And the Craziness Continues..

Things are quickly getting crazier and crazier here at Strike's Retreat. 

• Sparkle's is on day 119 of her pregnancy.  Only 31 days to go!
• Tomorrow we're expected to get 3-4 inches of snow.
• Our Sarplaninac puppies will be arriving Saturday night.
• We have another upcoming trip to MA in the works to pick up our newest addition and her two kids.
• We've been scheduling to have all the goats linear appraised this summer.
• We're starting to research bees to decide whether we will start a hive this spring. 
• And lastly we're finishing gathering all our kidding supplies.

I took some time to take photos of all the does today.  The temps were almost in the 50's so all the does seemed content to be out grazing. 

It wouldn't be a good photo lineup without a picture of Miss Nunya. Right?

Things are never quiet and easy on a farm, but we wouldn't trade it for anything!

Kidding Haircuts

Yesterday I noticed that Dolce had started to develop a small udder.  I decided that afternoon, that the next day I would just clean up and clip the does that are due first.  So this morning I clipped Dolce, Sparkles, and Smarty.

 It's kind of hard to see it in this picture but compared to the picture below, you may be able to see the slight change..

 Dolce's mother pants was a nightmare to clip, but I got it done and over with.

Sparkle's was the best to clip.  She never even batted an eye at me putting the clippers on her, which surprised me.  I doubt that goat has ever been clipped in her whole life, and even my goats that have been clipped before lose their minds the first time I put the clippers on them!  Her udder is slowly starting to fill.  We're 34 days away from her kidding date.

Despite what some of the 3 may have thought of the experience it will help them come kidding time.  It'll ensure everything is hygienic, or I guess as hygienic as giving birth in a barn can be.

More pictures of Smarty and Sparkles

With their kidding dates less than 40 days away I took some more pictures of the two farthest along does.

All the other does in the stalls kept bothering me, so I didn't get very many good pictures, but these are enough.

Our Expecting Does

Well after going through a massively cold freeze at the beginning of the week things are starting to finally return to normal weather wise.

The first three does are all starting to get bigger as the days go on!

 - Karamel Blue

 - Allie

 Dolce -

 Pauline-

 -Sparkles

- Smarty












Also new this week, Mom made the bucks a feeder!

The boys have been super happy with it, and it's saved me a lot of time filling up bags of hay.

The First Offical Snow of 2014!

Last night the snow started falling and by 10 O' Clock we had a couple inches of snow.  It's really windy here now, but I got up early this morning to get pictures of the trees with the snow still on them and of the animals. 

All the horses were in rare form running and having a good time in the snow!  Red ran the most and I got quite a few action shots of him.  The goats have not been out yet today, and I don' think they want to go out.. The snow is at least 3 inches deep and its 21* out!