What have I done!!!

Three more does came in to heat Sunday, so three more were bred. Then I realized that means SEVEN does kidding in an 8 day period in March. Gonna be a fun week :)

Lizzy & Louie

Goatie Courtship

These are going to be good looking F2 kids with  good milking genes behind them.
Both Louie & Lizzy have horns, so no polled kids from these two.

Schapi & Lily

Hey Dude! pay attention to me!!

Yes, play fighting is often part of the ritual.

Later in the day, Heidi decided she was in heat, too.....

Heidi certainly has her own ideas about things. Much like last year, she decided she was going to pick her own buck. I was planning to breed her to Only One Buck. She decided she was not going to wait & hopped the fence to get in with Lily & Schapi. I decided that a blue eyed kid out of Heidi would be cool, so I let her stay in there. Heidi is a GREAT milker but she is on the small side. Schapi has good milk lines behind him, but his breeder was not milking, so I am not sure about his mothers milking ability. But he is a 50:50 F1, so he should add a little size to Heidi's kids.......we shall see....

She also decided she was in LOOOOVVVE with Mr. Blue eyes.

Schapi is a little smaller than Lily & Heidi right now, but that is because he is not yet full grown.

The Happy threesome

and so it begins.....

The breeding season that is....three girls bred, and one maybe bred, so nine or ten more to go. I can't believe I have 13 does to breed.  How did THAT happen. I guess I will need to sell some more does after kidding season next year.

Rheba was bred to Only One Buck, and if she settled will be due 3.6.12

Daisy was bred to Only One Buck and if she settled will be due 3.9.12

Sweet Violet is the one who is a maybe. She was bred to Schapi, a first generation Mini Nubian buck.  He is still a rather young boy and quite a bit smaller than Violet. If she took, she will be due 3.7.12. But I will be watching to see if she comes into heat again on or around 10.29.11.

Annie was bred to Penny's brother, an as yet unnamed second generation Mini Nubian buck. I was not planning to keep him. He is a good example of when a disbudding goes WRONG......and why I really love my polled goats. He has big twisted horns & gets his head stuck in anything he can all the time.  But I am glad he is still here because Pork Chop is just not ready to be a papa yet & I already sold Chief.  If she settled she will be due 3.13.12.

the strangest thing.....

I have been stuck inside most of the day. I have a nasty head cold so I have been working on the computer. I finally made it out to the garden to enjoy the last rays of the lovely sun we had today and to assess how many more gallons of tomato sauce I can make (ok, that is a slight exaggeration, I have only made 2 gallons so far & maybe have enough ripe to make another 2. Plus several more quarts of sundried or oven roasted. yum). So I am standing there in the garden assessing the tomato situation, and I hear over head the sound of wings.

Not beating wings, gliding wings, but close enough that I can hear them. I look up expecting to see a flock of Canada geese. That is not what I see. I see three of the biggest "circles" of turkey vultures I have ever seen at one time. I am not kidding, there were at least 30 birds dancing around each other in each of three groups, the groups then circling each other.....I stood there watching them over head expecting them to move on. One group did, flew off to the south down the riparian corridor. The others hung out long enough for me to think, gee, I should take a picture..... so I went inside & grabbed my camera, but they were gone. Or so I thought.

Then I realized they were in the trees all around me. Unbelievable. I counted at least 60 birds. And no, there was nothing dead around. I can usually smell a dead deer before they find it. Nothing. It will be interesting to see if they are still around in the morning. They really like the grey pines & the ponderosa pines. Seriously, I have never seen anything like it before. Have you?

Apparently they do not like cedar trees