They lost their manhood

I met a lady that lives nearby that breeds goats a few months ago and today she came over to give the goats shots for me and to castrate the boys.  

To castrate them, they place a band around the extra manhood, and over time the circulation will cut off and they will just fall off.  They say it's only uncomfortable the first day and then the boys won't feel anything at all.

Rucker's eyes clearly tell us what he was thinking :(

I feel horrible, but I also know that they need to be fixed so that they don't make more little goats.

It's almost Spring

It was a beautiful day outside today so everyone deserved some time outside.

 Even the chicks experienced their first day outside of the house.

I even found some flowers blooming around the edges of the yard.

A different way to color Easter eggs

Came across this idea to use kool aid to color the eggs this year and we decided to try it.

We didn't leave any eggs in the bowls very long AND the child seems to think that you should dip an egg in every color so none of his were really any color at all besides a mix of all of them.  The five eggs that are half colors (to the left side of the carton) were done by me, and the rest were his mixes.

It completed the job of coloring eggs, but I think next time I'd use less water to make them darker colors and leave the eggs in longer.

I will say that none of the eggs inside had any coloring to them, which we normally saw with traditional egg coloring kits.

Babies on Easter

Rucker is definitely more people friendly and an escape artist, he already got out of the pen this morning

Both boys have already started growing horns

Food Fights

Jenny has become very food-aggressive to the other goats ever since the last month of her pregnancy.  I put the food in three bowls and separate them, but as soon as she is finished inhaling her food she will hurry over and shove someone off their bowl of food.

I've started putting Kelly and Carrie's food in higher locations that Jenny can't get to because she's too big/old/fat.

Jenny's started putting her front feet up on the lower house and can tip the bowl over while Kelly or Carrie will back up and just watch.  Darn goats.

The babies can get up there too.

Two and a half weeks old

The chicks are between 2 and 2.5 weeks old now so I decided to get some updated pictures.  I can usually tell who the first born chick was because he/she is bigger than the rest.  I know who the rotten egg chick is since she's brown and the rest are black.  But otherwise, I can't tell them apart at all anymore.

Rotten Egg Chick

I know I got a picture of each chick because we put them in a tub as we got each picture taken.

Then we got to move them all back and I talk to them.

They talk back.  I think they hate us. :)

Some grow and some die

I think some of the planning websites that I used were wrong.  

The tomato plants are all going strong.

The lettuce has ALL died.

The cauliflower, calendula flowers, and scallions look like they're doing well

The broccoli is still surviving

And the herbs are looking okay

I'm suppose to start a few more things but I'm not sure about doing them so soon considering my luck.  I'm also not sure if when they say I can sow the onions and garlic indoors now if they mean the bulbs or seeds.  I have bulbs, but putting them in the indoor containers seems odd for some reason.

She's just a little lap dog

Faith missed us while we were gone.  She proved this by climbing up on to the chair with me once I got home.

She doesn't seem to understand that her 100 pounds does not fit into the 5 inches between me and the arm rest.

Time to sell some goats

Today I caught the baby boys eating solid food with mom and I realized that's the sign that they could be weaned and sold.  So I put together pictures of the goats to sell them and added some information here so that anyone that's interested in buying them can get additional information.

All of the goats will come (running) when grain is shaken in a scoop or food dish.

Jenny is a few years old.  We are not sure how old but two vets told me between 3 and 5 years old.  She's given birth twice in the last 18 months.   Both times she had two adorable babies.  She is skitish around people, but has never been aggressive.  I do trim her hooves and she has had all of the typical shots.  I KNOW I would like to sell Jenny.

The rest of the goats I am unsure of.  I KNOW that I want to sell three goats because downsizing to two goats would be a great idea considering we never planned on having goats and this wasn't in our plan.  I am simply torn about keeping Carrie and Kelly or keeping Carrie and a baby....

Carrie was born January 26th, 2012 so she's just over a year old.  She was bottle fed and slept in the house for the first 6 weeks of her life.  She likes to be pet and easily comes up to people.  I will admit that she has started trying to earn her place in the pecking order in our family and has turned her head to horn people - other than me.  My youngest son flipped her and pinned her down twice and she stopped going after him, I've read that's all it takes for them to learn who dominates.  She would be tougher to get rid of since I bottle fed her, I'm slightly attached. :)  She's had the typical shots.

 Kelly is the twin sister to Carrie, born January 26th, 2012.  She was skittish around people but has gotten pretty good lately.  She doesn't run when I reach out to pat her and she comes running when you have food in a cup or dish for her.  She LOVES to climb and jump.  She's had all of the typical shots.

Rucker was born March 6th, 2013.  He is the cutest freaking thing ever.  He loves to climb and jump.  His brother, Cash, was obviously born the same day and is also ridiculously cute (pictured below.)  Both boys can/will be wethered/neutered soon.  They will also receive shots soon.

All goats MUST go to homes where they will be pets and may not be used for meat.

We are located in Bristow and do not have a way to transport them other than inside our SUV (for the two babies.)  They do not have to be sold together, but I do not want any of them to be the only goat on a farm/property as goats are social and I would hate for them to be lonely.

They've all been around chickens and they've all been around a large dog - but mom does not like them.  NONE of them have shown aggression, bit, attacked, ect. (Other than Carrie and her recent dominance stuff.)

They all have horns.

The Land Plans

I had to do some editing, but here are the most recent plans that were sent to me.  My house is that polygon shape in the middle of the page (above the purple circle.)

The dotted line that comes out of the left of the house and down to the bottom of the page is my driveway, or was the driveway before it was paved and widened.

The red arrow points to the temporary construction zone that we will have on our property.  The orange arrow in the middle of the page points to the "easement" that they are planning.

The blue arrow along the bottom of the image is where the current road is.  

Those fluffly lines show where the brush and trees are.  Notice that the road is coming all the way to and into  the trees, and the construction lines will completely cut them down.... They don't come as close to the house as the picture shows.  The fluffy lines around the driveway were trees that were cut down before I bought the property.