Snow and babies
January 31, 2008 by Diane
First, a couple of more pics of the critters from yesterday. We’re trying to get them used to us so we can milk them when the time comes. The goats are pretty tame and friendly but the sheep are very skittish so we’re taking it slowly.
And, just so the hogs didn’t feel left out:
It snowed today!!! Big ol’ snowflakes! It rarely snows here so I made sure to take pics. Of course, none of it stuck. We all got wrapped up and ran ouside as soon as it started!
Guess what we found when we went out for the snow? (Did I mention that one of the sheep was pregnant?)
We didn’t know she was THAT pregnant! Sheesh. Only one baby (that we saw) and it seemed to be doing well. It’s very strong and Mama looked to be very attentive.
So, now you’re rushed into a “learn how to milk them” situation, or you already know how to milk them? The kid will be weaned in 8 weeks, or are goats weaned later?
Thought about you when I saw a TV thing … probably on the food channel … about a woman who milks pretty much anything that can be milked. She makes cheeses from the various milk types and sells them locally. Takes a lot of milk to make cheese. A gallon or more of milk for 1 lb of cheese. She has buffalo, goats, sheep, and various other critters I can’t recall. It took some work to get the buffalo into the stall for milking, but the goats lined up outside the gate to their milking barn and she’d say, “Ok, ladies; table for 4″ and they’d run into the milking barn and jump up onto milking stalls ready and eager for her to hook up the machines.
Are you gonna build a milking barn? Gonna start a new business taking advantage of the locavore craze (like you have time to take on something else)?
The lamb died. It apparently got stuck in some muck somehow overnight and it was dead by morning. The mama is still too skittish for us to milk anyway. The sheep had been “wild” pastured where we got them so they’re not yet calm enough for touching at all. We’re working with them, though…
In other news, we think one of the goats may be pregnant. They’re pretty tame so we’ll just have to see how that goes (if it goes). We’re working with all of the sheep and goats to get them used to daily handling but it’ll take some time.
Awwww sorry about the baby. That really sucks….
I was just coming in to comment on how cute it was.