my winter in recap........Rated G.

there were a million other eventful events this winter...but I won't bore you with the full length feature film. We had drama and excitement along with many moments of frustrating weather related incidents. Finally with a little sunshine...its starting to revive us all again. Summer will be upon us in the blink of an eye!! WE HOPE!!!

Note to self....Always babyproof the lamps....ALWAYS!!!

my son was on the computer and I IM'd him and asked him to check the cam....told him I thought it was smoke. He was down the road and on the camera within two minutes. Seriously...he didn't waste time and came carrying a fire extinguisher! Glad he was thinking, I heard and saw him enter on the cam and within several seconds saw a lot of smoke/or fire extinguisher. He was calling next and telling me the light that was not within view of camera was laying flat on the hay and was black. I do NOT use Heat Lamp bulbs...just 60 watt and I was shocked it made that much heat. It wasn't knocked down in the morning when I did chores and by early afternoon it did that much damage. That is just frightening how fast it can smolder something and start a fire.
When I got home after work, I checked the spot and saw son had cleaned it up pretty well and them dumped snow on the area. I dug around in all the bedding and Still found warm spots.
I hope it taught me a lesson that I need to always slow down and MAKE SURE...I take extra precautions with lamps.
I have yet to get any pictures and hopefully this weekend I will get caught up and try to do a decent post on my blog. With new calves...new baby goats and this never ending Winter Weather, I am getting little else done and find myself not getting to even eat supper and relax until close to 9 in the evening. We have had too much rain and NO sunshine. I haven't seen the sun in close to two weeks. If it isn't fog it is serious ice/slush on the roads. WE NEED WARM WEATHER and a sunny day to get us out of the dumps.
p.s. Thank you Son for the cam ...it truly saved the day!!!

Normal work day at the office.....when in the blink of an eye...

...I have the goatcam running in the background on the computer. I can hear the noises and tell if something is amiss. I popped in on occassion to check everyone, when I see what I thought was some really heavy breathin coming from someone down below the camera...just out of sight.

Then it hit me!!! SMOKE!!!???

until next time.....................

Son just earned himself ownership of this last calf!!

It's a girl and I wouldn't of believed it myself, but had to check twice and then again this morning. The largest calf to date and it about took more pulling than my son had in him to get this one born.
I am seriously thinking the bull may be going to sale. This last one had me more than worried.
She is healthy and XLarge, but mother hopped up right away and went to cleaning and caring for her. I will keep her for breeding and my son earned the calves off this one. It stayed in the 30's through the night and melted alot of snow....sad thing is....there is alot more to melt yet. It is Mud Mud Mud and more Mud!! If I could get the skidster even close to the corrals I would toss in another large round straw bale...but it won't be happening anytime soon.

It WAS really cool though, to stand at the fence early morning and see all the Moms calling to their babies for breakfast. Beautiful morning!!

Babies babies and more babies....

So far to count...in one day and one day only...I had 7 new kids and another bull calf. I have 4 more Jerseys to calve out and 4 more does. I was hoping for a little breather but went out today and found youngest Jersey (Thelmas daughter)..calving and in trouble. I mucked my way back to the house and grabbed the chains and hollered for my oldest son who had just arrived . I had him do the pulling and I did the instructions...then tucked baby and Momma into the barn on some dry hay...out of the knee deep mud. I just went out to check new baby and he was already up and nursing well. I was so lucky to have Colin here to help, it took more strength than I have to pull and a lot more muscle to get him hauled to the barn. We think he weighs around 80 pounds and so far the biggest one I have had yet. 5 calves and all healthy and thriving . What are the odds of 100% bulls anyway?

Tomorrow I will walk around and get some pictures of everybody. The kids and the latest calf are only a couple days old and are absolutely adorable. All Alpine Toggenburg crosses and too cute to describe. Colin had just hooked my goat/cam up and it was running on the goats for just a day before everyone decided to kid within hours of each other. I didn't have lamps set up yet so watching them from work saved then all as it was really cold on Wenesday. I had just gotten back to work after the second doe kidded and had put the other doe (who was close) inside to watch also. She waited until I got back to the office and THEN got down to business. This time ....I again called on Colin who lives across the road to go over to set her up in her own pen and put the lamp on them. It was amazing to see her kid within minutes and by evening I had a total of 9 kids total and everyone safe and warm.
The snow is melting fast today and the mud is pure slop. Also....I hope I don't scare that son of mine off and he moves anytime soon....I know I would manage without his help somehow...but it sure is a huge help to have him close.
I am going to go back and look at some June July and August posts now. It has to be warm and dry one of these days!

and I thought he was dying!!!

he definitely sounded like it when I got to his shelter. My little Toggenburg boy (Mr. Delicate) was screaming horribly. I jumped the fence snaggin my pants and ripping some skin. Fell to my knees and crawled into the building to find him laying OK but still screaming bloody murder. I had him with two of his Togg girls for all of this winter and recently decided it was time to move him to the boy pen. While my little fainter buck is smaller than him , my big Alpine is huge. The Alpine is the gentleman though,,the fainter...well...he always is the BOSS.

They were not bothering him these last few days,,but I think he had a case of lost love. I ran with him in my arms to the house and put him in front of the pellet stove. I gave him a dose of penicillium and put a small amount of sweet feed in front of him. The only other thing I had done with him when I moved him was to worm him with Ivermec. Within an hour he was standing and warming nicely. He felt like he had shriveled down to nothing in these last few days and I kept him in until he was walking around trying to escape his boundaries. He is alive and well...and to date now...EXTREMELY spoiled!!

The LAST Snow Storm of the Year!

If you say it...it will happen.

Meanwhile back at Winter Wonderland..the pups are enjoying a winter roll in the snow and the baby calves are finding the flavors of molasses licks pretty tasty!

Momma cows get a tasty treat of cracked corn while Rudy the oldest calf has a very noticeable addiction to the sweet lick mineral while the newby is just interested in playing.

..and lesson to self....stay farther away from the gate when moving snow.

(p.s....for a better chuckle... click on each photo for better viewing)