Here are the goats and Duchess, our great Pyrenees, walking up from the shed to see if someone will feed them. The trees were so beautiful from the latest snowfall. This was taken Sunday, January 3rd. While outside we did feel like we were "walking in a winter wonderland". All of the goats seem to be doing fine. We put them all together so we could give Mama Llama, Jolie, and baby Kris one of the goat pens. We now go out in the morning and open the walk through door on the barn and Jolie and Kris can go in and out during the day. We are still shutting them in at night with the heat light going.
This is how beautiful the trees were on Sunday morning looking towards the creek. We were lucky it was snow and not ice, so we didn't have any damage with limbs down as we have in past years.
Jolie and Kris were not so sure of the snow when we first let them out, then Kris started jumping and having a great time showing how high he could jump and how fast he could run. He would hit a patch of ice, under the snow, and his feet would go four differant directions, then he would just lay there and look up, like "what just happened?" He would get up and do it again. He is quite the little clown.
Here is a close up of Kris. Isn't he a pretty boy? He has really grown. He gained 5 pounds in about 4 days and his mother finally started producing milked the second day. I only bottle fed him for 1-1/2 days and he sure did eat good. I'm so thankful that I saved goat collustrum last spring. It is really good for baby llamas also. He would take 8-10 ounces at a time, which is quite a bit. I guess my experience raising two goats on the bottle last year paid off.
We have a large hay bail out for the other llamas and as you can see our Dollie Llama likes to lay in it. I told Steve she looks like a walking hay bale. At least they are keeping warm and we don't have to carry hay to them every day.
Other exciting news that I have is I received my spinning wheel. This is when I got it out of the box, so we did take the shrink wrap off and got it all put together. I did real well on it the first time I got on it, but last night I just could not get the rhythm. Remember, as a kid, how you would try to pat your head and rub your stomach? Well that is how spinning goes, except you have to spin the wheel with double treadles and hold the fiber with one hand while pulling with the other, then sliding the hand you were hold down and pull again, and keep the wheel spinning at a steady rate. Someone told me there was about a 16 hour learning curve on using a spinning wheel, but at the rate I'm going it is going to take me a little longer. I'm thinking maybe I need to take my wheel with me and take a class again. I'll put some pictures on of the wheel put together and me using it, once I feel a little more comfortable with it.
Goat milk soap is almost ready for sale. I'll let you know when I have it ready and how you can get some. I have made just plain soap and an oatmeal facial bar. If you are interested you can E-mail me and I can go ahead and get you some. I just haven't had time to get it put on the website. I have ordered a couple of soap making books and am thinking about making lotion bars and lip balm, without goats milk. Also would like to try goat milk liquid soap and goat milk lotions. Since Steve is still on unemployment, he has been helping with and making some of the soaps. Might as well keep him busy. lol
If you have any questions or would like me to post something in particular on the blog, just let me know.
Here are the goats and Duchess, our great Pyrenees, walking up from the shed to see if someone will feed them. The trees were so beautiful from the latest snowfall. This was taken Sunday, January 3rd. While outside we did feel like we were "walking in a winter wonderland". All of the goats seem to be doing fine. We put them all together so we could give Mama Llama, Jolie, and baby Kris one of the goat pens. We now go out in the morning and open the walk through door on the barn and Jolie and Kris can go in and out during the day. We are still shutting them in at night with the heat light going.
Jolie and Kris were not so sure of the snow when we first let them out, then Kris started jumping and having a great time showing how high he could jump and how fast he could run. He would hit a patch of ice, under the snow, and his feet would go four differant directions, then he would just lay there and look up, like "what just happened?" He would get up and do it again. He is quite the little clown.
