“…Even though it’s May!”

We woke up to almost eight inches of snow on May 11th. It quickly slumped to about 3 inches and by the next day there were only a few white traces left on the emerald green carpet of long, thick grass on our pastures.

Phil was a popular character with Snowball and the babies.

I love Sapphire’s ears. They go on for miles and they’re just slightly off-kilter in the way they attach to her head.

Ben Gunn enjoyed a frolic all by himself.

But it was more fun to butt heads with Zelda.

Skeeter’s kids wouldn’t leave Phil alone. Ruby especially wanted “Up! Up! Up!” even though she’d already spent most of the morning in Phil’s arms.

Sadie says, “Baby, it’s COLD outside!”

Little tender moment here. Ben Gunn is already huge! Look at this big fella!

Sapphire is proud of her newfound ability to jump on the doghouse. She defends it from all comers–especially her brother!

Phil is a very popular man.

March came in like a lion. Then April came in like a lion. We ran out of firewood and almost ran out of propane. But sometime around the end of April, warm weather arrived! I got my shorts out, grass started coming in everywhere, and the goats enjoyed going out for daily walks!

Snowball is looking mighty round these days. As this photo was taken on April 29th, she’s still got about four weeks to go here. “Hang in there, girl! How many babies have you got in there anyway?”

Sadie’s kids are two weeks old here and happy to be bounding out on one of their first walks.

Skeeter did not accompany us on this walk and we wondered where she was. I hunted around and eventually discovered her hiding in the boys’ pen at the top of the hill with her two little kidlets. They weren’t quite old enough to be going afield with the herd so she took them to a warm, safe place where she could keep an eye on everyone from above. I think last year’s hard lesson with Butterfly has made Skeeter cautious this time around. When the herd goes anywhere near the horses, Skeeter hangs back and takes her kids the other way.

Little Ruby loves climbing on big, soft mama!

Diamond was born with one straight and one flop ear. I was desperately hoping they’d stay this way, but alas, I believe this was the last of her asymmetrical start. The right ear straightened out over the following weekend, never to flop again.

Sputnik has a certain noble air about him, doesn’t he?

There’s that flop ear again!

Sapphire and Ben Gunn enjoy a nap in the soft grass and warm sunshine.

Skeeter and her her two girls under the shade of the ol’ pine tree. Remember it? Skeeter’s mother Petunia played under this same tree. Funny to think that dear old Lilly was Ruby and Diamond’s great-grandmother. Goat generations go by very quickly.

For the first time since they were born, Skeeter allowed her little darlings to play with Sadie’s older kids. She was rather suspicious of the filthy little brats, but she recognized the practicality of allowing her kids to have friends and entertainment other than herself.

Big Ben Gunn meets Diamond… who looks almost exactly like his sister Sapphire. It’s seriously hard to tell those two girls apart now that the size gap is narrowing!

Diamond and Ruby.

One year ago today…

Yes, May 6th was the day our little Butterfly was shot down. I can’t believe it’s been a year. She recovered so well in the ensuing weeks and I can’t believe she’s living the good life out in Utah where she is flying again over the rock formations.

We had another perfect kidding today! Skeeter went into labor around 2:00, which was the nicest part of the day, and she popped those kids out in textbook form. The only help Phil and I had to give was to cheer her on! She kidded two healthy, strong, and beautifully marked girls! Sticking with the treasure theme, we’ve named them Ruby and Diamond.

Ruby came first with a very large rush of water, and once she was dry she weighed in at exactly 8 lbs. She’s a lovely two-tone chamoisee like her dad, Sonic.

Diamond came just moments later with barely a push from mama, and she weighed 7.5 lbs. Although her front is mostly white right now, Diamond will be colored a lot like her mom when she grows up.

What a sweet little kiss!

I took the new kids out for a little playtime in the fresh grass yesterday. It was a cold, but since the forecast said it would get colder during the weekend I figured I’d better get them out for some fresh air and what little sunshine we had. We still haven’t named them, but we’re working on it! They’re both so incredibly flashy!   

The little doeling’s ears stick up and the little buckling’s flop down. Actually, his right ear flopped down and his left ear stuck up for the first 24 hours, but now both are flopping down.

Our friend Diana came over with her daughter Emma to see the new babies.

Most of our boys claim no responsibility for any babies born here, but Sonic is an exception. He is fascinated by these kids and he seems to know that he is the proud father.

“That’s my boy!”

The 2021 Goat-O-Rama kidding season is off to a rip-roaring good start with Sadie delivering twins this afternoon in glorious textbook fashion. She waited until the sun was shining and it was the warmest part of the afternoon, she gave us plenty of warning so we could be there, and she plopped them out with minimal effort and no help needed. She gave us a lovely tri-colored doeling who looks almost exactly like Finn (no relation however), and then a flashy chestnut and white buckling. Both are exceptionally beautiful kids and they were up and running around in no time at all. Yay for a great start to the 2021 kidding season!!

More photos will no doubt be forthcoming tomorrow. But here is one to get you started:

Easter was a subdued event this year compared to pre-panpanic days, but at least we were able to do anything at all. Last year all festivities were canceled so we were happy to be able to participate in a slimmed-down Easter celebration. 

The kids always look forward to meeting our goats at the community Easter egg hunt, but this year the hunt was called off and replaced by a drive-thru distribution of Easter goodie bags. We filled Finn and Sputnik’s panniers with goodie bags and walked up to the cars to deliver them to the kids. We had fun decorating them for the occasion.    

Sputnik and Finn were very generous about reaching up to the car windows so the kids could lean out and pet their noses and feed them some treats that we brought. 

The other day on our walk I found a stray balloon in our pasture. I brought it home and showed it to the goats to see what they thought of it. Since I was handing out treats they didn’t pay much attention, but I soon realized I’d accidentally “fed” the string to Finn when I was giving him a cookie. He was chomping on the string and kind of eyeing the balloon suspiciously and I facetiously prodded the balloon with my toe to see what would happen. I was not prepared for the explosion which followed! 

When I got her she was an ethereal beauty and so I named her “Stardust”.

Turns out she is more “earthy” than ethereal so now I call her “Dusty”.

Also, she’s half Arabian, half Paint Horse. The first photo is of the Arabian half and the second photo is of the Paint Horse half.

In other news, our Christmas tree was demolished in short order. The goats thoroughly enjoyed every bite. This is what it looked like a day or so after we gave it to them:

Believe it or not, it is even MORE bare now!

Well, it was a good Christmas this year. We had one of the best trees ever. It was one we cut down when we first moved here, but that hadn’t discouraged it. Branches sprouted from the trunk and grew up full and tall. It was one of the only really healthy, green trees we found on our slope in this drought year. Most of our firs had a lot of brown and faded branches, but not this one! I love how it has two tops and it looks like our quetzal bird is perched in the smaller one. 

It looked magnificent in lights.

But all good things must come to an end. This tree was particularly healthy and we kept it all the way until January 25th–a world record in our house where trees are always gone about a week after New Years. But eventually it stopped drinking water and it was time for our tree to have new purpose… feeding a herd of hungry goats! 


Mmm…mmm! Sputnik approves!

It’s almost as much fun to strip the bark with horns as it is with teeth!

Queen Ziggy!


Told ya she was Queen! You can’t have a proper Christmas pageant without a Christmas Queen!