Hot Cocoa in May

First off, we have finally have established names for our newest babes in the woods. For the cocoa and black doeling with the little marshmellow on top her head, "Hot Cocoa." For the steely silver highlighted buckling, "Jack Frost." And for the wig wearing all white buckling, "Rocky Top".

Secondly, Hot Cocoa was observed being bred by Jack Frost on the 18th so if all takes well, we're looking at offspring in mid-May which will be lovely weather. Jack Frost has the longest and crimpiest fiber so far. We are now considering whether to keep both bucks for separate breeding lines, or sell one.

Fiber Fotos

Okay, first and foremost is the little black doeling who is putting on her beige cashmere coat and the grey buckling who is looking quite dapper.

Next is Valentino, the little wether lamb, who has a medium gray wool which transitions to white. He is very soft and quite the loverboy. His sire, Andes, is stretching so he can keep accurate tabs on who is in heat now, coming into heat, or might be thinking of coming into heat in the next few months!

October 30th -- A Date to Remember

After chasing Flicker the cashmere doe around for a week or two to no avail, Hidaway Andes Mint finally landed a date with Little Eagle Eve -- hey, at least she's a sheep! She is his favorite gal overall anyway. Perhaps rams prefer blondes with pink lipstick and black eyeliner??? So we're looking at a lambing date of 3/27/2009 +/-.

Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival (SAFF) was much more interesting this year after caring for the animals and getting to know the fleeces better. Took a drop spindling class from Lorien Alpacas and also a rug hooking class from Sara-Beth. Picked up a couple of books on felting (goes much faster than knitting/crocheting) and a needlefelting tool with 4-needles. Also went to Earthguild after and purchased hand carders and a couple of drop spindles. The clerks had a frightened look on their face as Jeff and I chased our vivacious (loud) acrobatic twins around the shop which included plenty of sharp pointy objects of desire. They get tired and unreasonably jazzed up in the late afternoon. Neither of us had much time to browse so we just compared notes after leaving.

Our twin boys are 21 months now and seem to be playing on their own a bit more now which allows me to get a few small things done. Like skirting and washing fleeces. As I was picking out manure tags, I began to realize that Jeff would be coming home for dinner soon and the image of me engrossed in such flora and fauna might not be all that appealing. Luckily I finished up about 10 minutes before he rolled in.

I've washed Eve's fleece which was already quite matted and somewhat felty feeling to begin with. It will need a lot of work -- I'm pulling out groups of locks or individual locks that I can get loose. Once it's carded, it's fairly nice. Hopefully she will be better next year.

I've washed 4 ounce samples of Andes and Kayla's fleeces. Kayla's was so fluffy that you could probably spin it very nicely right off her back. Andes had the least grease of them all and seems to be the softest. Eve by far was the dirtiest and greasiest but perhaps the longest staple.

As for the goats, the gray buckling is growing quite large and has so much cashmere he's beginning to look like a sheep! He is so very friendly, too. The white buckling was more robust at birth so we expected him to keep that edge. Husband and I are still at odds about which one to keep as the future sire. I favor gray and he favors white. The all white goats do look so elegant up on the mountain. The little black doeling is really starting to put on the fuzz now and is beginning to look like a brown teddy bear. I'll have to take some pictures soon.

All Hot and Flushed

We're in another dry spell as rain (and petrol) goes but the pasture is doing better this time around. Everyone is healthy and filling out in time for breeding season approaching. The days are noticeably getting shorter -- and cooler, too. The zinnias and cosmos are setting seed and we are getting some late blueberries setting fruit.

Flicker's doeling is starting to get her cashmere in and it looks to be a lovely brown color. Unfortunately she loves to stick her head through the woven wire because, as you know, the grass is always greener on the other side. Her dam tried it twice but seems to have learned her lesson. The bucklings are strutting their stuff and contributing greatly to the Eau de Ranch. The grey buckling is nicely enhanced with peppered markings while the white buckling has a lovely pouf of exquisitely styled hair that amazingly always stays put.

Eve is wearing her black eyeliner and best pink lipstick in preparation for breeding season. Kayla and her little wether lamb, Valentino, are now with the rest of the flock and have adjusted nicely. Martina seems to have taken to him and seems to have an air of regality to her now that she is not on the bottom of the pecking order.

The Highland steer is doing quite nicely and seems to have weaned himself already. We gradually reduced the ratio of milk replacer to warm water and I guess he wasn't liking what the bottle bar was serving lately. He still nurses Lil Hot Shot for whatever he can get.

Bottles, Bucklings and Babies

It's been kind of interesting having the little bull calf wandering the yard alongside the dogs. He couldn't seem to find the teats on mom which were very low and pendulous so we began bottle feeding. He is beginning to eat his calf starter now and chew a bit of grass so once he starts really coming for the bottle we'll turn him out to pasture with the others. We'll bottle feed him for 2 full months and then wean during the 3rd month. Since he is being bottle fed and will lose fear of us, he'll be made into a steer soon.









The cashmere bucklings are putting on their fuzz quite nicely now. They are being separated for breeding. The grey buckling is in the front pasture with Flicker, the multi-colored doe. The white buckling will be bred to the 2 white does in the back paddock.













The sheep are also separated at this point as Kayla just had her first lamb. The little ram lamb is quite handsome. They are keeping company with Martina, a moorit ewe lamb purchased around Father's Day, in the back paddock. Andes and Eve are out in the front pasture.

Highland Happy Hour

Yesterday, we noticed that Hot Shot had sunk in around the base of her tail and would be calving soon. Last night the cows spent the evening down in the front field instead of in the woods as they usually do. No calf at 8 am this morning but by 9:30-10:00 a.m. there was a new bull calf in the field. Munro, the sire, seemed proud and protective of his new progeny. He will be made a steer.

How Refreshing

So finally, here are some pics of the Shetlands the same day after being shorn. Kayla is chocolate, Eve is white, and Andes is very light grey. Below are photos of them in full fleece. The shearer seemed very pleased with Kayla's fleece in particular.

Lil Hot Shot Is Not So Little

Well, it's official. Hot Shot is going to calve soon. Sunday morning while we were going down to the mailbox for the paper, I noticed that she had developed her udder. We figured she was pregnant due to sheer size and the fact that she had been in with the Bull, Munro, for a couple of months prior to our acquiring the fold at the end of October. Gestation is 9 months so she was bred sometime in mid to late September.

Merry Kait delivered a heifer calf around July last year so she should be bred by now, too and could deliver as soon as mid-July. We'll be watching her for udder development.

Oh, What a Morning

The shearer arrived at 8:30 this morning to take the wool off the sheep. After all was done and cleaned up, and one of the twins put down for a nap, I fed the goats and Flicker didn't come down.

Yesterday she didn't come down because she had her head stuck in the fence so after I extracted her I pulled all the goats into the front pasture for the day as we knew she was getting close to her date. After we had all the sheep caught for shearing last night we put the goats back in the woods again.

So Jeff checked on her today about 11 or so, and she had delivered a healthy baby girl. I went up and clamped the navel as it was long. Also gave the baby and mom some goat drench and mom some feed. Baby is up and wobbling around, nursing and getting cleaned off by mom. She is all black with a white top knot like her sire.

Udder Up

While visiting with the goats this evening, I was pleased to notice that Flicker, the white/black doe, had developed her udder seemingly all of a sudden. She is normally the most skittish but was wanting to be friendly this evening so we'll be starting to check her more often now and be more observant for signs of labor. Her likely breeding date was around 1/05/2008 or 1/27/2008 so at this point we're assuming she was bred around January 5th and would be due around June 3, 2008. Three more weeks.

Her sire, a 2003 VA State Fair Champion, is of similar mixed coloring but the sire of her kids is all black with a white toupe on his head and the sire's dam is all black. We are hoping Flicker gives us a nice buckling to breed to the 2 white does. If by chance she has twins, a boy and girl combo would be ideal. The farm that she came from carried a lot of black does with brown cashmere.

The 2 white does are twins from a different farm and had a black brown dam with a black maternal line. Their sire is white and has a white sire and a black with light brown dam. The twins' dam, sire, sire's sire, and sire's dam all placed as various champions at ECA shows from 2002-2006. Milly and Molly were both bred to a 2007 VA State Fair Champion that is white with silver grey streaks.

Almost as good as a box of chocolates.

Patience is a Virtue, Right?

The two white does were exposed to the buck for 2 cycles during November and December. We're hoping that Milly, the 2nd white doe, will kid May 11 plus or minus 5 days either way so we are growing very anxious. I'm sure she is too. This is assuming that she was bred one cycle later than Molly whose approximate breeding date was November 10th. Interest in Milly by the buck was noted on 12/13/2007.

In the meantime, the first little guys have fleshed out nicely. Incidentally, they are the second set of twin boys born here. The first were our own twin boys Josef and Elijah who are now 14 months old and getting a kick out of watching the livestock.

Off on the Right Eight Hooves

First of the 2008 Cashmere Goat Kids

Molly, one of the white does, delivered twin bucklings Sunday morning, April 6, 2008 while we were away. One is pure white like Molly and the other is white with silver/grey streaks like the sire. The silver buckling has a pair of wattles. Both are cleaned up, moving about, and have nursed.

Looks to be a nice week for having babies as the weather is supposed to be in the mid-40's at night and high-60's in the daytime with only a 20% chance of rain Wednesday.