We're still getting used to being goatie parents farmers. It's hard not to stop in our tracks while doing chores and just sit and watch the kids all day. They're now two weeks old and agile as monkeys, doing twists, leaps, flips, and even standing on their poor mama's back.
If you'd like to see some videos of them running around in baby goatie silliness, you can access them below; I'll list the sizes of the files:
Here are a few movies of Jeff with the sheep and goats:
We were all excited about playing James Herriot for the birth - I even had shoulder-length obstetric gloves at hand (a helpful friend told me that they were for cows, and I'd hardly need more than a dish glove if our Tulip needed assistance along the way. Oops! Anyone have an expecting cow?)
Luckily, Tulip handled everything herself, and we just assisted with a final toweling-off and blowdrying of the kids. To think that they survived that first night and at temperatures as low as -8°F since with just a heat lamp for warmth is amazing to us. What resilient creatures they are.
The kids are packing on the pounds, having doubled in weight since they were born. Here I am with chubby Samson. He has been disbudded (by a vet, under anesthesia - the same way he'll be neutered) to prevent his horns from growing (Delilah doesn't exhibit any horn growth so far):
The chickens are not neglected - Pavel (now known as Pavlova), our handicapped hen, races into the box stall area whenever I tend to Tulip and the kids. She knows she will be hand-fed there, to make eating with her crooked beak easier:
We've also been making friends with the sheep. Here I am with Gorgonzola, the leader of the sheep herd. She now enjoys being petted and we no longer have to use the crook to wrangle her for her weekly herbal worming.
In major life-changing news, the Dalai Lama is coming to Madison soon! I missed a previous opportunity to hear him speak; I won't miss this one. Jeff and I will attend on separate days, as farmers don't seem to get vacation days...
Despite all the activity in the barn, things are very quiet up here in our new home. This is the view from the window next to the computer where I'm writing this note:
I'm currently working on a purple and green meditation shawl in Noro Kureyon, in a K3P3 stitch that changes every three rows to P3K3, forming little boxes. I'm now off to brew some genmaicha tea, light some incense, and sit down to work on it for a bit while Jeff is absorbed in football. Hope some quiet fibering time is on your agenda as well!
P.S. If you like genmaicha tea, the link above is to the best, freshest stuff you'll ever taste, with no tiny broken bits of dust. It tastes like popcorn - very sweet for a green tea - and Jeff and I drink pots of it in the winter. We used to get it in Milwaukee at Outpost, and I was happy to find I can mailorder it directly. If only I could get sushi by UPS, I'd be all set.
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