Poor little Tessy had been laying out on her stump just waiting out her time to have her day of labor.
We were getting everyone situated on the morning of the 15th so we could leave and Tessy posed a bit of a problem. The poor girl had started to give birth but could not seem to pass her baby.
Warren ended up pulling her 11 pound doeling; she was stillborn. Thankfully Tessy did not start delivering while we were gone or we may of lost her too.
We cut so much wood in 2008 that we did not need to go at all in 2009. I kept that old woodstove burning constantly this winter so we have finally used up the majority of the 6 cord we had out back.
Off we went on Mother’s day to get a quick 3 cord before the festivities.
Warren found this tree all the way up by Mudd Springs when he was hiking and it looked like a piece of cake. Cut it up and roll it into the trailer….yeah, right!
Warren & Hunter are clearing out a path so we can get the rounds through.
He is making quick work of the cutting portion.
Chips are flying…
The rounds were 31-1/2” across and they did not jump into the trailer – they didn’t even saunter in. Those suckers were so full of water that I swear each one weighed 200 pounds apiece!
It took so long to load that we only ended up getting 2 cord. We needed to be at my sister’s for a Mother’s Day BBQ at 2 in Redmond so we had to scramble to get back in time.
We will give it a month or so to dry out up there. We will go back when the wood is lighter and we can get a full three cord on the trailer.
The first camp out of the year for us was the first weekend in May. We went to Sugar Creek Campground up by Rager Ranger Station and we were the only people in the campground.
We saw elk, deer and antelope. We also spotted a lot of firewood just waiting for us to come and cut it up. There was also still snow up at 6 corners and a lot all around in the shady areas.
I kind of enjoyed the quite time and I was able to get some reading done. Those pesky magazines pile up quick and I really didn’t put much of a dent in them - but I tried.
Brandy likes hangin’ in camp. She really likes watching and then chasing the chipmunks.
And here is Peaches on the truck consul. She rides here and sleeps while we are on the road.
The trip was good and it was nice to get out and have a campfire. I look forward to going again soon.
We had 6 babies all relatively close in age and it was beyond time to do horns. Thankfully Keith was able to come up and help once again. This time he brought a friend and his name is Matt.
So, all of the goats get 2 shots (Tetanus and Bar Vac) and then they get their little brains fried with a hot iron. Dandy gets the special rubber band treatment since he is a boy.
The screaming is just a little horrifying to me so I really love the fact that Keith comes to hold them so I don’t have to.
First there were the shots…
And then there was the mean man with that hot iron…
Look Ma – No Horns!
Brandy is wondering why all the babies are screaming…
And this is how they all look for a few days. It’s like they are trying to figure out what the hell just happened in there… Of course Dandy is wondering why he feels a huge pinch between his legs – poor kid!
Thank you so much for coming and doing the dirty work for me Keith! I think you have some home made cookies coming in your future. ;-)
As I mentioned earlier, we got to go to the State OHA banquet in Canyonville on May 15th. The banquet was held at the Seven Feathers Hotel & Casino. OHA was giving away a Nosler rifle and Warren was asked to attend on Nosler’s behalf. We also got to meet our new friends there, Rusty and Norma Kuyper.
It was a really nice trip weather wise. I don’t think any of us had ever been to Canyonville before so it was a first for the Espinola’s. Everything was so green and lush from all the rain we have been experiencing. Normally when we stray down to southern Oregon it is in the summer and everything is brown and wretched so it was a nice change.
The banquet and the food were very good. Hunter won a set of 10 x 50 binos and a fishing pole in the youth auction. Warren and I didn’t even win anything in the silent auction but Rusty did very well.
Rusty and Norma headed home after the banquet and we stayed on at the hotel.
Here is a picture of the hotel side where we stayed.
And this is a picture of the beautiful sculpture they have outside the entrance to the casino.
And here is Warren accepting a print for Nosler.
It was a quick trip but a very nice change of pace for us. We are doing some different things, courtesy of Nosler, that we may have never gotten around to on our own. It is very nice and we are thankful to the family, John Nosler in particular, for this wonderful change in our lives.
OMGosh! I thought that Cocoa was a cutie but not near as cute as this one!
Terra went into labor on Tuesday, May 18th and I stalled her in the early evening. I figured it would be a long night so I went to check on here before we went to bed and this is what I saw…
Mama is La Mancha and the daddy is Chance. One of the tow have some black in their background. I would have never guessed Terra would have any black on her baby.
I am thinking that we may need to leave him as a buck. He will probably throw some pretty interesting babies.
He has a great attitude also.
This is Blackie.
One more to go – Moose. I have no idea what she is packing. She is a Nubian Boer mix herself so this could be another big surprise.
We slipped out of town on the 15th to attend the State OHA banquet in Canyonville and little miss Silver decided she would just have her baby without us.
We came back on Sunday the 16th and she had herself a little girl.
We call her Cocoa since her brown is the same color as powdered cocoa.
This one is a real funny little girl. She is full of spunk and has a great attitude just like her mother.
You can see what a little twit she is just by the look on her face here!
Peaches is out there just checking Cocoa out. Cocoa started out bigger than Peaches is at 5-1/2 months.
And here I am holding the little toad. She is actually Chance’s first child. I guess he makes pretty cute babies. Her mother is a full blooded Alpine so she is 1/2 Alpine and 1/2 Boer. I really like how she turned out.
Terra and Moose are still due; both with Chance’s babies. Now we wait some more…
We were still waiting to see what Salt would have and she finally gave up her secret on Tuesday, 4/13. Salt gave us 2 more little doelings. Salt had kids waiting for us on Tuesday morning when we went to feed at 6:30 AM.
CUTE! I love new babies!
This is Rosemary and she has 4 little brown feet. Her sister Sage is hiding out under the playset already…
Here is a better picture…
I can always count on Hunter the goat wrangler to get them ready for pictures.
Here is Rosemary out dinking around.
And here is Sage…
So many babies running around at once. It is hard to believe that there are so many girls. So far we have had 11 girls and 3 boys.
It was the following Sunday (4/11) and we were all our own working on our own projects around the house. I happened to be working in the garage on a scrappy project in front of the window listening to my Lynyrd Skynyrd pretty loud.
Some woman came and knocked on the window and scared the daylights out of me. She said that I had a goat in the pasture that was bleeding on her back leg. I ran out front but she had left already. So, out into the field I went. Initially everyone looked fine but I noticed that Trinket was missing. I finally found her at the bottom of the property and she had given birth to two little girls. Her leg was not bleeding and I can’t imagine how that woman missed the two babies on the ground…
The weather started to turn into a storm so we got her and the girls into a stall and all was good. We named them Crystal and Ruby. Ruby has little waddles like her mama and Crystal has really cool pattern on her head like a crystal in the light.
Ruby is in front here with the tipped up ears and Crystal is in the back.
Here is Hunter trying to balance these two girls who grew very rapidly.
This is Ruby – she is a real cutie and she has a lot of personality.
This is Crystal trying to be naughty and get into the barn.
And here is Trinket trying to eat while the brats are tromping around in her food. She is a really good mother but a little too protective at times. I was trying to get her baby out of a hole between the slats in the wall and she bite me on the back of the arm, not hard but I knew she meant business. Then, Warren was trying to board up the hole and she grabbed his ear!
She is a good mama and has no trouble at all giving birth. Thankfully she is not normally a biter when she doesn’t have babies to protect.
Pepper decided that it was also time for her to have her little girl on the same day that Flora kidded. Almost simultaneously they had their babies…
Pepper is one of Sugar’s triplets from last year. Sugar is the black Nubian that had the triplets this year.
Darky was a little on the smaller side for only being a single. She is still a little smaller than the rest but she is very cute and still a more chocolate brown.
We had so many does about ready to pop that Darky and Pepper got the big stall and company. Pepper’s sister Salt was also due so they shared a stall – and we waited.
Flora was a bottle baby and she is a really good girl who is pretty docile. She gave birth to Henry’s babies in the evening on April 9th. She had a doeling Boer and a buckling LaMancha. We named the girl Brownie and the little guy Dandy.
Dandy came out much larger than little Brownie and it was a bit shocking to see the size difference and that one was a Boer and the other a LaMancha. The goat experts tell me that she was probably a little premature which would explain the size difference and some other issues.
Unfortunately, we lost Brownie a few days after she was born.
Dandy turned out to be a pretty funny character. He also has 3 light brown spots down his spine which make him really cute.
He happens to be a favorite of Hunter’s.
This picture shows how his spots run from his neck down his back – each one is a little bigger than the last.
We have enjoyed him and hope that he will find a nice home. We will be listing him for sale soon just like all the other kids from this year.
