman & Deuce as future herd sires.  Muffin is unique as his mom is a full blooded registered Tennessee Fainting goat with a 6 on the fainting scale.  However Muffin doesn’t faint.. at all.  So he’s just going to be a big pygmy mix.  Oh well.  As for the does, I’ve only kept Pepper & PeeWee.

Next breeding isn’t until the end of September & by then I’ll have 14 does ready to breed that should all kid during the month of February.  At that time, Pepper & PeeWee will be ready to breed & that will bring more kids for the end of July.  Herman & Deuce have their work cut out for them!

Ziggy the Zebu is doing well… he’s turned out to be just an expensive lawn ornament.  He’s a good guy, very loving and friendly (to me only), except if I have a rope in my hand.  He will not come anywhere near me if he thinks I’m going to try to catch him.  Otherwise he’s one big puppy dog!  He loves to lick me (must be the salty sweat)… picture a 6 inch long cat tongue… that’s what his tongue is like and when he licks, trust me, it doesn’t feel good!  But he’s fat & happy and that’s all that matters.  He’s my only critter that doesn’t have a buddy.

The 3 amigo Llamas are doing fine.  Stormy is the boss, followed by Major.  Big Al is definitely the follower even if he’s much bigger than the 2 others.  All 3 are very patient with the kids and let them jump all over them.  Now if I can only get Major to use the common dung pile and stop pooping in the barn area!

Dr. Seuss the Silkie rooster has 2 buddies -  2 white Silkies.  We’ve yet to determine if they’re hens or roosters but all three hang together & god forbid they’d mingle with the “commoners”!  As for the rest of the chickens (Bantam Cochins), I have 3 hens & one rooster left from the original 25 that I bought but we have about 15 chicks running around the farm.

One of our ducks sat on a clutch of eggs for about 40 days.  Finally 6 little ducklings emerged!  One egg had been rolled aside but I gently peeled the shell and released the little duckling.  I kept it under a heat lamp for a day and then brought it back to mom who gladly accepted it.  Sadly, we had a snapping turtle in the pond that killed 5 of the ducklings within 5 days.  We’ve since captured the evil critter and it was humanely disposed.  Only 2 ducklings survived, one being the little one that I rescued.  The other 4 ducks are like aunts & uncles to the little ones.. they always travel in a group and they are so cute to watch!  I pity anyone or anything that tries to get near the little ones.. mom is ferocious!

Lulu & Grumpy the Pot Belly Pigs are getting old together.  Although he’s friendly, he’s always grumbling and bears many scars from trying to befriend old Lulu.  They each have their own Dogloo and old blanket and they get along long enough to eat from the same big pan but that’s as close as they’re going to get to each other.  They didn’t have the Dogloos this past winter and so they did snuggle together in the shed – but that was to conserve their heat…  no love there – maybe from Grumpy but certainly not from Lulu.

Latté the crippled bunny manages to get around just fine!  Also found out that her buddy the Lionhead is a little buck – not a doe like I originally thought.  She’s got a nesting box but I don’t know if Lionhead’s been able to breed her… she’s at least twice as big as he is.  Flopsy & Fluffy have another litter of week only bunnies… only 3 this time and I hope to have more does to keep than I did from the last litter in March.

My peacocks flew away from the farm earlier this summer.  Mr. P left first and Mrs. P disappeared a few days later.  My neighbor about half a mile away through the woods had Mr. P in her chicken coop one day but he didn’t stick around long enough for me to go catch him.  I hope they have a nice life together in the woods and that they didn’t get eaten by something.

Madigan & Daisy June the miniature donkeys are always a joy to be around.  Of course Maddy’s the boss & DJ just tags along.  We discovered that Maddy loves to be saddled & ridden but DJ will have nothing of it.  To this day it’s very hard to separate them.  DJ will heehaw non-stop if I take Maddy away from her.  I’m in the process of training all my minis to operate a pony carousel for rides… Maddy does really well & I think is very content to be away from her constant shadow!  Our next project is to get a little Jack here for a month to breed these two.  They’re quite ready but am I?  We’ll see!

A month or so ago we opened up a new field/pasture for the miniature horses.  They’re now on the back part of our property and have about 7 acres of fenced pasture to run around it.  They absolutely love it!

Toffee (my first mini), turned a year old in June and is a stunning little filly.  Old Blue is still fat & gentle and may be pregnant.  I drove her several times early in the summer and she does well but doesn’t care to run too much.  She breathes very heavily all the time and although I know she’s healthy, it bothers me to hear her breathe like that.  I’ll have the vet come by in the near future to perform an ultra-sound to confirm if she’s pregnant or not.  Buddy has also filled in and is a beautiful gelding.  He enjoys being ridden but doesn’t do too well pulling a cart.  He has only one speed & that’s slow… very slow!  My lovely Coquette is still a bit cautious and very protective of her adorable little Buttons.  She only tolerates Toffee around her and will turn and kick any of the others that come too close.  it’s time to wean so I moved Buttons to the goat area for a while and that should help Coquette with her protection issues.  Buttons is not alone, she’s with her good friend Toffee.  I’ve driven Coquette only once & I think we were doing good but I got a flat on my cart & wasn’t able to ride at all!  She too should be pregnant… we’ll have her checked out also.

Our dogs, Sheba the German Shepard is getting older & shedding like crazy… Taz the Chihuahua is enjoying life and staying out of Sheba’s way… Angel the pound hound is fat and still always looking for food and Mandy the mixed Min Pin, well Mandy is still a weird ugly little dog.  As for Sola the Siamese cat, she’s still the queen & Minou the Siamese wannabee hunts all night and sleeps in a box somewhere in the shop all day.

Our Fila Brazilieros, Diesel & Beulah continue to enjoy being the house guard dogs.  They’re always on patrol and now have something else to watch out for… Mouse, our fearless 5 lbs Bichon Frisé puppy!  Mouse just loves to hang out with the big dogs and has absolutely no fear of them.  She respects them but they have no clue what to do with her.  I’m not sure they even realize she’s one of them!  Either one of them could easily & quickly make an appetizer out of her but they’ve accepted her quite well.   As long as she stays out of Diesel’s dog house, they’re okay!

I think I’m now up to date with what’s been going on here these last few months.  My current project (if the weather can cool down some), is training Madigan, Old Blue, Buddy & Coquette to work together on the carousel.  There are a few events coming that I’d love to offer pony rides.  But we’ll have to see how this goes – I can’t risk hurting anyone with an animal that’s not ready.  I also want to work with Coquette and my little cart.  I think she’ll do well.. we just need to work on it!

So there you go my friends!  Stay in touch!

The big one (and I mean BIG!), is called Big Al for short.  His registerd name is Cabernet’s Alluvium Blanc.  His younger companion is Major Deal.  He’s much smaller (smaller than Stormy), but he bosses Big Al.

Stormy wasn’t excited about having buddies.  He really didn’t pay any attention to them except to stand on the rock pile and paw and make a little noise.  I think he just wanted Major to know that he ruled here and that he’d better not try to take charge!

About a week after they got here, I saw Stormy & Major “fight”… it wasn’t really violet – just some neck swinging and bitting of the front legs.  Stormy won and now who’s in charge is no longer questionned.

However, Big Al continues to get dominated by Major.  Stormy really doesn’t bother with Al at all.  I have Major & Stormy eat in the catch pen and let Big Al stay out in the yard to eat.  Otherwise he doesn’t get to finish his bowl.. one of the other guys usually bullies him away from his dish.

We’re tempted to change Big Al’s name to “Hummer”.  He constantly hums! It’s not annoying or anything like that but just makes me wonder why he does it.  He’s big but he’s very gentle.. as a matter of fact, if he walks by me I can reach out and pet him and he doesn’t leap away.

Major has followed Stormy out of the main yard into the larger pasture on the hill but Big Al just stays behind – he doesn’t venture out at all.  Although he won’t follow his buddies out of the main yard, he does keep a constant eye out for them.

All three of these guys are a joy to keep!

They’re quiet, eat very little and are beautiful to watch with their graceful movements.  It’s too bad that they don’t let themselvesbe cuddled… they’re so soft and their eyes are huge and kind looking!

We purchased this beautiful white gelded Llama from my friend Carol Wolf.  Little D was raised with Stormy… they came from the same farm.  We thought that Stormy needed a companion of his sort, and he did because he & Little D hit it off right from the get-go!

This story has a sad ending… Little D needed to be sheared – he had over a year’s worth of beautiful white fiber.  However, my shearer and I couldn’t coordinate our schedules to make this happen before the weather got warmer.

On Saturday, June 27th, Little D came to me while I was washing buckets.  I knew he wanted to be hosed and I did so.  However, I should have only hosed his legs and belly but I didn’t know that.  Thinking I was doing him a favor, I hosed him until he had had enough and when he walk away, he was dripping wet.

He laid in his favorite place in the sun and just chewed his cud and looked as happy as could be! That day the temperature rose to the mid ninetys.

Around 5:00 pm I went back to the barn for evening snacks and sadly I found Little D in exactly the same spot where he was when I left him at 10:00 am that morning.  He was dead and had been for a while.. rigor mortis had set in.  There was nothing apparently wrong with him.  Stormy was standing over him, guarding him or just keeping watch, I don’t know but it sure was a sad sight.

We let Stormy mourn – he spent the evening & night by D’s side, not in the barn with his goats as he normally did.  Early Sunday morning he left D and I tied Stormy inside the barn so he wouldn’t see us carrying Little D away.  We buried him on our property…

Apparently the reason he died was because I had totally soaked him and his fiber held in all the water.  The sun shining on him overheated him and he died of heat stroke.  He just couldn’t get out of the sun fast enough.

Stormy really appeared sad.  This is something that should not have happened – it was a horrible accident & I still feel guilty about it.  Chalk it up to experience, let this be a lesson to all new Llama owners.  Don’t make the same mistake I did… shear your Llamas as soon as summer starts.  If you need to keep their fiber growing, keep your Llamas inside with plenty of fans moving the air and keeping them cool.

February 14th Oreo finally gave birth to twins… Valentina & Valentino were born without any help from me.  I showed up for morning feeding and “voila” two extra little mouths to feed!  Tina was mostly black, the typical Pygmy goat coloring with gray muzzle & ears while Tino is a solid,  solid jet black.  Not one white hair anywhere!  He is a darling! I have since sold Tina and kept Tino – not sure if I’m going to keep him, castrate him or sell him… I’m on the line with this one because I think he’ll end up being a bit taller than my current stud.  Flip is very small & compact and since I’m trying to breed small, he’s just perfect!  We’ll see.  If the right buyer comes along, I just might let him go.

At this moment my rabbit has 4 little bunnies.  This is her 3rd litter since I’ve had her but all the bunnies from the 2 previous litters died within the first 48 hours.  These little guys born Saturday the 18th are squirmy and very much alive.  Of course it’s much warmer these days than it was when she birthed earlier this year.  I’m anxious to see what the little ones will look like.  Flopsy is a gray Lop Ear and the buck is a solid black  Lionhead.  They should be very cute.

I also have two hens that have hatched 7 chicks.  They’re so funny… they have their boxes side by side in a large cage (to keep them safe from Possums & feral cats), and they keep stealing each other’s chicks!  Strange thing is that hens can be really mean to the chicks… they often peck at one chick in particular and often times wound them mortally.

Stormy my goat loving Llama (referred here as “Uncle Stormy”), was sheared on Saturday.  He looks like a different animal altogether!  I think he’s not too happy with his looks as he’s been keeping pretty much to himself inside his stall.  Maybe he’s cold?  Could be… all of his wool is gone!  Note that this wasn’t a “show” trim but just a plain old shearing – no fancy cuts!  In a few weeks he’ll have some growth & he won’t look so strange!

About a month ago I bought another miniature horse… named Cowgirl.  She’s a caramel color with blond mane & tail and came with a cute little wooden cart.   I renamed her “Ol Blue because of her beautiful marble blue eyes and the fact that she’s at least 20 years old!  I was able to drive her but realized that the cart (and me!), was way too heavy for her to pull comfortably so I bought a little “Easy Entry Cart”.  She does much, much better with it but it still is difficult for her on these hilly roads.

Saturday (April 18), I had my petting farm set up in town and drove Ol Blue all the way into town with Toffee tied behind me.  It took us about 45 minutes to get there… it’s a 5 minute drive in the car!  She did well on & off… she tires easily and I don’t want to overdo it with her.  So now I’m shopping for a younger horse!  Ol Blue is a very gentle horse and very well mannered.  I hope that my farm will be her last… she’s such a good horse – she deserves a final home here!

So, final count, I have 6 adult does  4 of which I’m sure at are pregnant and should kid end of May, beginning June.   That would be Noelle, Chausette, Brownie & Blackie.  I don’t think Old Goat is pregnant (she may never be), and Oreo isn’t yet…  Molly my fainting goat looks pregnant but I can’t tell for sure yet.  She & Bambi would also be due end of May.  My young little Cocoa looks like she’s about to pop a kid any day now & I have to keep a close watch on her.  She’s way too young to be birthing but she came to me that way in January.

I have several kids for sale at this time and you will find their pictures/videos on my “For Sale” page.