Behinds and Betweens: Life, Death and Dinner

Winter cold and snow continue. It's now 2009 and we're faced with making some important decisions about our farm. In this photo, Vanda wears a red goat coat, made especially to keep goats a bit warmer. In our case, we decided we might be able to increase Vanda's winter milk output if we could keep her warmer. For the most part it works, although the people who make these coats don't seem to have goats like ours. We've got these wire gates and for the goats, it's like a scratching post from heaven, they've rubbed against them so often they bow out at the bottom. This makes short work of the cute little connectors on the coat. However duct tape has found one more place to win converts and boy howdy it sure works...we just taped the coat on! But that wasn't the decision I refer to above. In the photo on the far right is Nemo, you can see he has grown to be a pretty big goat. He was still sweet, but things had changed from when he was our first born on the farm; so little and cute. Now almost 2 years on, he was eating a lot of hay and he had started realizing the power in his size. We could hear Vanda bellowing at him when he would pester her again and again, pushing her around or just wanting to play. Vanda clearly didn't think it was cute anymore and she had her two girls to raise. We now had six goats to feed. Neenia was pregnant and Vanda soon to be, if they each had two kids that would mean we'd be at 10 goats and the future was starting to look untenable. What were we going to do?

The Really Big Snew of 2008

It started out as light snow, a couple of inches, but day-by-day it began to build until after a couple of weeks we had 3 feet and temperatures down to 9 degrees Farenheit...pretty cold for us here on the west side of the Cascades. Ice built up, we had six foot icicles hanging off the roof and we were carrying warm water to the goats twice a day. We have one 4 wheel drive truck, so we could get out, but my car was buried under a huge mound of snow and when I tried to dig it out it seemed insurmountable... and in fact it was. As things warmed up a bit more, unbeknowst to us, the car began to leak. There was a pool of water collecting in the bottom of the driver's side, filling it until anybody sitting in the back seat would have had wet feet too. And no matter how often we used buckets to drain it out and soak up the remainder with towels, it always came back. Three weeks turned into a month and a half before we could get it towed and discovered our entire instrument panel had been wiped out from too much water. Yikes! I didn't mention that one morning we woke to a big woosh outside our window. Running downstairs, I found that the entire front porch had been decimated by all that snow and ice on the roof. Normally I love it when it snows, but when it came down again in mid January, I couldn't find my typical snow enthusiasm...it had vanished, at least for this winter season. Maybe next year!

The "Girls" Settle In

Jewel and Fern, 4 months old in these photos taken in Fall of 2008 begin to settle in to the routine. They are taking their place and making their presence felt! Just like human kids of 6 - 9 years old, they're a bit awkward, still learning the ropes and wide-eyed with a special kind of wonder filled innocence. Discovering new foods, tasty rhody (even though I tell them it's poisonous to goats!) - okay, they say... just a taste, as I push them away from the plants each time. Finding new likes and dislikes; Jewel doesn't like that molasses herbal wormer I add into thier grains once a week...she wrinkles her nose and tries to find some of it that's not tainted! Yes, they are finding their place in our small herd. 'The girls' are big enough now to challenge Pepper, our pygmy and getting more bold about pushing her away from the feeder or any interesting food. Pepper seems less and less excited about her role as 'auntie' and seems to resign herself to being at the bottom of the goat pile, for now.

A riot of color; in the company of trees

It's the in-between time, that time when one season makes it's shift into the next, and it takes my breath away. There's always a sense of excitement in the air, full of promise and hope as everything changes form. The autumn. Yes, on one hand you can say that everything is dying, but it's so much more. The shedding of form, of what's visible now moves toward entropy, chaos and transformation into the unseen. And yet, life quivers as it moves to earth and we begin our own descent into ourselves, moving deeper within, in harmony with the seasons. Here at the farm, that means riotous colors descending into earth tones, the baring of most trees and the thinning out of greenery as everything prepares for winter.

Where's Poppa?

Fern and Jewel, born to Vanda, are from the Zederkamm line. This photo shows their Poppa, T& B's Wyatt; also sire of our Neenia. A handsome, multi-colored buck, his spotted tendencies have shown up in Neenia's kids - see " " for pics.

After Surgery, Twins!

Surgery? Imagine caring for goats on a big piece of land with a bum hip. On June 9, 2008, I sailed through surgery and got a new hip, and thankfully my life back. Thanks to modern medicine and some very supportive friends and loved ones. And not far after on June 26th came two sweet doelings, Jewel and Fern. Hobbling down with my crutches and camera, Gordon and I watched them being born. What a thrill! Jewel has that big diamond like spot on her head, Fern's spot looked like a fern frond, art imitates life imitates art.