Just Kid Already!

Well, Poit still hasn't kidded. She was in with the buck for a week, but I'm thinking now that I put her in with him around the 16th, so she would be right on time to be due this week. I unfortunately forgot to write down her second breeding dates, so am trying to go off of memory. I've been checking her several times a day. Her udder has been large for over a week but still no progress with her ligaments. They seemed pretty soft last night for the first time, so it was the first night of getting up and doing checks. I'm prepared for several sleepless nights, and then no more kids this year. I'm glad. I will have Poit's kids to play with and will still have Fae, who I need to spend more time gentling. She has come a long ways. She doesn't mind me petting her while she is eating and equates me with grain, but if it isn't food time she still tries to run. I'd like to show her at the county fair next month, so I have a lot of work to do to calm her down enough.

I brought my new boy home last weekend. He is so very adorable and he looks like he will be a very strong buck for me. I'm most excited about the beautiful udders behind him and I really adore his sire. Introducing Camanna LI Odins Eclipse.

This is the best "confo" picture I could get of him. He would much rather be in my lap than keep his distance and have his picture taken. He has better rear leg angulation than this, but he is lacking a bit in that department. But Anna told me that before I purchased him. She is very honest and knowledgeable. He is already long and uphill and quite thick for his age. I love his extension of brisket. Thats a big deal for me as I see so many goats in the show ring lacking in that area.

I love his colors and his spotting as well. He is a buckskin, with the traditional cape and brown back end with the black points on his rear legs. Yet his front end is a really dark chocolate with gold markings instead of a normal buckskin shade. It is quite neat. He takes a bottle really well and I plan to keep supplementing him with goat's milk until the end of this month.

I sold Dakota and Lady yesterday. I feel a little sad because I'd become quite used to Dakota. However, I think she went to a really nice home with a woman who is very interested in learning all she can about the breed and about conformation. She might even get into showing them. Lady bit me before she went to her new home! She was sucking on my finger and then worked into it her back teeth and clamped down like there is no tomorrow. She absolutely refused to let go. My finger is still half numb and she cracked through the top of my fingernail and made it bleed. The little brat! Maybe she knew that in only a few minutes I would be tattooing her for her new owner. The person who reserved Westley, my last remaining wether, decided not to buy him. I have someone coming to see him this afternoon who is very set on taking him home with her. I also have someone coming from California to look at Gizmo. I certainly am doing a complete overhaul of my herd! Once Jolie has grown enough to come out of her weird stage and sell, I will only have Poit and Banshee left from my original herd! I still have Sherry whom I bought this spring and will have Fae. I have Angel coming from Bellafire in July. Then I have Latifa, Prayer and one other bred doe coming home hopefully in September or October. So I will be back up to eight does and will be retaining some doe kids from the pregnant girls along with a buck kid as well.

Shows, Sunshine and Sales

After raining non-stop for a couple of weeks, the sun decided to come out for the show in Salem. The show was certainly stressful for me. The goats, on the other hand, were perfectly fine with hanging out. There were way more Nigerians than I expected, and of very high quality. I believe there was a total of thirty-seven senior does. They all seemed overly tall and large to me, and after wandering around and looking at the competition, I realized I had no chance. I wished then that I had taken the advice of a friend of mine and went to watch rather than to show. Dakota's udder ended up looking great, but she couldn't measure up to any of the other animals in terms of body capacity and size. Many barely came in under the maximum height.

I brought Jolie to simply help me decide if I want to wait for her to mature further or sell her as a nice family milker. The decision was cemented for me quite easily at the show. I don't think Jolie will ever have an udder large enough to compete, and that comes from her dam. It is a beautiful udder, and larger than her dam's but I don't think she will ever rise to that level. Of course I am looking at a very high level of competition. She should do well at county fairs, but she needs to grow some more. I won't be offering her for sale until she has put on some additional weight. I pulled her kids and sold one, and am letting her dry up. Without her kids draining her energy she should start looking better.

I was very pleased with how well Dakota behaved, however. She walked like a champ and set up immediately and held her stance. She might not be able to win in such a large, tough competition with goats that have went top ten at nationals....but I think she should be able to hold her own well at smaller shows. Beyond that, she is a great mom, kids easily, and gives me a lot of milk. She crosses very well on bucks who are very sturdy with a lot of body capacity. I decided that if she isn't going to place well at large shows, then I am going to sell her. I have three bred does coming in this year, all of whom I plan to retain a kid from (hopefully a buck from one as well), a very nice doeling, and a buck kid that I am picking up tomorrow. I could definitely use the additional space. I will also be selling the doeling from Dakota I was planning on retaining and my buck out of her.

I suppose when you improve your herd by adding better animals, you have to "cull" those who no longer meet the quality of the rest of your herd. All of the animals I am selling are nice, but the ones I am buying are better. Poit is due anytime. I'm still worried her kids will have crooked legs, and if not, that her udder isn't nice enough for a brood doe due to her (so far) smallish teats. However, I don't think I could ever sell her. There are some animals that have permanent homes here no matter what.

-Poit looking very pregnant yesterday.-

The show wasn't a complete bust, however. Banshee did very well, and I was very proud of her behavior in the ring. She placed 6th and 9th in two rings out of a very large class of dry yearlings (I believe 17-20.) I was ecstatic, especially seeing as she is so very small.

-Banshee posing and looking quite grumpy about it.-

Also, just watching everyone show was fun. Maybe not for my husband, but for me. I kept noticing one white doe who had faint grey spotting on her coat. I thought it was quiet neat, and she ended up winning a GCH. She is one of Camanna's doe, and I came home and immediately reserved a buck kid out of her. I am picking him up tomorrow at the show in Roseburg. He is by Dill's D Lucky's Image, who is an outstanding buck. I'm very excited about him! He will definitely have a date with Banshee and Fae this winter. I will get some photos of him when we get him home tomorrow.

Comings & Goings

All of the kids are starting to go to their new homes. It is always a bittersweet time of year. Two of Dakota's kids went to their new family together a couple of days ago. I'm very happy when siblings can go to new homes together. I know they are not human and probably don't think anywhere near like we do, but its nice that they can stay with one another. The family is new to goats, but they are very willing to learn and have been doing their research. Plus I sent them home with a packet I spent hours working on for people who buy any of my goats and contact info for my veterinarian. They haven't called me yet with questions, so I assume all is going well. They sent me photos of their kids sitting in a wagon with the pair yesterday. I think the doe kid will turn out very nicely for them if she ends up anything like her dam.

I am keeping her third, and smallest kid from this year and she is a little gr

umpy having to spend her nights with her half-siblings out of Jolie. I put her back with mom during the day because I figured the extra milk will help with her growth, so she is content with that arrangement, and she is helping me stimulate Dakota to keep producing since I can't always keep an exact 12 hour interval milking schedule.

Firelight Ranch LadyNThe Water

I shaved her last week and set her up. I'm disappointed in her lack of a brisket, but aside from that I think she is shaping up to be a nice little girl, especially for the awkward growth stage she is going through. As a quadruplet she is very small for her age, but in the past couple of weeks she seems to be attempting to overcome that and start shooting up. Hopefully she'll end up a normal size, she will definitely have the nutritionally help to get there.

I sold Tomahawk today to a girl from up state. She is going to use him to cross on Nubian does and breed some Mini-Nubians. I'm actually a little jealous as I'd really love to breed some of them in the future, but I'm perfectly happy with my Nigerians. I'm glad to be able to keep a daughter of his, and hopefully I'll have one more to retain when Poit kids next month. With all the sales in the last few days, I have enough money to completely pay for Latifa and a big chunk to go towards my bred Camanna girls.

Those are all of the photos I have for now. I clipped both Dakota and Banshee today. I didn't have time to take pictures, but I should have some time on Wednesday. I had to be extra careful with their clip jobs as I have no time to allow their coats to grow out any mess ups. I had to wait SO late before the show to clip because of this weird weather, but it's definitely warming up this week. I'm so very impressed with Dakota. She looks awesome and her udder is beautiful. I can't wait to see how she does in Salem next weekend! It will be my first doe show and I'm nervous about doing things correctly. I'm also nervous about both Banshee and Jolie doing well. I've been having some reservations about Jolie, but I also feel they may be due to her going through a growth spurt. Her kids really brought her down at first, but she has put on a lot more weight and grown a bit more in the past month. Yet her rump keeps shooting up as soon as her front end catches up to it, so she still looks awkward. Her udder is very, very nice however. Banshee is so tiny and really straight in the rear legs, not enough angulation there....but she is a really nice doe otherwise so we'll see. Her problem is keeping her feet still.

I'm uber pumped for this weekend trip! Not only is it a show, but it is going to be a mini vacation for my husband and I at the same time. It is a two day show, so when I'm not in the ring or waiting on a class we can do some relaxing and sight seeing. :) I'm also bringing the last doe kid I currently have for sale. I have one woman interested and supposedly driving a whole seven hours down from Washington to the show for her, but we'll see. There is another girl who is very interested who will be at the show from the forum I frequent, but she isn't necessarily set on her and if the woman from Washington is really going to come all the way down she will have first right of refusal. She is a doll, so hopefully she finds a new home there.

I'll have another post with clipped photos of the girls soon, and show photos as well although I'll probably feel too fat to not clip myself out. Lol.

More Posts

I know I'm posting an awful lot lately in comparison to usual, but I actually have more free time lately. It is so very nice to have some time to just relax, to spend extra time with the goats, and to get caught up on projects! In fact, right now I am working on a couple of belated Mother's Day gifts. One for my mother and one for my grand-mother. I didn't have any time Mother's Day week due to being a florist.

I am making them a couple of custom My Little Ponies. It is a popular hobby amongst some circles. You boil the ponies, pop off their heads, rip out their hair and rub off their paint with nail polish remover. Then you can either use the base color, or dye them. You can then paint designs on them and add clay pieces. Most people then re-hair them with higher quality hair than the original. I buy a very satiny, almost real feeling hair called "saran." It's a bit spendy but it is beautiful. I'll have to post some photos of them when I am done, even though they are not related to the goats or horses.

I thought I'd post a few more photos of Fae that I took today. She is now two weeks old and very bouncy. She is an extremely adventurous little kid. She spend most of her time in Poit's pen playing with her rather than with her dam, even though Poit is certainly no kid. But Poit loves her and tolerates her climbing all over the place.

As I said, she thinks Poit is the best play thing ever. I really love Fae, I just wish she loved me. She is terrified of me! Honestly though, I have spent very little time trying to play with her. I find that newborns need you to spend as much time as possible in that first week of life to be very accustomed to you. She was born at the worst time for me to give her that attention with the chaos of my job. And of course I had to disbud her before I had much of a chance to get her used to me, so now I'm the devil. To top that off, she had a very goopy eye yesterday. It was just covered in eye goop and glued together, so I took her inside and cleaned it up and flushed it, so she just figures I'm a beast who likes to torture her. Luckily it seems she just got something in her eye, because it is fine today. It was red and irritated last night and I was worrying about pink eye. Then my own eye tweaked out this morning and was weepy so I started wigging out that whatever it was could have somehow infected my own eye. Of course it was just my contact being mad at me and both Fae and I are back to normal in the vision department.

I have been talking to the owner of Bellafire about purchasing a jet black doe they have named Latifa. She had her listed for sale quite awhile back and I had asked about her then, but she decided she didn't really want to sell her and kept her. She put her back up for sale last week and let me know, but also said she was giving the breeder first shot at her. The breeder has not replied, so she has marked her on her website as "sale pending" to me. So I feel pretty secure in announcing that we will be purchasing this pretty doe. She is just beautiful, very dairy and angular. She will hopefully be bred to Goldenbrook Farms MR Fireworks, who is a beautiful, very wide and deep gold buck with blue eyes and moonspots. I've seen the kids from the exact same cross this year and they are stunning. I think a buck kid from her would be a very good prospect for me.

Bellafire NIC Latifa

(Poppy Patch Nicolodeon x Purple Camas Farm Zena)

She has a gorgeous udder. Apparently she does not like to show, at all, and she fights on the milk stand. Traci loves her but is very into the showing aspect and wants to find her a home where she can be a brood-doe only. I'm excited! I don't know if I'll be able to pick her up with my doeling out of Peggy or not if I want her bred because she may need a little more down time and I'd end up with kids in the middle of winter. But at this point I may end up with kids around January anyways out of Prayer, a doe I'm getting from Camanna. So I'm going to be having to set up some winterized pens in the barn anyways.

Bellafire ? - New Doeling

I just had to write another post with a couple of photos of my new doeling from Bellafire Farms. I believe she will be ready to come home in mid-July.

I LOVE her color. Those diluted, reddish markings are so wonderful! Look at her rear leg angulation. She already looks so level and long at only a few days old. She knows she is sexy, posing like that. Ha ha.

I disbudded Fae today. A bit late, but they hadn't broken the surface so I believe I caught them in time. Usually I will disbud doe kids from multiple births at a week, but singles always seem to be more developed at birth and need it done sooner. I always do bucks kid in three to five days after birth due to their horn buds already being so developed.

I got an email from Camanna today asking if I'd rather buy a couple more bred does in place of my kid reservations. I'm seriously considering it. I really like the first choice does I have selected but am not quite happy with my second choices (although they are all bred to the two bucks I really want kids out of.) It would be amazing if she would let me choose which bucks they were crossed on, and I could choose to breed one to Lucky and one to Monet. As long as they are both very nice does with nice, proven udders I would have options for a buck kid from either. Prayer is nice enough but I have only seen her first freshening udder and Moondoggie is too young to be proven as a sire yet to keep a buck kid out of the cross.

Jolie is already looking better! I shaved her almost two weeks ago and she looked pretty thin. She had such a shaggy coat this winter. I kept feeling her bone structure and it felt like she had enough fat cover, but she just looked so dang skinny after her coat was gone. She is also in a weird growth stage with her butt up in the air, so she looks really ugly right now. She was bred a bit earlier than I intended and I think her kids are bringing her down a little. Her FF udder is absolutely beautiful though. Near perfect in form and shape with a very respectable capacity for a first time mom. I moved her to my dad's house the day after I clipped her and upped her feed considerably over a few days. She is already fattening up and I hope she evens out over the next few months. She may be for sale in the future, but I want to give her a chance to mature some more before I decide. With that udder I would love to keep her in my herd. The only thing wrong with her conformationally is that her front end seems a little shrunken and is definitely downhill. If it is just a phase I believe it is something she can grow out of. She isn't quite a year yet after all.

-Jolie's udder 12 Hour Fill-

Can I RELAX Yet?

This last week was Mother's Day week. I'm a florist. It was hell. Mother's Day is pure insanity for a florist. People assume Valentine's Day is the craziest of the year, and it really isn't. I get wire orders over my computer from 1800 Flowers and I always have to shut it down one or two days before the actual holiday. I just run out of flowers and time. I end up getting three or four hours of sleep a night for five or six days and arranging flowers until ten at night. Normally I would get a good two week break afterwards, but I have a full schedule of classes my last term of college with the same professor and she is a slave driver (and a complete moron.) All I know is that this coming weekend I am just going to hang out with my horses and my goats and relax in the sun.

I got some photos of my boys all clipped up. I am very, very happy with how Gizmo is coming along. He is now registered as Tualatin Acres Opera Ghost. He has a white mask that reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera, one of my favorite movies.

He still has a lot of growing to do. You can see the wrinkled skin over his shoulders. It is really loose and it feels like a puppy that needs to keep growing into himself. He is nine months old, so I expect him to gain a little more height and fill out through his yearling year. He is uphill and has nice length and depth of body with a level top-line. His biggest fault is a lack of a brisket, which he gets from his dam, but if he also gets her beautiful udder genetics I'll be happy. He isn't really good at setting up, so I'm lucky he behaved this well. I think he was a bit tense and could have looked a bit better, but I'm happy with this shoot. He has super correct legs when viewed from the rear, perfectly straight in every way. I see so many bucks who at least toe out, such as Tomahawk. Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to show him (or Tom) at the Megabucks show because of the holiday and my job. I don't know if I will get to show him this year, since all of the other shows I'm planning on are doe-only. In any case, I am ridiculously excited about his future kids! Plus he is a loving little doll.

I was able to get a good photo of Tomahawk. He looks much nicer than he did going through his funky growth stage. Yet there are some things I don't like about him. I love his length of body, which really doesn't show well in this photo. He is uphill and very sharp over his shoulders. His dam definitely improved on his sire, but you can still see his sire's major faults in him. Mainly a lack of rear leg angulation and a steep, kind of strange looking rump. And then there is the fact that he toes out behind. Not much, it is very slight, but it still irks me. His dam has a pretty nice udder and I think he is a good herd sire for someone with plenty of does strong in his weak areas...but I just don't think he is right for my herd. I have several very nice does coming in and hopefully a new buck kid soon. I don't have room for too many bucks, so I am selling him.

Sherry gave birth on the very first of the month. I was honestly not expecting it, but then it is hard when you have no clue on a due date. The evening before, her ligs were pretty mushy but still there. I figured she would go the next day some time, but wasn't concerned about that night. She still had some filling to do in her udder as well. I clipped up her udder and when I put her away her ligaments were tighter. I got up in the morning and stepped out on the deck and saw a kid in the pen. I immediately wondered how Westley got out. I had put Jolie's kids up for the night with Dakota's kids so she could fill over night. Jolie's kids were continuously in Sherry's pen and the little kid was just as big as he was and marked similarly. I then realized the colors were off and ran down to the pens. Sherry's ligs were coming back and she had passed the after birth. The kid was already dry and bouncing about and half of Sherry's udder was deflated from being nursed on. She gave me a single doeling. I was surprised by a single out of a doe that had quads every single year, but was very happy for a little girl. She is absolutely gorgeous. Level, dairy, elegant, beautiful legs...I'm just beside myself over this girl. And with dad's flashy white to boot!

I have been calling her Fae. The first thing she reminded me of was an elf with her huge ears. You can't tell in this photo, but they are like airplane wings. I thought elf sounded dumb, but fairys are pretty and have pointy ears. So Fae it is. I think she will be Roc N Ewe Faery Lights if I am correct about the ranch name that needs to be used. Definitely my most exciting keeper of the year.

Lady is growing like a weed. All of Dakota's kids are. They are six weeks now, and only a couple of weeks until two of them go to new homes.

These kids are great examples of what Tomahawk can produce when crossed on the right does. Lady is long and level and very refined. I adore her pixie-like little face.

-Dakota's buck kid, Tramp, says hello...-

My first reservation of the year panned out in a beautiful doeling. She is such a strange color, but I'm ecstatic. She is a traditional buckskin, yet the black markings are diluted to a dark red. She literally looks apricot colored. It is very awesome. She was my second choice doe, but now I'm very happy when hearing about her udder that my first choice doe didn't work out for me. I have at least a month to wait for my next reservation to kid. I've also been offered a pure black doe bred to a gold and white buck with moon spots and blue eyes. I definitely plan to accept should she decide to sell to me. At this point it is tentative as she hasn't made a final decision. She also offered to allow me to use the same buck to cross on a few of my does, which would be more than amazing. If it all pans out, I will have photos next post. I should have pictures of my new doeling in the next week.

And some clipped photos of Sherry. Now this is the evening before she kidded. So she is starting to get posty and is dropping out her rump, although its not super noticeable in this photo. I am very happy with this doe. She may have an old school, blocky head, but I like her build. She has great capacity, a smooth top-line is uphill and she is wide and deep. She also has a very nice udder, although I will have to work at it to get it full to capacity. She only had a single and I haven't milked her at all yet, so her production isn't very high at this point. She is really lacking in the brisket department, but she is a very nice girl. I'll breed her next year, hopefully to the gold and white buck I mentioned. After that she might just turn into a very friendly pet as she will be an older girl.

SUNSHINE FEVER!

GOATS:

I'm sorry, I can't contain my excitement over this glorious sunshine! The wet weather leaves me fretting over mud constantly. Normally I buck it up and deal with the mud, it is unavoidable at certain times of the year. But new babies and mud just do not mix well with me. I feel like they can be so fragile their first couple of weeks, I don't want any little thing to be less than optimum to give them the best start. Pearl's kidding was the worst as her babies came the very end of February when it was still snowing up here. I was terrified of them becoming chilled while afraid the heat lamp would break and burn the house down.

Dakota's kids are flourishing. They had a little diarrhea today, but only minor. I'm fairly certain it is due to the fact that they have discovered how yummy mom's grain is this last week and have been trying to get into it. I think they pigged out a little much the last couple of days. I decided this evening to move mom to her overnight pen before giving her any grain. She gets some at night and in the morning while on the milk stand. This way the kids won't have anything but fresh hay and mom's milk and a few little nibbles of grain I give them while doing evening feedings. I will treat them for cocci anyways. I always do a preventative at this time.

They will start to get a small, regular ration at six weeks and be up to my normal kid ration at eight weeks at which point they will finish their weaning. They are with mom all day and alone together at night. At six weeks I will only leave them with mom for half a day, at seven weeks I will only let them be with mom for a few hours in the afternoon, and in the eighth week they will only get an hour with mom a day. This entire time their grain ration will go up as time with mom goes down. By the end of that eight week they will be ready to go to new homes and will be on a good diet of hay, alfalfa pellets and a little grain.

Some photos of Jolie's kids at a week old!:

Firelight Ranch TH Poppet

This is the doeling. She is very elegant! You can't see the levelness of her topline in the first photo, but I wasn't going for any good conformation shots this time around. I love the little speckles around her right eye.

Viking. He is already reserved as a wether. He looks odd in the first photo because he is lifting his left hind leg. He is such a ham and a sweetheart. He was dis-budded today and was a bit resentful I think.

I have been having a lice problem since I brought my new doe home from California. I don't know if she brought them with her or what, but I know goat herds get them from time to time. I kept spraying everyone (and everything) with Permectrin II as per the dilution instructions, but it just wasn't happening. So I decided to just fill a bottle with half water and half pesticide and those little buggers just dropped off my goats. I even used it on the newborns and it didn't negatively effect them, though I was worried even with many reassurances that it was safe. I'm very pleased with the stuff ad long as you use plenty. I'm so happy they are bug free!

The first show of the year will be here in only two weeks! I am freaking out a bit because that is Mother's Day weekend, and I am a florist. I'm planning on getting all my deliveries done Monday through Friday and being closed on Saturday. So hopefully I won't be too run down the morning of the show. My boys are still being little brats about leading and setting up, so I am going to work with them hard every night for the next two weeks so that we are good and ready to go in the ring. Gizmo is still a midget. I hope he isn't too much smaller than the others in his age group. Here is to some great placings!

HORSES:

I believe I mentioned that I sold Romeo. If not, I sold Romeo. It's been probably a month now. I miss him. If I knew he was in a good home I'd be at peace with the decision. Its not that I think he went to a bad place, the people seemed knowledgeable and in love with him....I just haven't heard from them or gotten any updates. I've been lucky with my other "baby". He is a grey Arabian gelding with a really cool "blood marking" on his face.

This is a photo of him at his new owner's place awhile ago. It's been several years since I sold him. The woman still owns him and loves him to death. She swears she would never part with him for the world. There is always the possibility that she will have to sell him, but she truly loves my baby to death. Shahn was one of the horses I was very attached to, and I cried when I put him on the semi truck to send him to California. I'm so fortunate I can keep tabs on him and see photos of him as he goes through life.

I wish with all my heart that I could have kept in touch with the people who bought my first horse. I was seven when I got him, and he wasn't even two. He was a light dun pinto with a black and white mane and a big spot on his neck. He also had appaloosa spots on his rump. I learned to ride on a green, skittish horse. I got dumped every way imaginable, ran off with, drug, rolled on, bucked off....all with that horse. And more! But I had him until he was eleven and he was dead broke by that point. The people who bought him belonged to my 4H club, and the girl was my friend. But her mom was insane and decided that everyone in our club was "evil" after we told some dirty jokes at county fair and forbid her to speak to me. That horse was always easily fat when I owned him, but they nearly starved the poor thing and I have no idea what became of him.

Tequila, was a bay Morab I had for six or so years. That horse was like a puppy. He would do absolutely anything you asked him to. He had the biggest heart and the biggest try. He knew when little kids and beginners were riding him and babied them. If you started slipping he stopped immediately. He tried big jumps for me even though he was scared. He swam in irrigation ditches, slid down mountains and could bow, count and say yes. I could ride him bride-less and bareback over jumps. I am still convinced there will never be a better horse. I sold him to a little girl when I decided to show registered Arabians. She sold him shortly after when she lost interest and I have no idea to whom. I heard someone bought him and put him out to pasture the rest of his days, but I don't know if that is true. I wish I knew.

I've had a lot of horses, dozens and dozens, but those three are the only ones I was very, very attached to. I was also attached to Romeo. I had him for over two years, since he was just a fresh weanling. I broke him and we spent a lot of time together. He is a ham and a doll who has nothing but love for people. He has never been given a reason to fear humans and he put all his faith in me. He was stubborn and lazy at times, but he always listened to me. I will have to see if I can't convince the buyers to send me some photographs.

Calypso is due in as early as two weeks! She is on day 303, which gives her seventeen days until the lowest average of 320 days. Although I have seen plenty of maidens who go from day 315. She started bagging up quite early, so I figured she would be closer to the 320 rather than the later average of 340. Today she looked liked she had dropped some, one side of her croup area is starting to get mushy, her udders are tighter than ever, and she is losing muscle and resistance in her tail. Her vulva hasn't lengthened and the lining is still a normal pink, so I'm sure she'll hold out at least another couple of weeks, but I'm expecting a foal sooner rather than later. But guessing with horses is foolish. They are much more difficult than goats. Goats are easy in comparison if you know how to feel for ligs correctly.

-Calypso Last Summer-

Above is a photo of Calypso's babby daddy when he was at our place a couple of summers ago. He is homozygous, so I am excited for a little tobiano foal. He is a red dun. Calypso is a bay roan. I would love a bay dun or a roan foal.