What a busy weekend!  We knew going into the weekend that the next batch of girls would begin having their babies but I never thought that we would be having two girls giving birth at the same time!  Saturday was a beautiful and sunny day.  Both Dixie and Donna were very restless and acting suspiciously like they were planning to have their babies but neither of them were showing signs of imminent delivery, so I just stayed close and kept an eye on them both.  I was enjoying some shade and having a chat with a friend that was over when suddenly Donna began to push!  I immediately jumped into action and helped her to deliver our first set of triplets!  Donna blessed us with two beautiful girls and a gorgeous little boy!  All 3 are healthy and so tiny! 

No sooner had I delivered the third kid, Dixie immediately started pushing!!  Before I knew it, Dixie had delivered a huge buckling followed very quickly by a doeling!  Both are the spitting image of their Mom and are also very healthy and strong.  I am so thankful that all babies and both Mom's are doing well.  It was an eventful afternoon, one that our good friend Kevin may never forget as he was quickly thrust into the role of Doula to assist me with the deliveries.  I am happy and proud to say that Kevin did awesome and was not the least bit squeamish!  With all the excitement over and all the new Mom's and babies tucked into their nice clean pens, we enjoyed a fabulous steak BBQ!  It was a perfect end to a wonderful day!  We still have Carmela and Mimi due to kid this week to ensure I continue to get no rest!  We are at 13 babies and counting!  3 more Mom's to kid and I can't wait to see how many babies we end up with!

I can't believe it has been over 4 months since my last post!  It honestly feels like it has been years since my last entry as our lives have ben caught up in so much turmoil these last few months.  So many changes have occurred in our lives - both good and bad and I will do my best to update everyone!

I guess I will start with the addition of Rosie to our herd.  We took Rosie in as a foster from the OSPCA and after a short time decided to add her permanently to our herd.  Rosie has a very ugly history which I will not share here but we are happy to report she is now very happy in her new home.  She is showing improvements every day and is finally able to be without her winter jacket full time now that the weather is warmer and her hair is growing back in.    Rosie loves food and treats and seems to be very fascinated with watching birds!  She loves all the new babies that keep arriving and is often playing with them!  We have grown to love Rosie in a very short time and are happy that she can live out her days with us here.

The worst part of the last few months has been dealing with the loss of a friend.  Lindsay was tragically taken from all of us on April 5, 2013.  She was the victim of a horrible and senseless murder at the hands of her ex boyfriend.  Lindsay and I were in the same degree program at Nipissing U and she was supposed to be graduating with our class this June.  She was a special woman who was always able to find the positive in every situation and took on life with such a zest that those who knew her couldn't help but be inspired by her!  She will be forever missed but never forgotten.  RIP sweet angel. ♥

Babies are arriving!  So far we have 8 babies born and all are healthy and vigorous!  CC blessed us with two beautiful boys - Apollo and Merak.  Bonnie also had two boys - Titan and Moon Pi.  Maisie gave birth to two beautiful babies - Asia and Hercules.  We are retaining both of them.  Lucy also blessed us with a girl and a boy - Aurora and Argus.  The next four girls to kid are Donna, Dixie, Carmela and Mimi.  They are due starting the 5th of May!

Any guesses on how many babies our Carmela is carrying?  She is seriously as big as a house!  She was big last year - but not this BIG!  Last year she had twin boys.

The weather so far this year has been very frustrating.  Extreme changes in temperature followed by snow, then rain, then more snow is making life very difficult.  The end of April saw us dealing with the worst flood we have ever faced here!  We had to evacuate the goats to different farms just to keep them all safe and dry.  It made life even more stressful as so many roads in the area were closed due to wash outs.  It was a challenge just to get to around everywhere.  We are happy to report though that we all made it through and our house was not damaged in the flood.  We were very fortunate considering how many others in the area lost everything.  Now that the water has gone back down we are dealing with repairs to our fences and the cleanup of everything that washed in our yard.  it could have been so much worse!

I guess the best news of all is that I have finally finished school!  Through everything that's gone on in the last month I am not exactly sure how I managed, but I did!  No more exams, papers or terrible reading assignments for this girl!  At least for awhile anyways!  I would still like to go on to grad school at some point but for the next year at least I will be taking the time to refocus and get centered again.  There is plenty of time to go back to school again later!  For now it is just so hard to believe that after 4 years I have finally earned my degree!  I definitely need to celebrate but will do so when things aren't so busy around here!

Yesterday we spent the day at the local Bracebridge Fall Fair with some of our goats for part of the goat display. As it was for display only and there was no competition, we were able to just sit back and relax and enjoy ourselves watching people enjoying our goats.  The weather was nice and sunny which brought out a lot of people to the fairgrounds.  As we were limited to bringing 6 goats, we decided on bringing Dixie, Mimi, Lucy, Carmela, Maisie and Cassi.  These girls are getting quite used to being at fairs and showing this year so it seemed they knew right away they were in for another long day of boredom.  Lucy insisted on spending most of the day jumping from pen to pen, standing on the thin ledge between pens or just standing up and looking out at the world.  People did seem to enjoy her though and the occasional gasps from people as she leaped from one pen to the next were priceless for us!  The nigerian girls were continually mistaken for baby goats but everyone was dazzled by thier beautiful bright blue eyes!  Next year we will have more nigerians that we will be able to bring which will hopefully show the breed off more.  It was great being able to connect with people in our own area for a change though.

A few weeks back, Geordon stumbled upon a simple milking machine online.  We had been discussing purchasing a milk machine for some time just to simplify milking - especially with a naughty and bad tempered Dixie to milk!  The cost on a milk machine however can often run into the thousands and this is simply not in our budget.  We were so excited when Geordon stumbled upon the "Henry Milker", a small and simply designed milking system that requires no power and works through a simple vaccuum.  How perfect for us!  Especially since it requires no power!  The best part about this machine is that it costs less than $200.  After doing a bit of research into whether or not it will also work on our Nigerians, we were sold!  I have been a little worried about having to try to milk Carmela soon with the tiny teats that Nigerians have.  Now with this milker I can simply let it do all my work for me!  We placed our order and it FINALLY arrived yesterday!  The Henry Milker company is out of a small town in Alaska.  Our milker was delayed at customs for a few days en route but finally made it safe and sound.  Geordon and I tested it briefly last night on Dixie but as I don't regularly milk her at night she didn't have much to offer.  This morning however, I was able to milk her out and save my hands!  For such a moody goat, she didn't seem to mind the teat cups at all and was content to eat her breakfast while I played around with it.  She was even able to lie down while I milked her!  This machine was definately worth it and I am sure it will make life much easier now.  I may even have an opportunity to sleep in and let Geordon milk now!

Here is a video from the www.henrymilker.com website showing how simple this is to use.  What a wonderful idea they had!  We are thrilled to have found it :o)

Dixie has given birth to two healthy little girls!!! They are both just over 5 pounds and arrived when I wasn't even here to greet them! Daniel was home but Geordon and I were 45 minutes away delivering a horse to its new home and had visit his parents
when we got the call. A stressful drive home saw us getting home to two little bundles of wet fluff and a very eager new Mom. Dixie is doing really well and has taken to being a Mom without any issues. Both little girls have the same Alpine markings that Dixie has but one is white and black and the other is brown and black. They are both just so precious!

So here I am, doing something I thought I would never do. I am starting a Blog. I guess this could help to keep my thoughts in order while I continue to take on more and more responsibility. I am after all, a sucker for punishment and certainly seem to enjoy staying busy! So for my first blog post I figure I will just ramble about the recent goings on here lately and see where it takes me.
So, I finished my Child Welfare class last week, something that I dreaded taking part in everyday as it really is a brutal subject. Now for the rest of the summer I just have my medieval history class, which I love. I officially changed my degree to Child and Family Studies two weeks ago which puts me a great position for entering into the MSW that will be starting at Nipissing in the next year or so.
Aside from school, we are all still anticipating the birth of Trixie's first baby (ies). The guy we got her from obviously had no clue when she was bred as based on his information, she should
have given birth a month ago. To all you sceptics - YES she is pregnant (according to our vet anyways!)  lol She will finally pop when we least expect it OR are at our busiest.
Poor Dixie went through dehorning yesterday. What we thought were scurs (a horny growth
where horns grown after disbudding as kids) actually turned out to be horns so it's a good thing out vet Kelli and her new associate Haley were taking care of it.  Fortunately for Dixie, we don't risk any procedures around here without heavy sedation and freezing. She now has two holes in the top of her head where her horns once were but they will grow in and she'll be just fine. No more worries about that wonky horn growing into the side of her head!
We suspect Billie went for a swim yesterday. He suddenly showed up at the front door after dinner,
soaking wet. After checking the fence line a few times, we can't figure out how on earth he got out of his pen. Such a mystery! Here is hoping he doesn't try it again anyways. Goats hate water and he was dripping wet.
Well, for a first blog post I guess I've written enough. I will continue to try to write frequently as I modify and build this website up.

Thanks for reading! Cheers :o)