2 Fewer Mouths to Feed

Today the goat kids left for their new home.  My sister, Becky, was going to buy them from me this spring, since they were buying land, but things didn't work out quite like they'd planned. They still bought land, but were delayed and decided to wait until next year to get goats.  A lady near me bought Elphie, and she's leasing Nessa for one year. That means she keeps Nessa at her place and treats her like her own goat, but I still technically own her.  She'll breed Nessa and keep the kids, and once they're weaned I'll get Nessa back.  If Becky is ready for goats next year and wants Nessa, then she'll get her.  If not, I'll either keep her or sell her. 

Now I've got 2 fewer mouths to feed, which is always nice going in to winter.  I went out and snapped some pictures of the animals this evening.  They seemed to be posing pretty well, so I got some cute shots. 

I really like Barley, below.  She's one of my Romney/Southdown cross ewes.  She's a nice, solid ewe. 

Her sister, Bean, is nice too.  She's not quite as tall as Barley, but she's more heavily muscled.

She's got a cute face too!

My sweet girl, Darla.

The ewe lamb went back in with the sheep today, since the goat kids left. I can't keep her separated by herself, she would be miserable.  She's big enough to be bred this year, so she's in with the rest of the flock.  I've never bred a ewe lamb before, but it's done pretty frequently and I'm pretty confident she'll do fine.

June, waiting patiently for hay. 

Ida, below.  She and June have been dried off and having fewer chores to do has been so nice!  Milking takes up a decent chunk of time, so it feels like it takes hardly any time at all now to do chores.

In a few weeks I'll be bringing a buck to breed the does.  The ram should be breeding the ewes soon, if he hasn't already.  Then the waiting starts.  I'm already looking forward to lambing and kidding this spring!